
Summer school? Reading books? Camp? Computer games might be a better choice - noheartanthony
http://trueslant.com/garyandrewpoole/2009/06/24/summer-school-reading-books-camp-computer-games-might-be-a-better-choice/
======
tokenadult
For the child who plays games throughout the school year, a summer program in
which the child meets a new peer group face to face is a very good idea. At
some summer programs, computer games will be banned, but they will be a topic
of conversation anyway. Many math summer programs

<http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html>

are essentially free to participants, as they have heavily discounted list
prices for everyone, and lavish need-based financial aid.

------
rotw
My favourite subject in school is history. I love it in (almost) all its
facets, the military, the diplomacy, the politics, the study of what people
did. You can say that my interest began at a young age, reading lots of
children's books on castles or the Romans, but what really got me into the
subject was a game: Age of Empires II.

I was nine, and a friend had given me a pirated copy of the game. I was
instantly fascinated by the campaigns and the background to the actual
gameplay (at which I was pretty bad). I learned a lot about history in
general, I loved playing around with castlebuilding or crushing an enemy with
a huge army. I loved the evolving and changing missions, reflecting a real
battle, more a long, progressing struggle with sudden interruptions and
changes than a simple fight. I spent ages creating my own scenarios. I loved
playing the game, and it shaped me.

Fast foward to the present day. I'm 17, and going to choose the specialist
subjects for my final exams in 2 years. History is definitely going to be one
of them.

------
Tichy
:-( One of my pet peeves is that Civ gives a very wrong idea of history and
the way cultures evolve.

~~~
tybris
Personally I find Civilization 4 to give striking insights into the
development of world history, with diplomacy being one of the key elements. I
remember playing, with the USA no-less, and sitting on a piece of land void of
any oil. With time ticking on I sought the weakest opponent I could find and
built a large, though somewhat outdated, fleet. I strategically planned a
shock-and-awe tactic and managed to conquer the target city in a single turn.
Then all the world hated me and the most powerful Civ declared war, wiping out
my fleet in a single round with his well-fueled destroyers.

Such is history.

I lost that game.

~~~
Tichy
My issues are primarily with the "tech tree" (including cultural advances). I
would recommend to at least read "Guns, Germs and Steel" alongside playing Civ
;-)

