School me on Minecraft

Also I played the -crap- out of Grand Theft Auto 3, 4, and Vice City. I didn't turn into a serial killer or thief or carjacker. Played a bunch of war games and I've never gone on a shooting spree or killed anyone.

Played a bunch of flight games and I didn't... wait, no, I became a pilot. :eek:

I don't think games are bad, I think they are an escape which some people can get pulled into. I think that balance is important like in all things, when I was 10 we had an N64 and I was always limited in playing it for 30 minutes tops. It drove me up the wall. Later we had other consoles (and life changed dramatically) and as time went on I was able to play more. I still play a lot of video games but I'm equally wrapped up in baking or hanging out with a small handful of IRL friends playing D&D on Sundays. Now that's addictive!
 
I do have to admire my boys technical talent to get games to run on devices not designed for them. He managed to put games on a flip phone.


It does have addictive properties and needs to be managed. But then, countless hours of my life were spent on networking my employers computers together for overnight 'Doom' and 'Quake' sessions....
 
CC268 said:
MW1 and MW2 were such good games. I remember going into 1v1 matches just to get the golden guns lmao. Honestly all the CoD games were just so fun. I remember playing Zombies for hours with my buddies and playing the glitches to our advantages lol. Before high school I played Runescape which was epic...I actually seriously miss that game from time to time. That was like my childhood. I played all sorts of games...even some MMORPGs. And I was far from a “gamer kid”. Halo 3 was epic of course. I still think the Halo games had some of the best story lines ever. I played travel baseball and raced motocross all through high school. Sadly I don’t even own a console at all anymore...just no time to play games anymore.
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Runescape is still around and healthy surprisingly. I have fond memories of wavy flashing text of people trying to buy GFs. I was going to get that damn level 100 cooking skillcape without paying a dime for the game, just you watch! I made it to the mid 80s I think.

Here's my dad in his natural habitat. I started him playing on CoD2 back when it was a book of 6 CDs to install. He watched me play it and then got into it a bit more. We both played Battlefield 2 (best BF) and he'd camp and snipe people like nobody's business.
dsQSjP8.png


Now he's that guy in MW2. You know the one, uses nothing but tubes, camps in corners, uses this same minigun whenever he can get to it:

He uses an AR with the noob tube on it, a secondary Thumper grenade launcher, claymores, and recently I showed him the wonders of the Scavenger perk.

If someone dies to him, he uses them to set up more traps. He plays mind games with the enemy players, constantly relocating while staying in the same area. Placing a claymore precariously on the edge of a bush they think he's in because he was there last time. He is an unstoppable machine.
 
No joke my brother (half brother technically) has a cousin that works for Apple customer service, purely so that he can work from home and play World of Warcraft. He has two computers - one for supporting Apple customer service and one for WoW. He is supposedly one of the top guys in the world lol. He even met his WIFE on the game - interestingly enough he is a bean pole and she is...well...a "big" girl if you know what I mean.

There is a software engineer here at my work who will take a week or two off and literally plays the new Diablo games when they come out. He "beats" the game and sells the character for ~$10,000. Not a bad way to make 10K in a week LOL.
 
bflynn said:
There is very little value in computer gaming and some rather disturbing parallels to drugs.
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Unless that passion for computer gaming turns into a desire to learn computer programming. My 28 year old son was an avid computer gamer like his dad. He's now a professional software developer for a NJ company. One of the top programmers at that firm. We were a bit worried when he was a teen, because we didn't know were his excessive gaming would lead him and he would stay up late sometimes and fall asleep in class the next day. Eventually we learn to back off and let him be. He's never been in trouble, no drugs, etc.

So I beg to differ with your assessment.
Computer gaming has been a hobby of mine since I purchased my Commodore-64 at age sixteen. It's one of the things that help keep me away from the streets, drugs, etc. My limited programming knowledge was just in BASIC, however, my son is incredible. He started designing websites in 8th or 9th grade. And like myself, he also builds his own computers.
Each of my four children were exposed to my PC hobby from birth. In fact, I have a baby picture of him in a diaper, just starting to walk and he's standing up mashing keys on my keyboard.:D

As for Mindcraft, the only thing I know is, my 13 year old loves it, lol. But he also loves riding his bike with friends and being outdoors in general.
 
