Video Game Essay

Summarise and discuss the presentations of mental health in the two newspaper articles given in Appendix 1. (1500 words).

Many video games use visuals to mentally immerse gamers into a virtual world filled with seemingly living, breathing people, animals, or cities. According to Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey, game designers for Tale of Tales, video games increasingly develop into a true medium of artistic expression (Lamb). In just forty years, video games transformed from an abuse of the new computer for entertainment purposes into a sophisticated form of popular art. The development of video games recently produced results that arguably equal other similar, representational arts. Video games share many qualities with other forms of art, but they are also artistically significant in their own way. “This seems to be something

While anchormen and angry parents point fingers at video games for the source of all aggression in youth, studies show that the amount aggression video games cause is actually quite low. Christofer Ferguson, an associate professor at Texas A&M, studied video game violence and aggression in youth. He discovered that the effects the games had were “generally very low” and people were “overestimating the influence of violent games on aggression.” ( Jayson 3.) Instead, the main source of aggression was among peers, natural personality traits, mental disorders and, of all places, the home. Family life plays a huge part in a child’s behavior and while a violent game may add to aggression, it is not the main source and should not be to blame. For most, video games are relaxing. Eric Beaudoin, a twenty five year old graduate student in psychology says that he plays to relax and forget about his “dissertation, practicum, and clients and shoot some monsters.” (Jayson 2.) Gaming, no matter how violent, relaxes him enough so that he may deal with the people he faces everyday. However, it can be agreed upon by both sides of the argument that certain games are not healthy for certain age groups. A seven year old should

For many young people, violent video games that involve killing, harming, or stealing are a diverting activity that has them thinking strategically, but recent studies show that this violent game playing causes children to pick up on bad behavior. These video games increase hostility (along with anxiety and depression), teach kids wrong values, and train adolescents to take out their anger in aggression. This shouts out that role playing games with simulated violence are perilous for kids.

Video games are a profound art form, incorporating trades and mediums that span the artistic spectrum and beyond. To refute this is to ignore decades of rich history, disregard hours of artful labor, and discredit the immeasurable devotion of many whom worked to perfect this art form. Although video games may not suit every individual’s tastes, one cannot claim with credibility they possess no artistic merit.

I had always wanted to program, not just anything. I wanted to program video games. Not just any video game. I wanted to to program the greatest game ever made.

Video games in today’s society have become very popular. Every new game that comes out to be played and conquered by the average gamer has its own category. There are several other types of genres of games that people play but because of big hit titles and the new popular game systems like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, people become more interested in a game that is well known than a game they have never even heard of before. Every game has its own storyline and own way of how it unfolds and where the game ends according to game play. Some of the biggest reasons people sway to certain genres of games is because of the game titles released under them and the demand of people who want a good game under that category. The top three most

During Niccolo Machiavelli’s time, Italy was the epitome of political conflict. Machiavelli witnessed an array political change from the expulsion of the Medici family to the rise of Girolamo Savanorola. He even served as a diplomat to Pope Julius, but when the Medici family regained control of Florence, Machiavelli was dismissed from office and accused of participating in a conspiracy. As a result, he was held in jail for three weeks and was tortured brutally. After his release, Machiavelli began writing The Prince, a book that outlines in a very straightforward and logical manner how a prince should procure and maintain his princedom. Though he is seemingly expressing his thoughts about how men should approach their journey to princedom in his book, The Prince, there is an underlying cynical discernment about the dark shadow of human nature, perhaps a perception that stemmed from Machiavelli’s excruciating time in prison. To Machiavelli, the real truth is that men are simply selfish individuals who are almost animal-like in their actions and will spare no humanity if it means becoming a prince and successfully keeping their princedom. He accepts this truth and proceeds by writing a very systematic and binary how-to manual that describes every decision a prince can make and its outcome. In every chapter, Machiavelli outlines another aspect of ruling a princedom and in every chapter, Machiavelli expresses another cynical attitude toward human nature.

Hundreds of studies have been done to determine whether violent video games will really make juveniles more violent. Randomized experiments were used in several studies to examine the short-term effect of violent video games (Anderson and Berkowitz et al. 90). In these studies, children were randomly assigned to play violent or nonviolent video games and then were observed when given an opportunity to be aggressive. The result was that children who played violent video games usually behaved aggressively.

I feel the effect that video games have on children has been a very topical and debatable subject since they were introduced in the 1970’s. I feel it is important because if video games were damaging for children most video game companies would lose their biggest fan base and it would be very damaging for an economy for example in 2012 the entertainment software industry added over 6.2 billion dollars to US GDP. In the US the computer game industry directly and indirectly employees more than 146,000 people. The average salary for direct employees is 94,747 dollars, resulting in a total national compensation of 4 billion dollars also direct employment grew at an annual rate of more than 13 times the growth of the U.S labor market (9% vs. 0.72%) between 2009 and 2012. Many people have researched this economic question and some have been very biased on both sides but this isn’t surprising when you look at the last social phenomenon rock-and-roll or the “devil’s music” to some. Any home that has access to video games (88% of households) I feel the parents will be conscious to how much their children play video games and the effect it has on them. So I have aimed for my research to help parents gain an insight to the effects of video games, signs to look out for and helpful recommendations if they are worried about

Released this past month where the next-generation gaming consoles. Hoping to capture a market dominated by Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft has earmarked $500 million for its marketing campaign and the hype alone is enough to make a certain people look at this console. A sizable investment at $299 for the Xbox and $199 for the Game Cube, getting past the price tag is only the first hurdle. The second is deciding which to buy.

The topic of violence in video games has been a highly controversial conversation for many years. According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study, 10 hours and 45 minutes on average are spent per day using technology among all 8- to 18-year-olds, which is over a 2 hour increase over the past five years (Rideout et al, 2010, 2). Exposure to violent video games is significantly linked to increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and delinquency and decreases in prosocial and helping behavior (Anderson, 2004, 118), consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model. This model predicts the short and long term effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior. Many experiments have proven this, though there are some researchers who think that the results may be flawed and that the research needs to be corrected.

Since several video games contain some sort of violent content, it has been hypothesized that gamers nowadays tend to be more aggressive. Gentile also states that “playing violent games increases aggressive behaviors, increases aggressive cognitions, [and] increases aggressive emotions.” This is an intense list of negative consequences, but what makes violent games instill such hostility? Many video games today include multiplayer in addition to classical single player modes. With real life opponents, gamers are much more competitive and inclined to demonstrate dominance over friends and real life opponents. Whereas facing a computer can be competitive, there may be a stronger feeling of satisfaction after defeating a nonvirtual enemy which could translate into real life aggression towards real people. Though correlation does not mean causation, the fear that violent video games may increase problematic antagonism is clearly not misplaced.

Since the Early 70’s video games have been giving a bad name. Parents state that video games rot the minds of children and are influencing them do be violent. These accusations are far from the truth. In my research I found that there are many positive effects of gaming. Some of these effects are increased skills, creativity, general knowledge, and also help those in need. Parents can also take proper precautions and look into a game before buying it to see if it meets the criteria discussed in this paper.

This research study sought to determine if choosing to play video games for long periods of time that contained high values of sexist content is associated with projecting sexist attitudes. It was hypothesized that men, rather than women who played video games regularly with high sexist content would be considered higher in benevolent sexism (not hostile) than men who played video games with low sexist content.