It's a question I've been running through my head for a bit, now. Can "hard-core" elementary school games and hard core gaming be a symptom or a cause of something much more problematic? I'll use a recent example regarding my own behavior, at leave it at that.
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Last night I loaded, played an inning or two, quit, and reloaded a game of the PS3 game, "MLB The Show: 10" four times. I know, it's not an elementary school game per se, and I'm not an elementary school gamer. But bare with me.
SONIC BOOM EFFECT
Every game began the same, as I'd previously saved mid-game. Top of the 6th inning, 2 men on, no one up in the bullpen. Every time, I'd gotten out of the 6th without giving up a run. Nothing much happened in any of my games during the bottom of the 6th. Seemingly inevitably, though, I'd give up at least a single run in the Top of the 7th.
Boom, quit, restart, load, repeat.
This sort of perfectionism isn't exactly unknown to me. From the early days of my elementary school career, I was a bit of an obsessive gamer. If an enemy defeated my in-game avatar, I'd get extremely frustrated. Visibly so. I'd throw controllers and act like a petulant little snot, whether it was a game of Sonic or some other elementary school game designed to teach math. Something went wrong? Out came the histrionics, the reset button, and the reload.
I watch for this now with my own child, especially since he might see me playing my baseball game that way and think it's the "right" way to play. I play my "big-boy" games after he's put down for bed, though - he's not quite at the level where he can understand the controls and mechanics of a simulation-style baseball game. I'm worried, however, that some of my obsessive elementary school game habits, or perhaps some of the chemistry in my head that made obsessive (and still does) about gaming may've been passed down to my offspring. I'm uncertain, regarding my own head, if there's any thread of real psychological tics that I ought to be truly concerned about. Am I obsessive about things? Sure. But am I "OCD"? I can't say.
But when my kid starts to show signs of frustration, anger, or perfectionism in his elementary school game, I'm quick to pull away the DS and assign some other task. Again, I'm not sure if this is the correct response; am I teaching him to hide his feelings from his old man? I hope not. I hope I'm teaching patience and cause-effect with anger.
In many ways, however, I believe being a "gamer" is being a "perfectionist." Casual players not included, here. But isn't that true of literally any hobby, sport, or interest? Where do we draw the line between "acceptable disappointment with failure at a task" and "obsessive perfectionism?" I think, perhaps, we worry about obsessiveness in children who play elementary school game because we view video gaming as inherently a "casual" thing. Whereas, with a sport or an art, we're trained as a society to look at perfectionism and obsession in outfielders and sculpters as an acceptable by-product of becoming "the best."
In many ways, I feel like agreeing. Deep down, I don't feel that an elementary school game is worth sacrificing time and psychological angst for. In the end, it's a piece of entertainment created by a stranger. I'm trying to think of a parallel - like a museum-goer staring at a painting for 8 hours straight, or someone watching the same episode of a television show over and over - and each sounds unacceptable, unhealthy.
So I'm watching my child. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing, exactly. But so much of parenting is a blind walk in a familiar room - you, too, were once a child with a parent, but how much have things changed since you switched roles? How different is he from myself at that age? It's odd. But I'm willing to continue giving him the occasional elementary school game with the caveat that he play it with common sense in mind.
Are "Hard Core" Players of Elementary School Games More Vulnerable to Psychological Problems?
