Monday, February 21, 2011
An ex-classmate...
Last year, we had a classmate who is not here now with us year to share our joy and happiness. His name is Lin Xin Cheng, and he was just like one of us in the beginning of the year, except doing a little bit worse than average. He was normal, no matter from what perspective you see him from. However, around midway through term two, one of our classmates introduced him to the extremely popular game which most of us play, DotA. At first, he was only slightly amused by the game. But shortly after, he started playing it. From a few games a day to a few hours. His results, of course, suffered a tremendous impact. In fact, he would not do his homework just to play DotA which resulted in him getting reprimanded by the teacher the next day. This continued on and on, until our form teacher, Mdm Lim, talked to him and counselled him. Only did she realise that Xin Cheng's results suffered due to his computer addiction. Apart from having his results deteriorating, Xin Cheng was so into his world of DotA that he even acted as one of the characters. For example, he would, at a random point of time, say,"I cast you a sleep spell!" At first, I thought he was just trying to be funny, but after some time, I realised that he was clearly addicted to DotA and that he really needed some help. I began talking to him, treating him as a friend. Most of my classmates treated him like a retard and continuously poked fun at him. I tried several times to get them to stop, but they would not heed me. In the end, Xin Cheng became extremely marginalised, with only a few true friends like Shao Xuan, Hao Yu and me. Finally, at the end of July, he decided to give up secondary one and repeat it this year. I feel that our classmates should not have made fun of him last year. Instead, we should have all encouraged him to quit his gaming and focus on his schoolwork. Making fun of him was wrong, but everyone loved it. This was an act of prejudice by my class last year, one which should have been stopped before consequences became too dire...
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Xincheng's case was a really sad event which I felt that should not have happened. Xincheng is not poor or disobedient in any way. His studies may not be exactly strong, but he still had talents in other forms like Art. He enjoyed drawing and painting. I always remembered that every week he would ask me excitedly whether thre was AEP or not. He seemed to be the happiest when he attended AEP lessons. Xincheng have the potential, but the way he thinks is not mature enough. He is like a big child who needs encouragement to grow. I really did not like it when my classmates used him as a joke. I really hope that he will be able to live in confidence and do well in his future.
ReplyDeleteHis result was indeed sad, but DotA was in fact not the cause of this. The cause of this was excessive gaming, in many various aspects. He was into DotA, which is a real time strategy game, and also into games like Blackshot, which is a first person shooting game. I am sure he should have quitted all such games, but one thing is for sure, he attempted to quit DotA. I hardly found him online and playing DotA anymore at the later part of the year (Because I was playing it too), but he was still occasionally online in a gaming platform called Garena, and this company hosted both DotA and Blackshot, but I am pretty sure he was still playing Blackshot a little even after qutting DotA. In my opinion, he should have abolished gaming, and perhaps even his arts, even though he has a passion for it, as it could have helped him in his academic studies a little. However, about the excessive gaming part, nobody truly knows if it is true or not. I am sure he didn't play many hours a day - I have never seen him being online for long hours before, both on weekends and during the school holidays.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe the excessive gaming explanation was just a myth, which no one actually bothers to solve. Yes, I agree with you, that his failure in his results might not be fully dependent on computer gaming. However, can you think of any other possible way that Xin Cheng's results became so bad after the introduction of DotA to him? Research shows that computer addiction can lead to anything you can think of. For example, role-playing a character is mild while seeing yourself as one of them on a mission you are determined to accomplish is more serious. Sometimes, this even leads to suicide. Compared to all these, results going down is considered to be very slight.
ReplyDeleteAll sorts of things could happen to a person, like you have said, gaming addicts have suicided due to their excessive addiction. Xin Cheng could have indeed faced even worse problems than gaming addiction. Here, take a look at this blog post:
ReplyDeletehttp://joellye1997.blogspot.com/2011/02/touching-story-boy-who-never-had-good.html
You really never know what could have happened to him, but like you said, nobody would bother to solve these myths. I just have a point that I would like to bring out here, and it is that all problems which could lead to any other problems should immediately be resolved, lest results like that of Xin Cheng's might occur to you too. Gaming addiction in our class is on the rise now, though.
Maybe Xin Cheng's result was bad because of some illness(like insomnia) that caused him to sleep during classes or maybe the classes were just too boring(such as LA). And maybe the reason of him role-playing as a character in Blackshot might be that he is trying very hard to quit gaming, although not physically playing the game, but in his mind, he is still thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that Xin Cheng's back and up running this year again :D I remembered last year that he was not as energetic (unsure if that is the appropriate word) as this year. I was also amazed by his artistic talent (you have to admit, his art - especially manga drawing, is ownage). Even though he wasn't really focused on academic progress last year, I feel that he has been trying very hard (and he still is).
ReplyDelete@Ming Chin, I know what you mean by ' he should have abolished gaming, and perhaps even his arts, even though he has a passion for it' to improve his academic subjects. I'd like to disagree, because everyone has his or her talents in different areas. But I do agree that he should have spent more time on studying. (Abolished probably wasn't the right word) :)
Ming Chin I think that you are defending the game "DOTA?" too much. It is a game after all and it also caused the fall of xincheng, I believe all games are playable just that if you play it too excessive, it will cause you to be distracted from your studies and it may destroy your life.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Xin Cheng can get up on his feet again, although it might not be very honourable to study sec one a second time. Hopefully he excels... Like own all his friends with his past experience.
ReplyDelete(Maybe introducing them to DotA???)