Curse

Hyprodimus Prime · Jun 30, 2007, 06:30 AM // 06:30

Hi, I just got my issue of EGM and they ranted on about how there is no solid proof that video games increase violent behavior and such. I wrote this a while ago for my Psychology AP class and id like to know your opinions too. I for one do believe there is a negative after effect only visible by connecting the dots and reading between the lines.

The Residual Effects of Video Games on North American Culture

Thirty-four years has evolved the video game from Pong to the PlayStation 3. The video game industry was born due to the massive popularity of the games. Gaming is no longer a minority and the popularity of games has caused side effects on urbanized North America. Games, like most things in this world are inherently good. However, video games are too often abused and looked upon by non gamers as mindless, brainwashing disks of doom. Our culture is subject to increased violence from exposure by the media of which video games are a big part. Language has also been tainted by the video game. These games exhibit both negative and positive effects have been a catalyst for our culture’s change, but because of easy abuse, video games have pushed urbanized North American culture into what many would consider a worse state.

Like most man made inventions, video games are intentionally invented for mankind’s better. Any game, video or not, is made for entertainment and fun. All video games have a “what if” component which makes them so engaging. One can do or be someone who one could not be under real life circumstances. This opening of possibilities is what keeps the gamer interested in the game and is the driving force behind one’s will to play. People play sports games because they are not professional athletes. They play shooter games because they cannot shoot other people in real life. They play chess online because they cannot afford the plane trip across the world to challenge other players. One learns a great deal from games because of the new opportunities to interact with the world. As with all time-consuming tasks in life, one can be conditioned by games, and thus one learns various skills to apply to other areas of work. From playing RPG games, one can learn about economics (supply and demand) and linguistic intelligence (learning how communicate with others in order to influence them). Playing RTS games will teach one to prioritize, keep track of time, macro and micromanage resources. The FPS genre conditions hand-eye coordination and reflexes. A study of 25 000 US business professionals yielded that “professionals who grew up playing video games actually make better business people. They’re more serious about achievement; more attached to the company they work for and the people they work with; more flexible, persistent problem-solvers; more willing to take only the risks that make sense.”(1) Before the video game, recreational activities were spread out into various “niches”. People raced, played sports, solved puzzles, went on adventures, talked to other people etc. Previous recreational activities were diverse and therefore no one thought any single one of them to be an issue, but because video games cover all of these topics under one name, people start generalizing and assuming. Games are not “hooking” most people; they just digitize what they already liked to do. The video game itself can be an educational simulator if used correctly.

When people abuse games, negative side effects quickly follow. Abuse of video games occurs when one neglects ones responsibilities to self and others in order to play the game which interferes with day to-day-routines. Many gamers make games their first priority after work or school because it is relaxing. People do not want to start working again after 6 to 8 hours of already doing so and they see their game as their getaway. What many people fail to do is stop themselves until much valuable time has been spent on leisure. They justify their extra time with excuses. Examples might be, “I’m almost done this quest,” “I’ve had a long day at work, I need more time,” “I paid for this game, I need to squeeze as much out of it as I can,” or “my allies are counting on me, I can’t quit on them now.” Video games habits are much like spending habits, Internet habits, television habits, eating habits or phone habits among others, in that, it is human nature to not be able to distinguish “need” from “want.” With few regulations on games, it is easy for them to be abused. Our society does not tolerate game addiction because games are not considered to be work and our society is based on work. If one does not work, one is considered lazy. If a child is out playing basketball and doesn’t respond to his/her mother calling her child in for dinner, it might be considered “cute.” It is socially unacceptable if the child was playing basketball on a consol and didn’t respond either. North American culture needs to expand its acceptable limits on recreational activity.

