Playstation - Is Life Too Fast Now?

Yeah, I sometimes play backgammon. The main flaw with it, as far as I can see, is unless one participant is mentally subnormal, the winner's decided by who rolls the most doubles. The defence and strategy elements are extremely rudimentary, once you've played a couple of times. That's why it's played by pissed old farts in dingy village pubs - it doesn't require skill or sobriety to play. I'm a Cribbage man, myself. That or Poker (Texas Hold Em, 5 Card Stud, Spit in the Middle) or Oh Hell - sometimes known by its quainter, more polite monicker, Speculation Whist - or maybe Hearts. Coppit's all right - original name Fang Den Hut or 'Catch the Hat'. I play a lot of video games but I'm no techno-junkie. I used to *write*, for God's sake! Voluntarily! For fun!

As for the basic question, yes I think life is too fast. More importantly, speed is valued over other qualities, such as wisdom. There is a decent book on this subject called, not surprisingly, 'Faster,' by James Gleick. He also wrote the very famous best seller 'Chaos' and a less well-known biography of Richard Feynman. The cult of continuous improvement, he contends, has pushed speed to the point that it has reached the biological limit of humans to keep up. In short, everyday life has turned into a rigorously-timed standardized test in which people who can blurt out facts, or at least what they can convince the listener are facts, the fastest win the game. I've only played computer games a few times. I remember playing Pong when it first came out, and there was some game on my first Mac Classic computer that I used to play. Since about 1992, however, I've not indulged. I don't really understand the appeal, but then again, I've rarely played games of any kind, cards, board games, etc. I do, however, have a great idea for a computer game that lots of people would love, but it would probably be banned from sale for inciting violence LOL. Or maybe it already exists. I'll never know because I wouldn't know what a playstation looked like if it fell on my head.

I enjoy Backgammon, but Tim's right - unless you are playing against someone very thick, luck (in the form of throwing doubles) skews the game far too much. Don't believe me ? Play someone at Backgammon and decide that every time YOU throw a double, you will only take the one set of numbers, and not use them twice. You will lose, every time. There is strategy involved in Backgammon, and you can actually have a really good game against someone by dispensing with the 'doubles' rule, where the better, more strategic player will win. Nothing wrong with playing Backgammon with your son, but I'm not surprised he found it boring. The chance element is frustrating, and the strategic element quite complex for a young child (they can grasp quite easily the delight of sending an opponent's man to the bar, but not that it can sometimes not be a good idea to do that). I think the answer is in balance - too much Playstation (just like, gulp, too much reading) is not a good thing if you're wanting children to grow up healthy and knowing how to integrate with other children; but I actually think the generation of people before computer games have no idea how carefully the players actually think about things when they are playing, and how the games reward things like perseverence, trial and error, observation and thought.

We actually play a different form of Backgammon. Our rules are that every time your "man" is taken you have to jump on your opponent and wrestle him to the ground. It can hit you quite hard sometimes if you've forgotten this rule and are just delighting in taking a "man" and knocking him right the way back around the board when you're suddenly pounced on by an over-enthusiastic eight-year-old with knees and elbows flying in all directions.

But Backgammon is just mindlessly rolling dice and moving counters. It demands far less than the average Playstation game - which often has an in-depth plot, requires reading skills, decision-making, superior hand-to-eye coordination and patience. If you're not winning you can just switch the game off, if you're doing badly at backgammon you can put the board away and do something else, if you're losing at football you can take your ball and stomp off home. Has it occurred to you that, far from being a symptom of some disasterous social malaise afflicting our nation's youth, he might not have wanted to play backgammon because it's shite? I doubt you have any of the requisite skills or patience to see even a moderately difficult console game through to the end.

I agree with you Rokkitnite, the only time that Backgammon becomes even moderately interesting is when some form of wagering is involved. I have worked for many years now in the computer games industry as a games designer and graphic artist and know, through bitter experience, the amount of effort and manpower that goes into creating a videogame. Just getting the learning curve right can be an absolute nightmare and that's before you start implenting hidden areas and bonus features that are only unlocked when the player is able to reason and work his way around within the game's own logic system. Having said that however, there are good games and there are bad games just as there are good and bad aspects in most things. But a good, well designed and written game, much like a good book, will stretch a young mind, or old mind for that matter, far more than a game of backgammon. [%sig%]

Interesting point Karl. You are ABSOLUTELY right to ration young Wigglet's use of Playstation. It's called responsible parenting. Life is TOO fast and instantaneous today with the result there are generations emerging who have the attention span of a door hinge. True, Playstations exercise parts of the brain that older games CANNOT, but the danger is these young people are growing up with other crucial brain parts COMPLETELY under exercised. They move into adulthood expecting INSTANT gratification at every point in their life. Or they think they can crash a car at 240 MPH and walk away uninjured, or shoot people without any consequences. Not good. Backgammon, draughts, Connect Four, chess - it's worth introducing him to all of these, not to mention a musical instrument. [%sig%]

i love playstation, it pisses all over games i played as a kid... ( i'm 39 btw) sure it's not as healthy as playing football, cricket, rounders, whatever, but when it's time for indoors entertainment, it's a lot better than countdown, or cluedo or whatever other games we played as kids (with the honourable exception of scrabble, which still is the king of board games...

