Has there ever been a time when you have been playing a video game and you are just about to finish that final level you have trying to complete for so long, then all of a sudden your screen goes black. It is always either blackout or a software problem. You are sitting there, face frozen and left with nothing but despair. It happens to every gamer in the world. Gaming has become a worldwide epidemic and vast numbers of people are investing staggering amounts of money into them. Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto 5 is the most financially successful media product ever as it has made over 7 billion dollars in global revenue, that’s more than any book, movie or entertainment product in the world. Furthermore there are over 1.8 billion active gamers worldwide. But are video games actually beneficial to our society or are they simply just another fruitless activity?
The types of video games you can buy today are quite varied and a lot of games have open and expansive worlds. The Assassin’s Creed series for example has allowed players to travel to times and places like ancient Greece, industrial Britain and many more. Mehmet Sukru Kuran at the Abdullah Gul University had integrated strategy games into his course on history and found that video games could be used as a historical research tool. He reported that his students had a better understanding of complex interactions between religious, political, and technological forces, which in today’s society plays a major factor. This shows that video games like assassins creed could help children be exposed to variety of different cultures and peoples and help them understand how their society functions. Also virtual reality games have been on the rise lately and they have expanded into the work place. Virtual reality games provide medical staff with a training tool, allowing them to perform virtual simulations of surgeries. Surgeons can now do a critical analysis of the complex anatomy of the body and strategically plan how they will carry out their operation. When you play a game someone will probably tell you “don’t sit too close to the screen”, implying that if you do then your eyesight will be damaged. In an article by the Telegraph, researchers from McMaster University tested six adults aged 19-31 who were born with cataracts in both eyes, by letting them play a first person shooter for 40 hours over a month. They found that the adults became better at following directions, detecting slow rates of movement and distinguishing between faces. So video games entirely may not be damaging our eyes, but they are certainly improving our focus and attention to detail.
Video games are enjoyable experiences however there are a few downsides to them. Games like Fortnite offer new challenges and difficult missions to complete. The player will feel incentivised by rewards from completing these challenges to play more. This may lead to an addiction to being the best at the game and reaching the highest ranks. In an article by the Telegraph, researchers found, through MRI scans that Fortnite and other video addictive games can have similar affects on a child’s brain as drug abuse or alcoholism. We may be striving trying to be the best and dominate the leader boards, but it could put a burden on our brains. Also spending insane amounts of time can clash with our social life. We can become more isolated from the real world. Newer games like the Division encourage players to work together as a team and build an online social connection between the squad. Children will spend more time trying to build a virtual social life rather than activities like interacting with family and friends, reading or sports. Moreover, when talking about video games, it is often blamed for being a contributor to making people more ‘violent’. The player may not exhibit aggressive behaviour, but may eventually become immune to seeing sinister, vile acts like murder. For example, Call of Duty is a first person shooter that takes the player into multiple war zones; the game displays many graphical images and scenes that may disturb people. Gamers have played more than over 600 hours on Call of Duty Black Ops, which was released in 2010. Eventually after playing many hours of Call of Duty the player will become use to seeing someone having their head blown off or having your teammate brutally murdered by the enemy. In addition to this, M rated games like Dead Rising use foul and offensive which may incite the player to use this kind of language and impulsive behaviour when quarrelling or it may even make them vulnerable to online bullying. This can contribute to people becoming aggressive and less respectful.
Video games have become the norm for many people across the world. They offer fresh and immersive experiences, compelling stories and characters, and rich, extensive and expansive worlds to explore. With this package our minds are captivated and we can become more and more creative in the way we play. Games like Angry Birds and Portal, trains our brain to become more creative in solving a problem and allowing us to construct our own modus operandi in order to complete complex challenges. In Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson, he mentions that “a gamer must deal with immediate problems while keeping his long-term goals on his horizon”. It is a mammoth industry with tremendous amounts of potential. With VR games assisting medical professionals, aiding pilots to tackle life-death situations with simulations or even in the classroom, establishing a connection between pupils and enabling them to develop upon their individual and social skills. Video games constantly inspire me to challenge myself and work to the best of my ability and I am prepared to see what the intuitive, ingenious and inventive developers of the modern era are going to do next.