Free Online Gaming

We have enough reasons to label the last decade as the age of free online gaming. Today, even if the new medium is gradually shifting to the cellular medium, the demand and popularity stays the same, increasing even! People still resort to playing free online game across various sites including social media platforms.

There may still be some people who go to malls and bazaars looking for games and gaming devices, but a lot of game lovers are shifting to online gaming. They only need to connect to the Internet and play flash games in 2D, 3D, 4D or download gaming software.

Online Games: Stress-free Play Zone for Kids

Nowadays, kids don't even need to get out of the safety of their own homes to play and have fun. In the vast world of the Internet, there is a multitude of online games to choose from. Kids can play, compete with their friends, and win when they plunge into the world of online gaming.

The purpose of playing online games is to give kids a fun stress buster and to provide a quick break from the classroom environment. Online games have become an integral part in the daily routine of kids. They usually spend their time playing online games after school.

Over the years, online game technology has transformed in response to the needs and choices kids have made. Rather than a genre, online gaming is considered as a technology. Even social networking sites have incorporated online gaming in their site features. Online gaming gives everyone the opportunity to interact and have fun with their friends even if they're not physically together.

However, not all parents are familiar with online gaming and they may have a lot of questions. Here are two of the most questions that parents might have about online gaming:

What are precautions that parents should take into consideration when monitoring their kids' online gaming activities?

Parents need to monitor their kids’ online gaming activities to prevent any exposure to bad elements online. Even if online gaming doesn't require physical interaction like in the real world, parents should keep a close watch over their kids. The Internet is pervaded by perverts, pedophiles, and the like. Parents should be able to choose the games they want their kids to play. They should also have a say on whether theirs kid are responsible enough to play online. Playing online games should likewise be moderated since an addiction of any form can be bad.

What are the advantages of allowing kids to play online games?

Online games have been gaining a lot of popularity in recent years. Some games that incorporate educational elements actually have more benefits compared to watching cartoons. Making a habit of playing educational online games can actually have many advantages as opposed to watching nonsense TV shows. According to recent research, playing puzzle and word games decreases the risk of Alzheimer disease, and that watching daytime television increases the risk.  When playing online games, multiplayer activities provide the biggest advantage for the development of kids. Unlike other types of games often played by single players, online games can usually be played by players from all over the world. This enables kids to meet more people and develop their social skills.

There is a wide variety of games you can choose for your kids to play online. Online games deliver the ultimate experience for kids to enjoy while at the same time enabling them to learn outside the classroom setting. They can choose from online games where they can adopt virtual pets, create their own city, or unleash their creativity in dressing up virtual dolls. There are also a number of online gaming sites that offer free unlimited online gaming.

Virtual Pet Adoption: Alternative to Real Pets

Getting your child a pet can be a lot of fun, specially if it will be their first time to take care of one. It can also be a lot of work, not for the kids, but for the parents. Most of the time, it's the parents' tasks to do the dirty job when taking care of pets. This isn't the case when you adopt a virtual pet. With a virtual pet, your child can have many of the same types of experiences they would with a real world pet, only it will all take place in a virtual world. What this means is there will be less work for the parents.

When you adopt a virtual pet, your children can pick out whatever type of pet they want, including a wide variety of dogs and cats. Once they have picked out their virtual pet, it will be up to them to ensure that their pet is taken care of. They will actually have to go online to make sure that their pet is fed, and has water. Your child will also have to attend to their pet when the pet becomes ill.

Aside from taking care of the pet's needs, when you adopt a virtual pet, your child will also play with the pet by dressing it up, building and design a house for it, play with them in the mini games, and they can even sometimes send them to school and work where they can play with other virtual pets. This type of interaction is great for teaching children the basics of owning a pet, and even better, it can keep them entertained for hours.

In addition to the pleasure they receive from interacting with their pet, with virtual pet adoption your child will also have the opportunity to play educational game sin order to earn points that they can use to purchase virtual pet supplies. Many sites that offer you the ability to adopt a virtual pet also offer a safe social networking environment in which your child can interact with other children. This can help them to learn to get along with others.

