Five Nights? More Like Every Night.

The Evil Genius is rather enamored of the game "Five Nights at Freddy's" and its many derivatives.

He spends hours on end talking via Skype with friends both near and far, playing with them online.  They have their own FNAF related language.

I don't see the attraction.

The sounds of the game annoy me, and I am constantly telling him to turn down the volume, to lower his voice, to be mindful that there are other people in the house, that I think the neighbors up the street can hear him.

He will stay up until the very wee hours playing it if I let him, talking to a friend across the country or on the other side of the world.  He watches YouTube videos of others playing the game, spoofing the game, teaching game strategy and cheats.

At one time, I had to ban the game entirely because he said it was causing bad dreams.

For all that I don't care for it, there are some upsides.

He is developing an understanding of story line.  He is learning communication skills.  He is learning about game development.  He is honing his sense of irony.  He is using slang, which you might not think is such a good thing but he likes to know where the slang comes from so we get language history lessons.  He is continually using cooperative play.  He is learning to do Internet searches, how to filter out the useless or erroneous information and hone his searches to help minimize unwanted results.  He is learning to type.

He is also learning patience, as our desktop computer is slow and can't always handle the tasks he asks of it.  He is learning to trouble-shoot glitches, and learning that sometimes he has to walk away, sometimes there is no solution.

As much as the game can annoy me - and it does so often and in large quantities - I'm okay with him playing it as long as he's also gaining knowledge and skills.

There's always Vodka to numb the pain.*



*Not really.  I don't actually consume alcohol very often or in any quantity.  If the Evil Genius keeps on with this game, though, I could learn...