How Computer Games Change the World (3)

Societal Impacts

The Societal impacts brought by computer games are the most controversial, and perhaps, the most important argue regarding its influence. Many people believe that the invention and widespread of computer games bring adverse effects to the society. To sum up, there are mainly three common viewpoints on how computer games can cause harm to the society, including addiction, linkage with youth aggression and antisocial behavour such as spending less time to communicate with others in person.

The first point argues that computer game causes addiction, especially among teenagers. In fact, the emotional 'high' experienced after successfully completing certain game objectives can create a feedback effect, which, if unchecked, can lead to emotional dependency (Zwaa, 2008). Many people believe that, this not only reduce the time teenagers spent on obtaining knowledge from textbooks and revising, but also, in extreme case, reduce their sleeping time, thus harming health and affecting their normal lives. This causes severe threats to the society, as teenagers are leaders of the future world. Moreover, a research found out that the average game player age is 34 and the average experience of game playing is 12 years (Entertainment Software Association, 2010). This means that the working force available to the society will diminish as adults become addicted to computer games, which is a great lost to the society. A more detailed description of the addictive effect of computer games has been included in Joseph’s part already.

Compared to the first viewpoint, the second viewpoint sounds even more persuasive. Many people believe that there is a close linkage between violent computer games and teenage aggression. Their major argument is mainly about desensitization of violent or bloody content. These people believe that violent content could be transferred and stocked in minds of anyone who plays it, and as they continue to play those kinds of games the initial reaction about violence eventually decreases. At last, they become more and more immune to this violence, which make them feel that killing and slaughtering images were just normal. This violence continually plays in front of every teenage boy while they are playing their favorite cold-blooded character, killing and slaughtering lots of people mindlessly (Ferrer, 2008). They claim that at the end the computer games with violent contents will transform innocent schoolboys into cold-blooded killing machines. Reasons why this point is invalid will be given in the latter part of this essay.

The last point states that once teenagers are too devoted to playing computer games, they spend less time making new friends, interacting with family members, and less “out-going”. We often hear complains from parents that their children spend more time “talking” to virtual characters in computer games than to them. This is not very healthy as the ability to communicate with others in the real world is an important key to the whole-person development of the children.

These three viewpoints, on the first glance, seem to be strong and persuasive. However, I personally share the same viewpoint with Henry Jenkins, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Jenkins listed eight very interesting misconceptions of the general public on computer games, and give very effective counter-arguments (http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html). Many of these counter arguments can be used to explain why I believe that the above three claims about computer games are not necessarily valid. For the argument regarding the addiction of computer games, as Joseph has mentioned, all depends on the players’ self-control and time management. Thus, I am not going to emphasis much on this point. Instead, I want to focus on the other two viewpoints, including the relation between aggression and violent games, and the antisocial behavour caused by video games.

In practice, there has been no research proving that computer game with violent content is a primary factor of aggression and violence. Similar, there isn’t any case describing that these computer games are capable of transforming a normal human being to a serial killer (Jenkins, 2004). Besides, Professor Jenkins states that, there have been classic studies of play behavour suggesting that even apes can make basic distinctions between “play” fight and actual combat.

Eric Zimmerman, a famous game designer and play theorist describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." He stated that, “The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions.” (Jenkins, 2004). Thus, the argument that playing violent video games too often can cause desensitization of violence act, or a lack of empathy for real-world victims is not valid at all.

However, there are children that behave similarly towards virtual sceneries or characters and the real world. This is a kind of emotional disease, which is hidden in some people. In such case, violent video games can trigger violent actions. But for the majority, gaming has no such effect (Jenkins, 2004). Concerning the viewpoint about social isolation, it is not very accurate to say that computer games cause users to be socially isolated. Again, according to Professor Jenkins, almost sixty percent of frequent gamers play with friends, more than two-third plays with siblings and twenty five percent play with spouses or parents. (Jenkins, 2004) In fact, there are much video games designed for the purpose of social interactions, such as the multiplayer sports game of Nintendo Wii. According to Talmadge Wright, a famous sociologist, conversation about game content, which is called “meta-gaming” provides a context for thinking about game rules and rule breaking (Wright, Boria, & Breidenbach, 2002). This in terms stimulates communication and interactions. In fact, players not only conflict and combat on the explicit screen, but also cooperate and battle implicitly in the real life as a person. Gaming strategies can also serve the purpose as a conversational content among friends and enhancing their relationships.

I believe computer games have brought certain important positive impacts to the society, and one of them is globalization. Through multiplayers gaming, such as online games, players from all over the world interacts with each other frequently. Gradually, we become more and more comfortable to interact, such as playing, arguing and cooperating with people with different races, cultures, social backgrounds and economic classes because on the gaming scene, the only thing that matters is the gaming skills of players (Zwaa, 2008). Gaming itself eliminates the differentiation based on other factors. This eventually facilitates globalization and smoothen the development of a truly harmonious global village.

However, I have to admit that there are still some negative societal impacts of computer games that we cannot ignore. For example, the popularity of computer games cause children to spend less time on sports, thus worsening the already severe problem of obesity.

Reference

1. Barer, R.H. (1969). Patent No. 3659285. United States.
2. Winter, D. (1999, October 28). The Site of the First Video Game. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from Welcome to the PONG-Story: http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm
3. Enterainment Software Association. (2010). Industry Facts, Retrived November 23, 2010, from Entertainment Software Assoications: http://www.theesa.com/facts/
4. Ferrer, P. (2008). The impact of video games on the socriety. Retrieved November 23,2010, from Helium: http://www.helium.com/items/1230702-the-impact-of-video-games-on-society?page=1
5. Zwaa, X. (2008). The impact of video games on society. Retrieved November 3, 2010, from Helium: http://www.helium.com/items/929805-the-impact-of-video-games-on-society
6. Jenkins, H. (2004). Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerolution/impact/myths.html
7. Wright, T., Boria, E., & Breidenbach, P. (2002). Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games Playing Counter-Strike. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from http://www.gamestudies.ord/0202/wright

Conclusion
The above four passages discuss the impacts of computer games on three different aspects, including individual, economic & financial and cultural. Undoubtedly, no matter positive or negative, from altering individual’s lifestyles to creating new business opportunities and occupations, the invention of computer games greatly changes the world. At least, it has become an important element of entertainment, and perhaps, an essential part of life to many people. Whether these impacts are good or bad all depends on what perspective you use and what dimension you are investigating on.

As individuals, it is difficult for us to affect the technical, economical and cultural impacts of computer games. However, we can ensure that computer games to bring good influence to our personal lives by good time-management and self-control. Bare in mind that computer game is a kind of tool, and whether it brings benefit or harm to yourself all depends on how you manage it.

Last thing I want to add is that while we, as game players, affect the direction of development of the computer game industry; the industry is changing us at the same time. Therefore, the impact of computer games to the world is somehow bi-directional. Never underestimate the influence of yourself, and never underestimate the power of computer games.