When the kids were super young, I was all "My kids won't have phones / tablets video games..."
But why? Because I didn't have it when I was growing up? They didn't exist. I guarantee you if tablets were around when we were kids our parents would have all given them to us.

Man at a restaurant where my folks were droning on and on w/ friends and I was just sitting there going "I'm bored. Can we leave?" I bet my mom would have LOVED to provide me a source of entertainment.
That was the worst as a kid.

I bet my kids spend 1-2 hours a day playing video games on the weekends.
Both are A students, My daughter got the highest grade in the school on her STAR (Standardized test flavor of the generation). She only missed 1.
They say Yes ma'am, No Sir, Please and thank you and keep their rooms clean and do their chores, and both are very physically fit.

I say as long as they are not avoiding friends to play games, failing at school, or choosing games over getting needed tasks done, then let them have all they want. Perhaps they have become great multi taskers.
The future is a tablet based ADHD world, not suitable for us myopic, single point focused, curmudgeons.

Give them freedom until they seem to be using it irresponsibly.

I think the problem is substituting games for parenting. Meaning, we sit down and eat as a family, check on their homework, touch base with them regularly on how they are doing in life, socially, ask if they have worries, and what their dreams are and what they want to know about the world and how come they don't love airplanes :( We are very involved with them but on Saturday, I don't care if they play tag in the front yard, or play Minecraft for half a day.

I'd say given the prolificy of POA postings, we as adults are not outside playing half often as we would have others believe.

Kids, Get ON my lawn!
 
overdrive148 said:
Runescape is still around and healthy surprisingly. I have fond memories of wavy flashing text of people trying to buy GFs. I was going to get that damn level 100 cooking skillcape without paying a dime for the game, just you watch! I made it to the mid 80s I think.

Here's my dad in his natural habitat. I started him playing on CoD2 back when it was a book of 6 CDs to install. He watched me play it and then got into it a bit more. We both played Battlefield 2 (best BF) and he'd camp and snipe people like nobody's business.
dsQSjP8.png


Now he's that guy in MW2. You know the one, uses nothing but tubes, camps in corners, uses this same minigun whenever he can get to it:

He uses an AR with the noob tube on it, a secondary Thumper grenade launcher, claymores, and recently I showed him the wonders of the Scavenger perk.

If someone dies to him, he uses them to set up more traps. He plays mind games with the enemy players, constantly relocating while staying in the same area. Placing a claymore precariously on the edge of a bush they think he's in because he was there last time. He is an unstoppable machine.
Click to expand...

Man I honestly LOVED Runescape. It was honestly probably my favorite game of all time. I'm well aware that it is still around, but it is a very different game now. They have the old school servers still, but it will never be the same. Things changed a lot when they killed off wildy (wilderness) and added the Grand Exchange. I had a badass pure (I can't remember the exact stats, but I had like 10 defense, 85 strength, 85 attack - something like that). It was SO fun before they killed wildy. I had a main as well with 90+ fishing, 90+ woodcutting, etc. I actually setup an awesome macro to do the fishing lmao - worked like a charm. Actually as stupid as it sounds that game taught me a lot about economies and other things related to real world life. I played this game back in elementary/middle school (I think I stopped in high school). Ah man I could talk about that game for hours...

That's funny. I'm amazed anyone still plays MW2. I built my desktop almost three years ago now and built it for gaming - ironically I never ended up gaming on it much. I much prefer the Live community over PC. PC is filled with too many purists. I played CS GO and Battlefield 2 for a short time on it. Everyone was so dang good. The community is so small though compared to consoles.
 
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CC268 said:
No joke my brother (half brother technically) has a cousin that works for Apple customer service, purely so that he can work from home and play World of Warcraft. He has two computers - one for supporting Apple customer service and one for WoW. He is supposedly one of the top guys in the world lol. He even met his WIFE on the game - interestingly enough he is a bean pole and she is...well...a "big" girl if you know what I mean.

