Available to anyone with a computer and fast Internet connection, there are thousands of online games available to play by anyone… sometimes free and sometimes for a fee. They range from the familiar family board games to strange and more complicated games which require a hundred page manual to understand. One thing that they all have in common however is that they’re fun to play.

The most common type of online game you’ll probably run into is the Flash game – usually located on educational sites or Yahoo! for Kids for example. These games may or may not involve other players, but they’re always full of color, they’re fast to download, and they’re fun to play. Since they run inside the web browser, no special equipment is needed. These are the simple games – more intriguing than checkers, but no more difficult to play than chess.

Another type of online gaming is more violent than the ones we described above and it’s similar to the “shoot-em-up” type games found on the first Nintendo and Playstation systems. Designed from the first person’s point of view, the player typically maneuvers around the screen as a weapon-clad hand – periodically changing weapons as the game’s scenario permits. The violence in these games vary from mild to offensive, and as a parent, you’re cautioned to monitor your children’s access to them – especially since these games are played online with other people.

Next, in terms of complication or violence, comes the virtual reality gaming and role playing games that we introduced earlier. These types of games require an extensive amount of time spent online since players assume the role of a game character in play. Players work hard to build up an inventory of weapons or skills – none of which can be accomplished in a period of thirty minutes or less. They then go on to interact with other characters which extends game time even longer (if it even stops). Both virtual reality gaming and role playing games require and encourage strategic thinking, but as parents, you may not be comfortable with the violence that’s prominent in some of these games. Nor may you be comfortable with the amount of time that playing these kinds of games can consume. Depending on the complexity of the game, any one person could spend at least six months at a game and having access to thousands of other players simultaneously doesn’t exactly make them easy to walk away from.

Our best advice is to learn about these games right along with your child and make the decision to play them (or not play them) together. You can find some helpful advice about making computer decisions with children in our article entitled, “Protecting Children Online.”

The first step anyone new to online gaming should take is to first, learn how to play offline. You can read the game’s manual and save yourself from seeing the infamous acronym, “RTFM” scroll across your screen. Know what that acronym stands for? It stands for “Read The Fu**ing Manual” and its spewed by serious gamers to vulnerable newbies who interrupt a game with questions like, “What is this place?” or “What am I supposed to do?”
You could search the web for game related discussion groups, FAQ’s, and walkthroughs. And you could learn more from game specific Usenet newsgroups. In other words, you could do your “homework.” Some of the kind of information you want to learn includes how to play, how to create characters, how to gather equipment, and how to implement some smart strategies. Trust us when we say your gaming comrades will appreciate it!
In addition to reading how to play an online game, you can familiarize yourself with the game’s interface. Just as you searched the net for a game’s textual instruction, you can additionally search the net for a game’s screenshot (or series of screenshots). Having a graphical representation (.gif or .jpg image) of a game on your screen gives you a chance to memorize where all the game’s controls are. Knowing where everything is on a game before you play will speed things up not only for yourself, but also for everyone else. No one wants to wait for you to search for an inventory panel or message screen in a game when the location of these items is obvious to everyone else.
Once you start with a game, don’t let the pressure of staying in the game prevent you from doing the unthinkable: dying. A character dying in a game is inevitable at certain points, and unless you willingly let go of a lose-lose situation, you’ll run the risk of holding the game up for everyone else. It’s like a game of chess. If it’s checkmate – it’s checkmate. Call it a day and start anew. Whatever you do, don’t hang around waiting for some magical fairy to come to your rescue. Please let your character die with dignity.
On the same token, you don’t want to take dying personally. Remember that online gaming is still just a game. A character that dies in a game is not representative of your character as a person. Turn a death into learning experience. At the very least, you’ll learn your way around an online game by learning all the things that you aren’t supposed to do!