Stereotypes Of Video Games

    This article by KidsHealth's "Are Video Games Bad for Me?", I learned many bad side effects of too much gaming. I read that you can become overweight. It also stated "It's hard to get enough active play and exercise if you're always inside playing video games." This means you could become very unfit for physical actions (like construction or picking up things). It also wrote "...may lead to health problems." This could show how you could have a

Video games are progressively becoming a crucial medium today, despite the light connotation of its initial categorization. Today they are a business that produces billions of dollars and employs engineers and artists alike in an art form connecting interactive games, to virtual societies where millions of people dwell. However, like all human products, our same emotion, flaws and injustice show in the games, with the impression of hatred, racism and stereotypes that are our everyday background. What are the creators of these video games real intentions in the desire they produce in the human?

As video games become more and more popular, we will inevitably see an increase in amount of video games being produced. The growth in popularity of video games is facilitated by the creation of a website known as Twitch.com. This website allows gamers and content creators to stream themselves playing video games online and interact directly with a live audience via chat. This new platform makes gaming both more accessible and more acceptable. The social stigmas that accompany video games are diminishing; in fact there has been an increase in competitive electronic sports as well. Logically, the growing interest in video games encourages programmers to make more and more games. Melinda Burgess et al presents an interesting perspective about video games. She explores the prevalence of racial stereotypes and how their effects are detrimental to society as a whole. In Burgess’s essay, “Playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence and Consequences of Racial Stereotypes in Video Games”, she provides fantastic commentary on how top selling video games show “overt racial stereotyping” (Lunsford et al 551) and negatively affect how we think. By providing statistics and data about the videogames that she is critiquing, she effectively shows that there is may be a correlation between video games and how we think and interact with the world around us.

Meet Shrek. Shrek is an ordinary guy who has a job, a girlfriend, and a house. He often plays video games in his free time and tells his colleagues about his experiences in gaming. But his colleagues call him a loser and a dweeb for playing games. This is because when the word gamer is said, images of fat, unemployed, basement dwellers who have nothing better to do than play games come to mind.

According to several sources around 42% of the American population plays video games, and around 1.2 billion people worldwide play video games today. Gaming has become an increasingly more popular hobby since its creation. As such the medium has obviously attracted a multitude of different people and groups, all consisting of diverse backgrounds, body types, sexes, races, nationalities and the like. However, contrary to the numerous demographics video games have come to attract, it is very evident the vast majority of them do not seem to be marketed toward many of them via game characters, and their importance, if any, in a game. Video games show an overwhelming amount of white male characters, despite the many demographics they reach. Of the characters that are not white, or male, that are represented, are often represented poorly. For example, many black characters represented in video games are often characterized as vulgar, and violent. Women represented in games are often characterized as support characters, or objects of sexual desire. Considering forms of sexism, racism, and other such types of prejudices are still prominent in modern society, and these representations obviously do not help how people see these marginalized groups. Ultimately, these representations, or lack thereof, affect people in society in a number of ways, by perpetuating prejudice and harmful stereotypes.

Technology advances are encouraging a sedentary lifestyle for children. A study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation done in 2012, showed that children ages seven to eighteen spend seven and a half hours daily their phones or on social media (Kelly). They found that children spend four and a half hours watching TV, two and a half hours listening to music, one hour on the computer, and thirteen minutes playing video games a day (Kelly).When children are watching TV or playing video games, they are mindlessly eating, not knowing how many calories they are taking in. The key to stay healthy is to maintain a balance between energy intake and outtake (Perry). Playing video games and sitting on the couch watching TV is not a way to burn energy. Technology and emotion distress can be rooted back to a child’s weight.

With such a huge amount of America's youth playing video games, a lot of people are starting to blame these games for the laziness in today's youth. They say that kids are beoming "couch potatoes" and are less motivated towards physical activity. This may be true for some cases but for most, video games are not to blame.

