stylin like a gamer

Remember when it used to be not cool to be a geek?

I do.

My older kids were bullied at school, and made miserable, because they weren't 'cool'. 'Cool' apparently included failing at school (or at least not trying at all), drinking and smoking, swearing, being rude to adults, and picking on other kids.

We did what we could to eliminate the problems, ably unassisted by the schools involved for the most part, and I'm proud to say that we grew us 4 Big Kids who turned out pretty OK. Three of them waited till they turned 18 to try alcohol (major win right there) and all of them are nice, smart and funny people who I enjoy hanging with.

Our two youngest are still in primary school and things have changed a bit. Gamers are now widely accepted and have their own clique. It's now OK to be smart and being good at sport is no longer the only measure of success.

I like the gamer geek culture. Gamers are by and large pretty smart and witty, and they DO learn social skills through gaming(stoners and griefers excepted, of course).
My son and his friends play Minecraft on-line, and they have to learn netiquette or risk being kicked. They need to co-operate, form alliances, and develop some strategy sense.

Of course, as with everything, you need to provide some balance. My kids do swimming and karate twice a week, and they play with actual friends most days. We watch what they're doing on-line -- the computer is on the kitchen breakfast bar -- and we're teaching them about the dangers of creepers and bullies.

Take another look at that photo up at the top. Says it all, really.