Video Games - This can't be Fun?

If you have kids, or have parented this generations young adults, then you are familiar with the video game era.  If your lucky, you have been able to govern and limit the interaction of your children and their choices of games to an age appropriate level.  But, once they reach their late teens and early adulthood, your governing authority over game content is out the window and the most you can hope to do is set limitations on exactly how much time you allow for the life they create in these virtual worlds.

We started out with a firm, "No Video Game" in mentality our homey. You know best of intentions and all that.    But,  when we bought our RV and began camping like grown ups (no more tent camping), we found the need for a Play Station.  It could be used for videos in the RV and while on the road in the F250 and it made the ride simpler and more peaceful.  The question might be asked how our parents traveled with more kids, less entertainment options, and still kept their sanity.....or did they....keep their sanity that is. :)

Anyway, I digress,  Back on track now.....Video Games.  After we bought the first Play Station, it slowly migrated from the RV to the house.  It remained mobile, but it began to take homestead.  The kids were younger then and we played games that mom enjoyed too. Shrek, and Harry Potter, Ratchet and Clank, and Mario Cart.  I found they were challenging and really did have value for hand eye coordination and development.  Maybe I had been to close minded.

Within 5 years each kid had their own system and there was one in the common living area as well.  Ten Years, and they have had every system migration that has been introduced,  and the games are no longer the kind of games mom can play with them.

We have in my little 900sf  house, 2 Xbox 360's, 1  Play Station 3, and 1 Wii.  There are in my attic, PS2's and Xbox consoles which have been retired (They are still fully functional just retired).  The Wii is mine. I am very selfish with it, and only play it sporadically, but its mine.  I play my original genres, my Shrek, and my Zelda. I play my Sims and Jeopardy and Wheel of fortune and Carnival games and Miniature Golf.  These are fun to me, especially when I get to play with a group.

Jeff uses his PS3 for racing and golf, and occasional RPG (Role Playing Games) but only occasionally.

Brandon and Wyatt are my gamers.  Don't get me wrong,  they still stay active outdoors and aren't turning into little pudge-monsters who sit in front of a video screen all day, but they love their games too.  They play "Live" which allows them to connect with other players world wide inside their virtual battle grounds.  This is the source of my question...."This Can't be Fun????".

The frustration and taunting and yelling which results in the midst of these video game battles....it can't be fun? Right? The intensity and stress it creates while playing and the time it takes to calm and cool when a battle is over?  It can't be fun? Can it?  It is ONLY a game.  But you would think from the intensity that vibrates from their bedrooms, that they are really in the midst of a war.  I just don't understand the draw.  If I go to play a game that I know is going to result in me feeling angry, frustrated, and more stressed than any day at work could ever result in, well....then I don't want to play?  At first I thought it was a boy thing, but they have female friends who play too and get just as riled up and roused. 

I personally can't play the war games, too many buttons, too many functions, to fast paced,  I've tried and I simply spin in circle and shoot at the sky.  I am dead weight and get really confused when I die (repeatedly and frequently) and re-spawn somewhere I have no idea where I am, thus the spinning in circles and shooting at the sky. :)   It's not fun being yelled at, and blamed for a teams death.  I think I'll stick with my bowling and golf, and Sims castaway and stay away from the battles.

But every time I hear the voices raise and feel the tension and death stare when I interrupt to announce dinner is ready,  I question.....This Can't be Fun, Can it?????