Parents are used to kids playing outside, not sitting in the house playing video games. For example, my little brother come home and play video games on the computer instead of going outside doing different activities. My mom get so upset when he runs in the house and hop on the computer to play games. Another example, is in the article “Reality Is Broken” the article explains that today’s kids play video games all day and get no excise (McGonigal 198). Kids should really do half and half, spend some time outside and some time playing games. It will be better for the kids health.

“I'm sure you've heard negative things about video games, our various studies show they are false.” This is a claim from the article, “5 Facts Prove That Video Games Are Good For Your Children” written by Stacie Simpson. A lot of people think videogames are bad for you, they say stuff like “video games make you lazy.” or “video games rot your brain.” this is only partially true. Video games are good for you and/or your children because they help with stress, decision making and, hand-eye coordination.

When most people think of gamers they think of guys whose life consist of video games and an unhealthy lifestyle (not just physically, but mentally, socially, intellectually, and etc.). I’m here to kill that stereotype like I kill every noob in Call of Duty. I am the complete opposite of what many people think gamers are, I’m a female, my major is in Biology, and I love doing my makeup. I have always been in love with video games, but the moment I knew I would be a true gamer was when my dad first allowed me to play Call of Duty when I was 11 years old. Something about the game almost helped me relax more than I ever could and that’s when I opened up to more games like GTA and fighting games.

Traditional views of gamers have been often related with the negative stereotypes as males who are lazy, nerd, geek, fat, socially awkward and time wasters. Even though these stereotypes have been improving with the growing population of eSports athletes and its recognition as a collegiate sport in many campuses, participants shared their thoughts on the stigmas of gaming that are still present in our society and how they respond to these stigmas. Jeffrey, 5th year, majoring in music, shared his story of the stigmas of gaming he heard from his father, They had Street Fighter finals on ESPN 2 this past summer. I was watching it with my dad who knows nothing about the game and competitive play then he’s watching and he is constantly interrupting saying like.. When the winner was announced, this guy is a person who plays video games all day and night so he is kind of odd and dumb and does not know it better.

Contrary to the stereotypes, most gamers are not a socially isolated. So many of today’s games that your kids play are multiplayer games that require talking and strategizing with other people. According to research by Xbox, “70% of players play their games with a friend, either cooperatively or competitively”. Meaning that not only are they talking to people but they are meeting new people because of the random lobby system that multiplayer games use. The system also put’s you in a “match lobby” Meaning you get put with players who are at or near the same skill level as

Video games have been a way to express the ideas and creativity of video game developers’ for year now. Recently they have taken a turn for the worst by incorporating racial, sexual and violent metaphors or scenarios. Two articles that talk about this important issues “Sex, violence and video games” by Mitch Krpata and “Not a Hater, Just Keepin' It Real: The Importance of Race- and Gender-Based Game Studies” by David J. Leonard. Leonard makes a crucial argument about the importance of balck, Hispanic and latino’s stereotypes in video games that are primarly played by white gamers. On the other hand, Krpata defends the critiques made about racism, violence and sex portrayed in video games by stanting that it is just fantasy. While both, Leonard

When playing video games, the coordination and concentration can physically, socially, and mentally benefit the user. Research today shows that certain video games can reduce fat and therefore promote weight loss. Other sources state that doctors have instructed parents to let their children play video games to help control focus. It is found that video games can improve hand eye

Based on the author, endless and uncontrolled playing with electronic visual entertaining has an adverse effect that causes several diseases in kids. Christopher points out that youngsters "who spend more than two hours a day" on computers can go through serious problems and "may suffer from childhood obesity." The writer adds evidence from University of Texas at Dallas to her assertive claim that the youth can experience more health issues other than excessive weight increasing, such as pain in the back, head, and wrist. The article "Do Video Games Contribute to Childhood Obesity?" on the website http://www.livesh·ong.com/ reinforces Christopher’s believes. In paragraph 1, Loop introduces the article by stating, "Although genetics and diet