Ever since I was little, videogames have been a major part of my life. It has become one of my favorite source of entertainment, relief, and inspiration. Before I was 11, my mother has been taking care of me alone while my father has been working somewhere. While she took care of me, she made sure I was focusing in my studies day and night. Forbidden to play outside with friends, I find myself lacking in entertainment. In school, I would always feel left out in conversation with my group of friends. I envied them as they talk about games from the latest console, Playstation. My jealousy reached a point where I bought a game without the console. After I constantly begged my father, he finally gave in and bought me a Playstation. While I started …show more content…
enjoying my childhood a bit more, my productivity lowered. There are multiple factors why my productivity lowered, but videogames was a huge distraction and impacted my productivity heavily. Why is it that videogames are distractive? Is it a problem to the society? Videogaming is a type of entertainment focusing on player interaction with a console.
Through visual projection, gamers are shown a different scenery compared to reality. Lately, most known games have becoming more realistic graphically each day. Though, why is it that gamers continue to play the games when most games are trying to achieve realism when they could just go outside and experience the reality? Fictional worlds that cannot be experienced in reality are being offered by these games. For example, Final Fantasy XIV is a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) made by Square Enix that allows a player to soar through out the sky in floating ships towards floating islands. Players are given a different life one can say. This life is where players can retreat to after their daily routines. Their Escapism. The players customizes and controls their characters without having to fear consequences if they screw up. According to Mr. Hilgard, a doctoral candidate from MU College of Arts and Science, individuals play games as a way to "get away from their lives or to pretend to be other people seem to be those most at-risk for becoming part of a vicious cycle" (qtd. Escapism). This "vicious" cycle that Mr. Hilgard talks about is the addition to their daily routine where they retreat to another life, which becomes an addiction. With this addiction, it could become problematic to their productivity and distract their daily
lives. Even if players retreat to another world in a videogame, what makes it more enjoyable than reality? First of all, the players must be identified to determine what they enjoy in videogames. Bartle, a game researcher of University Essex, claims that there are multiple characteristics of a player that can be generalized into four catagories: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers (Bartle). Players who are categorized as Achievers are gamers who focuses on playing the game for ingame rewards, or achievements given to players for accomplishing certain event or completing conditions. In society, most actions made by these people are not rewarded. No one would be rewarded after picking up the loiter or giving money to the poor. Mainly, this player competes in order to become better of themselves that they are unable to do in the reality due to either lack of resources or limitations set by the social norms. Explorers, another category, is a player who enjoys the surroundings and environment that the gaming world provide. Compared to reality, floating islands and explorable dungeons are less likely to appear. The players in this category focuses more in interaction with the game compared to an Achiever who focuses on competition. In addition to interaction with the gaming environment, another category is the Socializers, whom are players who interact with other players. In the web, people could be completely different from who they are. Also, they can consider themselves anonymous to others and use the gaming community as a source of interaction with others. Lastly, the Killer category, also known as PvE (Player versus Environment) or PvP (Player versus Player), is a type of player who enjoys the combat mechanics of the game. This type of player focuses on fighting with other players or NPC (Non-Playable Character), also known as Artificial Intelligence. Since the players are online, they feel as if they could be more violent without having to fear consequences they would gain if they were on the real world. The personality of gamers can affect the time consumed with this entertainment and the extent of the addiction. As mentioned before, actions performed in reality is not likely to be rewarded. This is not only limited to Achievers but also to the majority of the players. In the virtual world, the characters made by the videogamers usually trend to saving the world from catastrophes and they feel a sense of accomplishment, "I saved the world." Another doctor from University of Essex, Dr. Przybylsky, says that "games can be more fun when you get the chance to act and be like your ideal self" (qtd. in Gayomali). Gamers want to relate themselves to the characters they made and put themselves in their character shoes. However, is the videogame really the fault for the distraction and problem in the society? Hilarie Cash, a PhD in psychology and executive director of reSTART (A facility who helps cure videogames or internet addicts) stated that excessive use of internet or videogames becomes an addiction and a huge distraction when the action controls the user than the other way around (Life's Sideline). The distraction is really within the users' capability to discipline themselves. While the videogames provide the users a source of enjoyment and relief, the users become too engulf in their virtual reality and focus their attention away from reality. M'Poko is a patient from this facility who lived an unstable life and used videogame as a source of relief in alternative of drugs. He prefers videogames and understood the damage it causes because it makes him "feel like socializing again" in comparison to drugs. The question stands, is videogames really the fault and a problem in the society? Nowadays, there are people who play videogames at a professional level. These players does not only play for entertainment, but for a career and source of income. Majority of these professional level players stream videos and chat with their viewers. In addition to their stream, they participate in international world tournaments. Earlier this year, Steam, a tycoon gaming industry, held a tournament for a MOBA (Multiplayer Battle Arena) game called DoTA 2 with a prize pool of $10,924,730. Teams consisting of 6 players or more (5 main players and the rest substitutes) from all over the world come to Seattle in order to compete with each other for the prize pool. While videogames could be considered as a huge distraction and problematic to productivity, it also serves as a career or source of income to some people.
