How games effect the society & People Psychologically
One concern
there appears to be to do with video games affecting the society is excessive
playing time. Douglas Gentile a developmental psychologist states(http://www.babycenter.com/404_can-spending-too-much-time-playing-video-games-hurt-my-child_69631.bc)
‘Excessive video-game playing can have a negative effect on a young child for
several reasons’ This caught my attention therefore I started to research around this subject. Kids who spend most of their spare time playing
video-games miss out on activities that are essential to their ‘physical,
social, intellectual and emotional development’. Children or even anyone that
play games excessive amounts usually play games alone without any type of
communication, too much of this can lead to social isolation and can also lead
them to become very anti-social people in the future. Personally I do not think
that this is true as I have played my fair share of video-games and would not
class myself either socially isolated or have any trouble with my Physical,
Social, Intellectual or emotional development.
It is a
proven fact that children who spend more than ten hours watching TV or playing
video-games do not do as well in education then children that watch less. This
could become a problem because video-games are slowly but surely becoming a rather
large part in the world, most people have played some type of video-game at some
time in their life. Therefore children are more likely to play more than ten
hours a week in front of the TV, which will decrease pass rates within schools.
This will lead to children not getting the grades they need to move onto the
job they want to do or jobs that need to be done. Research shows the average
ten year old boy spends approximately nine and a half hours each week playing
video-games on top of what they already spend in front of other screens such as
TVs or computers.
Another
concern that comes from video-games is separation from reality, as games have
progressed and have been getting more and more realistic players have started
to try and copy event or scenes that they have seen in a game that they have
recently been playing. An example of this would be on 27th February 2004 a
seventeen-year-old boy stabbed his fourteen-year-old friend after luring him to
a park to steal from him. The mother of the boy that was killed said her son’s
killer had mimicked a game named Manhunt in which you earn points for violent
kills and that is what drove him to commit this act.
The cost of
gaming is also a high concern for those who we know as hard-core gamers due to
subscriptions and micro transactions. Most subscriptions cost around £8.99 each
month and are often forgotten about and payed for even if the account isn’t active.
Also micro transactions can be a very costly addition to a game for example
FIFA Ultimate Team has its own in-game currency that you have to pay and has
been proven to be very addictive. You can also be peer pressured by friends to
buy a new game which costs approximately £40 or to buy an in-game currency
causing you to spend more and more money.
They may be
a fair few concerns towards gaming but there is also a fair few benefits too,
for example; Player’s hand-eye coordination is very likely to greatly improve
if the user plays games for excessive amounts of time. There has been a recent
rehabilitation scheme known as Wii-habilitation where platforms such as the
Nintendo Wii have been used in the treatment of rehabilitation of patients.
Another
benefit of video-games is the fact that brain scientists have discovered that
driving around cars and looking at road signs and other objects around the map simultaneously
can improve short-term memory and long-term focus for older adults. In Berlin
scientists ran a test on two groups of people those who played Super Mario 64
thirty minutes per day for two months and another group that had no contact
with games. The group that played Mario had an increase in grey matter within
their right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum. Critical
thinking is another skill children that play video-games will be good at as
video-games force children to think quickly. Video-games also make people think
more strategically about the way they complete tasks and deal with situations.
The first
computer was based around text and could only be commanded by typing commands
into the command line. The first games on the computer were games such as pong
which was very basic and used a highly basic graphical user interface to run.
As the years have progressed games have gone from mono to stereo sound, 2D to
3D graphics and for the years to come games and computers will never stop
enhancing.
The use of
sound within a video-game does a lot to give the user the right sense of
atmosphere and emotion. The sounds in a game can make the player feel fear or
happiness just by the music that’s playing. The earliest consoles such as the
Magnavox only had simple beeps as sounds now as technology has evolved
perfectly clear surround sound can be heard.
High score
listings are probably the single most addictive thing about a lot of games, as
they ‘make players feel superior and the best at a particular game. Players
that are fighting to get to the top of the high score listings can sometimes
become violent as they start to get addicted. Recently players have been able
to connect to leader boards for games from your own home as consoles now have
online gaming where you can compete with and challenge you’re friends from
another country.
As it was
said earlier above players can now compete against each other from other
countries therefore competitive gaming has reached a whole new level. Now that
you can communicate with other gamers around the world the competitiveness between
two players has raised and now there are tournaments with $1,000,000 prize
money. ‘Research by the American Psychological association suggests that a
small percentage of gamers demonstrate aggressive behaviour when taking part in
highly competitive games’. http://www.contentedwriter.com/psychological-effects-of-computer-gaming-on-individuals-and-society/
Peer
pressure is not only given by young teens but also by companies, as they
release consoles close to Christmas therefore parents feel pressured into
buying their children the newest gaming consoles and peripherals out. The big
companies also try to get into the head of gamers and try to pressure them into
spending more money on their games and other products just so they can make as
much money as possible.
As everyone
knows video-games were originally made for fun and that is what most gamers
play games for. Everyone knows games are also played to get away from the real
world and enter your own like you’re in a dream but still in control. No matter
how many companies get bad feedback from parents of gamers or news articles
saying that games implant aggressive thoughts and actions into your head
everyone knows they are made for fun.
As games
platforms have been enhancing so much over the years the expectations towards
games from gamers rise significantly each year. As it states on http://www.contentedwriter.com/psychological-effects-of-computer-gaming-on-individuals-and-society/
‘The impact that this has is a positive one as this drives the industry and
creates jobs on a global scale’ as companies need more workers to evolve more.
Games with
levelling are a lot more addictive than any other games this is because of the
sense of achievement you feel every time you level and get your character a new
reward. Games with a levelling system also usually have some kind of character
customization therefore you feel as though you are part of a game and are more
involved and want to play it more.
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