Korean moms power leveling their kids?

Posted by dkidwell on April 24th, 2006 — Posted in parenting

GameStudy.Org » Blog Archive » Sweet Child O’Mine(version for gaming age)

…many mothers are actually doing those virtual chores for their children. Thanks to this sacrifice, their daughters and sons can enjoy respectable status in the virtual world without sacrificing their schooling advancement.

How curious is that?

My children play games that require alot of time and we’ve chosen to game as a family in part so that this time is, in fact, family time.   But I do not power level my kids characters, if anything, they level mine!

It seems that Korean moms are leveling their kid’s characters so that they do not get sidetracked from school, while at the same time keep their gaming social networks progressing.  My own experience certainly deals with similar issues:  how much time is my child spending in game rather than ‘learning something useful’ and what are the social ramifications of gaming?

My oldest, who is currently the most hardcore gamer of the family, is also engaged in a lot of other things.  If I may boast for a moment, he is:

1. a “straight A” student in advanced courses at his middle school
2. the first chair saxophone player in the Symphonic band (the most advanced band at the school)
3. an avid reader
4. playing on a flag football team

He’s doing all of this while also mowing the lawn on weekends and generally being a fantastic kid.  No need for me to power level his characters, he’s mastering his time quite nicely.

On the social front, his best friends are actually in game.  Turns out, his best friend from elementary school moved to another state, and now the two boys meet each other regularly in game.  If it weren’t for the game, they would have lost touch.  I can’t level his friendships for him.

The way cultures respond to parenting and gaming is fascinating, and I don’t know any Korean gamers first hand.  If  you hear of any Korean gamermoms, let them know I’d love to chat with them!

The gaming style of a 6 year old

Posted by dkidwell on April 15th, 2006 — Posted in ages 4-8, parenting

Just for the fun of it, I decided to index all of my 6 year old’s various World of Warcraft characters. When asked, he will tell you, “Oh, one hundred characters sounds about right.”

He’s actually got 73 characters scattered across 3 accounts and 14 different servers. He could immediately identify all of his, and distinguish his characters from those of his dad, brother or sister. He’s been creating characters since we started playing in November of 2004.

Index of a 6 Year Old’s WoW Characters:

Some kids collect matchbox cars, mine collects characters in an MMO. Nice collection, kid!

Gamermom reviews Animal Crossing: Wild World

Posted by dkidwell on April 13th, 2006 — Posted in Animal Crossing, Nintendo DS

I wrote a review of AC:WW for the lovely folks over at Killer Betties – take a gander…

Animal Crossing: Wild World Review

Timeline of a Gamermom…

Posted by dkidwell on April 11th, 2006 — Posted in parenting

For various reasons, I’ve been pieceing this together for the past month or so.  It highlights games through the years that meant something special at the time:
1982 – Atari 2600 and Superman – diligence and work as a 12 year old to get a score of 1:43

1984 – Monopoly – books on Monopoly strategies

1986 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – as a break from Dungeons & Dragons – playing a seriously intelligently psionic squirrel.

1989 – Call of Cthulhu and the beginning of my collection of dice.

1990 – Online MUDS & MOOS

Boardgaming – Cosmic Encounter, Dune, Junta, Kremlin

~~~

October, 1993 – Parenting begins…”Dice are not a mouth toy!”

~~~

1993 – Magic The Gathering (card game)

1999 – Half Life & Counterstrike

1999 – Age of Empires II

2000 – Diabolo II

2001 – Dark Age of Camelot

2002 – Animal Crossing, Gamecube

2004 – Current – World of Warcraft

2005 – Current – Animal Crossing, NDS