My son Matthew has taken an interest in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. This game was introduced in 1993, and was the first fantasy based trading card game. The trading cards that your kids have made you buy over the past several years: Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Neopets, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, all owe their existence and popularity to Magic: The Gathering. It has since spawned books, comics, video games, and a motion picture. A quick google search for "magic the gathering" finds about 600,000 web pages in english alone. One of his friends is into this game, and introduced it to Matt. This boy has two older brothers, so I'm kinda not looking forward to all of the things they're going to introduce to Matthew over the next several years. Even these three boys' father is a MTG player. He advised my son on how to select a deck of cards to get involved in the game, and offered to teach him the rules. OK, so at least there is some supervision going on there. These guys are really into this game. They go to multi-player tournaments, as well as playing the game at home, and online.
Like the Dungeons and Dragons game I mentioned in an earlier entry, you can also easily find websites bent on the eradication of this game. Keep in mind these are the same people who want to ban Harry Potter. However, I do have some reservations about this, and similar games. Like Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy element of Magic: The Gathering attracts many shy and insecure children who find solace in losing themselves behind larger than life characters. Wait! Before you bite my head off, let me explain that I'm not saying all MTG players are insecure, troubled teens. There are hundreds of thousands of MTG players, the huge majority of whom are perfectly normal human beings. Well, giant sized geeks, but still normal. Like D & D, however, or the internet, it is possible to lose oneself in the activity. I'm not really too worried about Matthew. He's a lot like his Dad: slightly geeky, but not geeky enough to wear a Spock costume, complete with ears, to a StarTrek convention. He'll be alright. Maybe he'll teach me how to play.
4 comments:
Fantasy is a huge part of childhood, almost every game they play is make believe whether its playing house, cowboys and indians, etc. Supervision is the best policy, why not have the "boys" over for a game were you can sit and observe, then you can see where Matt is at in the game and where it might lead him. With modern technology today there is so much out there for our kids to get absorbed in. My parents weren't crazy about my Ouiji Board , something about gates of hell! lol As an adult I now consider the Mall gates of hell, especially during the holidays!
My son Zack has been trying for years to explain the game to me. I just look at the pictures. He gives me all the really cool dragon cards because he knows I have a thing for dragons. I have to say, Magic has given him a lot of self esteem (he's one of the best players at his high school which is a huge ego booster), he had blossomed as an artist because of it, and I have a nice little collection of dragon cards because of it.
I know this is months behind your post, but my son used to play MTG too. He used to go to a small card store and play in the afternoons and weekends. Turned out they hosted local competitions and he won a $1,000 scholarship and an invite to the championships at Walt Disney World in FL. I always thought he was just going to the local card shop and playing just for fun! So if he really enoys playing still.... check out the local shops and see if they still do this! ~SieBlonde
My daughter is addicted to Pokemon,,,,she has two notebooks stuffed with at least 1,000 cards..She is 14,,,,still loves them,,,its everything to her....I am a little concerned and sometimes put her on limits for her play,,she is always rearranging how she arranges her cards,,lol..ANAL RETENTIVE....but I figure their is nothing bad in it. Some people I know disagree...I dont have a problem with Harry Potter..but I also limit the quanitity of exposure,,,they dont spend hours playing or entertaining action of good and evil..I dont wnat them to entertain that battle everyday in cards, games and movies,,but they watch them, and I allow them to play,,,I think it really comes down to a balance,,,,not throwing it all out and calling it bad but just not letting how kids brains discover one type of imaginary land,..Kids need variety. So far they will still watch Little House on the Praire too. Some times they dont want to watch it but I dont give them an option...They also love Lord of the Rings,,the Hobbit, Star wars,,so I figure if I keep variety in the stimuli, they will turn out healhty and not one sided... -Raven
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