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Show School and Home by Dr. DarylJ. McCarty Executive Director Utah Education Association What's going to happen to my child if he gets hooks on playing video games at the arcade? For one thing, he could be perpetually penniless. It costs a quarter every time a kid plays "Space Invaders" or "Pac-Man," "Pac-Man," For another thing, it's going to cost a young man a lot of hours, too. You see, part of the allure of video games machines is that they challenge the player. They fight back. The challenge is for the player to manipulate several controls which evade or destroy "asteroids," "alien rocketships" tor "missiles." It takes superb hand-eye hand-eye coordination. Developing the skill to play these games takes a lot of hours and quartersso quar-tersso many quarters, in fact, that the recording industry is howling that kids don't have enough money to buy albums any more. Although some girls and women play the games, they don't seem to care for hanging out in dimly-lighted places like arcades, according to Nancy R. Needham, who wrote on the subject in the magazine "Today's Education." Apparently, the jury hasn't handed down a verdict on the extent of video games' virtues and vices. But parent in some communities are reacting reac-ting to the reports that kid are spending $10 to $15 a week in the arcadesand ar-cadesand large blocks of time producing zaps, squeals and whines from the electronic machines. An ordinance adopted in Marlboro, Mass., puts coin-operated games off-limits off-limits to those under 18 during school hours and late in the evening on school nights. Writer Needham reported that critics also claim that video games are creating social problems such as diversion of lunch money, theft and panhandling for quarters to play the games. The video game arcade has become a lucrative business. Enough young people-many of them between the ages of 10 and 20 play the games to make this at least a $7 billion operation. Like TV, video games probably can be good or bad for youngsters. If these games cut into a young person's study or family time, though, the time and money definitely could be spent in much better ways. |