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Games, hard to ignore

Last week the Vietnamese government banned online games claiming that they kept kids out of schools. The action revealed supports and doubts. In Cambodia, the State did the same thing earlier but later compromised to axe only on games with betting nature.

Local online games in Phnom Penh become very popular among school kids. They make internet cafes more crowded especially the back sides. Visiting such a place one day, I encountered kids speaking strange terms, especially those from games.

It is hard to say if those games are good or bad for kids. On one hand, they could access to new technologies and knowledge. But on the other hand, they isolate themselves from social participations, more dangerously from schools. So what is the right recipe?

My experiece on this issue was with my nephew who finds it hard to refuse online games. " I just love the characters, the adventure, competitions,colours, music, and more," he told me. This everything leads him to sit hours there and skips school sometimes. "It makes me addicted, and so it does with my friends," he added.

I could not blame him as he was trapped by game companies' marketing strategies to make money as much as they could. Instead, I am trying to get him out and make use of his ambition with games. I explained him about game business and asked him to choose which side he prefers for future goal. I was happy to hear that he wanted to be a game "maker" rather than a "player or the addicted one".

So the journey begins. He starts drawing and learning simple animations. He also wants to study computer science when he grows up. If you ask me if the plan works, I do not know. But at least now he goes to school and has a goal in mind.
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