Video games have become a hot topic recently. There have been a lot of controversy over whether to play or not to play. The controversy is due to them being arguably more captivating than all other forms of entertainment. Video games narrate an epic tale like no other form of entertainment can. You can become immersed in video games, because of this they are both a highly entertaining escape from the real world and a complete waste of time.
Many kids like Tommy, who spend most of their childhood and adolescences emerged in imaginary lands rather than dealing with the real world at hand, become socially anxious and have low self-esteem later in life. Instead of thriving with a career and family, they relapse back to the same virtual interaction they had as a child. They float through life barely able to support themselves or result to living with their parents. Adulthood seems to them a mere task they must complete in order to continue their gaming. Excessive videogame play for children and adolescents cause social anxiety, depression, and aggression because more time is spent alone engrossed in dynamic storylines and complex situations than outside building face-to-face relationships and other healthy social skills that better prepare them for their future.
There is no doubt that video games have become a major entertainment as important as cinema, literary and theatre for modern people. Nowadays, people tend towards spending more time on playing games than ever before. According to Nielsen’s report, gamers age 13 and older spent 6.3 hours a week on any gaming platform in 2013 around the United States, and the time people spent in 2012 was just 5.6 hours per week (The Nielsen Company, 2014). 12 percent, rising is a clear message to remind people that video games should be taken seriously. Because, as an emerging mode of entertainment, it is being a part of our culture and has a tremendous influence in our daily life. An increasing number of people are beginning to realize that games should and
I have been playing video games for as long as I remember. I started by playing the original Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System with my older brother and sister. I’ve stayed up way past my bedtime in elementary school playing Pokemon on my Gameboy. I continue to play video games even today, from the Wii to the Xbox and even on my computer. Being this avid and long-time gamer, I became curious about the effects that video games have on people like me. And so, I did some research
Game addicts cannot go on about that day without playing a game. They will spend at an average of twenty-four hours a week on gaming alone. Many game addicts forget about the everyday basic necessity such as eating, bathing and sleeping and continue on their games. Seungseob lee, a gamer addict who did not take care of himself, “played Starcraft for more than fifty consecutive hours at an internet cafe before suffering a fatal heart attack” (DAnastasio). The game addiction’s danger to health is tremendous mostly among adults and teenagers that are not under adult supervision. A solution to the game addiction problem would be simply prevent the person from accessing the game, but that also causes major problems. Brett, a gamer addict, thought of suicide when he wasn’t allowed to play his video game. He states, “At the time [I] felt anything had to be better than not being allowed to play Counter Strike” (DAnastasio). Brett ended up getting depression and started failing his classes. Brett cut himself away from the world and won’t even come out of the room. Excessive gaming can also “. . . induce pseudo hallucinatory-like experiences” (Clark). It happens when the gamer gets off the game after a long hours of playing. The gamer feels as if he or she is still in the game. One game addict claims to see and hear the zombies out the window of his home. These hallucinations can cause serious psychological and
Video games have been around about 50 years and they contribute a big part of the U.S. economy. People interact with video games every day throughout different ways, such as cell phone devices, computers, consoles or whatever which has a screen on it. In fact, it has always affected people’s lives. However, not so many people understand the benefits of video games. With video games, people can not only relieve themselves from stress and suffering, but it also improves people’s social experiences while they are exchanging and absorbing knowledge with other people; more than that, people can learn many other things from video games which can help them to achieve great things in lives.
As the time passes, technology is expanding and developing many creative ideas. Unlike in the past, nowadays we have computers, TVs, internet, and many inventions that have bad and good effects on us. Children used to interact with society by hanging out and playing sports with each other, but now we can see a big percentage of children who play video games for many hours daily. Addiction controls the lives of people, there is addiction to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol or gambling, and there are some forms of addiction associated with modern life, such as the Internet and video games. Most people think that video games are harmful and a waste of time.
