A lot of what this article says contradicts what others say about bad effects of computer games.
Now an entire generation has grown up with a different set of games than any before it – and it plays these games in different ways. Just watch a kid with a new videogame. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. This isn’t a random process; it’s the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play. As the players refine this model, they begin to master the game world. It’s a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it’s a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents.
In an era of structured education and standardized testing, this generational difference might not yet be evident. But the gamers’ mindset – the fact that they are learning in a totally new way – means they’ll treat the world as a place for creation, not consumption. This is the true impact videogames will have on our culture.
Games cultivate – and exploit – possibility space better than any other medium. In linear storytelling, we can only imagine the possibility space that surrounds the narrative: What if Luke had joined the Dark Side? What if Neo isn’t the One? In interactive media, we can explore it.
It turns out that we don’t use computers to enhance our math skills – we use them to expand our people skills.
My kid uses the computer to enhance “sneaking around the parents” skills. And sometimes to enhance “things to do in the middle of the night when supposed to be sleeping” skills. Well at least the kids not out sneaking around in the real world. (And there is reading involved)
Parenting by way of keystroke logger…..now it’s the ones on the honor roll you gotta keep your eye on 🙂
It’s scary how intelligent kids are when parents do not interfere in their growth. I give my kid unprecedented freedom. I respect him by letting him choose. When we go to a restaurant he decides what he wants to eat. He also was breast-fed till he was three years old. He is extremely healthy because all of his needs are taken care of. Nothing is taken away from him. He plays everyday– whether if it’s in the playground, in the YMCA, the ski slopes, or chasing fire trucks on the streets. Kids need to expend energy. First, kids must be respected. Second, everything must be provided. I go to the playground and I see parents telling their kids that they cannot go on the merry-go-round or the monkey bars because they are “dangerous”. My kid goes on there while I supervise. He one time fell off and got his thign scraped up. He yelled for the whole park to hear. After tending to his wound, hugging him and keeping silent he mustered the strength to go back on it. Kids are fearless. Parents are fearful, and they impose fear on threir kids. They STOP kids. Kids get exposed first to the “Matrix” from their parents who are limited in thinking and intelligence and compassion. Kids LEARN how to limit themselves because they learn it from their parents. Their parents are BIG and stronger. My kid can touch anything in my home. So what if he breaks my expensive camera–and he has. But he knows how to take amazing pictures! He can “mess” with the hi-fidelity stereo. I don’t care. Break it. In the mean time he is going to learn something. Me and his mother TEACH. We don’t look at him as helpless. We see him as eager to learn new things. He knew how to use chopsticks since he was two years old. He can play the piano, speak English and Japanese fluently, add and (almost) subtract, interact with other kids. He’s incredibly social. He starts conversations with adults by himself. It’s all natural. I’m not saying this to exalt my kid. My purpose is to show that kids are NATURALLY intelligent. It all begins with the parents. I see many other kids his age. And none of them are as mature, beautiful and intelligent as my kid. And then I meet the parents and I understand why. Give kids their freedom and they will blossom with the internal God-source that is born in each and every one of us.
Free your minds before you have kids. I think this is the only future we have: kids who grow up in freedom and truth. No lies to kids.
Damn, David! You should be the Dr Phil of parenting. Teach those idiots who have no idea how to be parents how to do it. When will you be on Oprah?
I have to agree with the article. Our daughter has been playing computer games since she was 18 months. I built her a computer when she was 3 ½. She has about 25 games, from pre-kindergarten educational to Grades 2 and 3 educational. As well, a few Scoobie Doo, and Disney characters games. She is 6 ½ and can navigate to several games sites, Nick jr, Disney, Cartoon Network, and even Dvorak’s own site,
http://www.dvorak.org/kidshome.htm
She doesn’t need a manual, those are for adults. She just hits the buttons and figures out the games on her own.
The only reason I might be a bit slower than a kid is the extra hundred or so pounds I’m carrying around since I was a kid. I don’t buy this whole “the kids are smarter than we are” scenario; the reason the older set is reluctant to embark blithely down uncharted paths is most of us have already been down a lot of strange trails and have experienced the joy and agony in full measure. Of course, as a grownup, we try to impart our knowledge to the youngsters, and are condemned as fuddy duddies, just as we did to our seniors when we were young.
The marketers suck up to the kids and glorify youth in story and song simply because the younger ones tend to blow the money they extract from doting parents and grandparents on just about any lame-ass play pretty that’s stuck in their face with a “Buy Me!” sign on it.
The article brings up some good points, but note that it’s written by Will Wright, video game designer (creator of The Sims and many other games). He’s hardly an objective source. He’s not a scientist or an expert, and he’s indirectly pimping his new game (I think it’s called Spore) here.
It would be good to see some real research being done on the positive effects of video games, though. Kids (and adults too) are being exposed to increasingly realistic and varied situations that they would never have experienced 10 years ago. Learning to manage a theme park, for example, probably provides valuable learning experience that can carry over to the real world (e.g. managing money).
OK, time to go play World of Warcraft and further my education.
David’s approach to childrearing seems similar to my own. Presently, as a 56yr. old “granddaddy” my two offspring were allowed to be what children are supposed to be, naturally curious, energy-filled and socially confident. I now have the pleasure of seeing this meme manifesting itself in my four grandchildren. I see people sure of their abilities to make their way in the world. Optimistic confident people. David has given his kids a gift which a lot children won’t have. The chance to be children while they are still children.
What the hell is it about this topic that inspired all these novel length posts????? 🙂
I’m a mean dad. I make my 5 year old play her games without my help. Now I have her load them too.
I started with a Commodore 64 back in the day. I got only cracked games, so there were never any manuals. My enjoyment of games has been the discovery of the mysterious world, rather than reading and following the manual. I love to test systems to see what they will allow.
That is why I don’t help my daughter. I want her to have the magic of discovery, which will make a game much more fulfilling than if I just tell her what to click where. She already will play her Disney Princess games for up to an hour without the need for intervention.
You know, I love Wired. I’ve been reading it since the early ’90’s, but this is another case of “pie-in-the-sky” prognosticating of which the editors of Wired are so fond. Yes, there are differences in learning when one is exposed to video games, but I just don’t believe that they are as dramatic as the article makes out. When you look at the adolescent population, there are still soc’s & greasers out there just like in 1967.
As Phronk says, the article was written by Will Wright. What do you expect him to say, “I’m a loser who couldn’t get a girlfriend for years” ?
Games are great for learning – but there are two mistakes common in this line of thinking:
” … It turns out that we don’t use computers to enhance our math skills – we use them to expand our people skills … ”
The random acts of violence performed as a group by Alex and the Droogs in A Clockwork Orange were also “improving their people skills”. That doesn’t mean a group activity is automatically a good thing.
Secondly, the definition of intelligence that is cited in these discussions is really just mechanical efficiency.
The idea that you get “smart” from clicking around a lot quickly is nicely debunked here.
I’m an avid gamer, but I really can’t buy into his argument.
“It’s a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it’s a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents.”
Games are designed by programmers. They design these games to appeal to the masses and, as such, they understand that a steep learning curve lessens its appeal. Therefore, today’s games share a commonality in controls and storylines, which renders “read-the-manual-first” as unnecessary.
That isn’t an Einstein-in-the-making playing DOOM 3 folks; that is a kid who has yet to learn that life doesn’t come with a “restart” command.