For your kids to play this new type of game, you must first find a website that offers you the ability to adopt a virtual pet. There are some websites that charge a small fee to adopt a virtual pet, but they offer a lot of interaction in return.

If you have been trying to find a way to keep your children entertained on those days when they can't find anything to do, you may want to think about registering with a site where you can adopt a virtual pet. Your kids will love it, and so will you.

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Five Online Gaming Safety Tips for Parents

Keeping Your Child Safe in Online Gaming

We know for a fact that kids love to play online games. They love it so much that they spend more time playing than studying or playing outside with other kids. With this fact in mind, parents should be aware of their children’s activities online, especially when it’s gaming. Although online games for kids can be innocent enough, they still present real dangers and challenges to kids.
Here are five essential tips for parents on how you can keep your kids safe while they play games online:
1. Do Your Research
The first thing parents need to do when their children show interest in a game is research. Before giving your ‘okay’ to your child to play a game, look it up. These are a few things that you should take note of:
• The game’s ESRB rating. These ratings are designed to help parents identify age-appropriate games for their children. Be aware that interactions online are not monitored or rated by the ESRB, only the games content itself is.

• Parental Control options. Most popular children’s online games have very extensive parental controls and a section of their website devoted to parents. Games that are less family-oriented or designed for adult players may have limited or no controls. Make sure the games controls you’re concerned about.

• Community. This is a harder point to research without playing the game, although playing the game before your child does is encouraged. Take a look at the forums of the games if there are any, to see how the tone and language is. Take a look at in-game chat if you play the game before hand, and definitely judge the in-game chat wile your child is playing.


2. Set Time Limits

Once you’ve given your go signal for your child to play the game online, establish time limits with your child. Online games are very social and encourage long hours of playing, which can lead to addictive behavior, particularly among young children.

Many family-friendly games have time limit monitors built in. If the games chosen don’t have a monitor built in, TimesUpKidz or KidsWatch are programs that can help watch how long your child play. Remember that nothing is better than monitoring your child’s play time first hand, as children who are desperate to do something will do their best to find a way to do so, even if it’s behind their parent’s back.

3. Check Chat Filters

Although most online games designed for kids have very strict chat filters in place, the majority of online games available for kids lack a monitoring or filtering chat. Almost every game, however, has a chat filter.

When allowing your child to play, go to the options or settings of the games and look for chat settings. There will usually be a “profanity filter.” If exposure to profanity is a concern for your child, make sure this filter is enables. Keep in mind that unmonitored game chat will often use words more vulgar than your standard curse words.

4. Monitor Social Interactions

Even though it may annoy them, the best thing to do with your child is sit with them while they play and monitor their social interactions with other players.

Use your best judgment in monitoring your children online. Younger children do best with having parents present during their entire play sessions. However, older children and teens will require less supervision and can be left alone more often.

5. Talk to Your Child

The most important advice for any parent when dealing with online gaming is to talk to their children about their gaming habit.

This process is two-fold. Part of the process means setting limits and making your child aware of not only what their limits are, but why they have them. The other part of the process, however, is simply getting involved in your child’s gaming. Talk to them about what they did, celebrate their accomplishments and listen for clues about dangerous encounters or poor behavior during their gaming session.

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Is Gaming Good for Kids’ Brains?

According to Dr. James Paul Gee, a professor at Arizona State University and a leading authority on literacy and the potential of educational games, “Your brain’s important, but not all that important”. What does he mean by this? What we’d assumed about the importance of brain functions – following rules, logic, and calculating – are no longer relevant. There has been a revolution in the learning sciences and the new theories say the human beings learn from experiences, that our brains are capable of storing every experience we’ve ever had, and that’s what informs out learning process. Following the logic, Gee says, the best kind of learning comes as a result of well-designed experiences.

