A Twitter user compiled these hints to make your kids loathe gaming — and includes a handy bonus moral for all ages.

Life is tough for Japanese kids. They attend a ridiculous amount of school and then spend their free time doing homework. Once they graduate into adulthood there’s even more intense drudgery awaiting, but at least adults get to bring home a salary!

As a parent, you might be tempted to let little Taro or Sakura unwind by firing up the family’s game console and going on a fictional adventure. Maybe they can build something cool in Minecraft or punch out some bad guys in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. But what if your kids enjoy the games too much? How do you break the hold?

Twitter user @harinezumi_vc has the answer in this self-explanatory post.

“How to make your kids hate videogames:

  • Tell them to work as hard as they possibly can on the game.
  • Set up goals to mark their progress throughout the game.
  • Be the one who decides what counts as “progress”
  • Scold them if they take too long to progress
  • Demand to know why they’re taking so long
  • Make them swear that they won’t fall behind on their goals
  • Interfere with their play-style each time they attempt to play

That should do it.”

It probably would, at that. I can only imagine how much I would have grown to loathe Final Fantasy VIII by this metric, considering it took me twenty minutes after starting the game to find the tutorial mission.

The tweet took off, and at the time of writing has over 446,000 retweets — and plenty of befuddled replies. “That’s just studying,” said one bemused user, while one said what we were all thinking: “This seems like a better guide to getting kids to hate you, rather than their games.”

There’s a pragmatic reason behind why @harinezumi_vc made this list. You see, this Twitter user also runs a blog called Shigoto Cafe (Work Cafe) dedicated to discussions about workplace culture, workplace balance, and prioritizing one’s mental wellbeing while in the workforce. The Twitter description even states outright: “I spread information to help you raise your individual market value without shackling yourself to a company.”

“As many of you have pointed out,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet, “these statements also hold true when applied to work and studying. It may seem obvious when written out in this way, but many parents and bosses still continue to do these things regardless.”

“Take the games tweet as an example: it’s clear to come to the conclusion “I would hate it if that’s how I had to play” or “That would make me hate my parents”, but it’s exactly the same when it comes to work and study. My point here was to ask, don’t parents and bosses take similar actions when trying to make their children or employees work or study?

I’m still working things out by trial and error each day, but every day I wonder about this.”

▼ Goals are all well and good, but being forced to meet them is stressful.

Work culture has undergone a gamification trend in recent years, making this Twitter thread especially poignant; instead of just copying and pasting the flashy elements of games that release sweet dopamine hits in their players, perhaps bosses (and parents) should look at the bigger picture. Is a videogame fun because it has goals, or because the player has the freedom to work towards those goals in their own time?

This isn’t to say that goals are always a bad thing, though. The thread mostly warns against over-chaperoning progress, admonishing people for failing to meet standards they never set for themselves and setting unreasonable time limits. When used correctly and kindly, progress goals can even help your kids fall in love with something new instead of warding them away from it.

Source: Twitter/@harinezumi_vc via Hachima Kikou
Related: Shigoto Cafe
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
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