Focus

'Role-playing games offer laughter and life lessons'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-12 07:56

Editor's note: Zheng Daojin, 28, is a reporter at a news agency in Beijing.

I first began playing one of the new role-playing games last year. I thought it was a good way to have more social interaction, rather than just a game.

When I go on business trips with people from other news agencies, we play card games to break the ice quickly. Usually we play in large groups of about 20 from early evening to the early hours.

I find it effective and interesting to observe other players. They tend to reveal themselves more easily and naturally than at other times, whether they be opinion leaders or followers, blunt or calculated, aggressive or gentle.

As a reporter, I'm constantly using my skills in observation and judgment. The games help me train those abilities.

Also, through the direct interaction and cooperation needed for the games, I now know more about the different personalities of my peers, so that I can deal with them in the appropriate ways to better improve mutual friendships. This helps every player.

Compared to traditional games, the significance of the new games lies in cooperation. No matter whether it is Chinese chess or go, which can be played by two people, or mahjong, which can be played by four, the players all work on their own. However, the new games require the joint efforts and wisdom of several people.

We not only get happiness from being in a large group but also the awareness of the importance of cooperation in society and the need for team spirit.

In the future, traditional and new games will coexist, although the latter will enjoy a slight advantage as it can incorporate the latest fashions and movies. The new games will never replace the traditional, which foster unique thinking and have cultural value.

On one hand, the one-to-one form of old-fashion games is a weakness. But it also endows the games with distinctive competitive charms.

In a Chinese family, it is customary for grandfathers or fathers to teach their children Chinese chess. This is what we will always pass from generation to generation.

Zheng Daojin was talking to Zhou Wenting.