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What Every Parent Needs to Know About Video Games: A Gamer Explores the Good, Bad, and Ugly of the Virtual World
With sales over $30 billion per year—approaching Hollywood’s annual box–office take—video and computer games are now squarely in the mainstream of entertainment. Author/journalist Richard Abanes—an experienced gamer himself—offers this concise survey particularly to parents and other concerned adults. He discusses subjects like The author’s unsensational approach will prepare readers to make better decisions—not just about what is shown in games, but how it’s shown... and what overall message is being delivered. includes candid discussion of game content.
- GenresVideo Games
128 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2006
About the author
Richard Abanes
28 books15 followersRichard Abanes is an American playwright, composer, lyricist, author, singer, and actor. He has had a life of diverse accomplishments in each of these fields.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 1, 2016
794.8 ABA
only 124 pages, published on 2006
My review: It is only good for cataloging games, some basic knowledge of games genre, which are chap 1 - Chap 4 all about. For Chap 5 - chap 6 not too much useful insight about good parts of video games. This book is on display on one of library scratch coding program.
Game Genre:
1. RPG: Role-Playing Game, origins trace back to Dungeons and Dragons board game. Popular titles such as Fable:the lost chapters; The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; Final Fantasy; Baldur's Gate; Evequest; Icewind Dale; Neverwinter Nights; Guild Wars; Dungeon Siege.
2. MMORPGs (or simply MMOs): massively mutliplayer online role-plyaing games.
World of Warcraft (#1 of MMOs); City of Heros ; Guild Wars; Dungeons and Dragons; Dark Age of Camelot; Toontown online (by Disney). 3 difference from RPG: need monthly subscription, willing spend many hours; players together online; MMOs players can affect the world in which they play.
3. RTS: Real-Time Strategy, instead controlling one character in RPGs, player controls multiple characters, some time thousands characters. Rome:Total War; Age of Empires; Command & Conquer; Dragonsshard; Warhammer 40K: Dawn of war; Rise of Nations; The Lord of the Rings: The battle for Middle-Earth 2; Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes.
4. Adventure and Action-Adventure. Myst; Escape from Monkey Island; Prince of Persia; Castlevania; Grand Theft Auto; Shadow of the Colossus; The Warriors; Indigo Blue;
5. Sport
6. Shooters: First-Person Shooter (FPS, Halo, Doom 3, Half-life 2), third-person (Max Payne, The Punisher); online only (could be first-person or third-person, like Battlefield 2; Counter Strike; Source; Unreal Tournament 2004; Huxley.). Others like Call of Duty 2; F.E.A.R; Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood; Return to Castle Wolfenstein; Serious Sam 2; Timesplitters.
7. Platform : straight-across-the-screen, two-dimensional look, Mario Brother; Donkey Kong; The Legend of Zelda; The Lion King; Congo Bongo; Spider-Man; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
8. God Games: Dungeon Keeper; Populous; The Sims; Spore; Black & White 2. These games seems to validate J.R.R. Tolkien that because human are created in God's images, we have been imbued with ability and desire to create.
Game Rating:
ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) was created in 1994 by ESA (Entertainment Software Association)
AO: Adults only, should played by persons 18 years +
M, Mature, for persons 17+
T, Teen, for kids 13 +
E 10, Everyone 10, for children 10 +
E, Everyone , for age 6 +
EC, Early Childhood, ages 3 +
roughly M-rated game might equated to R-rated film, T-rated to PG-13 films. Movie rating: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17). These rating comprise only "age appropriateness part" of the rating. other 32 rating descriptors likes alcohol reference, animated blood, fantasy violence, edutainment, informational, real gambling, etc might be objectionable. p41
About M-rating (intense violence, blood, gore,etc) game
1. may underrate because of no blood even in the intense violence.
2. Depict women as sex objects.
3. Beware reformat violence game to handheld Game Boy unit to create "brandy loyalty" to expose violence games in the future.
