Mom Plays Terraria

I stay in touch with my brother who lives a few hours away.  Facebook, email, texting and online video games makes it a lot easier to say hi once in awhile.  About a year ago, I was pondering a purchase of a PC game..most of my games in the last ten years have been various console or handhelds, but it was just something I wanted to do.  I had heard a lot about this 'Minecraft'.  So I called up my little brother and asked him what he thought.  He said it was pretty cool..but he recommended 'Terarria', thought I would like it and suggested I check it out.

I downloaded the Steam Server, paid $1.99 or some relatively cheap amount, as the game was on a special at the time and downloaded my copy of Terraria.  I instantly became hooked on the game.  Daytime hours were reserved for my online class study and homework but I found myself getting distracted and wanting to play my game.  My kids became aware of the game and me playing it when they would get home from school.  We started a little routine, come home, finish homework, then watch mom play Terraria until dinner time.  

I can't even tell you why we were so obsessed with the game.  My husband certainly didn't understand it.  The game was all about exploration.  It was played from a multi player server and you had the option of joining 'rooms' or hosting a server yourself.  I typically played alone, but occasionally joined my brother, who has much more free time than I do, so he was always several levels ahead and giving me items, armor, etc. to take back to my little world.  There is no end point or battle to this game per se.  You have a character you control around a world with different 'biomes' to explore all with their own unique monsters and materials.  You kill monsters, gather materials, learn to craft wood, and many levels of ores leading up to rare ores.  There are higher level boss battles and new areas to explore but you aren't saving a princess or anything.

My kids wanted me to download the game for them.  This presented a problem since it now cost $9.99 approximately and with two kids..I wanted to figure out how to let them play my game.  Ultimately, I rigged it up so they could play but the results were somewhat disastrous.  I loved playing this game, but I reached a point, after I beat some hard bosses and leveled up my armor to a certain extent, where there were still some really rare items to seek and new things to find, but reality and my duties overcame the time I had to play games.  So now, the kids played exclusively.  They watched videos..long videos on Youtube showing them how to defeat bosses and how to find rare items.  My seven year old wanted to craft weapons at home, pretend of course..but he knew all the weapon names.  They talked about zombies and the Hallow and..it all got to be a bit much.  I found out they were downloading mods..my nine year old figured that one out.  This allowed them to have every item, ore, and anything they wanted in the game.  I asked my son that the fun part of the game was the work you put into getting something..if you could have it all at the beginning, why would you even play?  Then one day, I guess I found out.  

I have caught my kids with their laptops and Ipads in the bathroom.

One day, my nine year old comes racing out of his room, while I was on the couch doing online school work, with tears in his eyes, and he runs into my room to avoid me.  I get up to see what the ruckus is about.  "What's going on?" I demand.  He is laying on my bed with his face buried in the covers and finally looks up with red eyes and says "I got banned."  "What?!" I say.  He proceeds to tell me sheepishly about getting blocked from a particular server he had been playing on with some other players.  Now, both of my kids were aware that they are forbidden from playing in multi player settings online with anyone.  It was my fault as a parent for not realizing they could and they had figured out how to do it.  The sad thing is, my first thought was that he was using my username on the server so it was actually ME that got kicked out of a server.  I shook my senses straight, ran to his laptop, and tried to check all the chat I could find.  I asked him what did he talk about while he was playing Terraria.  Believe it or not, my kids are both pretty innocent and despite my son's intelligence his written communication and typing skills are not that great.  I mean, didn't these people know they were playing with a kid..?  Anyway, that day was the end of Terraria for good in the house.  Despite the crying, pleading, begging and nonsense, I pulled the plug on the game since I didn't know how to control the online playing.

I have never been all that comfortable with the MMORPGs for several reasons I can think of.  The time, commitment and dependability of others on you to play their game is daunting to me.  There are crazy people out there on the Internet and I prefer to view as an anonymous bystander, not a named participant.  I don't want my kids participating in them right now either, it seems to hard to police chat since they are so independent when it comes to their technologies.  I loved the premise of the Lego Universe if they had used NPC instead of making it an MMORPG - that, and there was no way I was going to pay a monthly subscription fee.  They are a fascinating subject to study however, from the social pyschological research perspective to the development of virtual economies and cultures.  Check out more details on that here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

There are certainly negative aspects as well.  Video game addiction is real, apparently.  I may have joked over the years about this myself, but I don't exhibit the symptoms talked about here: http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/video-game-addiction-no-fun  

I do use video games as an escape, but, if I have homework, chores, or something else that needs to be done, I can shut the game off.  After getting rid of Terraria, my kids found their way to Minecraft.  They used some sort of free version on the Ipad and they were hooked! One day after a verbal fight between the two brothers, my older son came to me and said that his brother said he wanted to put a bomb next to his bed to destroy him.  Now, I know this was a reference to their Minecraft game, but again, I felt like I failed as a parent in the guidance of my children to participate in positive and enriching activities to stimulate their little, impressionable minds.  I felt like his speech was a direct result of social learning theory, even if I didn't necessarily think his behavior would go that far.  I pulled the plug on Minecraft, and my younger son, 7, who also is in love with Legos literally thought his world was ending.  He made comments like "There is nothing else I want to do ever again because I can't play Minecraft."  Terrible sob stories were a part of our daily household conversations for the better part of a month.  After realizing how addicted he was to the game, or whatever kind of hold it had on him, I felt better for removing him from it.  The psychological impacts of these games is far-reaching.  References to the games are still heard in our family conversations when we are out and about and something reminds my son.  The other night, a beautiful, very large, full moon was on the horizon and both of my kids said simultaneously "It's a blood moon!" As a Gamer Mom, I know what these things mean, but I hope to have more intellectual influence on them at some point.  After all, I feel like it was me playing Terraria that started this whole mess in the first place. 

