"Mafia" game traumatic for fifth graders

[Freudian_Slit]

This isn’t a recent thing, but I just found this article while reading wikipedia about mafia, as I’ve been getting more involved with the mafia role playing games on the Dope.

http://archive.seacoastonline.com/news/rock/08042006/nhnews-r-ray-mafiafolo0804.html

One parent, Nicole Hollenbeck told The Rockingham News in June, “My child has had sleepless nights, crying before bed because she’s afraid that she’ll sleep walk and relive the tragic events they talked about in class.”

She went on to say, “You have no idea what psychological effect this will have on kids. What educational value does this have? We teach our kids right from wrong, and this is what they are being taught?”

It’s hard to imagine mafia being scary. I’d be pissed if we were playing it in class and I got killed off and had to wait until we started again to be alive, but then I think I’m resentful of getting killed off so early in one of the games we played on the Dope a while back. (And I was Town, damnit!)

At the same time, this:

“One of the purposes of it is to teach kids to distinguish right from wrong. In order to win it, one has to become an honest citizen, take responsibility for one’s own actions and be proactively good. These are some of the reasons why the game is the most popular game in the world right now,” Davidoff maintained.

Seems a bit dumb. I mean, if you’re scum, to win you have to do the opposite of that. Either way I don’t think of it as a right or wrong thing. It’s a game, and a fun game at that, but I don’t think we need to make it into something other than what it is…

[phouka]

Positive message of the game? What the hell is that man smoking?

I thought the whole point of the Mafia game was fun killing people for terror or going out for pitchfork and torch mob retaliation.

And they’re spending school time with the fifth graders on this?

[Rysto]

I can’t see how it’s any worse than wink murder, and kids have been playing that for years. This is just an oversensitive child and an overprotective parent.

[Marlitharn]

One parent, Nicole Hollenbeck told The Rockingham News in June, “My child has had sleepless nights, crying before bed because she’s afraid that she’ll sleep walk and relive the tragic events they talked about in class.”

She went on to say, “You have no idea what psychological effect this will have on kids. What educational value does this have? We teach our kids right from wrong, and this is what they are being taught?”

Seriously? Does her kid not go to slumber parties? 5th grade is roughly the age when most kids start finding out about Bloody Mary, Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, the Hookman, Ouija boards, and various and sundry Local True Ghost Stories. Kids are gruesome. My angelic 5th grade daughter watches Friday the 13th movies and heckles the victims like an MST3King pro, and she sure loves her zombie flicks. Blaming a game for her kid’s sleepwalking issues is - well, par for the course these days, but it’s still stupid.

[BigT]

I do find that I can’t play at night, or I’ll wind up dreaming about it. Well, not so much dreaming, as trying to prove that people in my dreams are Scum.

[Lust4Life]

The children are our future we’re always being told.

Looks like the middleaged of today are going to be looking after the adolescents of today for another few decades until they finally grow up …if ever they do.

[Lamia]

I can understand questioning the educational value of Mafia, and I could also believe that a kid would get caught up in the game and obsess over it to the point of losing sleep. But if this little girl is sleepwalking or having night terrors then that has nothing to do with a game.