Post by itssamanthatulloch on Dec 2, 2014 23:11:22 GMT
Video games receive far too much criticism in the world today.
Samantha Tulloch
Imagine for a moment that you are a teenager, with an extra hour or so in your spare time. Imagine if you could spend that time engaging in an activity that could stimulate your senses and creativity, that could improve your hand-eye coordination, vision and precision, as well as test scores, but be engaging and enjoyable at the same time. Wait a minute you must be thinking. This sounds like an unattainable utopian delusion. Well, this ‘delusion’ is actually more reality than you may have first considered. The medium of this wonder-activity, you ask? Surprisingly, all of these skills and assets can be ascertained simultaneously through the playing of video games. Many critics out there will call this claim ‘preposterous’, yet there is considerably more truth in it than antagonistic eccentrics would have you believe, as when comparing gaming as an activity, the amount of criticism the medium receives is greatly disproportionate to the benefits it gives us as a society.
Why do people play video games? If they weren’t satisfying people’s needs, video games wouldn’t be worth over $84 billion dollars in the world today. [4] Scott Rigby, a gaming researcher has found that video games satisfy 3 main needs we as humans have: competence, autonomy and relatedness, and every person has their own individual needs. [5] Competence is the feeling of attainment and the player feeling like they are improving, and people with a strong emphasis on this need in gaming are often completionists – wanting to complete everything in the game such as ‘catching ‘em all’ in Pokémon so they can master it. Autonomy on the other hand is that many aspects of gaming make the player feel like their actions do have an effect on the world around them in the game and on what happens to them, and people who are drawn to autonomy styled games such as ‘The SIMS’ or ‘World of Warcraft’ like the freedom to choose their own path in the game rather than being forced down a path they have no control over in a more linear game. Thirdly, relatedness concerns people feeling as though they have made a contribution to the world of the game and that they matter to other people, which are mainly exhibited in multiplayer games such as ‘Team Fortress 2’. In the lives of many individuals in modern society, gaming has been shown to provide an escape from the harsh realities some people face in their lives, such as feeling as though they aren’t in control of anything, need to feel good at something or lack purpose. Gaming provides a safe refuge in times like this, and that is something that many people not very fond of video games often overlook. If people’s lives can be improved via gaming, then surely it doesn’t deserve the disrespect it is receiving of late.
There is a very clear misconception in the perception of video games among many of its antagonists, which is that there are a large amount of very violent video games out on the market, when in fact, they are in a minority in relation to the vast body of alternatives in the world of gaming. There are many other genres of games, including puzzle, platforming, adventure and strategy alongside the first-person shooters and sandbox styles that have got people worked out up in a tizzy. These antagonists will also state these make up the vast majority of block buster games on the market; however this is not clearly the case, [6] On inspection of sales statistics from 2014, it is clear that some violent games are popular (Battlefield selling 7.19m copies, Call of Duty: Ghosts selling 14.5m) Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag selling 11+ million copies and Grand Theft Auto V shifting 33+ million copies), but the bestselling game of the year across all mediums was in fact Minecraft; a game where the player can enhance and utilise their creativity to build whatever they so desire, as well as being able to go into survival mode where they have to erect a structure to survive the night as monsters roam about. Other non-violent or minimal violent games selling big in 2014 include LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, The LEGO Movie Video Game, FIFA 2014 and NBA 2K14. With only around 60% of the top 10 bestselling games this year having violent protagonists, these claims that too many video games are violent is incredibly hypocritical given that of top grossing movies over a 25 year period, a steady 90% contained at least one violent main character. This proves the case that the market is apparently saturated by exclusively violence-driven games is empirically false and that the video game industry is too heavily and invalidly criticised.
