Ryuyuki Bu Yan is a historian, veteran gamer, and founder of Shokao Gakuen.
As a historian, Buyan Ryuyuki mainly studies the Japanese Middle Ages, modern history and the history of ancient international relations in East Asia; as a gamer, born in 1981, he has been exposed to video games since the age of 7, and has never interrupted playing and collecting for more than 30 years.
Buyan is one of the few full-fledged people I've ever met, and his interest in history stemmed from a game he played as a child, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
He has a daughter, 12 years old, who loves to play games; I have a son, who is also 12 years old this year, who also likes to play games. To be clear, I never play games, but I'm not against kids playing games.
Here's a conversation between two 12-year-old fathers about the topic of their children playing video games:
As a veteran player, in what ways do you think video games are good for your child's development and in what ways are they harmful?
Buyan Ryuyuki: Playing games is very helpful for children, such as thinking, creativity, and playing games can also accumulate diversified thinking, and the help of games for children is sometimes infinite.
Regarding the disadvantages of the game, I think the disadvantage is not unique to the game, but the common of all things, such as eating, crazy eating five bowls, then you may have to go to the first aid! Brush the question, brush crazy for seven days without going out, you may be suddenly dying! The game is the same, if you play the game for three days and three nights without going out, I think you are not far from death, the game and everything need to have a degree.
Many parents are worried that their children are addicted to playing games, what do you think? Do you think such worries are necessary?
Buyan Longzhi: Can not directly judge that the game is addictive, reading, eating, pornography, gambling have addiction, the key is what kind of cultural background the child is in, what kind of cultural structure the family is in, what kind of game the child plays, this is very important, such as people who oppose children playing games generally have the experience of reading martial arts novels in the bed, once as children, our parents are worried about our addiction to reading novels, and now as parents, we are worried about children's game addiction, There is something in common between the two.
There are dozens of game consoles in my home. I am also a father myself, my child is twelve years old this year, our family's game console is not locked at first, the second is not limited, want to play casually, just like the child said that he was hungry, wanted to eat bread, and ate casually. We will also find that there is no child who eats bread at home and kills himself. Because we don't restrict him to eat, he won't die, so the game is the same.
At the same time, we must also understand what is the game, not you play is the game, how to identify the game is also very important, the ancients said that the opening of the volume is beneficial, but it depends on what volume you open.
What is a good game? Or, in other words, what kind of games should be recommended for children?
Buyan Ryuyuki: For individuals, games are the carriers of thinking, creativity, general knowledge, etc. For the player, they must also have the characteristics of unity, fraternity, cooperation, etc., and also have some basic human principles for children to join the society after adulthood, so good games should have these, such as some games in Japan, which emphasize not competition but cooperation, emphasizing not confrontation but dialogue, in their games is the joy of a child playing, two children are cooperative, Three or four little kids is a sense of community etc.
For example, a good historical game is based on real materials and well-made, which can be said to be a true reproduction of history and culture. For example, "Red Dead Redemption" is a history of the American West, "Assassin's Creed Revolution" recreates the Paris of Louis XVI, and in the pioneer my class, students also learn about the Soviet-American Cold War through "Metal Gear Solid" and learn about the Meiji Restoration through "Dragon Restoration". At the same time, to play games, you must choose special game equipment for children to play.
As someone who never plays games, I'm curious, why do video games have such a great appeal to kids?
Buyan Longzhi: Video games themselves have a kind of interactivity, and at the same time have a desire to control people themselves, for the desire to achieve the ideal, video games as a virtual platform, with the development of science and technology, more and more can achieve all this, which is books, movies, etc. can not be achieved, so its attraction is greater than others.
Many parents are worried that there are some harmful things in the game for teenagers, what do you think?
Ryuyuki Buyan: Games are just a bearer, of course, it can spread a bad worldview such as sex and violence, but books and movies can also spread such things, and I once read the books that were banned in our school library when I was in college, so as long as you have enough willpower, you won't.
Regarding the improvement of willpower, I personally feel the need for a very good parent-child living environment, in the growth environment of children, fathers are a big mountain of children, which has a huge impact on children.
In any case, many parents still have a lot of anxiety and worry about their children playing video games, what advice do you have for this?
Longzhi Bu Yan: Parents first need to have a complete global understanding and vision of "video games", such as participating in the Tokyo TGS Game Exhibition, the United States E3 Computer Graphics Technology Exhibition, and truly understanding the development history of mainstream video game consoles in Japan and the United States and their derivative product culture, just through the black Internet café and several low-end mobile games, online games to understand, naturally it is not enough.
At the same time, I also think that parents should drink less, play less mahjong, read more books with their children, etc., and when playing games with their children, join the children's world more, we must learn to share the same world with their children, and have a common language with their children.
Very interesting to share, maybe Aisi Teenagers can set up a game day every month, parents and children come to our space to communicate and experience the joy of games!
What do you think about children playing video games, who happen to read this article? Welcome to leave a message at the bottom of the article, there are good games you want to recommend, and you are also very welcome!
The author of this article: Zhou Yuliang, founder of Aisi Junior, English language and literature and Ceibas EMBA double master' degree, father of a 12-year-old child, once a university teacher for many years, lifelong learner, full of enthusiasm for life, full of curiosity about the world, many teenagers' mentors and friends, have also traveled to dozens of countries and regions in the world, and have received in-depth coverage from mainstream media such as Phoenix TV and Southern Weekend.