Gee, who spoke at the Learning and the Brain conference, used this theory to launch into research-validated reasons why gaming is good for learning. Here are 10 truths on gaming according to him:

1. Feed the Learning Process

The best learning experiences have the following values: motivation, clear goals, interpreted outcomes, and immediate and copious feedback. Gaming has all of these components. Kids play games for fun with the goal of progressing to the next level and eventually conquering the opponent, whether that’s another player on the computer. What’s more, the social aspect of gaming: sharing tactics, experiences, and explanations, helps cement what they’ve learned.

2. Obviate Testing

The current assessment system forces teachers to teach to the test. Gaming holds out a different way of thinking about assessments: namely, that we don’t need it. Compare a student who’s taken 12 weeks of algebra classes to one who’s played the video game Halo on the most challenging setting. The algebra student must take a test to assess what he known on the day of the test. The Halo player has mastered the skills needed to get to the final level – and that’s his ultimate goal. There’s no need for a test in that context. “Learning and assessment are exactly the same thing,” Gee said. “If you design learning so you can’t get out of one level until you complete the last one, there is no need for a test. There would be no Bell Curve. It’s unethical to test a student based on one day’s knowledge. We have to change the attitude about testing on a government level.”

3. Build on Experience

With every new game, the knowledge and expertise pocked up in previous games can be applied to a new experience, a fundamental part of learning.

4. Redefine Teachers as Learning Designers

Game designers create well-designed experiences and social interactions. Teachers are designers of learning, and can create experiences tailored to suit their outcome. If we “re-professionalize” teachers as designers, they can create their own scripts for what they want their students to learn. This type of learning is based on good teaching, not curriculum per se.

5. Teach Language Through Experience

The biggest problem with using scholastic language is that it’s not used outside of school. “The language you learn at school is not the one you use at home,” Gee said. The best way of learning language is not from a book or a dictionary, but from applying it to an experience. A good example of this is when kids can decode even the most cryptic game manual after they play the game because they’re experiencing every image, action, and dialogue that’s described.

6. Entice Kids to Love Challenges

The gaming industry is making a killing selling toys and games that are difficult to master. “They’re selling stuff to kids that are complex and hard. And because it’s outside of school, it’s virtually addictive.”

7. Motivate Learning

If a student isn’t motivated to learn, learning is non-existent. It’s hard to motivate student to learn something like algebra without context, without motivation and the gratification that comes with mastering a video game.

8. Teach Problem-Solving

When it comes to problem-solving, research shows that if you teach and test facts and formulas, student learn facts and formulas. This doesn’t correlate to solving problems. But if you teach through problem-solving, students learn problem-solving skills, plus they learn the facts for free.

9. Encourage Risk-Taking

If the cost of failure is high, as it is in schools, then student are discouraged to explore and take risks. If the cost of failure is made lower, such as in games where players die and start over again, students are motivated to explore all their options. They rethink goals over and over again, and try out new tactics if something’s not working. That type of learning, risk-taking, can’t happen if the cost of failure is too high.

10. Provide Valid Learning Model for Schools

“We should use the learning principles built into good games in and out of schools, even if we are not using games. The learning principles can be built into many different curricula”.

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Discovering your child’s core competencies through gaming

Valerie J. Shute, a researcher from Florida State University, has presented an approach wherein a learning experience can be made more enjoyable by creating games into which educational content and assessment tools have been discreetly added – and how this can online and video games can be incorporated into school curricula.

Shute believes that this would not only remain a pleasant diversion for kids, it will also reassure parents that their child is acquiring the knowledge and skills that they need to excel in an increasingly competitive world.

“The concept is known as ‘stealth assessment’. Essentially what we try to do is disguise educational content in such a way that kids aren’t even aware that they’re being assessed while they’re engrossed in gameplay,” said Shute.

How a child reacts to new challenges and put evidence together in the games that they play can reveal a great deal about their creative problem-solving skills.

According to Shute, “Based on a student’s responses to various situations that come up during the course of playing a video game, the game itself can be programmed to assess where that student might be especially strong or weak in core competencies.”

“The game can then adapt its content so that the student is exposed to more or less information in that area. And it continues to assess the student’s progress to determine how well he or she is learning the embedded concepts and skills.

