We Are Definitely Not Nutters - Honest!

                       by James Judge

Over the past few months people seem to have been having a go at
computer games, both on the computers and consoles. During the
summer you could barely turn on a news program without an item in
it being about the growing influence of the devil machines and how
they are affecting people's (mainly children's) attitude towards
others.

Equinox and other such programs did special investigations into
whether the young these days are turning into complete
psychopathic louts, and all of it is to be blamed on either the
single parent, computer games or TV.

With horrifying data being dredged up from America (such as by the
age of ten, most American kids will have seen so many thousand
murders on television, and most of them being in graphic detail)

we can only start to think 'maybe we are being influenced by these
games'.

Scientists claim that after playing a shoot-'em-up or something
similar most of us are brimming with energy and we must, somehow,
release all of that pent up frustration. According to these
specialists the kids take it out with violence or vandalism,
leading to more and more crimes. Nobody mentioned how the adults
took it out, though. I can't picture a 45 year old person who has
just been thrashed by a friend on Street Fighter 2 (and I know
that there are some older players of this game) going around,
trashing their neighbours BMW, or some other offence. Anyway, I'm
not going to talk about how they relieve their stress.

A couple of days ago I was round a friend's house, just having a
chat and I happened to spot a copy of her Readers Digest magazine.
Never having had the opportunity to read a copy of this, I asked
whether I could borrow it after she had finished with it. 'Sure',
she said 'take it now, if you want'. And so I did.

When I got home I flicked through and came across an article about
how 'Computer Games Can Help Our Children'. Being interested in
this debate, I read it. Afterwards I made the assumption that 99%
of the readers of SynTax, Red Herring and other adventure
magazines are very unlikely to go and trash their neighbours BMW
(unless asked to, of course). Why? I'll explain.

Simin Foster, an electronics engineer, made the statement that her
children, after playing a computer game on their PC were "very
whiney and too hyperactive to settle down to anything that needed
the slightest brain power". She was worried that they were getting
too involved with the idea of blowing robots to pieces, so her
husband, Steve, replaced the game with an adventure from
Activision. This still included space travel that the previous
game had, but it also had a great deal of puzzles and exploration
to do. Within hours of playing the game the kids weren't their
usual hyperactive selves, and instead they were plying Simin and
Steve for information about the solar system and the universe.
This was, in Simins' opinion, a great and welcomed improvement.

The article then went onto the calming, but joyful world of the
Funschool series, so I skipped that bit. The article then went
onto real computer games, such as the violent ones.

I say real, as this is what the biggest part of the computer
market is made up of, with sales of over œ900 million in
recession struck Britain, just last year. That is a large sum of
money, nearly a third of the cost of the Channel Tunnel (unless
that bill has been raised, yet again).

It's amazing to think that kids spend that much money on computer
games, and most of it isn't their money. Gone are the days when
parents make up their own mind as to what to buy their kids for
Christmas or birthdays. Instead once a console or computer has
entered the house, the parents (unless they can truly control
their children) lose control. There is now a way for the child to
excel the parent and, in a way, lead them astray. Now it is a
matter of the parent going to the child and asking them what is
good on the market, so they don't have a major sulk some day.

The child is unlikely to say 'oh, I'd really love Funschool 4/GCSE
revision packs, mum'. Instead they would want some new game that
looks and sounds good that they have seen reviews of in the press
and TV.

This is often a mistake on the parent's part, as this is just what
the child wants and unless you exercised control of the
computer/console when you first got it, the children will rule it
from ever onwards, and if you supply them with a game that has got
just what they want (blood, gore and guts) they will be forever
tempted by the mass of circuitry that is connected to the TV.

What the article suggests to do is you go and spend an hour or so
in the local computer shop, pestering the assistant and reading
the blurb at the back of the boxes so you know what you will be
getting.

The article then went on, after lecturing parents on the wrongs of
these action games, about recommended games, and they gave a top
ten games that are great fun to play, interesting enough for the
whole family and will still keep the kid happy while they are
unexpectedly learning.

This top ten was what prompted me to write this article, as the
contents surprised and pleased me. I thought that the games would
be, basically, educational programs, aimed at different ages, but
no.

The first game they mentioned was Sim City. A game which invites
the player to 'design a city to a budget. Disasters such as floods
and air crashes show youngsters that life isn't always simple'.
Then there was Railroad Tycoon that serves as a 'useful complement
to GCSE history, geography and social science studies'. Then there
was something even more surprising - Civilisation which is a game
that expects the player to 'make complex military, economic and
social decisions to achieve peace and prosperity'. Then there was
the expected couple of teaching programs, both by Sierra Online
which take the part of point and click adventures! Then there was
a couple of serious programs and then, the classic game, Tetris
was given a good recommendation.

The last two in the list really pleased me, because of what they
were. The Monkey Island series and Indiana Jones And The Fate Of
Atlantis. Great! Two brilliant games that we (the ones who are
reading this article) play all the time.

All of the games above were meant to be the perfect games for
anyone, getting away from bloodshed and the violent attitudes that
come with it, and instead the games promote logical thinking,
thinking about the welfare of people and nations, getting kids
into the way the world runs with the follow ons to Sim City and
just how difficult a job the prime ministers have to do (the
question is whether they do it well).

If you think about it, all of the above games are games that we
play, and that is only touching the top of the iceberg. On the PC
you have got games such as the Carmen series, which Marion said in
RH were perfect learning aids, but damn fine games in their own
right.

So, as we play these games we are all a notch above other people
who play the violent games, or so the article suggests. And I am
inclined to agree, and I don't mean to be big headed, but we are
quite an intelligent group of people, more so than the louts that
go around taking their pent up energy out on poor, defenceless
OAPs.

Maybe this isn't the death of the adventuring market we are seeing
here, maybe the adventure game will become the phoenix with more
kids learning the pleasure of solving problems with thought,
instead of violence.

When I went to work in a primary school for a short amount of
time, I was surprised to find that there was a Topologika game on
their RM Nimbus. At the start of one week, no-one was really
interested in the game as it was just a load of text. The reason
why they had this attitude was that the teacher was over-burdened
with normal work, she couldn't spend much time on the computer,
explaining things. At the end of the week, all but two of the
children were brimming with enthusiasm towards the game, and that
was mainly due to the fact that I made it enjoyable for them by
introducing interaction between them and me, so they could get
ideas from my cryptic clues.

This shows that it is not just the children's fault they go to
beat-'em-ups, those games are something they can understand quite
easily. If the parents of children could spend a little time with
their kids, introducing the game to them, so they don't have to
wade through a massive Microprose type manual, I feel that there
would be a completely different attitude towards adventure and
strategy games.

The games I mentioned above are all available from various
retailers. Shop around for the best price, but here are the
standard prices etc:

Sim City (Maxis, Infogrammes, from œ29.99) - Available for ST,
Amiga and PC.
Railroad Tycoon (Microprose, œ39.99) - Available for ST, PC and
Amiga.
Civilisation (Microprose, œ39.99) - Available for ST, PC and
Amiga.
Tetris (Infogrammes, œ24.99) - Available for ST, PC and Amiga.
Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (LucasArts/US Gold, œ37.99)
- Available for PC and Amiga
Monkey Island (LucasArts, from œ16.99) - Available for ST, PC and
Amiga.












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