Gamer Girl

     I love video games.  I have been playing for as long as I can remember.  Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? helped me with my geography more than any book I can think of.  Pong was a bit boring, but it occupied time during Summer at my grandparent's house on their big, wooden, console TV.  The ultimate for me and my brother came on his birthday in 1989.  He got a NES and we were hooked.  I was upset that it was him that got the system and not me, but I soon became the 'power player'.  The Super Mario franchise is still one of my all time favorites and today I play with my kids.

Over the years we played many games on many systems.  I played Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat on a friend's Sega.  Mortal Kombat was one of the first games I can remember making me a tad uncomfortable.  It was extremely gory, especially if you knew how to do the special moves called 'Fatalities'.  I don't recall my feelings on this gratuitous violence at the time, but I know as a parent now, I don't want my children exposed to it.  I also remember thinking how illogical it was to have a female fighting ninja style with swords and similar paraphernalia wearing skintight, cleavage bearing, barely there clothing and super high heels.

When I started college, I bought my first desktop computer for myself.  I loved Might and Magic for the PC and my boyfriend was pretty involved with EverQuest.  EverQuest was the first MMORPG that I had heard of.  Over time, I observed and heard of many things involving these MMORPGs: broken marriages, finance problems, game addiction, and more.  Players would form intense relationships with people they had never seen.  My cousin sold virtual items for real money on Ebay.  One of my all time favorite RPG came into my life at this time: Final Fantasy VII and the start of my obsession with the Final Fantasy franchise.  Aerith was my heroine.  She was appropriately dressed and became the revered mother/martyr of the game. Tifa was inappropriately dressed but seemed to be able to handle herself..Yuffie was useless.  I think this is where I really see the uses and gratifications theory exemplified in my video game consumption.  I actively sought, mostly fantasy escape, in my virtual worlds.  My game play provided me with this escape and so I continued to seek this type of media.  

  I spent hours playing FFVII and started to become more involved in 'gamer culture'.  I had a discount card at Game Stop, subscribed to Game Informer, looked for 'FAQs' on the internet to make sure I got EVERY single item I needed to complete my RPGs 100%.  I remember reading an article in Game Informer back in early 2000 that said 'girl gamers are as rare as unicorns'.  I found this amusing, as I knew more about many video game titles than the staff at Game Stop, who would joke with me when I came in if I wanted a job there.  I labeled myself as an anomaly.

A woman on the cover of Game Informer - properly clothed for battle!

Becoming a Mom meant a lot of changes in my view of the world.  Suddenly, everything was dangerous.  I spent my last trimester of my first pregnancy at home while my husband worked.  I played Final Fantasy X for hours, cried at the end and pre-ordered Final Fantasy X-2.  I also started a small side business on Ebay and realized the profitability of certain coveted game titles I held.  I stayed up to date on 'gamer literature' and would purchase games then turn around and sell them later for a profit.  My most profitable games included Electroplankton for DS, the Lunar series for Playstation, and my original Final Fantasy VII game.  I did not have the same time after baby was born to play my games, so I sold them.  I shunned horror which had fascinated me most of my life.  Parasite Eve, Resident Evil and Silent Hill suddenly became too scary for me to play or be associated with.  So as my needs changed, the uses and gratifications theory was still observable in my behavior, as the gratification I sought changed the use of the video games.

Today, I have two energetic boys, 7 and 9, at home who both love video games.  Probably three or four years ago, I was still the 'power player' in terms of getting past a difficult stage and my kids would turn to me for help in Super Mario Brothers Wii to 'beat a boss'.  Nowadays, my oldest has surpassed me in some cases.  We are both extremely competitive and I don't by any means 'take it easy' on him if we are playing a co-op game.  I have even less time for games now than I did before.  My Communications class has also opened my eyes to some feminist issues that were apparent in my games but perhaps not analyzed by me to such an extent.  I don't want my boys to demoralize women by thinking the over sexualized views of them present in many video games are appropriate.  I have to closely monitor what games are allowed in the house.  I can't say I consider myself a feminist; I am very conservative in my views of certain things.  I am a girl, and I love playing video games.  I do think it is unfortunate the lack of decent role models for women in games but I will say that men can be sexualized in video games as well.  Nobody likes the pale, pasty, thin superhero..give us bronzed, ripped and shirtless, right?  That being said, it is my responsibility as a Mom to educate my boys about the harm any sexist stereotypes can do in our current video game culture.  I found this blog online and I can't wait to watch all her videos - they have not been published yet so I am following her blog and Facebook:  

http://www.feministfrequency.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8I0Wy58adM&list=UU7Edgk9RxP7Fm7vjQ1d-cDA&index=1&feature=plcp