There is a software engineer here at my work who will take a week or two off and literally plays the new Diablo games when they come out. He "beats" the game and sells the character for ~$10,000. Not a bad way to make 10K in a week LOL.
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:eek:

Our D&D partners / ex-upstairs neighbors met on WoW and are also married. She's from Australia!
 
redtail said:
Unless that passion for computer gaming turns into a desire to learn computer programming. My 28 year old son was an avid computer gamer like his dad. He's now a professional software developer for a NJ company. One of the top programmers at that firm. We were a bit worried when he was a teen, because we didn't know were his excessive gaming would lead him and he would stay up late sometimes and fall asleep in class the next day. Eventually we learn to back off and let him be. He's never been in trouble, no drugs, etc.

So I beg to differ with your assessment.
Computer gaming has been a hobby of mine since I purchased my Commodore-64 at age sixteen. It's one of the things that help keep me away from the streets, drugs, etc. My limited programming knowledge was just in BASIC, however, my son is incredible. He started designing websites in 8th or 9th grade. And like myself, he also builds his own computers.
Each of my four children were exposed to my PC hobby from birth. In fact, I have a baby picture of him in a diaper, just starting to walk and he's standing up mashing keys on my keyboard.:D

As for Mindcraft, the only thing I know is, my 13 year old loves it, lol. But he also loves riding his bike with friends and being outdoors in general.
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Well said.
 
Ken Ibold said:
I worried about the time my now 20 year old son was spending "alone" playing games. Then he got a headset and we heard him talking all the time. Turns out he was doing far more socializing than we realized. Several of the gamers were local and they turned into in real life friends. And now he's studying computer programming and ... game design.

Give the kids the freedom to find their cheese. It's not going to be the flavor you force on them. My wife and I used to say, we're not raising kids, we're raising adults. That doesn't mean allow them to run amok. It does mean let them craft a life that's valuable to them. Hard to do, but so worth it.
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^ This ^
 
overdrive148 said:
:eek:

Our D&D partners / ex-upstairs neighbors met on WoW and are also married. She's from Australia!
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WoW is nuts man. I played for a little while. It was actually super funny because an entire group from my HS football team played - I played baseball, but I played with them on WoW and it was a blast. I can see how it could be incredibly addicting.
 
So I just tried logging into Runescape to see what's going on and where my character was. :eek:

LIAqg3V.png


Account banned for macroing in OldSchool. Our macro detection system has been monitoring your account closely and has detected that you are using illegal 3rd party software which violates the rules of the game and breaches your terms of service with Jagex. Our team have reviewed the evidence and can confirm that you were using illegal botting software. Jagex are able to accurately detect all illegal 3rd party software and any promises from their makers about being 'totally undetectable' or 'no ban guaranteed' are inaccurate. As such your account has been permanently removed from game. This is not an appealable offence and we will not review it should you contact us by email, ticket or social media. Please take this time to familiarise yourself with the rules should you wish to create another account.
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overdrive148 said:
So I just tried logging into Runescape to see what's going on and where my character was. :eek:

LIAqg3V.png
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Lmao...yea man its a mess now. I'm not even sure I remember my logins. I do remember a few years back seeing some emails from Jagex about my account being banned...which was odd considering I hadn't played in years. But yea I imagine a lot of the old accounts are all hacked.
 
overdrive148 said:
Also I played the -crap- out of Grand Theft Auto 3, 4, and Vice City. I didn't turn into a serial killer or thief or carjacker. Played a bunch of war games and I've never gone on a shooting spree or killed anyone.

Played a bunch of flight games and I didn't... wait, no, I became a pilot. :eek:

I don't think games are bad, I think they are an escape which some people can get pulled into. I think that balance is important like in all things, when I was 10 we had an N64 and I was always limited in playing it for 30 minutes tops. It drove me up the wall. Later we had other consoles (and life changed dramatically) and as time went on I was able to play more. I still play a lot of video games but I'm equally wrapped up in baking or hanging out with a small handful of IRL friends playing D&D on Sundays. Now that's addictive!
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Haha, crazy thing is, I have a nephew (who I helped raise as a son) who actually did go out and steel a car with his knucklehead friends, after getting hooked on Grand Theft Auto! And then the jokers stole MY brand new car out of my garage while I was out of town!!! No carjacking, thank God. They were teens (17 or so).

