After hearing about my adventures on Sims, my fiance decided to try it. He is a "tech guy". He may have thought that he would have had an easier time with the game than I did. Who knows.
At any rate, he watched part of the tutorial with me on sunday.
Monday night, he loads the game on his laptop and begins to build his Sim. I gave him the quick run through on building your Sim and how you shouldn't start with more than one because...we're old and it's just too much to handle.
He quickly begins to click on EVERY icon/button to discover you can change the face (including bone structure), he adds a goatee, glasses....basically, he makes himself! Why do we do that?
My youngest offers to help him (yes, I was told to take a hike but she helps him!)
I left, to come back an hour later to see the two of them STILL playing. His character is trying to "woo" another character. I questioned it, to get the answer:"your daughter told me to do it!". She starts laughing, saying he tried to hug the newspaper delivery lady. His retort: "you told me to hug someone".
Then, my two daughters and I were firing off instructions. I was watching what I consider the "life signs" (because that's what it looks like), such as bladder, hygiene, environment.
I was happy to see that my kids didn't know how to improve the environment (a plant!).
The kids were a HUGE help (except when they were explaining how to "woohoo"....that was disturbing to a mother. According to them, there is a video!!!! lol)
Honestly it was quite comical.
After all was said and done, he and I discussed his experience.
With help, he built his own house. He said it was hard, but my daughter helped ALOT. He did question if I would have had the patience to work with her. She is very quick:"click this, click that, now this, hurry....". In the process, he lost his Sim and had to rebuild him.
He did manage to go to work and earn money. Something I was never able to do.
It was very funny to watch him on the screen, with his characteristics (personality and all). He is his Sim. Yet, when I questioned what his Sim was doing and how appropriate it was (in front of the kids), they all looked at me and said it was a game.
I truly believe children DO NOT associate a game to their lives. The way my kids talk about "woohoo" in real life is embarassment, "be quiet", eww...that's gross. Yet on the game, they knew every step to take (kissing, flatering, inviting over, BIGGER BED, arch to get married, video) and were not embarassed. It was so matter a fact.
When they create characters, they also make them look like themselves, yet they see no corrolation between their characters actions on the game to their own in real life.
Contrarily, when they watch TV, they know they are learning. They associate what they learn on TV to who they are.
The reason this puzzles me so is that a few times, I've had discussions with them about something they had learned in a game, Harvest Moon, that had helped them in school (what a sicle was and what it was used for). With the statement to follow: "See, video games help you learn!"
My conclusion: to the young gamer, video games help you learn vocabulary and skills but not behaviors.
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2 comments:
Hi Laurence
I'm sorry that i haven't answer your question that you had post a while ago. But here are my answers. Yes my son and myself read instruction while playing and sometimes before we paly the game. But something fuuny is that sometimes i spend period of time reading and my son gets mad because he said How you are a teacher and don't know nothing about this game? I had explain to him that he knows that i never play games. Only now that i having the experience to play and learn it with fully details. Another question that you have about Batista and Ray Misterio. Yes there is a character for Ray that is my son's favorite character. I like Batista because is easier to handle most of his move and also because he looks physically exactly like he is. About adults maybe not going to the Gym because of the Wii system you know i never thought about that. But now that you ask me, is a good question. Maybe people might stop gping to the gym or might go for less time because of the wii system especially the arms because with my game you have to move the arms a lot which is a good movemnet for physical activity. Again Laurence I'm sorry for not answering your question. I was looking like crazy where i have to go in order to read your comment, after struggling in our page for the class i found it. Any question let me know. Good luck with your game.
Hi! Laurence
I see that now you have another helper while playing your game, your fiance. That's good. It's funny how your daughter play around with your fiance telling him things about the game.My son does the same with me and then he laughs. They sound just lime my son that he knows a lot and sometimes don't want to tell me when i'm stuck with the game. It's good that with your fiance you learn something new about going to work and getting money. That's a good idea that he found . It might help you when you play the next time. What you think? I also agree with you that kids create character according to themselves. Also according to what they know. Sometimes the sad or bad part is that if parent don't teach the kids between real life and games that's when the issues start and is not good idea. As a parent i always tell my son that all this wresteling thing can't happen between him and his friends, because there are serious consequences. I also agrre with you that games help you learn vocabulary and not behaviors. For example my game has a lot of vocabulary, because you have to read most of the time while playing of before playing when you choosea character. Is not so much reading it is about that you as the player need to understand what you are reading in order to success. About behaviors i always said that parents need to control that part. Behaviors is something that we need to teach our children about what is a good behavior and why is important to have good behavior. Ok Laurence i hope you good luck and that your fiance keep findings things that might be helpful when you play, next time.
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