While reading through the Thematic Guide to the Readings in the Norton Field Guide to Writing with Reading the Creative Play and Gaming section caught my attention. Gaming is something that almost every age group takes a part in now. This may be largely due to the fact that gaming is used now for advertising purposes, and even to convey political messages. Especially after reading through Sam Anderson’s Just One More Game…: Angry Birds, Farmville and Other Hyperaddictive Stupid Games, where he speaks about his fears over what gaming could do to society, I wanted to dig deeper into the effects games have. Mainly focusing on our brains, such as our thought processes, decision making, and physically. As someone who regularly partakes in games, have I ruined my brain? Should anyone continue to play? After some research it seems that there really is no definitive answer, but we will look at both sides of the coin, starting first with the bad. Violent video games are definitely a hot button topic among parents. Some people believe that these games cause their children to become aggressive and difficult. According to some researchers, they may be correct. In the article This is Your Child’s brain on Video Games, by Victoria L. Dunckley M.D., many harmful effects are discussed. The largest of these problems is that video games trick the brain to thinking it is in a dangerous situation and triggering all the chemicals in the brain such as dopamine to prepare the body for what is
An Iowa State University News Service article featuring three studies done by Iowa State University psychology professors Craig Anderson and Douglas Gentile makes note of this and in their research, the professors looked into whether violent video game exposure led to more violent behavior in children and adolescents or not (“ISU Psychologists” 449). In their three studies, they noted that kid’s games in general have a behavioral effect, that students who played violent video games were more violent or in favor of violence, and that violent video games may lead to poor performance in school as well as a higher rate of social rejection (“ISU Psychologists” 450). Regarding this information, a major increase in aggression in individuals would definitely run the risk of being detrimental in many cases, especially in regard to children. Since children are still in a developmental stage, violent video game could potentially have more of an overall impact. However, in some cases, it can be argued that perhaps video game-related aggression can be a good thing because it’s only a minor amount of aggression in most people, and this minor amount of aggression can be a good thing as it can provide a competitive boost. Even violent video games may have some sort of benefit to the
Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, and Doom. Many know these games for their violent nature, stemming from their graphic scenes or gameplay involving shooting or beating up opponents, and these factors have caused these games to stir up quite a bit of controversy. For the last few decades, people have debated the effects of these games on the people who play them. Many believe those who play the games become more aggressive as a result of their violent nature, while others argue that playing the games has no effect on one’s behavior. Society should realize that violent video games have, at most, minimal effect on players’ behavior.
As many parents and educators like to emphasise, “Violent video games make kids more violent”. Video games affecting youth is a very debatable topic. Most people just come to that conclusion without acquiring any evidence or reason, but there are some reasons why this is a wrong assumption. I believe that violent video games are actually good for people. They allow them to have an escape from real life which is positive, the violence allows people (young people in particular) to think morally about what they are doing, and most violent games let children have fun with their friends.
Did you know that according to Dr. Bret Conrad, the majority of gamers believe that video game violence has few, if any harmful effects on them personally? Well, many people today play games with simulated violence ranging from games like “Killer” to games like Grand Theft Auto. One example, “Killer”, takes place in multiple New York City high schools at the end of the year. It consists of two teams, each student is assigned a person to shoot and they have to shoot them before they are shot. The students have to use water pistols to shoot their person. Once they are killed, their game is over. While some agree that games with simulated violence are perilous for teens, games with simulated violence are beneficial for teens because they help kids with problem solving skills, keep them busy and helps them help others.
There is overwhelming scientific research that suggests that playing violent video games are harmful to children and adolescents. The scientific evidence has uncovered several areas in the development of children and adolescent that are negatively impacted because of the exposure to and playing of violent video games. Some of the key areas that are negatively affected include brain activity, stress levels and behavior.