Fortunately he got himself together and away from that lifestyle before getting into deep trouble. I think the wake up call for him was seeing how much he disappointed me, especially after I cut off contact with him for months. He felt really bad and remorseful and it shook him enough to turn his life around. He's been a model citizen and an upstanding young man ever since. Working and being a good dad to his daughter. So, I guess some good came from that episode.

Me, I'm so hooked on the F/A-18 Hornet simulation from DCS World (in VR), that I better not be allowed anywhere near the real thing, if you know what I mean LOL
 
weilke said:
I am not sure what determines whether a gamer turns out to be the next wiz-kid or some 350lb vape-nozzle basement dweller.

Two of my nephews give me great hope. 6-7 years ago, whenever we saw them at family weekends like thanksgiving or christmas, they would disappear and play until the early morning hours. One of them was a bit chubby, the other one was picky that it bordered an eating disorder. Both of them turned into athletes during high-shool and are now off to good colleges, one with a business major, the other one in EE. So its not the obsessive gaming that determines it, there must be something else.
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Exactly. My now son-in-law and his buddy actually became overweight playing World of Warcraft in their early 20s. They, and my daughter, were the ones that got me into it. But the two guys also started up a home networking business which didn't take off, but showed their entrepreneurial spirit and put to use what they learned while gaming. When you are deep into gaming, you tend to build your own machines and LANs and get good at it.

In time, they recognized the addiction part of the gaming, and that it was making them fat, and dealt with it. My son-in-law lost the weight, now works out and is healthy, and limits his gaming to a couple hours a day. Many people go through a "phase" of intense all-day gaming but get over it in time. I think it's a natural trajectory because you do get very sick of sitting still in a chair and the virtual world can only satisfy you but just so much. This may change with full motion sims that are the horizon with gaming, when you can merge your gaming with exercise. I'm truly looking forward to that.
 
redtail said:
Haha, crazy thing is, I have a nephew (who I helped raise as a son) who actually did go out and steel a car with his knucklehead friends, after getting hooked on Grand Theft Auto! And then the jokers stole MY brand new car out of my garage while I was out of town!!! No carjacking, thank God. They were teens (17 or so).

Fortunately he got himself together and away from that lifestyle before getting into deep trouble. I think the wake up call for him was seeing how much he disappointed me, especially after I cut off contact with him for months. He felt really bad and remorseful and it shook him enough to turn his life around. He's been a model citizen and an upstanding young man ever since. Working and being a good dad to his daughter. So, I guess some good came from that episode.

Me, I'm so hooked on the F/A-18 Hornet simulation from DCS World (in VR), that I better not be allowed anywhere near the real thing, if you know what I mean LOL
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15 days to F-14 reveal!
 
redtail said:
Computer gaming has been a hobby of mine since I purchased my Commodore-64 at age sixteen.
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Hobby is OK. But if you're going to have a hobby, I am still of the opinion that you should choose one that does not have a path to addiction. If that is considered unhelpful then I hope it continues to be unhelpful forever and doesn't turn into "I told you so" in 10 or 15 years.

Glad there are lots of people here who didn't fall prey to it, but to be honest, those who did fall into gaming addiction aren't here, so we aren't a representative sample.
 
This will seem counter intuitive, but the iPad is probably less supervisable than a computer and then an Xbox or PlayStation. iPad is too portable, computer is too internet accessible. We started with an Xbox, and I was able to play and mostly get my butt handed to me, with/by my then 7 year old. Minecraft was cool in that it was creative, and he played with his friends online. He also played it with his sister. One time I tought him about how an internal combustion engine worked and we tried to build one with the fuel being dynamite. The farms and hotels he and his friends built were cool to see. With Xbox you can play with him.

Today my son is almost 16. He’s done sports and has tons of other interests, but still plays with a newer Xbox every now and then. He showed me Fortnight a couple months ago and I downloaded on my computer and now I play with him and his friends.