4. p68 4 basic genres of M-rated games.
I. Occult-paranormal, like BloodRayne 2, Stubbs the zombie, Cold fear, Silent Hill 3, Blood 2.
II. Fantasy -SciFi, like Halo, Alien vs. Predator, Oni, No One Lives Forever, Deus Ex, XIII
3. Realistic Crime, like Grand Theft Auto, 25 to life, The punisher, Manhunt, Pirates of the XXI Centruy.
4. Realistic Military, like Battlefield 2, Men of Valor, Call of Duty, Solider of Fortune, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Cold Winter, Metal Gear Solid. America's Army, Close Combat: First to Fight.
5. U.S government training game, like America's Army, Close Combat: First to Fight, Full Spectrum Warrior, USAF: Air Dominance. p76 These training games not only familiarize troops with combat tactics, weapons, and warfare, strategy, but also help desensitize them to blood, gore, death, and killing. They additionally can serve to heighten one's marksmanship, increase eye-hand coordination, quicken reflexes, ...
Wrap-up Concerns about video game
1. a tendency in some games to glamorize criminal and dangerous behavior, like Need for speed: Most wanted.
2. over-the-top sexuality, like Playboy: The Mansion; Leisure Suit Larry
3. Profanity and rough language usage.
4. Spirituality and religion issues.
5. Level to time commitment, addicted to game.
p103 Common Sense
1. Video games are not inherently evil, destructive, or lacking in positive benefits.
2. Players most at risk of being negatively influenced by highly violent and sexualized images in games are children are early teens.
3. Games that are multilayer-enabled for the Internet can help a child or teen bond with new friends, find companionship and experience true community.
4. The feeling of accomplishment that comes with mastering a game can build the self-confidence and self-esteem of a child or teen.
5. Parents must not forget that teens and children mature at different rates.
6. Finally, there is no proof that children or teens will turn violent, become sexually deviant, or become occultists simply because of a book, movie, TV program, or video game.
others:
1. NPCs: nonplaying characters, computer-generated.
2. Christian Game: like Armageddon (FPS), real-time strategy game Left Behind: Eternal Force based on Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins Left Behind series.
only 124 pages, published on 2006
My review: It is only good for cataloging games, some basic knowledge of games genre, which are chap 1 - Chap 4 all about. For Chap 5 - chap 6 not too much useful insight about good parts of video games. This book is on display on one of library scratch coding program.
Game Genre:
1. RPG: Role-Playing Game, origins trace back to Dungeons and Dragons board game. Popular titles such as Fable:the lost chapters; The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; Final Fantasy; Baldur's Gate; Evequest; Icewind Dale; Neverwinter Nights; Guild Wars; Dungeon Siege.
2. MMORPGs (or simply MMOs): massively mutliplayer online role-plyaing games.
World of Warcraft (#1 of MMOs); City of Heros ; Guild Wars; Dungeons and Dragons; Dark Age of Camelot; Toontown online (by Disney). 3 difference from RPG: need monthly subscription, willing spend many hours; players together online; MMOs players can affect the world in which they play.
3. RTS: Real-Time Strategy, instead controlling one character in RPGs, player controls multiple characters, some time thousands characters. Rome:Total War; Age of Empires; Command & Conquer; Dragonsshard; Warhammer 40K: Dawn of war; Rise of Nations; The Lord of the Rings: The battle for Middle-Earth 2; Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes.
4. Adventure and Action-Adventure. Myst; Escape from Monkey Island; Prince of Persia; Castlevania; Grand Theft Auto; Shadow of the Colossus; The Warriors; Indigo Blue;
5. Sport
6. Shooters: First-Person Shooter (FPS, Halo, Doom 3, Half-life 2), third-person (Max Payne, The Punisher); online only (could be first-person or third-person, like Battlefield 2; Counter Strike; Source; Unreal Tournament 2004; Huxley.). Others like Call of Duty 2; F.E.A.R; Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood; Return to Castle Wolfenstein; Serious Sam 2; Timesplitters.
