China Lifting Console Ban: Blessing or Curse?

There are many things in the U.S. that we place a level of importance on during the course of our American lives. Our families are our number one priority, or at least they should be. After that, we also place our jobs, freedom, and overall happiness near the top as well. In fact, I could probably list about 20 things that we feel are important to our ways of life, but the sad truth is that sometimes we don’t always place our family at the top and therefore we don’t always have a healthy family structure. For example, sometimes we work too much. Sometimes we focus on ourselves instead of others. And other times, we turn on the video games as a pseudo-nanny for our children.

This is a problem that those in China will have to face now that the console ban has been lifted and a new age of gaming is ushered into Chinese culture.

Up until now, Chinese culture has been very structured. Specifically, Chinese grandparents often supported their children in raising the grandkids while the parents were working during the day. You can read about it here. And while this system has worked for many many years, it may just be disrupted.

I am not an expert on Chinese culture, but there are some things I do know. I know that video games are a great way to spend time with your kids. It can be both a bonding experience and a fun time. Your kids will love being able to reminisce years later about you and them playing a game of Mario together.

However, video games can’t become a substitute for a human being.

We cannot use video games as a replacement to grandma. No amount of The Legend of Zelda or Pikmin will replace the feelings of warm, freshly-baked cookies or blissful hugs. My fear is that even though video games are great and it is awesome that console makers can now get the hardware into the hands of Chinese families, moms and dads may start to use games, instead of family, to watch the kids. If that were to happen, their family structure as they know it could become in danger. Let’s hope that is not the case.

Do you agree?