Passion for video games can become profession or problem

Some Nova Scotiaparents say video games can be frustrating when their children are young but in one case, the long-term gain was worth the pain.

When Tina Hennigar's stepson was a teenager, he spent a lot of time playing video games.

"I felt that he played too many games," she told CBC's Maritime Noon Thursday."I would always try to mitigate how many games he was playing and try to enforce rules."

But as her stepson got older, he leveraged that passion into a profession.

Hennigar saidher stepson now works as a game developer at HB Studios in Lunenburg. HB Studios is Atlantic Canada's largest video game company, with 46 titles and 23 million copies sold under its belt.

"He loves what he does," she said.

Opportunities 'unprecedented'

Educational consultant and author Michael Reist said the opportunities andtemptations offered by modern gaming are unprecedented.

Many video games help develop the kinds of skills necessary to function in a computer-based workforce, Reist said, butthey can also pose challenges for parents trying to raise well-rounded children.

Reist pointed to serious incidents elsewhere in the country, such as the 2008 death of a 15-year-old Ontario boy, who ran away after his parents confiscated his Xbox and subsequently died from exposure.

"In the extreme you get a kind of, what I suppose you could call addiction," Reist said."You get a kid who's incapable of coming offor comes off with huge withdrawal symptoms."

'Huge rifts' in relationships

In some cases, the dangers of video games are not just to the child, but to the harmony of the family unit, he said.

"Video games become the cause of huge rifts between parents and children," he said.

For one Maritime Noon listener, video games caused a rift not with her children, but with her boyfriend.Emily Leet of Halifax said that a former boyfriend spent hundreds of hours playing.

"It was amazing how many hours a week were spent on video games," she said."I would have to say it was the demise of the relationship"

Kids 'guinea pigs' for virtual reality

Reist said as a society, we're only starting to understand the impact video games can have on our lives, especially as advancements such as retail virtual reality headsetstake gaming to the new level.

"Our kids are the guinea pigs for this," he said.

He said he recommendsparents establish with their children an ideal level of gaming before the persuasive pull of video games makes that decision for them.

"The thing that I ask parents and children is: do you control itor does it control you?"