Takeaway: get something less portable so you can easily leave it at home or turn it off. iPad is not it. Also, something you can play along with him/her. And lastly, something you can supervise (big tv screen). iPhone will come soon enough.
 
bflynn said:
Hobby is OK. But if you're going to have a hobby, I am still of the opinion that you should choose one that does not have a path to addiction. If that is considered unhelpful then I hope it continues to be unhelpful forever and doesn't turn into "I told you so" in 10 or 15 years.

Glad there are lots of people here who didn't fall prey to it, but to be honest, those who did fall into gaming addiction aren't here, so we aren't a representative sample.
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Anything can lead to addiction and addictive behavior. My issue was with your "little value" comment, which is incorrect. My sixteen years of computer gaming on MSFS proved to be of great value when I finally took flight lessons, sixteen years later! No parallel to drugs at all.

My very first hobby was actually building electronic kits, before I knew what a PC was.
 
redtail said:
Unless that passion for computer gaming turns into a desire to learn computer programming. My 28 year old son was an avid computer gamer like his dad. He's now a professional software developer for a NJ company. One of the top programmers at that firm. We were a bit worried when he was a teen, because we didn't know were his excessive gaming would lead him and he would stay up late sometimes and fall asleep in class the next day. Eventually we learn to back off and let him be. He's never been in trouble, no drugs, etc.

So I beg to differ with your assessment.
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I agree, I think it is just like drugs in the sense that maybe 5-10% of people who use them turn into addicts, but most people just use as directed by the doctor and don't become addicts. You don't hear about all those in the news, the news focuses only on the problem abusers, it's easy to forget that the majority of people who take "addictive" drugs never become addicts.

Gaming is similar, a small percent become so addicted they cause real life harm, such as ignoring their children, not getting a job, etc., but the majority come to their senses and grow out of it, even using the skills they learned in game that are transferable to real life. For example, leading a team of 40 players in a raid takes leadership skills, communication skills, organization skills, etc., all good practice for real life jobs. Another great thing about WoW was the auction house, where kids learn about free markets, supply and demand, and price points.

But just like drugs, if you are in that minority, it can be a dangerous, even life threatening addiction. But my opinion is that most people who become drug addicts have some sort of underlying primary disorder and I think the same is true with gaming addiction. They would have had problems dealing with real life anyway sooner or later.
 
Rushie said:
I don't know what Fortnight is but if it's anything like the Goldshire Inn on a certain server than I know what this meant.
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Fortnight is a FPS that is famous for a 100 player deathmatch a la Hunger Games. Very popular right now

nothing like Goldsire. You literally make your character dance.

 
bflynn said:
Hobby is OK. But if you're going to have a hobby, I am still of the opinion that you should choose one that does not have a path to addiction. If that is considered unhelpful then I hope it continues to be unhelpful forever and doesn't turn into "I told you so" in 10 or 15 years.

Glad there are lots of people here who didn't fall prey to it, but to be honest, those who did fall into gaming addiction aren't here, so we aren't a representative sample.
Click to expand...

Your right - flying is a horrible addiction. Rehab soon.
 
I've never played Fortnite, but wanted to try it sometime. Maybe PoA should start a clan on WoW. LOL!
 
Rushie said:
I don't know what Fortnight is but if it's anything like the Goldshire Inn on a certain server than I know what this meant.
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Did someone say [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]??

Also fortnite lobbies are where the players get ready before joining a game. You can emote spam different dances while waiting for the game to start that are on the whole completely obnoxious.
 
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CC268 said:
Your right - flying is a horrible addiction. Rehab soon.
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I guess I never posted the comment where I said that if you're going to have an addictive hobby, have one that is more useful. I've never seen the ability to solo a raid boss listed on a resume, for good reason.
 
I think from a personal perspective, the problem I have with correlation to drugs and drug addiction is, I have friends and family members who destroyed their lives with drugs and are no longer here. I don't know of anyone who's life was ruined by playing computer games. So it's hard for me to make the connection. I've never seen ANY good or value in drug use. Gaming, yeah.
 
bflynn said:
I guess I never posted the comment where I said that if you're going to have an addictive hobby, have one that is more useful. I've never seen the ability to solo a raid boss listed on a resume, for good reason.
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Being addicted to anything isn't good, but i don't think that every hobby has to be productive. Sometimes you just have a hobby to blow off steam and unwind.