So in theory, not only can these stealth-assessment games measure a student’s current level of knowledge in a given area, they can also determine areas where that student needs to improves and then help him or her to make those improvements, using feedback, maybe easier problems, and so on,” Shute adds.

There are other important features of such games: They can be used to assess a student’s knowledge on a specific topic both at the beginning and at the end of the game, thus providing numerical data that illustrates how much the student has learned. They can be easily customized to meet the educational strengths and weaknesses of individual students. Through this, each student can learn at his or her own speed and be appropriately challenged.

“Essentially, the patent is for a computer algorithm that we developed,” she said. "The algorithm applies ‘weights’ to a student's responses to specific tasks within a game, then uses those weights to measure proficiency levels. With that information, the game knows whether to assign additional tasks to the student in a particular area or move on to another area."

"It's important that we change the way education thinks about what competencies are important to support in students (that we're not currently doing) to yield excellent global citizens. We also need to develop new kinds of assessments to capture and make sense of this new information. Stealth assessment within engaging learning and gaming environments might be one of the key tools we can use to improve the way we teach our children and the way they learn.”

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Be a Believer: Gaming’s Good for You and Your Kid Part 2

3) Socializing Through Games
Games are social. Of course, there are many games that kids play alone with an electronic competitor. But games are social in a number of ways
-Chat rooms with the games
-Playing a game while your friends watch (often happens on desktops at schools)
-Background to a party. When your kid has friends over, the Wii is always on. They still talk and eat and communicate but someone is always playing in the background.
-Social networks built behind the games. There are many game websites that have whole social networks and profiles built behind their games where users can list their hobbies and favorite games and tips.

4) Movies and Games as One
“We are the 16 candles of online games,” says Connally of AddictingGames.com. Gaming sites are trying very hard (and succeeding) to tie together traditional entertainment and games so that they are seamless. Almost every movie out has a component online game and this is a way that young people experience more of the movie, by playing a version of it.
5) Games with Statements
There are many games that make some kind of statement and might even teach a lesson. For example “Barry Bonds Game” is a game where you can give steroids to your baseball playing avatars where they will play well, but if you choose to give them steroids then, after the game you run the risk of having them get really bad press and have to switch teams making your next season bad. There is also Trillion Dollar Bailout, it has little AIG employees running around New York City cartoon buildings. Escape the Oval Office is another popular one featuring a cartoon Bush. There are many attack and kill mode games but also some that are pro-social.

6) Homework Games
There are online games or dashboard games which are very popular on Mac laptops where there are mini-games like tic tac toe and Bedazzle. They are literally one click away when the teacher decides to breathe in between points.

7) Double Time Games
This generation’s middle name should be multi-task. Teens often are gaming while doing something else. Especially casual gamers, they almost never just do gaming. They play games while watching TV, while in class, while at a party, while on the bus, while hanging out with friends.

8) Mobile Games
Mobile games are on cell phones as opposed to dashboard games (on a computer) or games in the cloud (games online). These are so popular. If a teen is bored and they have their cell phone on them (which of course they do), they will have some sort of game on their phone and play it to fill any gap times.

Tips for Parents of Gamers
-Make time limits
-Identify the ‘No Electronic’ zones in your house
-Make no electronic times during your week where they have to find something else to do
-Spend some time gaming yourself, gaming can be really positive and the best way for parents to make relevant rules is to understand the appeal and the types of games they are playing
-Ask them to show you what they are playing
-Make it a bonding thing. Play with them!

