More Than Just A Game

I play a lot of games. I do that because I can only read for so many hours each day, and my brain needs to exercise at least a little bit. Since this is the age of digital over-kill, I play games on my computer, some installed and some online. And awhile back I realized that I was classifying games as to whether they would ever be worth buying and, more recently since becoming a grandmother, what games I would not want to give to a child because the game gives the wrong message.



You might be surprised at what I consider a bad game. The first one I realized was a bad game: Feeding Frenzy. It has a lot of aspects that would make it a very good game to buy -- like randomization each time it's played, so you can never know it by heart and it is always a new challenge -- but it has one very bad thing I would not like to have a child deal with: It lies. You can screw up a level big time, miss all sorts of points, and yet the screen message that flashes whenever/however you manage to finish a level is Perfect!



I know I did not do the level perfectly. A child, with the ability to pay greater attention to detail, would easily know if s/he really messed up ... yet there would be that message: Perfect! And the child would be left to reach only a very few conclusions: The game lies; The game doesn't know how it should be played; The game has a different definition for "perfect" than what the child has been taught to date; It doesn't matter if you do a good job, since even wishy-washy effort can elicit praise of perfection.



Bottom line: That is not the type of message I want any child to be fed.



Mind you, FF is not the only game with bad messages. At least two SCRABBLE-based games give out a similar false message -- great round, or similar wording; you can get that "great going" type message if you score less for the round than you could score for a single decent word, if you quit the round without finishing it, etc etc etc ... then the game has the nerve to say you can do better. I should hope I could do better than stinko, but I was just informed -- after each messed up level -- about how great I was doing. So which is it? Am I doing well, or failing to live up to my full potential? I don't want any child to be lied to and confused like that!



Parents, moralists, and politicos are constantly screaming about the damage done our children by violent games. I think they have the wrong target. Some of the games I play are not person to person duels, but they do have shooting up and smashing and otherwise destroying part of something. When I'm furious at something in the world, I can go play game X or game Y or game Z; my younger son says he knows a lot of people, of all ages, who use the games to relieve the anger, frustration, and potential violence in a safe and sane manner. Rather than rant about those games -- which all the players know are not the real world -- how about going after the games targeting the youngest kids, games which lie in their praise then flip the message 180 to tell the player s/he could do better. How about less confusion, fewer lies??



Instead of false perfection, why can't designers create games that just give the score, or score information like "You collected over 80% of the points available on this level!" ?? If they want to add an honor roll -- where cumulative scores raise your character/status, credit is given for total games played, highest score to date, etc. Something like that would not only avoid the spurious lying that currently goes on, but could actually give the kid a point of comparison and a goal to work toward.



I do know one thing: I'm going to be watching for those games which give wrong impressions and/or false messages. And I will be pointing them out to the mother of my grandbaby!

More Than "Smart Enough"

Dear Andy Rooney,

I know I am smart enough to be President. And I believe that you, after you read on, will not only acknowledge that fact but actually might end up supporting me.

I am smart enough to be President because:

• I know I don't know all the answers, or even most of some of them;

• I know how to ask questions, listen to the answers and then ask more questions until things are clear, defined, identified in a manner where answers are possible;
  

• I know that a good leader is just that -- a leader not a dictator;

• I am not afraid to seek the counsel of, and actually hire if possible, those who know far more than I;

• I understand most of the Constitution, in its original meaning and not necessarily as the Court has reinterpreted it;

• I understand why the President must be a figurehead -- a single individual speaking for a multitude, while working toward realizing the will of the people is almost as important as the "won't put up with it" of those same people;

• As President it should be my duty to work on saving this country from itself, on feeding our hungry despite the hunger of others, to provide medical care for all our people rather than having a disgraceful level of poor or no medical care for a large part of our population;

• A critical responsibility of the President is to educate -- not just children but adults, not just voters but Congress;

• I believe that we, and our country, have limited resources and those resources should be spent on "we the people" -- regardless of tyrany, pain, and/or evil somewhere else;

• I believe there ARE answers, and that they can be both found and instituted, despite the fact that there will always be some portion of the population which feels slighted;

• I believe that we the people can see and understand, accept, and "forgive" some things, because the overall picture becomes clear;

• I firmly believe that "selfish" is NOT a 4-letter word. The more people dependent upon me/you/all-of-us, the more we need to take care of ourselves else we shall be unable to help anyone anywhere any time.

I once said that anyone who volunteered to be President of the United States had to be crazy; I still believe that, but I also realize that some forms of "crazy" might not be all that bad.

Am I likely to become President? Well, let's just say that I am more likely to win that $10 million and be presented with a big check on live TV. Would I want to be President? NO! I am old, tired, much of me worn out, disabilities which severely limit where I can go and what I can do, and I am just recently a grandparent for the first time. Would I accept the "sentence" if it were the result of the vote? Yes. Gladly? No. Honestly afraid of all the necessary work and extended period of having no life of my own? Yes.

Well, Mr. Rooney, do you think I'm smart enough to be President? Or just smart enough to know that no one is smart enough to go it alone?

Think about it ... while I do my best to put it out of my mind.