Watching the grandboy play online games is a fascinating anthropological treasure trove.<\/p>\n
He plays two games online, Battle Minecraft and multiple variants of the “tycoon” games on Roblox. \u00a0Both have elements of battle and cooperation.<\/p>\n
Since I don’t allow headsets or text chat when he plays, he is limited to character behaviour when interacting with others. So he’s learned that jumping up and down repeatedly means “I’m happy with you (or your decision)” and mimicking another’s action generally indicates a desire to form an alliance.<\/p>\n
Deciding whether or not to sheath a weapon when approaching someone is very very important as he’s already learned. This is very important because in a given session, it’s vital to identify friend or foe in the first few minutes to avoid being mowed down in the ensuing fray.<\/p>\n
In the “tycoon” games, he can play online as long as he wishes in a session, but when the session ends, he loses all items he’s gathered. Kind of like us in real life, hehe. When in a session, anyone can attack anyone else for just the joy of it. Or one can choose to create things and ignore the bullies who pick on newbies who haven’t yet built up defense. Or one can help defend a newbie’s fledgling castle by fighting off attackers, with the hope that the other will help defend one’s place later.<\/p>\n
Also like in real life.<\/p>\n
All this with only pantomime gestures and observed actions on the behalf of other players. Completely fascinating.<\/p>\n
Naturally I encourage the grandboy to go for the “peace and defend” approach, but he does get frustrated by those who don’t “play fair”… and the temptation to treat other newbies equally unfairly is a beast that must be tamed.<\/p>\n
Valuable lessons here.<\/p>\n
He’s still grasping the concept that there are live people on the other side of the characters he’s interacting with. He’s going to be dealing with this concept for the rest of his life, so I’m thankful to be a guide in this wilderness!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Watching the grandboy play online games is a fascinating anthropological treasure trove. He plays two games online, Battle Minecraft…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p62ahB-fz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":395,"url":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/2015\/04\/25\/costs-money-gwumpa-costs-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":0},"title":"Costs money, Gwumpa, costs money…!","author":"Gwumpa Stories","date":"April 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I accidentally made the grandboy cry one day while teaching him about money. He\u00a0understands about the concept of money. \u00a0You need it to do certain things but not for others. \u00a0He knows this personally because he plays \"free\" games on a tablet and knows some areas or items are locked\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/11193231_10152868991415886_4395974686734853110_n.jpg?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/11193231_10152868991415886_4395974686734853110_n.jpg?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/11193231_10152868991415886_4395974686734853110_n.jpg?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/11193231_10152868991415886_4395974686734853110_n.jpg?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1492,"url":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/2020\/12\/31\/tech-support\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":1},"title":"Tech support","author":"Gwumpa Stories","date":"December 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Introduced the eldest grandson to a software package that allows him to create his own role-playing games. He's using the 'puter hooked to the tv and I'm next to him on my laptop. It's a wonderful experience as he's learning the power of creating games instead of playing them. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1087,"url":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/2018\/05\/15\/in-the-minds-eye\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":2},"title":"In the mind’s eye","author":"Gwumpa Stories","date":"May 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Me (thinking): What's going on in his head? Grandboy: (humming the tune of \"In the Hall of the Mountain King\", by Edvard Grieg as he plays with a stuffed bunny. The bunny appears to be leaping into a crevasse, but I may have misinterpreted its battle cry) https:\/\/youtu.be\/PC7-29kM0SA","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/PC7-29kM0SA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/2018\/06\/10\/from-game-player-to-game-maker-to-engineer-deejay\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":3},"title":"From game-player to game-maker to engineer deejay","author":"Gwumpa Stories","date":"June 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Grandboy has graduated to the next level: Making video games instead of playing them. Nothing spectacular - at this stage he's doing the equivalent of using sandcastle-making tools to throw sand in the air and bury the other tools. But that's how kids learn, yep? Roblox looks to be one\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1151,"url":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/2018\/08\/04\/a-pigpenny-for-your-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":4},"title":"A pigpenny for your thoughts","author":"Gwumpa Stories","date":"August 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Grandboy plays in the dirt for a few hours) Me: Hey you're really dirty. Shower time. Grandboy: OK GWUMPA (Grandboy re-enacts every scene from Spinjitzu, including the 'falling into the abyss' and 'rainforest battle spectacular'. It seems soapy feet add to the challenge. At least it sounds like it from\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130,"url":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/2013\/01\/07\/what-did-you-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":5},"title":"What did you do?","author":"Gwumpa Stories","date":"January 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"...one of the grandson's first clear phrases he's learned to say? \"Uh-oh, what did you DO?\" Yes, he's a very active lad.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monkeyinfinitum.com\/gwumpastories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}