Videogames increasingly social

Increasingly, experts are saying that banning a teen's use of social networking is like banning (or more likely inhibiting) his or her social life. That's increasingly true with videogames too. "People tend to play with friends and family more often than they play by themselves, contrary to the stereotype of the anti-social gamer that stays in their room all day," the Tehran Times (Iran's English-language paper) reports in "7 steps to make videogames good for your kids" (the article's actually a reprint of About.com's Guide to Nintendo Games but illustrates how universal videogaming is). The tips are great - they include: "Buy some active games" (like Dance Dance Revolution or games for the Wii), "buy extra controllers so you can join in," "keep the system in the open," and "don't be afraid [from all the media about violence in videogames]." As for excessive game play, the South Jersey News Online zooms in on the signs, adding that "70-90% of US youths play videogames." A tragic example of excess in videogames just occurred in China, where a 30-year-old man "died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge" in a Guangzhou cybercafe. The Associated Press had that story.