I was a little upset at xmas when I was taking that afternoon stroll with my family to my mums house. It's pleasurable to witness so little cars on the roads and the tranquility is divine, but I couldn't help but notice that the amount of children kitted out in winter woolies, riding their new bikes with mum and dad in tow, had greatly diminished. I imagine that instead they might have been kneeling in jim-jams close up in front of the tv, hypnotised by the latest action/adventure computer game. Life is too fast, we're all in a rush to get somewhere and don't appreciate the scenery anymore. I believe that this is an expectation that the economy has forced upon us, and we've unknowingly adopted the pace in our personal lives too. Maybe?

Instant gratification!

Hey Foxy - can I send you an email? I've been doing some work as a writer for computer game scripts. Just saw the final result of one of my efforts this Xmas. Would love to get your side of the 'story' so to speak. You know, from someone who actually has a specialist skill, rather than a hack like me.

Backgammon is shite. It's Ludo for subnormal adults. As for the too fast thing. Do you remember 'playing' subbuteo? The arguments about setting it up. Finding the players. The soul destroying difficulty in passing. Players flying off the pitch into unknown recesses of the living room or bedroom. Trying to save a penalty without wrecking the goal as you moved the goalkeeper. Now compare that with Pro-Evo 4 and I think the case for the 'modern home entertainment system' is complete. If you'd said chess, then maybe you had a case.

you can play all board games on the ps2. Pro evolution 4 excellent!!!

Backgammon. Jesus Christ Karl! Are you teaching him for your pleasure or his? What kind of Dad are you? A recipie for drug addiction and malvolence when the lad is older methinks. Sort yourself out man.

Hey Foxy - just click on my screenname and you'll get my email address. I'm Tim, by the way. Welcome to abc. Yeah, it looks like the consensus is a PS2 constitutes a far more elaborate waste of time than backgammon. 'Dad? Can I have my mate over to stay tonight?' 'What will you do to pass the time? Scrumping? Shove a ha'penny?' 'Uhh... thought we'd just play a bit of Playstation.' 'Tell you what, how about you don't have your mate round, and instead you can sit all evening with your boring dad while he teaches you backgammon - boardgame of kings.' [5 mins later] 'Dad...' 'Yes?' 'This is total crap.' 'NOOOO!! That box of wicked illusion has poisoned your young mind! Why, what other explanation could there be for your preferring an evening playing with your friend than enforced "fun" with the father who denied you the former? Technology is destroying the world!' I bet their exchange was *nothing* like that.

Blimey! Suddenly I'm the worst dad in the world because I took his PS2 away for a couple of hours and forced him to actually play with some of his other toys. And guess what? He survived! I know it seems hard to believe but he actually made it through the evening without turning into a complete nervous wreck. My parents were sitting for us while we went out, so the two kids prepared dinner for them. They laid the table, put on some sounds (The London Trombone Sound as opposed to Busted) and got inventive in the kitchen. They had great fun. I've nothing against Playstation. It can be a lot of fun, as can Backgammon, which isn't just "mindlessly rolling dice and moving counters" Rokkit. It's about positioning, strategy and most importantly defence. It's about knowing when to attack and when there's far too much to lose by attacking, when it's far too risky. But this thread isn't about Backgammon, or wasn't meant to be. My fear is that a lot of what we're involved in as adults takes planning, research and long decision-making processes, and that these skills may not be emphasised so much nowadays in children's recreational choices. I'm not a mad Backgammon anorak. Give me the swimming pool and the football pitch any day. Another "toy" that he has consists of a number of very small bricks, frames etc. and sand & cement. We've taken measurements of our house and are recreating it as a scale model. It's about two feet long. Every few months he gets enthused about it and we add a few more courses of brick. In three week's time we're off to Devon for a week to holiday with another family. He'll surf and I'll body-surf, we'll play Backgammon and Coppit, watch the surfing DVD's that we own, drink some beers (me and my mate, that is, not the kids), climb up to Baggy Point, climb over the rocks, play hide & seek over the sand dunes and no doubt spend hours in the pool. So no need to call Social Services on me just yet.

'Is that Social Services?' 'Yes and how can I help you?' 'I have have heard reports of a man teaching his son Backgammon.' 'Where Sit?' ''Somewhere near Watford.' 'Leave it with us Sir, we are on our way.' 'The gentleman in question also has a beard.' 'What car does he drive?' 'A Mondea I think .' 'This might be tricky, we will need back up. Lock your front door and tell all your neighbours, we will contact the media.' 'Thanks.'