When I was growing up my mother forbid us to play video games. By the time I was ten and could go freely to a friend’s house to play, I was no longer interested. I missed the time period where I could learn and be good at a game, making it much less interesting. Before writing this response, I was discussing my mother’s strict rules against video games with her. She believes in the negative affects of gaming, and she recalled giving us a choice when we were older if we wanted to get video games. Apparently, my sister and I were completely uninterested. She believe that it was important for children to reach an age to understand the positive and negative affects of gaming before becoming dependent on them as an outlet or entertainment source. I have to say that I am happy that I have no interest in video games because I do not spend countless hours playing the way I probably would have.
The articles from “Playing Video Games” discussed the intricacies of online gaming compared to the public’s traditional view of video games. One of the main differences between online gaming and the traditional notion of gaming lies in individual play and international play. The aspect of anyone playing the games allows for thousands of people to log on and play simultaneously. Games are not limited to a one or two person game, but the games can be complex, including many players playing against each other with multifaceted games. Chan and Vorderer point out a new aspect that is only found with online games, a player cannot just quit in interactive games nor can they save their game and continue at a later time. This leads to many people playing for a much longer time period, because they do not just want to leave and have their character killed. The aspect of controlling the fate of a character, only if you are present and playing the game, increases the chances of people attaching to their games. The impact on online gamer’s increases as the games become more complex, resulting in the gamer creating an attachment to a specific game. As a result of gamers spending hours online playing, gaming companies have found it difficult to attract the casual gamer who does not play for hours on end.
Gamers play these games for a variety of reasons, fulfilling certain needs. Chan and Vorderer determined categories for each type of gamer: the competitor, explorer, collector, achiever, joker, director, storyteller, performer and the craftsmen. Each of these types of players spends hours in front of the computer screen, fulfilling certain desires. Some players use the internet as an escape from the real world, especially in families that are rather traumatic. Depression also leads these people to find comfort in the video game world. Although there are many reasons that lead people to turn to video games, the testimony from the Columbine shootings raises a great point. We learned about the shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The article focuses on the questioning of people and how they use the media, rather then how the media affects people. Many video games and movies encourage violent behavior and foster aggressive thoughts, but the effects of the media differs from person to person, which makes it difficult to just blame the media without consideration of what people do with the media. It is hard to distinguish between violent video games that are used solely to escape an awful reality, wasting time, and games used because of the attraction of the violence that they contain. Henry Jenkins testimony makes a great point: gaming may be an indicator of desires, especially negative ones.
The third article, “What Do We Know about Social and Psychological Effects of Computer Games?” discusses the impact that video games have. From violent behavior to aggressive thought, video games evoke emotions from its negative content. Although the debate continues about the relationship between the video content and its negative associations, this article presents the positive effects of video games as well. Some people believe that video games can be therapeutic, but they also improve recursive and proactive thinking, increase a person’s sociability, and improve interpretive skills. Although it is difficult to sort out the pros and cons of video games, it is important to remember that the effects vary from person to person, presenting a problem for some and helpful for others. I do not discount the positive effects of video games, but some games that deal with violent killings do not appear to me to be a positive influence. Video games are being continually developed to look more like reality, especially with the traditional games that use a remote swung around as a sword in the game, which in my mind promotes aggression.
The final reading by Dmitri Williams is based on a panel study that investigates the social and civic impact of video games. This article contradicts general notions of the negative effects of video games. Over half of the players studied played games with other players at least half of the time. The sense of community was not affected by video games. This article points to video games having less impact then the general population associates with gaming. It seems that only a small population of gamers is negatively affected by video games, which presents societal problem of how to combat negative effects for these problem people.
Questions: Are there specific characteristics in people who are more prone to the negative effects of gaming? Should parents be the ones to blame or the media? Is it the media’s job keep a check on people? Does desensitization as a result of gaming make our communities less safe since people are accustomed to the violence they see on their computer screens?
Comments (2)
I also think the idea that when playing MMOGs, one can not simply quit or pause their game is one of the most interesting aspects of such games. It is as though one is really leaving another world that will go on without him or her when quitting World of Warcraft for the night to get a few hours of sleep before school in the morning. This makes it so much more addictive. How can players really draw the line and decide to call it quits for the night when all the players in China will be playing for hours more since it is the middle of the day for them? How can you go to bed knowing that your player might get killed while you are sleeping? As much as we all laughed at the SouthPark episode that satirized WarCraft players, I bet the episode was not too far fetched. We have seen that some parents limit their children’s television viewing time; should video game playing be limited even more so than TV watching? Also interesting is that Chan and Vorderer point out that casual gamers are not attracted to such games. The nature of the continuous game alienates those that only want to play for an hour or so every few weeks.
Posted by g34 | November 27, 2006 7:07 PM
Posted on November 27, 2006 19:07
In response to your question about desensitization, I do not really buy into the idea that violence in our communities is somehow caused or affected by people being accustomed to violence in video games or in other media. Though there are examples that can be called to mind about crimes that are copycats of violence seen in movies or like in video games, I think that the proportion of violence that occurs in our society that can truly be attributed to such media is very tiny. When instances like this do occur, the news media sensationalizes these instances and broadcasts them everywhere making them seem more prevalent, which is further enhanced by new media like blogging. Today, the internet and blogs have allowed such examples to spread instantly, making them known to so many more people than probably would have learned about such crimes than before the advent of such new media. However, if one thinks about the proportion of crimes in our society that are somehow connected to violence seen in movies or in video games versus those that are not affected by media portrayals, the percentage is probably miniscule. Therefore, I do not think that gaming violence really makes our communities less safe. As some of the articles indicated, such as Klug and Schell and Jenkins, many people play games because they allow them to pursue actions that they could not act out in real life and enact fantasies. I think that the vast majority people realize that one cannot perform such actions in real life, even just for the mere sake that you could be arrested or even killed for pursuing similar scenarios in real life. They become accustomed to performing acts of violence in gaming, but most people realize that you cannot commit such violent acts beyond the computer screen.
Posted by g42 | November 27, 2006 11:33 PM
Posted on November 27, 2006 23:33