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Be a Believer: Gaming’s Good for You and Your Kid Part 1

According to Kate Connally of AddictingGames.com, 78% of teen girls and 82% of teen boys play online games. Most probably, your kid is included in that percentage. Every parent with kids ages 6 and up should consider that this generation is a new gaming era. Gaming today is very different from how it was developed decades ago. For a lot of parents, gaming is perceived as a distraction and is not a helpful tool in the education of their children. Not today, online games can actually help kids in different aspects without them realizing it because they’re having too much fun. There are tons of studies today that show how this generation is able to think faster and gaming has helped with this. Here’s a story that you may want to read if you’re still not a believer of the good side of gaming for your kids

“I am a dad and I travel a lot for business. I used to call home and talk to my son on the phone and get grunts or short answers. It was always expensive and the calls just made me feel further away because I would ask how he was and not really get any answers it always sounded like he was texting at the same time or something. When I was between trips one time I saw him playing Command and Conquer and asked to play with him. We figured out that I could play anywhere with an Internet connection and you can chat with head phones through the game or text chat in the bottom of the game about strategy. So, when I travel now we log on to a game together and play a mission and talk and chat during the game. Not only is it a great break for me, but he looks forward to talking to me and we actually chat during the game.”

This is a true example of the positive effect of the new form of gaming. Check out some other ideas

1) This is not the video game talk
Online gaming is different than the talk about video games 5-15 years ago. 5 years ago, gaming was mainly in your TV with your Play Station, Sega or Nintendo. Gaming is now mobile, in the cloud and on the desktop and the type of gamers has changed.

2) Casual Gaming
The majority of kids are casual gamers, meaning that they play games 1-2 times at least per week and often game when
-they want to pass time
-they are bored
-there is nothing good to watch on TV
-they want to talk with friends

They do not necessarily trade tips or take their gaming very seriously. Yet, just because someone is a casual gamer, does not mean they do not necessarily spend a lot of time gaming. Casual gamers can spend 12 hours a day gaming, it just means that they do not compete regularly in the same forums or on levels of a game.

3) Socializing Through Games
Games are social. Of course, there are many games that kids play alone with an electronic competitor. But games are social in a number of ways
-Chat rooms with the games
-Playing a game while your friends watch (often happens on desktops at schools)
-Background to a party. When your kid has friends over, the Wii is always on. They still talk and eat and communicate but someone is always playing in the background.
-Social networks built behind the games. There are many game websites that have whole social networks and profiles built behind their games where users can list their hobbies and favorite games and tips.

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Free Online Games-a Choice Of All Age Groups

Recreational activities are generally done by people to keep them relax and make fun. Entertainment is an essential part of our lives and seen as one of the effective sources to keep ourselves stress-free. Some use TV shows, Movies to entertain themselves, while others consider online games as one of the finest alternatives for amusement. In addition, the popularity of a variety of gadgets can’t be underestimated to do the same. However, among all these entertainment sources, free online games are the ones that are appreciated by different age groups. Today, online media not only provides the people with amazing entertainment alternatives, but also allows them to collect the valuable information on the concerned topics. And, of course, with the availability of such alternatives, this source has played a pivotal role in giving them break from their busy life and hectic schedule.

To play online games, one needs to have a computer with an internet connection. These days, a plethora of people have a huge craze for such games because they provide the internet users with an opportunity to connect to multi-player games. However, in terms of popularity, single-player online games win the race. With the overall expansion of computer networks, the introduction of internet has been taken place. And, with the growth of internet, people have started to experience from simple text to complex graphics. Of course, later, people also get an opportunity to engage themselves in virtual online games for playing with multiple-players.

The growing popularity of Flash and Java in Internet has opened lots of new options for online game freaks. Now there are alternatives like streaming audio, websites video which are basically used to guide such people. Numbers of websites are out there providing a wide collection of free online games for the people of different age groups.

By: Covenant Mateus

Covenant Mateus has been associated with providing the users with the content on numbers of websites which deal in exploring a whole to new world of online gaming, where you can play free online games starting from action games to sport games.For more information you can visit free online games.

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The Good Side of Online Gaming

In today’s developing world, the Internet has become more and more simple to use compared to the alien science that it was taken for years ago. People of all age are now very much familiar with how to operate the Internet. Whether it be for checking their personal e-mail, using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, catching up on the latest Internet YouTube sensations, and the well-embraced world of online gaming.

