Part 3: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Chapter 14: The Future III: A Nonviolent Video game

According to some concerned people, children, especially boys, are spending too much time play such violent video games that have essentially no redeeming value (for example http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/arts/09sand.html?_r=1).

Today, few American young adults have known a world without digital gaming. Since the 1990s Internet explosion, MMO’s (Massively Multiplayer Online fantasy games) like Ultima Online™, EverQuest, and World of Warcraft have drawn millions of adults and youngsters the world over into challenging interactions, even including professional competition and international conferences.

Compassionate games like Darfur is Dying can enact powerlessness and compassion. Games for Change or G4C (http://www.gamesforchange.org) supports gamers and designers of games with strong a pro-social content.

Research beginning early in the century that demonstrated the importance of early detection and prevention has resulted in many techniques and psychiatric interventions. (Romer, Daniel, and Walker, Elaine F. (eds), Adolescent Psychopathology and the Developing Brain: Integrating Brain and Prevention Science. Oxford University Press. New York (2007), especially part IV).