A Healthier Way to Play

People around the world love playing computer games, especially children. With the rise of online multiplayer games, kids can play with friends and strangers from around the world. However, not all gaming experiences are created equal. There is a significant difference between playing on open servers and participating in supervised activities, such as a gaming club where activities are guided by professional game educators. In this blog post, these differences are explored and a view why supervised gaming clubs offer a healthier and more enriching gaming experience is explained.

The Wild West of Gaming‍

When children play on open servers on the Internet, their experiences can be varied. Here are some common issues they might encounter:

1. Lack of Structure: Free play often lacks structured and planned content. While many computer games themselves are educational and beneficial, children may spend hours a day on mobile games, in particular, without any real goal or purpose, leading to unproductive and potentially unhealthy habits.
2. Exposure to Inappropriate Content: Without supervision and a safe online environment, children can easily be exposed to inappropriate content, harmful social media challenges, or outright scams.
3. Limited Skill Development: While computer gaming improves many skills such as hand-eye coordination and problem-solving abilities, purely entertainment-based gaming does not lead to the overall development of the child. Rarely does online gaming communities support the learning of teamwork, strategic thinking, or other future skills.
4. Risk of Addiction: Without proper guidance, children can develop an unhealthy relationship with gaming, prioritizing it over schoolwork, physical activities, and social interactions.
5. Unknown Playmates: The gaming company the child has, can influence his or her behavior. Significantly older, unknown, and even toxic playmates can negatively affect a child's opinions, behavior, and attitudes.

Supervised Game-Based Education

All forms of supervised and monitored gaming activities, such as those offered by School of Gaming's game-based education clubs, provide a counterbalance to the often chaotic world of online gaming and unsupervised gaming communities. Game-based education goes a step further and turns games into tools to support the future and growth of children and young people.

1. Structure and Learning: Supervised game-based education is planned, value-based, and safe, led by trained game educators. The content is designed to be both fun and educational, with clear goals that promote learning and development of future skills.
2. Safe and Friendly Community: In supervised game-based education, children (and parents) are part of a positive and inclusive community. Game educators monitor interactions to ensure a safe environment free from bullying and inappropriate content. One focus of School of Gaming's activities is to help children find new friends and enable genuine, long-lasting friendships.
3. Development of Future Skills: In supervised game-based education clubs, children learn skills transferable to real-world situations. Through shared projects and goals, creativity, collaboration, and positive communication are emphasized. Children learn to share, listen, handle their emotions, and express themselves—skills that never go out of fashion.
4. Healthy and Balanced Hobby: Supervised game-based education is comparable to any quality hobby that aims for the balance between a child's hobby, school, friendships, and family. A good hobby should not be overly burdensome but rather an enriching and positive element in life. When life is balanced, gaming does not become a problem. Instead, it promotes a healthy relationship with games, media, and technology.
5. Conflict Resolution: It is natural for conflicts to arise when children play together. In a supervised environment where every child and their parents are known, we can resolve issues right where they occur. It is crucial to learn that even online, if you do something wrong, you must face the consequences. Conversely, if someone wrongs you, their mischief will not go unnoticed or unresolved. This teaches children a sense of justice and fairness and increases the feeling of a safe space.

Real-Life Experiences

• "The hobby has become very important to our child, and he is very proud of his coding and building skills in Minecraft. So I had some old School of Gaming diplomas printed and framed for the wall." - Mother of a 9-year-old boy
  
  
• "I am listening to the Tuesday's Minecraft club from the sidelines and want to give special thanks to the game educator who handles the children amazingly. The game educator offers diverse challenges and manages both the enthusiastic players who seem to speak to him all at once and the various emotional outbursts that inevitably occur during the game. Our child loves the club very much, and so do I. Thank you! :)" - Mother of a 10-year-old girl
  
  
• "Our child has really enjoyed being part of School of Gaming and has made new friends in the gaming world. We want to continue this. Thank you!" - Father of an 8-year-old girl

Why Choose Supervised Game-Based Education?

At School of Gaming, we believe in the power of gaming as a tool for positive development. Our mission is to make the world a better place by training children to face future challenges through game-based learning. By choosing a supervised gaming club, parents can ensure their children are involved in a healthy, developmental, and balanced hobby.

Supervised game-based education provides a structured, safe, and enriching environment where children can thrive. It offers more than just a way to pass the time; it is a platform for growth, learning, and building lifelong skills, not to mention new friendships. So, if you want your child to get the most out of their gaming experience, consider enrolling them in School of Gaming today: https://www.sog.gg/