Sean Smith, one of the people killed in the Benghazi attack in 2012, was an information management officer IRL. He used that experience and played a high level diplomat/spymaster in Eve Online for an in-game alliance of thousands of players as well as the Council of Stellar Management (CSM). Diplomat isn't a class you select in the game - he was very good at communicating with enemies/friendlies and persuading people to his cause or point of view.

He was known throughout the in-game universe and when he was killed friend and foe came together to remember him.

Player owned stations across the universe were renamed in honor of him (ingame name Vile Rat):
18lqka0w2cnbppng.png


https://kotaku.com/the-extraordinary-mischievous-too-short-life-of-sean-481060252
 
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CC268 said:
Interesting...what games you guys play? I removed Steam a while back, but could reinstall it easily.
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Not much recently but I did play with Katamarino and a couple others in World of Warships which I don't play much of anymore. One of them hasn't been on the forum for a year. TBH I'd be down to get an active group together and play more. I have been playing War Thunder a lot lately and a handful of other games.
 
overdrive148 said:
Not much recently but I did play with Katamarino and a couple others in World of Warships which I don't play much of anymore. One of them hasn't been on the forum for a year. TBH I'd be down to get an active group together and play more. I have been playing War Thunder a lot lately and a handful of other games.
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Interesting never heard of those...yea my time is so limited especially now that I am starting my Commercial training...so little time left for stuff like gaming. I will have to see how the next few months play out.
 
I think a lot of the video games today are too addictive. Not to get all “back in my day” but back in my day, video games ended...you either won, sucked and got bored, or ran out of time. I grew up with the games of the 80’s and early 90’s. More arcade like. The games today are designed to not end...they go on forever. Which is good if you are designing video games. But bad for a kid or a parent IMO. I think they can be toxically addictive and are often used in place of poor parenting. Kids never want to stop or end it. They never are happy with a set time. We have very strict rules about them with our 7 and 9yo. A couple times a week, more then 30 min.It used to be more be we found if you gave them 15 min to 2 hours no matter what, that happiness ended sadly. Games today are designed to not end necessarily.
That being said they are allowed to play in the plane after take off until we descend to pattern altitude. watching the game with a lot of turning gets one of them sick.
 
CC268 said:
Interesting never heard of those...yea my time is so limited especially now that I am starting my Commercial training...so little time left for stuff like gaming. I will have to see how the next few months play out.
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War Thunder is a free to play game with 7 nations of aircraft (USA/Germany/Russia/Britain/Japan/Italy/France). Air combat is where the game started but it has since evolved to include tanks and helicopters, soon naval combat as well. Quite solid, no purchase necessary, lots of nice aircraft to fly.

Good luck on your commercial training! Definitely more important than video games.
 
overdrive148 said:
War Thunder is a free to play game with 7 nations of aircraft (USA/Germany/Russia/Britain/Japan/Italy/France). Air combat is where the game started but it has since evolved to include tanks and helicopters, soon naval combat as well. Quite solid, no purchase necessary, lots of nice aircraft to fly.

Good luck on your commercial training! Definitely more important than video games.
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Oh I think I heard Scott Yoak talk about that game on his podcast lol.
 
redtail said:
I think from a personal perspective, the problem I have with correlation to drugs and drug addiction is, I have friends and family members who destroyed their lives with drugs and are no longer here. I don't know of anyone who's life was ruined by playing computer games. So it's hard for me to make the connection. I've never seen ANY good or value in drug use. Gaming, yeah.
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Good or value in drug use by my meaning is medicinal not recreational. Example you take opioid painkillers with dry socket after an extraction. Or cancer pain or whatever, I see those as extremely positive uses of drugs. If you mean illegal or illegitimate use, I might agree with you, gaming is far less directly dangerous. There have been some documented deaths but very rare.
 
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