Wake up early, turn on computer, plop down on the chair, wait for computer to start up, and play League of Legends until somebody else wakes up to cook breakfast. That’s basically my brothers’ weekend morning schedule. Instead of washing up and pouring themselves a bowl of cereal or something, they rather play games until they get yelled at. The worse part is, I wake up to the sounds of constant mouse clicking and my brothers’ screams of frustration. Despite how “fun” they claim League of Legends to be, I never see them actually smiling when they play.
In his February 2012 article, Steven Newman addresses the positive and negative effects of video gaming. Playing games helps with hand-eye coordination and faster reflexes. Playing games is also a way to relax and relieve stress. The virtual world helps gamers escape from their worries; for the moment, they can put themselves in a fantasy world to seek treasures and fight strange monsters. Gamers get quick gratification from feeling like a hero on a quest or a story. Needless to say, they enjoy being the main character in the story, moving the story forward, and being a major part of the action. There is also little or no risk when it comes to games. When the character dies or loses, one can start over and try again. After all, games are supposed to be light-hearted and fun, right?
Although gaming does have it’s pros, I believe it is important to acknowledge and consider the cons. Certain games are simply too inappropriate; violent games like Grand Theft Auto have made violence seem “normal” and dehumanized the victims in those violent crime sprees. The gamer is encouraged to go on a rampage, not only killing innocent people but also killing police as well. Even if violent games do not actually cause people to become more violent, these are not qualities that we would want to teach young children. Children are learning to have this expectation to enjoy violence as they grow older. “Mature” games are actually just more violent and gruesome, not actually “mature” in any sophisticated way.
Not only is the quality an issue, but quantity is an issue as well. Excessive gaming has proven to disconnect people from the real world. Someone who plays games too much is more likely to become more anti-social than someone who does not. Trying to escape from reality can become a double edged sword; eventually it isn’t hard for them to prefer the virtual world to this one. In the virtual world, they are the main character and the story revolves around them.
(picture taken from google images)
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To compound the problem, games are made to be addicting in order to sell to as many people as possible. But after a certain point, games could become too addicting. Even though many people do not want to admit it, they are out of control when it comes to playing games. This isn’t just a speculation; gaming addiction is real. In his blog, Dr. Bill Jenkins states that “gaming dependence has been shown to create dysfunction in five domains: academic, social, occupational, developmental and behavioral.” There has also been multiple recorded instances where gamers have actually died while playing games, either because of the enormous stress on their body or because of not moving their body adequately at all.
Many people try to validate the negative effects of gaming with the positive ones. Even the blog takes a light tone about the incidents; I think they should have taken those incidents as a grave reminder to all the people who obsessively play games with complete disregard for their physical or mental health. No matter how many benefits games have, they are too addicting to take lightly. Many of those victims were in their early adulthood, just a year or two older than me; I cannot imagine dying over something so little as a game. For me, these cons of gaming outweigh the pros by far so I try to stay away from games as much as I can.
I do agree that the cons of gaming outweigh the pros. The dilemma I see is that people become too obsessed and addicted to something so minor as a game. They stop caring about their life, happiness, socializing, academics, etc because they are so consumed by the graphic scenes they see on their video games. Any thing being done excessively is not beneficial whatsoever. With that being said, the fact that gaming is so addictive, it is bad because it does become an act that is overused and pushed to the extreme which eventually causes negative side effects.
ReplyDeleteThis goes back to what I said on a previous post. "second-life" is one of the scariest games that I can think of. The fact that people need to remove themselves from this life and have a "second life" is incredibly nerve-wracking. Of course it is sad that people need to remove themselves from their life, but it is terrible that these people won't even get the chance to fix their lives. They just up and go and start living in a computer rather than trying to help themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt is alarming that someone died playing a video game, but I think it is unfair to use that person as an example of the dangers of video games because I feel that is probably a rare case. So many people play video games and very few of them have died playing them. I understand that they have the capacity to be addicting. However, I don't think you can condemn an entire industry just because some people are particularly susceptible to its harmful aspects, especially when there are just as many, or maybe even more, people who are not affected this way.
ReplyDeleteThe cases of video game addiction proving to be fatal are indeed alarming, but cases of extreme addiction are present in countless aspects of our life. The positive influences of video games are very rewarding for those who do not fall victim to addiction, not just on an entertainment and social level but also in the emotions behind storylines and the artistic achievements and visual beauty that helps tun some games into a work of art.
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