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We all know someone who loves playing video games. If you’re a parent, it’s usually one of your own children who love games, whether they’re always playing the games on your phone, or have a game themed bedroom with their own gaming setup.
Of course, this love of gaming can lead to a few worries. You may be concerned about your child’s screentime amount, or who they may be talking to if they’re allowed internet access whilst playing games. These are appropriate concerns to have, of course, and we strongly recommend setting blocks and keeping an eye on the way your kids approach gaming.
But if your child really does love to play video games, and you can always see their passion for it in the way they talk about games, or how excited they get when you agree to play with them, it’s perfectly OK to let them indulge.
After all, learning the ins and outs of video games, gaming and computer systems when you’re young could lead to some pretty exciting career opportunities when you’re older!
The modern digital world is made up of software and hardware that seems to change and evolve every five seconds. When you’re young and can get to grips with this as you grow, you have an advantage that very few others have access to. Namely, you’re going to be learning all about the changing tech as you grow and change yourself!
As such, if you’re the parent of a child who loves playing video games, look toward the future here. There’s plenty this hobby can teach them, and whilst everything in moderation, it’s not a bad thing for them to spend time on it.
Learning to Craft a Narrative
Most games rely on a background narrative to keep the objectives rolling. Players want to dig into this story to find out more about the characters, the world, and their own place in it. It takes a lot of imagination to build a video game world, and that all starts with the core story the designers are trying to tell.
If your child plays a lot of video games, they’re likely to pick up on that. Crafting a narrative isn’t easy. It takes some proper skill refinement to know how to string a story together and make it flow.
Plot points need to hit their mark every time, and the characters need to feel real enough in their motivations. It’s a difficult thing to pull off, but when you’ve been playing games since you were young, you’ll have a bank of insight into how this works.
That could lead to a job in video game writing, whether your child wants to make games of their own or they’d like to write about games they love playing.
Many prolific people in the video game scene started out as reviewers putting together blog posts for other video game enthusiasts, and at the very least, this is a very creative pastime to have!
Learning to Code
If you like playing a few traditional card games here and there, like freecell on your phone or on your desktop when you’re on a break at work, you wouldn’t believe the amount of coding that goes into making these smaller, ‘simple’ games happen!
There’s an entire backend to build first, to ensure the images appear on the screen in the way they’re supposed to, that the right sounds play, and that no glitches occur to make the cards immovable. That takes some true skill in programming.
And your child could open themself up to learning these programming skills from a young age. If they’re interested in the technical side of video gaming, where they like digging down into the files and changing, adapting, and modding them, they could easily develop these skills for a future in coding.
In the UK, the average starting salary for a software developer is around £40,000 a year. That’s very good money to make in a junior position, but depending on the city you end up working in, you could even make double that.
Learning to Design and Animate
Very few video games are put onto the market without any animation work. Indeed, videos are simply moving images that string together to form a seamless experience! No game that wants to impress its players is going to lack this sense of design and animation.
Video game visuals are often the most amazing thing to see. When a game has good art direction, made by passionate artists and animators, the gaming experience will be next to none. Many kids who loved gaming have grown up with that in mind!
Art is a hobby most kids have in the first place, but being able to do it through a digital medium is one of the best skills to have in the modern job marketplace.
A Passion for Video Gaming Could Open Up the Career World
Even if your child doesn’t end up working in the video game industry one day, they can still learn a lot of skills that will prime them for other jobs.
If they know how to write a good story, they could end up as a journalist, and even end up reviewing games for well known gaming magazines.
If they know how to code and have decent knowledge of programming languages, they could end up as a software developer for both small and big businesses alike.
If they have good 3D illustration skills, and can work with programs that allow creation of digital art, they could have a future in marketing and advertising.
There’s lots a passion for video games can teach you! Find out what your child loves about gaming the most and see where it could fit in the list above.
Getting this insight can help you to encourage other activities that involve this skill, and if you’re worried about screentime, they’ll be far less likely to spend hours in front of one video game screen.
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