Free Kids Online Sports Games
Posted on Saturday, October 30th, 2010 at 10:45 am
What is Maple Story? What makes it so addictive to my kids?
It seems all they want to do with their free time is to play THIS online game. Other activities aren’t interesting to them and they don’t seem to have desire to do so. Why don’t they enjoy doing school work or playing sports at the same level as they enjoy playing online games? Not every game has this power of stickiness to them, Most of them(XBox, WII, Playstation, etc) won’t last for a week or 2, a very few can last over 1 month. But Maple Story seems very different. They spent a lot of hours on this game and never seems getting bored with it yet which concerns me as their parent.
Maple Story is simple and repetitive, which you would think makes it unappealing. However, there is a competitive edge to it, there are thousands of other players online at any given time. Everyone wants to be popular and talented, which in Maple Story, means playing all the time. Popular and well regarded players are the ones who are on constantly, play to get high levels, and are always training with others. If you’re absent for so long, you’re suddenly shut out of the group. You can’t be relied upon to be beneficial to others, and you’re seen as just not caring.
I have been playing video games for twenty years, starting with the original Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Brothers. I’ve played massively multiplayer online games since Ultima Online and Everquest. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGS) are the most addictive and destructive type of game out there.
There are people who can play these games casually and not cause trouble for themselves. There are also people who play too often. This can go from as much as unhealthy lack of social life offline, to physically harmful.
With parents being more careful about children playing unsupervised outside and in the real world, parents are often overlooking the fact that the online world can be harmful as well. Parents don’t know as much about the online world, so children are more free, when they still need at least some guidelines. It is important that you learn about the games they play. Watch them play for a while, or play with them.
Truthfully, if your children don’t have a desire to do anything but play Maple Story, they’re already hurting themselves. It may be time to pull the cord on this game, as much as they’ll argue against it and throw fits. Kids need more social interaction than that.
To put the entire point shortly, Maple Story is repetitive, numbs the mind, but there’s other people and competition. That’s enough to rope in a lot of people.
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