Question of the Day, May 4, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, May 4, 2010



Videogame summer camps provide a home away from home for all those kids that aren't into the outdoorsy, artsy stuff. A few of these camps have been denounced for encouraging inactivity in children. What's your take on videogame summer camps?

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[Katherine Kerensky]

Meh, they mean nothing to me. If I want to go out, I go for a walk, I don't need to pay for a camp.
If I want to play videogames, I play videogames, I don't need to pay for a camp.
I just see it as wasting money on things I already have.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Personally, I'm not the camp type.

Bit silly to denounce the camps for something the parents obviously endorse. If you want to do something about inactivity, that's not the best way to go about it.

I can't find fault in the idea of getting kids to do sports. People are getting too fat all around. But c'mon, give the kids something they can enjoy if they don't like (or feel liked at) other summer camps.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Great. A way for these kids to make friends with similar interests. It's quite hard to find gamers, you know. Because we're inside. Playing. Or hiding our interest to protect ourselves from ridicule. If you sent these kids to a regular camp, they'd be ridiculed and have a terrible time.

 

[Marter]

With such nice Online gameplay nowadays, I don't really see the need to send kids to video game camps. That allows the kids to not play for some times and actually get some exercise.

Obesity is becoming a real health issue and if people don't do something about it, we're going to have a lot of problems in the future.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

If I had kids I wouldn't be too happy with the thought of them spending their entire summer playing videogames, but if they really loved playing games a videogame camp could be a really fun experience for them. So yeah, I'm going with option #3. A balance between games and more traditional summer activities would be great.

Swim all day and play videogames all night... I wish they had camps like that when I was growing up!

 

[Low Key]

Far be it from me to say kids shouldn't do what they enjoy, but if you are going to send your kids to a video game camp, make them go outside too. I know when I was a little nipper, I hated fishing and golf and a bunch of other crap, but since then I have had a change of heart. I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't experienced them when I was younger.

Okay, so those may be bad examples of other activities to do at a video game camp, but you get the idea. Have them play laser tag or some shit. I mean, I knew a kid who spent every single day playing games, and while he was very content doing that and I'm not downing him for it, I wouldn't consider hanging out with him much of an option because playing video games is ALL he did. Participating in a wide variety of things is what makes people interesting.

 

[Jared]

There should always be a healthy Mix.

However, I think just a waste of money also as kids can play games, at home, without insane price tags

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[YepGeddon]

If I'm honest kids should just be given the choice, in my childhood I often chose games over the outdoors and I'm getting by fine mentally. Its just slightly unfortunate that now I just don't grind games anymore.. Mainly because I cant find a game that keeps me from going outside anymore, I just used to love playing games so much.. But nowadays the outdoors just has more to offer..

 

[ZeppMan217]

Real life Mario FTW!

 

[Vampire cat]

Obvious answer. Outside is great too! Don't be inside all the time! I stay inside and play games too, but I also spend quite some time outside. Fresh air makes you enjoy life a lot more, at least I do.

 

[Mahha]

There should be a mix of outdoor and indoor activities.

Like for example playing video games on benches in the wild or pwning noobs in CSS on laptops round a camp fire.

 

[toadking07]

I lame as this might sound, (though personally I think a summer camp for playing video games sounds kinda lame), what about if the camp had kids play video games, and then also had them go do more active stuff that's related to the video games they play? Maybe play some paint ball, or obstacle courses, learn karate or whatever type of game they're playing.

At the very least they need to get out and burn some actual energy, playing actual games. Could also get out and do some team building exercises that could help them in team games.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Awful!

You send kids to summer camps to do things they can't/wouldn't do at home. I wouldn't pay money to have kids sit around playing games for two weeks. Maybe a day or two, but not the focus of the whole thing.

 

[drkchmst]

As much as I love my video games, if your going to send a kid to summer camp i don't want them sitting around being just as social as they would be at home playing COD.

 

[epikAXE]

i went to a chemistry summer camp...shows how cool i am B-)

scary thing is is that i actually enjoyed it, alot :L

 

[bjj hero]

I don't get the whole camp thing. We don't really do it over here in England.

I guess its one way of making sure that fat a pale kids stay fat and pale...