Kids look spooky playing computer games.

We were thinking of getting the kids a Wii for Christmas. It is the toy of the age, there's lots of amusing looking games for it, and I read a piece in the Guardian about how families apparently gather around, these days, to play Super Mario Kart - whatever that is; I stopped playing computer games in 1990, after a bad session on Sabrewolf - and I fancied a piece of that.

But looking at this footage of kids' expressions when they play games, I've been kind of put off. I thought kids would spend their gaming time thrashing around, screaming, punching the air and groaning - in a good way. You know - let off a bit of steam. But for the most part, this footage shows the kids turning into the kind of slack-jawed inbred who fall backwards off the village stile. It's thrown my whole plan to go for a Wii into chaos.

All I can comfort myself with is the thought that I probably look pretty much dead when I'm reading a book.

Comments

[someone]

People don't realise what they look like when they're playing, like they won't know that they snore. What a contrast from the happy people on the adverts.

[Miko]

Try looking at people's faces when they're watching a movie or reading. Shocking. Drooling zombies, the lot of them.

[Watashi]

I wonder what my face looks like as I read through blog posts and write my own entries?

[Watashi]

I wonder what my face looks like as I read through blog posts and write my own entries?

[Chris Davies]

I like the outraged comments from readers who take things a bit too seriously!

[Benzo]

I'm not surprised you are confused by the children's faces whilst engaging most of their senses at once . Having played Sabrewolf myself many years ago on the spectrum , the only look on my face then was one of complete boredom . Having 'enjoyed' the naff games of 20 years ago yourself , isn't your view here a little hypocritical ?

[Pete W]

So cool, I had Sabrewolf too! Not a very good game I must agree, although I do still remember it, which is saying something!

[jac]

ALpha Mummy, you are right. I thought computer games were boring when I was a teenager when they were first on the market. You will find that people who love them are not the world's most sociable creatures and that's a fact. Family time is supposed to be communication time not gawp at a screen time.

I was at a friend's house when a little boy arrived to play. As soon as he got through the door he asked whether there was a Wii in the house. My friend said there was but he couldn't play with it and anyway there were four other children (two of whom were his friends) of the same age to have fun with. The boy fell into s sulk and then demanded to go home. He couldn't be persuaded to stay and in the end disappeared off.

[peter c]

take computers and television away from children and they will read or listen to the wireless- else they will do the easiest thing, as water runs down hill

[Martin]

Oh my goodness! Someone focusing intently on something makes funny faces therefore VIDEO GAMES ARE BAD.

Try harder.

[Nick Ellis]

Alpha Mummy? Alpha moron, more like. Just for starters, the games being played in that video are not Wii games. They are, for the record, Grand Theft Auto IV, Call Of Duty 4 and Star Wars Battlefront. The first two are 18-rated games, which begs the question, why were children being allowed to play them?

If they were Wii games with specific motion controls, of which there are dozens, the videos would look entirely different.

The level of ignorance displayed in some of the comments on this thread is truly staggering.

[Alex]

Ruby : "it can spend your time when you are boring!".
Perhaps a little more study of the English language wouldn't hurt ...

[Millie]

I think both the amount of WI and TV used in children daily life is bad for them. Before I had children on my own, I worked as a nanny. I met children who didn't know how to play by themselves. They were so used to watching telly and playing computer games that they had no idea about how to play with toys or just outside, they needed constant entertaining. I don't deny my children to watch TV, but they do not watch it every day, and we do not own any computer games. But children need to develop their ability to explore and be creative. It is a shame to waste their short childhood playing computer games and watching TV

[ruby]

it is normal that children like playing computer games, especially in this time. i am 22 year old and i like playing games, too. it can spend your time when you are boring!

[supermother]

"wow SM, I am rather impressed. You managed to slip in faked and real orgasms into the discussion. Major kudos."
It's thread about pleasure and the expression of pleasure on a face so it seemed rather apt.

I think the bits of the brain which take pleasure in sex are the same activated on anything similar like the pleasure from computer games and probably a lot of other things too.

[A Le Rossignol]

Please could someone moderate these posts? This supposed to be The Times after all!

[Barb]

If you buy age appropriate games the Wii is hilarious, we have great fun trying out different things with the kids, but we are not on it 24-7, once a week at most.