Some game designers intend on capitalizing on the market and plan their games to be as addictive possible to keep players playing and therefore continue to purchase expansions, or month- to-month pay-to-play packs. They make games that have no end, therefore, if a player does stop, that player will be “outdated” if he ever returns. These games are usually of the RPG style. All addictions start the same way, with a build up of tolerance levels. Addictive games make one need to play more in order to achieve the same amount of reward as before. Random elements contribute to the rewards in the game. Farming often takes up a lot of time and can be compared to gambling, in hopes of hitting the “big one.” Playing such “rewarding” games increases dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens. If the same process is repeated over and over, its tolerance will increase. When the play is stopped the nucleus accumbens craves more dopamine to recover back to a “regular” level. This craving is the addiction felt. One example on the extreme side happened to Lee Seung Seop of South Korea. He was an industrial boiler repairman and long-time gamer. One day he stepped into an Internet café to play World of Warcraft and StarCraft for almost fifty consecutive hours. He died from “exhaustion and dehydration induced heart failure and he went into cardiac arrest.”(9) He knew he was addicted, his friends knew and his family knew. He lost his job and girlfriend six weeks before the incident. He just couldn’t stop himself. Another incident happened to a couple in South Korea who left their four-month old infant at home for many hours alone.(10) These are extreme cases and show game addiction at its worst. China is instating new rules against games. Gamers under the age of eighteen will have their accounts monitored and after three hours, their rewards from the game will dramatically decrease in an attempt to deter people from playing for too long. Compared to other forms of addiction, video game addiction is thrown in with the other socially unacceptable addictions such as drug addiction. Addictions are considered “bad” because they focus the person on one thing, restricting that person from doing other more productive things in life. In South Korea some games are almost considered national sports. Some people even make a living off playing games which makes one wonder how different it is from being a professional athlete. If gaming reaches a “professional” title, one is able to justify the game addicts’ actions.

Violence is also a big issue when it comes to judging video games. Video games are a form of media, and to sell games, producers need to conform to the public’s demands, not the other way around. The truth is that violence sells. There are plenty of non-violent games out there, but violent ones sell better due to the instant gratification the user receives. Not to say that video games are the cause of increased violence, but they are a large contributor due to the many popular violent games available. Most people are not directly exposed to violence and feel some need to satisfy themselves. Different forms of media gain the public’s attention through exposing them to violence. This exposure increases tolerance and violence quickly turns from a rare occasion into an everyday norm. While interviewing people of the, “Heavy Gamer” category, they testified that they were perfect examples of how games have no effect on increased violence. It took talking to family members and other non gamers to see that their testimonies are in fact more evidence for the impact of violent games on people. These heavy gamers did not consider their casual actions as violent or aggressive, but the non gamers noticed this change. Children in their cognitive developing stage are especially vulnerable to violent video game influence. “These games reward violent behavior.”(1) At the neural level, dopamine is being fed to neurons to make them “remember” that this action was a positive thing. This lowering of thresholds increases violent behavior. The University of Missouri-Columbia did EEG scans on various gamers and, “have found that people who play violent video games show diminished brain responses to images of real-life violence.”(4) Dr. Craig A. Anderson, who has been studying the video game effect since it began, says that “General arousal (e.g., heart rate) increases, which tends to increase the dominant behavioral tendency.”(2) When two people fight for dominance, other conflicts begin. This increase in the tolerance raises the bar to what is acceptable and people start to act more aggressively if they think their actions are within the raised limits. People will often justify playing to release anger. Venting anger or “catharsis” actually does not work because one is already agitated and thus susceptible to more irritation. Being “just a game” does not mean the violence taking place does not affect one’s self. Parents need to watch the content in the game and especially observe the child reactions to certain parts of the game. Because each child is different, watching this behavior is the key to judging the game because one cannot fully trust the rating symbol on the back of the cover. Violence in video games greatly affects the society, being a very popular form of media.

Language has also been afflicted by the video game. Many of the popular games played are online. Many slang words such as “Woot!” (derived from “What!?” which is in turn derived from, “What was that! I beat you!”), “Pwn” (meaning “to own” which in turn means to severely beat someone), and “N00b” (used as an insult, meaning someone who is as bad at the game as a new person) have developed. In the example of “Woot!” one notices how many times the phrase has been shortened. This shows how the amount of effort one is using to express oneself is being diminished. “Pwn” is a combination of an altered original meaning and gamer “meta-culture”. “Pwn” (often pronounced, “pown”) made its debut when someone mistakenly wrote “pwn” instead of “own” due to the relatively close nature of the “p” and “o” keys on the keyboard. To “own someone” also comes from gamer slang. Owning someone refers back to slavery, and to “own someone” means that the opponent was beaten so badly, it is as if the victor is in total control and dehumanizes the loser to a possession status. “N00b” is what many gamers use to insult other gamers. Calling someone this implies that one has wasted one’s time trying to play the game that one has not gained any skill and thus lost. It is derived from “newbie,” which is different. “Newbie” means someone new to the game and the lack of experience is expected. By taking offence to being called a “N00b” one admits spending too much time on the game and ones conscience proposes that it is a problem. Being hurt by oneself is most humiliating and is why being called a “N00b” is so insulting to gamers. One learns language through which one interacts with. If one is constantly interacting with their gaming society, one will pick up the grammar, slang and other terminology respectively. Spending time with the game society reduces the exposure to vocabulary from other areas as any focus would have. These words have effectively spread to the vocabularies of non gamers and therefore influenced much of society. The extent of the damage done to the English language by video games is clear from sheer amount of contractions, slang words and misuses of original meaning appearing.

