Sitting outside bored on a stump doing nothing productive was more "harmful" for my development than spending hours on the computer playing an MMO. On the MMO I learned social interactions, supply and demand, how bronze is made, puzzle-solving skills, how to touch type, and even got to delve into some basic statistics (drop rates, DPS calculations).

My father saw it as "wasting time playing some video game" instead of "playing outside". Thankfully my mother had watched me play the game and saw that I was actually learning and benefiting from it in a fun environment and would allow me to play more or less as long as I wanted after my homework was finished. Other benefit: this was the only time in my life I ever did my homework.