[Olly]

The Wii is all hype. It's ridiculous. The games only last 30 seconds to 2 minutes long. It does not make you thrash about unless you want to thrash about. If you stand next to a lamp and don't pay attention you probably will knock it over, but that suggests that you are so brainless and clumsy that even without a wii it was only a matter of time before you broke something.

Get a wii for the kids if you want, but it's all hype and a complete rip off. To play 2 players like you see on the adverts you need 2 seperate hand pieces, which are quite expensive. For some games you use that hand piece, for the other games you need a different handpiece. For the racing games there is a steering wheel. For the wii fit you need an expensive (about £100) platform. For guitar hero you need the guitar. Plus other things.

The games are the most basic thing i've ever seen. The graphics are childish and simplistic, worse than the very first PC games.

This hype over wii has been fueled mainly by someone who had the clever idea to market this thing as a weight loss or somehow health-benefiting computer game (imagine that, computer games not equalling lazy!) when in reality you barely move.

I've saw people thrash around more with a regular playstation controller.

It's highly embarrassing that so many celebrities are willing to sell-out over this ridiculous 'gaming' device. How they got so many to pretend they liked such a boring simple game is beyond me. Surely one of them has enough self-respect to say wait a minute? This is crap

[Kate]

I think the (inter)active games on the Wii are fine for children around 10 and are fun for some family time too (instead of those boring old board games ;)). At least they won't be playing at such educationally valuable sites such as MissBimbo.com or LittleHooliganz.com! :/

[Gipsy]

wow SM, I am rather impressed. You managed to slip in faked and real orgasms into the discussion. Major kudos.

[LM]

Well you could always get the Wii for yourselves, or just for your husband (all men love computer games, I've decided). We got one earlier in the year at a charity auction (my husband had been eyeing them up for ages & felt the donation aspect meant he could justify it). He's been really into the Wii Fit thing though I think you're better off going out for a bike ride or run or going to a pilates or yoga class. But the Wii Sport is fun - we've played the tennis and bowling on a few rainy nights when we were bored & had no babysitter. It's just a video game, but more entertaining than a playstation or the like.

[amanfromMars]

In one Great Game being Currently Played, You could ask of Countries, Have they Landed with Alien Thoughts of being at One for Many and Any.

Which, by the WAI, is very Ghanaian ...... and Gaian.

[supermother]

My children watch less than we did as children. Our mother always used to complain about it. That's because they are more sociable and also are on the internet or on computer games or in the garden. It's good to have variety but we've know children over the years in TV free homes of course.

You can choose to bring your child up in accordance with your own religious or cultural beliefs (...just but perhaps if this Government stays in too long even that will go....)

When you concentrate you don't always move very much. Examine the differences between a faked orgasm and a real one. The real one, the real pleasure doesn't always have much of a show but the pleasure is in the brain.

I bought my 3 sons the nintendo wii last Christmas and they really enjoy it. But our home is slightly different with much older brothers and sisters so the younger ones tend to have electronics that many younger children don't. Just depends on your family age/stage.

These things are badges in our society and even if you go back to 1950 there would be the equivalent - who had the cool clothes, who had the best bike. It's how we are in jungles too as a competitive species. It's why we survived. So who is the first to get XYZ matters. Obviously most non materialistic parents try to dampen down those instincts to an extent and get children to realise things like how we treat other people etc matter more and for some parents it's very important the children are "other", isolated from others, and in extremes you get the very strictly brought up Muslim families around here or Plymouth Exclusive brethern or in the US FLDS type groups.

Lots of pleasurable things are addictive and who is so say you're better off with the adolescent girl hooked on jogging who has weight issues who gets her highs from the runnign and is probably doing her joints no good long term is any better in her hobbies than her brother whose intense pleasure is from his computer games (although if he's a normal teenage boys we all know what his most intense pleasure is from).

[anna colette]

Hi,

This isn't meant as a comment but I don't know how to email you...

Would you like to submit an article to the next Best of British Mummy Blogger Carnival?

Details are at the URL I've submitted.

All the best,

Anna

[Rachel Seabrook]

Slack-jawed? Most of those kids show intense concentration. Try videoing a child engrossed in maths homework. OK, you might have to wait a while for the opportunity.