The average age of a gamer is 33 [2], thus it is understandable that there are some games that are made deliberately to appeal to the older market, with a large proportion of said games having considerably gory, violent or sexual gameplay. It should also be observed that all games have age ratings that reflect their content, with older age ratings signifying much more content too mature for younger audiences. For example The fifth instalment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, notorious for gameplay mechanics such as the ability not only to hire prostitutes, but to kill them to regain money spent, have been branded with an 18 age rating for a reason. The law clearly states that a person under the age of 18 cannot legally purchase this game or any other they aren’t legally old enough to. The only way that young people can get their hands on these games is because their older siblings or parents purchase the games for them. It is very apparent that often when purchasing games for children, the latter two are not aware of the content of such games, and so may be rather clueless on the subject. Rather than slating the games for falling, perhaps we as educated and sophisticated people should use common sense and turn our focus to communication. It is important that the content is addressed to parents interested in purchasing such games clearly, for example via online webpages set up for this purpose and/or improving the quality of the age rating descriptions on video game cases so the parents know exactly what problems could arise from the child playing that game, and other games of a more suitable age rating for the child in question. This would then allow them to make an informed judgement on whether or not such a game is suitable for their child, which would improve the situation for both parties, and that they can instead buy a game that is more suitable alternative for said child.
As many parents can tell you, they have come home from a busy day at work to find their children playing video games such as ‘Legend of Zelda’ or ‘Half Life’, and have probably sighed to themselves and thought why could their child not do something much more productive with their time than fighting off swarms of enemies or shooting at zombies? While playing video games for 10 hours, day in and day out isn’t good for you, moderate amounts of playing have actually been proven to host numerous benefits to players, with essential skills useful for work and life and improving areas such as vision. Action-packed first person shooters, while on the surface may look like players just going around shooting the enemy with little in the way of valuable time being spent, are in fact proven to improve the sight of players. How you may ask? When undergoing a test similar to that used by opticians, it was found that people who played over 5 hours of action games consecutively scored better than their non-gamer counterparts, as well as being able to differentiate different shades of grey better and mental rotation, where after scoring for a first time, candidates were mandated to play 10 hours of first person action games [2]. In their second score, there was a great improvement, and astonishingly the improvement was still there, 5 months later. The case is the same for attention such as tracking multiple moving objects. This is tested when the candidate sits in front of a screen, while on it are many moving dots, at the beginning, several dots are a different colour, but revert to the same colour as the other dots on the screen after a period of time. At the end the candidate identifies which dots changed. Researchers found that the average non gamer could only track around 3-4 objects at a time, compared to their gamer counterparts who were able to track 7-8 plus objects successfully.[2] Many professions are using this data to their advantage, such as in the medical profession. It has been found that surgeons who play video games 3 hours a week have 37% fewer errors and can complete tasks 27% faster [1]. Puzzle games such as ‘Legend of Zelda’ are famous for their incredibly thought-provoking puzzles, which have been proven to boost the problem solving skills of players. This in turn has boosted grades for puzzle questions in tests for the players in question. Surely, an efficient and effective medical care, improved grading and skilled workforce is very beneficial to society and that if video games can help provide that, the slating they are receiving is unjust.
We are living in an age where skills for work are becoming ever more important to people’s employability, and where in order to keep our heads held high, we need the existence of games to function. Therefore, it is important that given the benefits that the world of gaming provides us, the fire it comes under as an entertainment medium is beyond unjust. Perhaps, instead of slating video games critics, you should pick up a controller and try one out yourselves. You might just improve some of your skills.
1655 words (really sorry, I couldn't decide what to cut)
Sources:
[1] www.blahblahtech.com/2008/10/but-video-games-are-bad-for-kids-right.htm
American Psychological Association: Video Games Play May Provide Learning, Health, Social Benefits, Review finds
www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/video-games.aspx
[2] TED Talks - Daphne Bavelier: Your Brain on Video Games
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FktsFcooIG8
[3]http://www.cnbc.com/id/101734983/page/2
10) Lego Marvel Super Heroes 1.44m
9) inFAMOUS Second son 1.92m
8) Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag 11+ million copies
7) Grand Theft Auto V 33+ million units
6) Minecraft 35+million copies
5) Battlefield 7.19m
4) The LEGO Movie Videogame 2.75m
3) NBA 2K14 5.77m
2) Call of Duty: Ghosts 14.5m
1) Titanfall 2.28m
[4] Tom Chatfield: 7 Ways Video Games Engage The Brain www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyamsZXXF2w&list=WL&index=15
[5]Game Theory: Why You Play Video Games
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyUC_28HIvA
[6] www.cbsnews.com/news/violence-in-movies-a-concern-whether-its-pg-13-r-film-study/
Debatabase: This house would ban the sale of violent video games/ censor violent video games
idebate.org/debatabase/debates/ban/house-would-ban-sale-violent-video-gamescensor-violent-video-games]