Before the Internet was born, people had a lot of things that kept them busy. They entertained themselves by listening to music, catching the latest flicks in movie houses, travelling, and playing outdoors where they bask in the glory of Mother Nature’s pristine beauty. Kids would lose track of time while they play with their friends. They didn’t need much to have fun, with or without a ball or any other paraphernalia, they were able to come up with games that kept them moving and jolting with fun and laughter all day long!

With the emergence of new technologies nowadays, the Internet has become a big Pandora’s Box waiting to be discovered. Not only can kids surf the web to watch their favorite cartoons and music videos, they can also play mini games online and just stay at the comfort of their own home, playing to their hearts content. Now, parents won’t need to worry about their kids getting themselves in trouble or ground them for staying out too late at night.

The Internet offers heaps of mini games online, there are a variety of virtual world for kids that they can enjoy and immerse themselves into. For some people, especially those who grew up in a time where there was the absence of Internet, online gaming doesn’t match up to the real games that kids used to play outdoors and with real people. Some think that staring in front of the computer all day is a waste of time and a child’s social skill is not developed. Think again, online gaming not only opens up virtual worlds that are beyond your imagination, but it also provides kids with numerous benefits.

One of the most common beliefs when it comes to online gaming is that kids don’t get to interact with other real kids, thus their social skills are not practiced. The Internet is used by people all over the world. If you want to learn about other people’s cultures, you’ve got first class plane tickets right at your fingertips.

It’s good for kids to learn how to use a computer as early as they can since almost everything today needs to be done on a computer. Kids who play online games are computer-savvy, learning things by themselves as they discover the Internet and the world of IT.

No matter how simple or complicated the rules and objectives of online games are, playing online games aren’t that much different from playing the biggest game there is, reality. Well, of course in reality there aren’t colorful Alice in Wonderland-like worlds and talking animals, but the rules of online games are pretty much similar to the rules of life. Kids jump into a virtual world where they are tasked to do certain challenges, train to acquire skills to survive, gather up resources for food and expenses, advance to another level, and reach the goal of the game, some might even involve doing noble tasks such as saving other people or creatures.

No matter how you look at it, online games may have their negative side, but when used properly, it’s got a lot of things to offer kids today, not just plain fun.

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Bring out the 90’s kid in your child.

Ask any kid of their interests and hobbies, what keeps them busy and most would never fail to bring up the words ‘online gaming’. It is a known fact that kids as young as 3 years old are hooked on online gaming. Be it Facebook’s Café World and Pet Society to the more hardcore games where they get to be in another world like Counterstrike and Grand Theft Auto. The truth is, the internet is a part of today’s generation –already integrated in their system. Like how the internet is their library and not the heavy printed materials found in real libraries. Nowadays, if you want information, instead of going to the library you search it on the internet.

You can’t help but compare and recall the time when kids don’t depend on computers so much. Back in the 90’s, when life was less complicated and technology was still developing, kids were satisfied with simple games that involved the great outdoors. All you needed was a bunch of other kids to play with and you never ran out of games to play with all day long. Of course online games were already present that time. Games like Super Mario Brothers and Tetris became the “in” thing. However, it didn’t come to a point where kids would just stay inside the house, in front of their computers 24/7. Children in the 90’s really had a taste of the real deal when it comes to experiencing the best years of their childhood. That is the reason why 90’s kids learned to develop their own unique personalities. They were able to realize what type of person they wanted to be someday. They learned to socialize without needing any online alias or plenty of cool virtual weapons.

The internet and online games that came with it, are very accessible to kids these days thus has become an integral part of their lifestyle. Parents should exert effort to monitor their kid’s online activities. Although online gaming can’t be completely avoided, it can be controlled. There are educational online games which allow kids to learn while playing so parents shouldn’t worry too much. It is just a matter of supervising what your kids should play.

Kids today need to experience balance. They have to be exposed to the real world with no magic castles or pirates and indestructible fortresses and at the same time enjoy what technology brings. They need to see the real world where they can meet true people, people who are like them, thirsty for life’s simple pleasures. Every kid still needs that 90’s magic because to be honest, the coolest people that you’ll ever meet can be found offline.

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