7. Platform : straight-across-the-screen, two-dimensional look, Mario Brother; Donkey Kong; The Legend of Zelda; The Lion King; Congo Bongo; Spider-Man; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
8. God Games: Dungeon Keeper; Populous; The Sims; Spore; Black & White 2. These games seems to validate J.R.R. Tolkien that because human are created in God's images, we have been imbued with ability and desire to create.
Game Rating:
ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) was created in 1994 by ESA (Entertainment Software Association)
AO: Adults only, should played by persons 18 years +
M, Mature, for persons 17+
T, Teen, for kids 13 +
E 10, Everyone 10, for children 10 +
E, Everyone , for age 6 +
EC, Early Childhood, ages 3 +
roughly M-rated game might equated to R-rated film, T-rated to PG-13 films. Movie rating: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17). These rating comprise only "age appropriateness part" of the rating. other 32 rating descriptors likes alcohol reference, animated blood, fantasy violence, edutainment, informational, real gambling, etc might be objectionable. p41
About M-rating (intense violence, blood, gore,etc) game
1. may underrate because of no blood even in the intense violence.
2. Depict women as sex objects.
3. Beware reformat violence game to handheld Game Boy unit to create "brandy loyalty" to expose violence games in the future.
4. p68 4 basic genres of M-rated games.
I. Occult-paranormal, like BloodRayne 2, Stubbs the zombie, Cold fear, Silent Hill 3, Blood 2.
II. Fantasy -SciFi, like Halo, Alien vs. Predator, Oni, No One Lives Forever, Deus Ex, XIII
3. Realistic Crime, like Grand Theft Auto, 25 to life, The punisher, Manhunt, Pirates of the XXI Centruy.
4. Realistic Military, like Battlefield 2, Men of Valor, Call of Duty, Solider of Fortune, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Cold Winter, Metal Gear Solid. America's Army, Close Combat: First to Fight.
5. U.S government training game, like America's Army, Close Combat: First to Fight, Full Spectrum Warrior, USAF: Air Dominance. p76 These training games not only familiarize troops with combat tactics, weapons, and warfare, strategy, but also help desensitize them to blood, gore, death, and killing. They additionally can serve to heighten one's marksmanship, increase eye-hand coordination, quicken reflexes, ...
Wrap-up Concerns about video game
1. a tendency in some games to glamorize criminal and dangerous behavior, like Need for speed: Most wanted.
2. over-the-top sexuality, like Playboy: The Mansion; Leisure Suit Larry
3. Profanity and rough language usage.
4. Spirituality and religion issues.
5. Level to time commitment, addicted to game.
p103 Common Sense
1. Video games are not inherently evil, destructive, or lacking in positive benefits.
2. Players most at risk of being negatively influenced by highly violent and sexualized images in games are children are early teens.
3. Games that are multilayer-enabled for the Internet can help a child or teen bond with new friends, find companionship and experience true community.
4. The feeling of accomplishment that comes with mastering a game can build the self-confidence and self-esteem of a child or teen.
5. Parents must not forget that teens and children mature at different rates.
6. Finally, there is no proof that children or teens will turn violent, become sexually deviant, or become occultists simply because of a book, movie, TV program, or video game.
others:
1. NPCs: nonplaying characters, computer-generated.
2. Christian Game: like Armageddon (FPS), real-time strategy game Left Behind: Eternal Force based on Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins Left Behind series.
March 8, 2019
This dude has no chill
August 31, 2009
I found this book in a discount rack and after reading it, I can understand why it was there. Done by a adult who enjoys playing videogames, the author spends the first part of the book going into detail about how graphic the violence and sex is in most video games, then in the second half of the book tries to explain how adults can use the power of video gaming to help kids. Sorry, didn't buy his argument.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews