Austin GullEnglish 1010Mrs. Unrein18 December 2017In today’s society, video gaming has become part of the normal culture. One of the many signs of this is the introduction of video games as part of the curriculum in colleges and universities around the world, with many of those programs in U.
S. schools. While these types of programs have been around for many years, game design and game art programs are becoming common occurrences in the U.S. and in other countries at many professional trade schools, as well as public and private schools.
Graduates are often recruited by game studios, such as Electronic Arts and Blizzard, as well as smaller, independent studios. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average age of video game players as of 2017 is thirty-five years old, with 26 percent of people aged fifty or older claiming that they also play video games. The average purchaser is thirty-six years old. Women age eighteen or older represent a significantly larger proportion of the game-playing population (31 percent) than boys age eighteen or younger (18 percent).
In order to keep people interested in video games as players grow older, several companies have made video game controllers that allow players to become more active while playing. The Nintendo Wii remote controller, allows players to simulate bowling, golf swings, and other movements, has become one of the most popular items. Other products increasing in popularity are exercise bicycles and dance stages. These games have proved to be effective in physical therapy, therefore, widening the market for video gaming. Massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft and virtual worlds such as Linden Labs’ Second Life allow tens of thousands of players at a time to interact with other players within a simulated world by forming groups or sharing goods.
Players in MMORPGs and virtual worlds create avatars, three-dimensional computer user’s representations of themselves, which may or may not reflect their real characteristics or body type.There are many different points of debate around the overall topic of video games. Without going into too much detail at this point, a few of these subtopics are: the addictiveness of video games, possible correlations between video games and aggressive behaviors, the emotional and stress relief that video games can provide, the possible new technologies that can be accompanied with a video game to do exercise.The first topic that was previously mentioned is the addictiveness of video games.
Many have said that people who play video games fit the criteria set by WHO (World Health Organization) to be considered addicted. The second topic of discussion is the debate of whether or not video games can lead to aggressive behaviors. Based off of the study cited in an article written by Newsweek that said that some certain school shootings were linked to video games. The next subtopic in the discussion of video games is the emotional and stress relief that many people claim video games bring to them.
There are many people who use video games as a source of social interaction as well as a feeling of importance because the players are able to accomplish some kind of goal or objective. The final subject is the implementation of new technologies within the realm of active video gaming. There are advancing technologies that make interacting with the game much simpler for active play.
The article Do a New Video Game Workout written by Brian Burnsed is an article written to explain that there is a positive side to video games and according to Burnsed that is that it can be used for physical activities like exercising. Burnsed begins by explaining that while it is often thought that people who play video games are going to make our culture into sedentary culture that in reality these video games are promoting physical entertainment or in other words they are prompting people to do exercising. He says “many families’ game consoles are fast becoming as suitable for the exercise room as for the den.” By saying this he means to tell the reader that video game consoles have become more popular in families homes.Additionally, Burnsen explains the mechanics behind how these video game consoles allow for these physical exercises to be integrated into a fun and engaging video game that will get these families to play and still get a substantial amount of exercise. This is done by the video game and console company Xbox. Xbox uses a combination of sensors and cameras to use the person playing the game as a controller. Basically if the person playing does a certain action it will correlate to something that will happen in the game which is a way that keeps the player or these families engaged in these video games and at the same time gets these families to be exercising for an extended amount of time and thus burning more calories.
Burnsen finishes by quoting exercise physiologist Tom Holland who says “these games are a good start, but should not be thought of as a substitute for actual exercise,” this is given to caution people to not substitute these exercise video games for actual exercise but he is pleased that people are trying to take an initiative to do some exercising.The study mentioned in Taylor Wofford’s article would argue with Burnsen that video games increase or make people violent. The conclusion that was reached after the experiments was that there was indeed a correlation between violent video games and violent behaviors. Another part that was explained in Video Games: An Overview which agrees with what Wofford said was the negative parts to video gaming such as the addictiveness.
It also goes over the constant topic of debate, whether or not video games make people more violent or not. It shares a few correlations between video games and some school shootings in which the shooters played video games.The packet Essential Facts About The Computer And Video Game Industry constructed by the Entertainment Software Association is an informational brochure about the many facts about gaming. This brochure describes how many people play games, what types of games that these people play, some of the most popular types of games, and many other related facts to the overall topic of video games. Almost fifty percent or 155 million Americans play video games with an average two gamers for every household that plays video games. As shown in the previous two facts that there is a large portion of American that participate in video games. In the The New Media Consortium’s 2014 K-12 Horizon Report they said “The video game industry is producing a steady stream of games that continue to expand their nature and impact – they can be artistic, social, and collaborative, with many allowing massive numbers of people from all over the world to participate simultaneously.” This shows that the video game industry is growing and has continued to produce enough content to make the users of these games satisfied.
Going along with keeping the gamers satisfied Barbara Chamberlin said “Games offer immediate feedback, you can see your progress, you can try something and be frustrated but later learn more… that’s why game play is so engaging to us,” which explains why so many people play video games. Video games have not only become more and more popular but have also become more of a social matter than a personal one. On average people who play social games spend about six and a half hours with people online or five hours with people in person. The conclusion from study done by Maja Ruži?-Baf , Hrvoje Strnak, and Andrea Debeljuh supports this when it says that this experiment revealed how the boys in the study were much more likely to seek for social interaction with others online or become a member in a group, faction, clan etc. than females in the study who had almost none to very few relations of that description. While it shows social interaction differences specifically between genders it still shows that there is a percentage of players who play video games for the social interactions that can occur within the game.
Parents are very involved with what they allow their children to play and how long that their children are allowed to play those games. About ninety percent of parents control what games they let their children play in regard to ratings and are there at the time of purchase and require permission before purchasing those games. Also some of those parents will play games with their children because their child asks, they enjoy the game themselves, they want to socialize with their child, or they want to monitor what their kid is playing.The article “The Experience and Benefits of Game Playing” is written by the authors to inform the reader of various studies about the positive and negative effects of playing video games. Some of the beginning thoughts are about how there has been a constant debate about whether or not video games are actually beneficial or if they are a detriment to our health. Some people say that videogames can lead to aggression and anger while other people argue that videogames are a great way to relieve stress. The article explains the background behind why video games were created in the first place and how they were perceived. Originally videogames were created to help relieve stress and was considered a way to help those who needed therapy, however, “video gaming has become a daily activity and familiar part of the cultural fabric of home life.
” The authors support the fact that videogames can be therapeutic with a study done by Klelber to show that individuals who had traumatic or challenging life changes would improve the patient’s mental and emotional well being as well as improving their cognitive thinking. The authors continue by adding the research from the report Videogames and Well-being, which divides the benefits of video games into three parts: “positive emotional impact (emotional stability, self-esteem, optimism, vitality, resilience), positive functioning (engagement, positive relationships, competence and achievement, self-acceptance, personal growth), and positive social functioning (social coherence, social integration, social capital).” This is used to show the many components of what people get out of video games as well as the things that have to be put into a game to ensure that the player is satisfied. There is much discussion on the topic of video games, however there are several things that have been missed that do need to be discussed. Some of the few things that need to be discussed are: the stress relief benefits of video games, the addictiveness of video games, different ways that video games are being used in education specifically, where the industry of video games is heading towards, as well as the social benefits of interacting within video games. The first topic that needs to have more discussion on is the stress relief benefits of video games.
Many of the people who play video games claim that their reason to play video games is that it gives them a relief or an escape from their daily troubles. There has been no discussion on the fact that people use this new technology to escape from their problems. While some use it as a way to relieve stress or to relax while others use it as an excuse to not deal with their daily problems. While this topic was briefly discussed in one of the articles that was not going over in much detail. Many people don’t realize it but people who play video games or video gamers use video games very frequently to the point where WHO (World Health Organization) has dictated many of these people who play video games to be in the category of having an addiction. Most of the people who play video games play these games everyday for several hours and usually play the same game within those hours.
While it is said that video games are being used in education it does not go in detail what it is doing specifically and how it is improving education as a whole or just within specific school systems. Some of the things that could be said or that they help engage the students more and that students respond better to this type of education. However some others might say select where that the students would abuse system And take advantage of the opportunity to not engage.While the ESA’s (Entertainment Software Association) 2015 informational packet did give many facts in regard to video games it did not show the specific growth of the video game industry as a whole. However if one were to inspect the 2017 informational packet they would see an increase in the popularity and the amount of people using video games within the United States. while there was some discussion on the new technologies in the video game industry in regard to exercise there was not much other discussion on other types of new technologies that could be used in this industry.
If there was to be discussion one would need to look into the new technologies such as virtual reality and other immersive software and Hardware that can be used in gaming.The final topic of discussion would be social interactions within games and the benefits that they can bring. one part of the discussion would be the difference for the people between their interactions within video games and within real life. Some people who play video games might feel more comfortable interacting with in a game rather than in real life which could be beneficial or detrimental to their social interactions.