As someone who has played multiple violent videogames, I can personally say that they have not caused me to develop any childhood problems. Video games provide many people with a safe virtual area to relief stress. “...it does seem that playing violent games may help reduce stress and make people less depressed and hostile” (Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, 2010). Ferguson took a group of 103 young adults, gave them a frustrating task and randomly gave them either no game, a nonviolent game, a violent game as a good character,
It may seem odd that one would think that a video game could possibly have a negative effect on children. Especially when you discover all of the logical fallacies in their argument. Although some people have some decent points, most studies done on this subject have no direct correlation with the violence in children that happen to play violent video games. A study done in 2008, deemed with the title “Grand Theft Childhood” reported that 60% of middle school boys who played at least one M-rated game had previously hit or beat up another
The effects of both violent and non-violent video game playing can be determined by the amount of time playing the video game and by the content of the games being played. The content of the games being played could definitely have a factor in how a child performs in school, and how aggressive they are towards peers and teachers. Obviously if a child is playing hours upon hours of violent video games, this can lead to them acting out violence and having no consequences for it. If a child took the time that they played video games a week and used that time to be engaged in reading, homework or even a creative activity we’d have less issues with our children’s school performances. Parents should really be monitoring how long their child is playing video games, but this doesn’t always happen. A child who plays video games for long periods of time could also build up a social wall, become a loner. It is important for children to interact with other children in order to help develop their social skills, which without will make it very difficult to make it in this world. At the age children start playing video games, it is hard for them to distinguish what is reality and what is not. So in some cases the violent acts in video games could make the child believe the world is a scary place.
Growing up as a gamer, I have experienced many new things in the video game industry. I’ve been playing video games since the Sega-genisis that I started playing when I was three years old. I’ve been gaming almost my whole life, I have watched new console been introduced, seen video games go from 1080p to now an amazing 4K which makes the graphics look amazing. Modern video games even have virtual reality that you as a consumer can now play in your own living room. But, even though we have amazing things in video games the modern gamer is being introducing to a new problem. The problem I am addressing of coarse is micro transactions in video games. Modern game companies are charging you $60.00 dollars for a video game. Once you purchase this said video game you have to grind countless hours in order to obtain specific items that will enhance your abilities in this virtue world, or you can turn your real life currency into this video game currency in order to potentially get these items early on. This concept is called pay to win. The definition of pay to win as stated in wikipedia “is In some multiplayer video games, players who are willing to pay for special items or downloadable content may be able to gain a significant advantage over those playing for free.” Though I believe companies should be allowed to do this in free video game, I think it is wrong to charge someone $60.00 and afterwords try to make them buy guns in order to enhance their gameplay.
According to the online website ”Raise A Smart Kid,” it states,”Most of the bad effects of video games are blamed on the violence they contain. Children who play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping, according to a scientific study (Anderson & Bushman, 2001).” Another site also states, “Playing violent video games causes more aggression, bullying, and fighting in teens.”-videogames.procon.org/. Not only does it increase unacceptable behaviors, but it also enlarges the chance for adolescents to have anxiety. Although it is safer to play gory and dangerous video games when you are older, you are still eligible to feel the effects and the influence of
It seems like everything coming out about video games is bad. A student tried to kill his fellow classmates, and he was an avid Call of Duty player. A study has been released that proves that playing video games will turn you into a criminal. The many benefits of games and gaming, such as their possible applications to education and their ability to tell more complex stories than other forms of media, are almost universally ignored. I know better, though. Between the lifetime I’ve spent playing and loving video games, and the articles I’ve found, I can tell you that video games do not cause violent behavior or thoughts.
Although in some ways video games are unhealthy, sould they still be a sport? Why I think this ? Well… I’ll tell you why.
Since the inception of video games they have been targeted in one fashion or another by various groups and media outlets. The concern being that video games are teaching not only our youth, but everyone who plays them, how to be very aggressive and overly violent. That they are simply death-or-kill simulators for the public to practice on society. I’m immediately disagreeing with the concept of video games are what’s causing certain individual(s) to behave in a depraved manner. A similar example to the video game argument is how music groups like Marilyn Manson and Rammstein were blamed for the Columbine Massacre. Both groups literally had no connection to the incident what so ever, but Marilyn Manson took most of the blame because the public wanted a scapegoat. In short, Marilyn Manson was blamed for the Columbine Massacre because the two teenagers who committed the heinous act were reported to be fans of his music and listened to him often.
Video Game Violence has been a controversial topic for many years. It is easy to shift the blame for school shootings, and other crimes on to video games; an example of this is the Columbine High School massacre, a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, where two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went to their school and killed 12 students, one teacher, and wounded 21 others. Because Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were fans of video games and actively played games such as Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem, this pushed the blame on to these companies and would lead to lawsuits and sour the mouth of the public view of video games. That is only one of the many that would paint a bad picture into the mind of the public. This
“I like video games, but they’re really violent. I’d like to play a videogame where you help the people who were shot in all other games. It’d be called Really Busy Hospital.”-Demitri Martin. Role playing games have been a source of fun and entertainment for children and adults. There are more safe and calm games such as Just Dance, and there are more Perilous games such as Call of Duty. Role playing games such as killer are perilous for school age children putting them in danger, teaching violence, and teaching reckless behavior.