When it comes to computer games, ‘Among Us’ is a force for good

Every generation likes to tell the next that they’ve never had it so good, while secretly believing that the world is going to pot (which it is, obviously).

At the most prosaic end of this inter-generational game of one-upmanship lies discussion of technological change.

“Of course,” a 70-year-old might wibble, “we didn’t have a television until I went to secondary school,” which sounds rather woeful until they add: “so instead I read lots of books, which made me clever; and I played outside a lot, which made me fit and strong.” They will deny that they were ever bored, and then tell you about their massive pension.

In turn, a 40-year old will explain to their child that when they were young, there were only four channels on TV. “Can you believe it?!” they’ll ask, before claiming that they too read lots of books and played outside all the time, which meant they were brilliant and their childhood was amazing. They too were never bored, and they’ve probably paid off half their mortgage.

Views of – and hysteria about – computer games is a key sub-genre of all this. From Pac-Man arcade machines, via Street Fighter II on the SNES, to Call of Duty and now interactive online games – every advance is dismissed by middle-aged fuddy-duddies as a precursor to their children suffering irreparable mental decline or physical harm.

We got our first home computer – an Acorn Archimedes – when I was 11 or 12. Prior to that, my experience of computer games was limited to playing Chuckie Egg or Daredevil Dennis at my friend Ed’s house. Another pal had Asteroids, which was no less basic – and no less addictive.

When we finally got our Archimedes, my brother and I were each allowed to choose a game. I went for Chocks Away, a simple, First World War flight simulator in which the aim was to complete a range of missions – mainly by shooting down other planes, or destroying tanks consisting of about 10 pixels. And did this war-based game turn me into a monster??

Well, yes and no.

I certainly got hooked. All I wanted to do for months was complete every mission, and some of them were fiendishly difficult. I played before school, I played again when I got home, and I played as late as I was allowed to in the evening. When I was shot down from behind by a rogue Fokker, I would silently rage.

One day, I thought I was about to finish a level when I somehow crashed in a ball of two-dimensional, straight-edged flames. I stared in anger at the computer, my fists clenched, before summoning a huge spitball that I gobbed all over the screen. Still, I turned out broadly alright, didn’t I?

My daughter discovered gaming about 15 minutes after being given a tablet for Christmas by a generous and well-meaning godparent three years ago. Within weeks, we were scrabbling to understand how the various web-based games she seemed to know about instinctively actually worked. Was she interacting with strangers; was their chat constrained by the game; were paedophiles hiding in every corner of Animal Jam, in which players create animals and dens in a fictional world known as Jamaa?

I soon realised that my anxiety was unwarranted. Yet with each new game fad, my angst levels would rise again – not least because I began to appreciate that my daughter’s understanding of the tech far exceeded my own.

The current game du jour is Among Us. It’s basically Murder in the Dark crossed with Cluedo for Generation Z, with players acting as crewmates on a spaceship, completing various tasks while one among their number (“the imposter”) discreetly kills the others. The basic idea is to work out who is the killer; and for the killer, to get away with murder. Naturally enough, I thought it would probably turn my child into a psychopath.

But the other day, I stood outside her room as she played the game with her friends, who as well as having agreed to meet up online at an appointed time, had also set up a Zoom call so they could talk to each other “irl”. And I confess I was completely charmed. The game itself is patently compelling (even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been known to indulge, so it must be fine), but the joy of the children’s conversation as they played was utterly delightful. No wonder a recent Oxford University study suggested that playing video games could be good for your mental health.

The kids, then, are alright. It’s the adults we need to worry about. After all, it is the ultimate paradox of our hi-tech age that nothing appears to have been used more to harness disgruntlement with the present – and a desire to return to a nostalgia-fuelled vision of the past – than the internet. What a strange web we have weaved.