I spent the entire summer between seventh and eighth grade trying to beat Super Mario Bros. My best friends and I worked together to teach each other the ways to beat every level, from the first castle to the last, from Princess Daisy to Princess Peach, from Bowser Junior to the villain Bowser himself.

When alone, I played Tetris, Dr. Mario — all those puzzle games that challenged my brain to move quickly and fit various shaped blocks into the right formation. That “whoosh” sound that signified a “Tetris” washed over me like a warm ocean wave: a signal of both success and accomplishment, turning my little corner of preteen chaos into order and achievement.

Tetris can be very satisfying.

That’s probably why I was never scared of my kids eventually playing video games. After all, I enjoyed gaming as just another activity among many. It’s hard to separate the parental stigma of screen time and video games with very real lessons my kids learn from their games. I’ve witnessed real-life social, developmental, and educational skills that children learn while playing video games like Minecraft, Roblox, Civilization, and more. Lest you think I’m just trying to soothe my own screentime soul, I also asked teachers and influencers to weigh in on this topic.

Social skills

Taking turns, playing fair, and teamwork: these are constant reminders for anyone playing video games. We don’t use the word sharing as often as we encourage kids to “take turns” and that is exactly what they must do in gameplay. Oftentimes it’s forced on them, but that rhythm of letting go after you make mistakes and lose a turn follows into a child’s daily life.

Persistence

How hard is it to win some of these games? It wasn’t until I tried to play my old standbys twenty years later that I remembered just how hard some parts are. We use their game time to explore how hard it is to stay persistent and try your best, understanding that your best only gets better the more you practice.

Mr. Devreaux Poole, Primary Learning and Teaching Coordinator at Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing), also believes that games “offer a safe environment [for children]to explore and challenge themselves. They’re able to build self-confidence as they are able to ‘reset’ when making mistakes,” and in addition, “Delayed gratification is taught (acquired) as the ‘main reward/goal/prize,’ usually only achieved after completing several levels.”

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Poole also adds that “Many video games require critical thinking and problem-solving skills and also stimulate creativity.” I couldn’t agree more! There’s no counting the number of times when my or another child will explain a secret to beating this level or suggest a different way to tackle an obstacle in a game, and they’re right! Sure, sometimes they learn from watching gamer playthroughs, where you literally watch someone online play through a certain level or part of a game, but more often than not I see them apply the knowledge they saw to a different problem and are able to move ahead in the game on their own merits.

Video games can introduce kids to a career in coding.

Community

Blogger and influencer Sally Tian works in the software industry and sees huge social benefits from gaming through her roommate’s experience, among others. ”He came from a small city in China before getting into a top tier university, and the online gaming community provided a good window and perspective to the outside world that he wasn’t able to find in his town. That’s why I think games are a good way to not only learn factual knowledge about the world but also help kids develop stronger social bonds and create a sense of community.”

Money and Math

Another aspect of Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Party, and many more games is that you must earn a certain number of points, coins, etc before you can purchase items in-game that give you more powers or costumes, whatever the case may be.

I couldn’t get my kids to watch a Zoom math class, yet also couldn’t keep them away from an online course called “Mario Math,” which used characters and concepts from the Super Mario world to help them understand ways of approaching math and problem-solving that make their in-classroom learning better today.

English

Minecraft activity books and Minecraft encyclopedias as well as fictionalized stories of the world are how I kept their attention on English concepts through quarantine, and still do today.

Let kids read what they love and they’ll never stop!

Digital Citizenship

Poole also believes that playing video games can aid in “developing of transferable Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills.” By starting them down the road of playing games within communities and privately, kids are introduced to concepts like keeping your passwords safe, public servers versus private ones, usernames, and how one’s identity online must match behavior offline for people to continue wanting to play with you.

Pranking

Because we watched a lot of Minecraft gamers’ playthroughs, my oldest was introduced to the idea of pranking early in his gaming career. Through Minecraft, he learned quickly that some people don’t want to be pranked, especially when that means your supposed partner in the game hacks down a house you’ve spent hours building inside the game because that’s what he’s seen his favorite gamers do to their friends. We had a pretty serious talk after that incident, explaining the subtleties of pranking and how both parties need to be “in” on it if it is to be a fun prank. I’ve since watched him handle his gaming maturely and remove that pranking concept from offline playtime.

Society

Tian is not a big gamer herself, but has “observed that some of the smartest, most creative people had learned about the world through video games.” One game she does play is Civilization, where a player, through making a series of choices, aims to grow his or her country from a rural nomadic tribe to a futuristic society. “The game is incredibly complex and has taught me so much about how society, technology, economics, and even philosophy can be shaped,” says Tian.

Many teenagers teach themselves how to use technology to be part of their favorite gaming worlds.

Self Expression Through Video Production

It is inevitable that starting a game will lead to watching tutorials and playthroughs of that game. Poole sees gaming playthroughs as an extension of a world we adults might already understand: “Gaming is seen as a sport these days, therefore, watching a playthrough is similar to watching a recorded sporting event such as football, basketball, rugby, tennis etc.” I tend to lean on the website Common Sense Media to learn which gamers are family-friendly and which are more mature, but even more inevitable than watching these is that a child will then want to create their own playthroughs and have their own video channel. We used this curiosity to teach our kids the basics of operating a video camera, and how to apply the presentation skills they learn in show-and-tell towards being an on-camera host. I know older kids who taught themselves camerawork through online tutorials, then researched video and audio editing to create better gaming videos.

Kids can still learn a lot of these skills with LEGO bricks and board games; however, it’s good to see the nuances in how video games help with a child’s development so we can lean into their interests instead of always fighting it.

KEEP READING: Weaning Kids Off Screen Time Post-COVID

Photos: Canva, Cindy Marie Jenkins, Pexels, Unsplash

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 November issue

Some of you may be aware that a new Universal Studios is in the initial construction phase here in Beijing (actually in Tongzhou), and ready to give Happy Valley a run for their money. There is likely no comparison between the parks, especially since it has also been announced that this new attraction to rival Shanghai Disney will now also include a Super Nintendo World. Yes, you heard us. An entire world that’s dedicated to turning your Nintendo fantasy into a 3D reality.

Super Nintendo World marks the beginning of a massive collaboration between the gaming platform and the theme park giant, and will be a new theme to their chain of parks much like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This Nintendo-themed wing will also be rolled out in their other theme parks in Orlando, Hollywood, and Japan over the next couple years. This news comes about a year and a half after Nintendo struck a deal with Universal, to start incorporating the franchise.

There is still a lot that has yet to be announced about the park’s 16-Bit theme, or what other worlds of the Universal brand will be included, but what we do know from The Hollywood Reporter article that broke the news is that it will be totally immersive and bring to life levels from Super Mario Bros and other Nintendo properties. We are fantasizing already about wild Yoshi rides through desert landscapes, dodging giant Piranha Plants shooting fireballs.

The completion date is still about five years away, so there is quite a bit of time until this park is ready to compete with the others currently in existence. At least, as Beijingers, we have something big to look forward to, and yet another reason to not just pack up everything and move to Shanghai and become one of those weird families that just goes to Disney every weekend.

Photo: pbs.twimg.com