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Comment by ivanhoe | Hacker News Reader

IMHO Kinect and Wii motion games are really perfect for young kids as they solve most of the problems that parents usually have with computer games: there's a physical activity, there're complex body motions that develop the balance and motor skills, and also the distance from the screen is changing all the time so there's less strain on eyes. Too bad it seems to be too small niche for the cost of it.

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They are not. They are difficult for kids to controll. Plus kids randomly hit furniture and people and anything else in the room.

Also, parental issues are a lot about addictiveness of games, kids acting aggressively after whether out of frustration or cause they don't want to stop and refusing to participate on other activities.

If a child acts aggressively when denied something they want then they need to be helped to learn better behavior control. I cannot imagine that before video games there was never any similar behaviour, perhaps it was over denied access to fuzzy felts, or your book you 'never take your head out of' :)

I am under the impression that some video game designers are using psychological techniques similar to those used by slot machine makers to take advantage of every weakness in the mind to create an addiction. If so, it’s not comparable to behavior from reading a good book.

I concede somewhat, you are correct, the psychological manipulation present in contemporary game design certainly ups the stakes, still, we can teach our children that gambling is a risky activity, it will cost time and money, lost opportunities, so there is still hope.

Continuing deeper into this conversation would lead towards a discussion of how accurate a model of "free will" is, but I'm not so sure that certain activities are so different than addictive drugs such as opioids.

If people become so good at pressing the right buttons in the brain, the probability of success of "teaching" children to not get addicted will be very low, and the best chance of success is abstain from it, just like with opioids.

Actually, this issue is worst with video games then say lego or toy cars or dolls. The off-tablet activities seems to be easier to stop for kids and definitely less addictive. Kids are also calmer after stopping them (less likely to take frustration on siblings, less irritable).The selfish advantage of video games is that kids stick to them longer then with other activities, so the parent has more of uninterupted time.

tl;dr: kids behavior changes depending on which activity they do or did last hour

I mean, seriously, it is the similar with adults. Gamer after long session is more irritable, still frustrated from looses and not exactly pleasant to be around.

But you can't compare lego and playing Wii tennis, one is a competitive game, the other is coop. Imagine kids outside playing some competitive kids games and playing Wii, that is more fair comparison. Both will induce similar behavior in kids, at least mine: sometimes getting angry or crying if they're not the best, taking a ball and not wanting to share with others, etc. At some age all kids do that and then they slowly learn to control it better. Of course, going outside and playing with other kids is the best, but sometimes they can't do it and then I see Wii as much better substitute than classic video games or lego or whatever (don't get me wrong, legos are great, just not for the same reasons)

>They are difficult for kids to controll.

Not really, depends on the age of the children, by age 5 they are likely to become very good a the games. Speaking from experience, my young children play Wii Sports games.

You could argue that no gaming at all is the best option. Maybe, that's a separate discussion. Given the choice between "classic" gaming and motion controllers, the Wii model wins by a huge margin. It cannot compare, the parent comment describes the benefits really well.

There is something to your point about post-game hyperactivity, but that can be dampened with some parental intervention. The same behavior can be observed after sugary drinks, vigorous play...

> There is something to your point about post-game hyperactivity, but that can be dampened with some parental intervention. The same behavior can be observed after sugary drinks, vigorous play.

Yes, but parent will still dislike the need for that "parental intervention" that did not had to be. Plus, younger sibling or friend or other relative do not deserve to be on receiving end of that behavior.

When I see my kids to turn into little assholes after sugary drinks, I would have limited or stopped them entirely too. Or be like "no the issue with sugary drink is not that they dont get exercise, it is how they act". (My kids dont have that issue with sugary drinks).

The sugary drinks making kids hyperactive thing is a myth, and it is largely caused by parental perception, excitement from getting a treat, and the environment kids tend to be in when they are given a lot of sugar (parties, etc.)

See https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/39181...

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