Video games have come a very long way since their inception. Gone are the days of squares battling squares. Modern video games entail remarkably realistic players in three dimensional environments which are sometimes so vast that the players can literally get lost. Today’s games require years of development, and as many gamers will argue, are more fun than ever. Perhaps, however, they’re a little too fun. Electronic gaming has become so vastly popular that in the year 2000, eighty-four percent of overall teens played electronic games regularly (Walsh). As video games become more and more main stream, they have become the topic of much criticism. While some argue that there are some positive effects of electronic gaming, overall, video games are far more detrimental than beneficial; they offer little or no good to those who play, and are a colossal waste of time.
I have experienced some negative effects of games like a decrease in academics, but I still manage to get A’s and B’s in my classes because I learned how to prioritize days for me to study for exams instead of playing games. Academics argue that games can be beneficial in other domains of Personal Well-being besides mere enjoyment. Games should be studied for how and when they provide immediate psychological satisfactions. In addition, only moderate play supports Personal Well-Being. There is a typical example of excessive gaming is when the player claims that certain game has affected him by saying “this game fucked up a year of my life.” (Greet et.al.10). I have felt that I experienced video games addiction because I only played games day in day out during my junior year in high school, which a lot thing falls apart around me like my grades and my social life, but during summer I realized that had to find a balance of what’s important to me. Even though my experience with the negative effects of games I find that the positive effects still outweigh
First, video games are beneficial to adolescents because they help reduce stress and anxiety. Video games help reduce stress by giving everyday people an escape from reality. In an online reality call “Chore Wars,” the missions you have to complete are revolved around cleaning tasks you would see every day. (Real 1) For instance, by escaping reality, even for a short amount of time, you can release stress by killing bad guys in “World of Warcraft” or focus on different angles to get everyday tasks completed. Video games can also help reduce anxiety through taking a different approach to problems people face during their lifetimes. Alternative realities can help people when they get sick or hurt by helping them stay optimistic and set real goals for themselves to achieve. (Real 2) Reality worlds can also help a person build a support barrier by inviting them to play a game instead of asking for help outright. (Real 3) Since the creation of games many different genres have shown up, including fa...
Video game addiction is a problem that many people face when playing games, they can be addicted without knowing but eventually their addiction gets stronger over time and they will realise it. Video game addiction comes from the brain and when the player’s brain comes along a game that has a good reward system that rewards the player. When the brain feels good it wants more, therefore the player continues playing until reality takes over but eventually the player comes back for more. When a member of the family is addicted it causes reality issues within the family. According to Peter Gray ‘Some distraught young man in South Korea plays a video game for fifty straight hours without stopping to sleep or eat, goes into cardiac arrest, and dies. Therefore, video games are addictive, dangerous…’ These South Koreans do not have anyone to watch over them or restrict what they do so they continue to play without breaks or eating food until they die. On BBC News a Korean couple left their own baby to starve to death while raising an online baby, they fed their baby every 12 hours and went back to the onlin...
Video games are often portrayed in a negative manner because they are seen as having an "addictive" quality. Addiction has been defined as "A primary, chronic disease, characterized by impaired control over the use of a psychoactive substance and/or behavior. Despite the wonderful benefits games offer as diversions, spending too much time, to the neglect of normal life duties, and social development with direct contact with others can and often does happen. Clinically, the manifestations occur along biological, sociological, spiritual and especially psychological. Some psychological effects that affect the behaviors are failure to play outdoor games, difficulties in work or school, telling lies to everyone, decreased attention to personal hygiene, decreased attention to family and friends, and disturbances in the sleep cycle. Many video game addicts have strug...
Playing video games result in children becoming less social. Children with video game consoles and games would rather be playing the games, rather than interacting with their families or friends. These children get so involved in the aspects of playing the game that they do not want to interact with other people. Their focus is on the playing of the game, trying to reach that next level or trying to beat the game. Therefore, they isolate themselves in their rooms not interacting with others. Messerly, in the article, The Joystick Generation, states:
...r playing for countless hours if the story alone is not enough. Time in the real world becomes meaningless as he or she continues playing in the virtual world. A gamer may start at two in the afternoon telling himself or herself only one hour of game time, and then the shocking thing happens the clock says it is six in the evening. The entire is afternoon gone.
The experience of game play can be described as an activity in which the player is virtually embodied in the game world. Anyone who has experienced the world of gaming knows how the engaging experience can manifest itself with “sweaty palms and chills down the spine” (http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewArticle/80/147) when coming face-to-face with alien creatures; or with the adrenaline rush we get when racing a high speed automobile head-to-head with a friend. Gaming is an excellent source of entertainment. It provides an opportunity for social growth, provides a meaningful form of exploring expression, and provides heightened sensitivity.