If you have a child who plays video games, there are a bunch of reasons why you need to pay attention, according to this article.  While the website titling indicates a concern about religious content, the message in the writing is not religious and provides some serious concerns for parents.  Experts feel that even parents who follow statistics closely about video game trends do not have a full understanding of the impact of these games because the games change too quickly for reports to adequately keep up.  A gamer decided to master popular games such as “Halo 2,” “Doom 3,” Resident Evil,” and “Vice City” just to see what the experience was like, and parents will want to understand his feedback closely.

This article takes a hard look at the experience that video games provide, and doesn’t necessarily say they are wholly harmful, but that parents need to know what their children are playing.  One expert says, “...for millions of people, video games are the ‘new playgrounds of the self’ in which players create imaginary identities that let them do things that they would never do in the real world....” The problem is, who helps children decide what extreme play experience is appropriate for the real world?  Is it ok for children to play on the “playground of the self?” Each parent needs to answer these questions independently, but having a deeper understanding of the gamer experience is crucial in making this decision.