AKBAYAN Advised Students to Stay Away from Online Games

AKBAYAN representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel  advised the students of University of the Philippines Cebu to stay away from playing online games.

“DOTA, or any role-playing game for that matter, may be fun, but it won’t be able to teach you the skills you need for your first job, or for higher education.” she exclaimed while addressing students during their commencement exerise.

Hontiveros-Baraquel said that online games should be treated as an addictive game and should be played in moderation.

“You may protest and extol the virtues of being Mogul the Axe for five hours, but unless you are in the brink of developing gaming software and needs the game to test your theories, then play DOTA or any RPG in moderation,” she said.

She made these remarks while stressing the importance of having the appropriate skills for the job being applied for.

On the other hand, Rep. Baraquel praised Google for its search service in helping students find jobs.

“What’s true with Google is somehow true with life. There are certain keywords that we must learn to live by. The more we hone our keywords, the better the search result is,” she said.

Diwa de Leon, a composer and arranger, supported Baraquels’ sentiment regarding playing online games.

“I agree with her stand on this. When I became addicted to online gaming several years ago, the only thing I really learned was expanding my social network a little bit. But there are truly no rewarding qualities in online gaming that will truly improve your skills as a professional, with the only exception being if you work in the gaming industry per se. But if you’re profession is something else, play minimal or no online games at all. I myself am not proud of the online gaming stage of my life as it put my real life to (a) halt. It’s a good thing I was able to stop completely before it was too late.” he said.

What’s the representative’s advice instead? Take up sports to be physically fit.