The video game has existed since 1970, and its popularity has grown exponentially. The growth of the gaming culture has affected North American language by altering meaning, creating new slang and abbreviating phrases into an acronym alphabet soup. Games have increased the population’s exposure to violence, increasing tolerance by rewarding violent acts. Game abuse can lead to addiction which is often implanted in games by the developers themselves to maintain a stable player base. In spite of all of the negativity found in games, video games like most other things in life are intentionally good. Games are made to simulations which allow humans to expand their view of the universe from the comforts of their home. The lack of discipline and self control weakens our society’s ability to resist abusing games, making the video games’ negative side effects outweigh their good intentions.

Nucleus Accumbens: A part in the brain that plays an important role in reward, pleasure, and addiction.(7)

Refferences:
Companies:
-James Stevenson, employee at Insomniac Games.
-EA-Electronic Arts

Interviews
Heavy Gamers:
-Mynor Figueroa
-Julien Martin
-Marshall Reichenberger
-Cody Innes
-Kevin Yulo
-Derek Beckett
-1x Anonymous (didn’t want to be named)

Leisurely Gamers:
-Jordan Ho
-Jack Zhang
-1x Anonymous (didn’t want to be named)

Non Gamers:
-Jennifer
-2x Anonymous (don’t want to be named)

Other Sources:
-Last 20 minutes of the Insomniac Games Podcast (#3).
-Psychology 12 seventh edition (our book)

Sites:
(1) http://psychcentral.com/blog/archive...ung-way-ahead/
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/fa...-2004/01AB.pdf
(4) http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8449
(2) http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/fa...Game_FAQs.html
(3) http://www.psychologymatters.org/videogames.html
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_addiction
(6) http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20...clark_01.shtml
(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleus_accumbens
(8) http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html
(9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Seung_Seop
(10) http://www.gamespot.com/news/6127866.html
(11) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4183340.stm
(12) http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/09...s_6132357.html
(13) http://www.purepwnage.com/forums/index.php?showforum=16

xSmudgex · Jul 02, 2007, 06:03 PM // 18:03

A very interesting article i believe after reading this article that there are negative side effects but it mostly depends on the type of person you are since every person is different. I do believe that children should not play violent games involving guns foul language etc because because a childs body is still developing and influence can effect them alot more than it would a adult.

thats just my opinion.

Trakata · Jul 02, 2007, 06:25 PM // 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by xSmudgex

A very interesting article i believe after reading this article that there are negative side effects but it mostly depends on the type of person you are since every person is different. I do believe that children should not play violent games involving guns foul language etc because because a childs body is still developing and influence can effect them alot more than it would a adult.

I would disagree, since children are people too. Things affect each child differently, you can't lump them all into the "weak-minded kids" category.

Divinitys Creature · Jul 03, 2007, 02:48 AM // 02:48

A good read. I think violent games affect young kids more than they do to older teenagers/adults, based on people I know. It's not set in stone, I know quite a few nutcase adults that take FPS way to seriously and think they some kind of badass sniper but w/e.

Onarik Amrak · Jul 03, 2007, 05:01 AM // 05:01

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=276448

I thought you might find this interesting.

OI-812 · Jul 03, 2007, 05:08 AM // 05:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divinitys Creature

I know quite a few nutcase adults that take FPS way to seriously and think they some kind of badass sniper but w/e.

I've met one of those! The whole time he was spewing crap about how he was gonna track me down and kill me on my front porch with a .50 cal sniper rifle, I was thinking "I wonder what would happen if I slapped an M40 rifle in your hands, took you out in the forest, and said 'Somewhere out here is a highly trained Marine sniper, armed with his own personally-customized M40, who is going to be hunting for you. The rules of the game are simple: kill the other guy. May the best man win!' and left you to your doom. Yes, I think that would be fun."

Divinitys Creature · Jul 04, 2007, 03:08 PM // 15:08

LOL! yeah that might make for a good YouTube video j/k

Sk8tborderx · Jul 08, 2007, 02:04 PM // 14:04

Sure you will have a few crazy people out there, but they were crazy before they ever picked up the game.

The blame lies with the parents. The biggest problem with society today is that no one wants to take responsibility and they all need something to blame, and video games is an easy choice, when in reality it is bad parenting not video games that cause problems.

Complaining that violence in a video game is making your child violent, or watching violent TV, how hard is it to simply turn it off/take it away?