Everyday Computing and the Internet -- HKU CCST9003 Common Core

In order to make informed decisions in this information age, everyone needs to have an efficient way to sift through and evaluate the myriads of information that is available through the internet. The ultimate objective of this course (HKU CCST9003) is to help students develop a “computational” state of mind for everyday events. We will also discuss intensively the societal impacts of computing technologies on our daily life.

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

The influence of Smartphone Apps on Handheld game console market

LAM YAT HANG

    Starting from 1976, with the invention of the first handheld game console, playing video games was not restricted at home or game center anymore. We started to see people playing video games when waiting for buses, queuing for tickets or even attending lectures. Handheld game console allows us to have fun anytime at anywhere.

    More than 40 years have passed, today handheld game console is still very popular among people. It is not difficult to find people holding a PSP or NDS on the street. PSP and NDS, as the two consoles having the most competitiveness in the market of handheld game, starting their competition in 2004. They were both first introduced in 2004 and hit the market at that time. Until now, the PSP has sold for more than 71million units and NDS has sold for more than 147million units. With the release of new versions of the two consoles, their sales are still going. In 2009, the NDS shared 70% and PSP shared 11% of the portable game software revenue in the U.S. It seems that in the market there is no another console can complete with them. However, if you also consider mobile phone as one of the console, they really get a strong competitor.

    Many people may wonder if mobile phone can be considered as one type of consoles. Before appearance of the iOS and the Android system, the games installed in the mobile phones were usually simple games like “Snack” and “Minesweeper”. The mobile phone games usually had lower quality than that on traditional game consoles and didn’t be very popular. Therefore, people didn’t consider mobile phone as one of the handheld game consoles. However, with the appearance and popular of the iOS, Android system and Smartphone in recent years, game developers start to put more money in this market to develop more and better games. The games are not simple any more, some of them even have a big hit in the world like the Angry Bird and Fruit Ninja. These years, we can usually see people playing video games on the street, holding not a NDS or PSP, but a mobile phone. Due to its popularity and success, many people start to consider mobile phone as one of the handheld game consoles.

    Is that mobile phone really intimidating other consoles? Recently a research find that the market share for iOS and Android in the U.S portable games revenue raise from 19% in 2009 to 34% in 2010 and is predicted to further increase in the following years. While the market share of iOS and Android system increase by 15% in a year time, the one of NDS and PSP decreased 13% and 2% respectively. Many researcher believe that appearance of Smartphone and its applications, which called as “Apps”, is one of the factors that make the market share of traditional game consoles decline.

Some news also reported that the Nintendo Corporation, the corporation which invented NDS, has classified the iOS and Android system as their strongest competitor in the market of handheld game.

What makes Smartphone a strong handheld game console? Mobile phone is considered as a must-have item for people living in cities. In 2011, the Smartphone makes up 40% of all mobile phones in the market in the U.S and is expected to increase further in the future. It shows that Smartphone is also becoming more and more popular. Before the appearance of Smartphone, people need to bring an additional device like NDS or PSP with them for playing video games. Many people at that time need to bring their cell phone together with a console when they went out which was a little inconvenient. Many people did not own a cell phone and a game console at the same time. However, Smartphone changes the situation. Smartphone combines mobile phone, game console and even computer together. People bring a Smartphone with them are just like bringing a game console at the same time. With the device on hand, people are more likely to play video games. Although not all people use Smartphone to play video games, but a research find that 29% people will do so. With the amazing sales of Smartphone in the recent years, Smartphone had sold for more than 100million units in the 4th quarter of 2010, it can be said as the console having the most consumers.

Apart from that, Smartphone also provides a more convenient way for their consumers to get video games. The video games in the Smartphone are downloaded in form of applications, which usually called as “Apps”. All Apps are downloaded from the web and no exception for the game Apps. When people want to have game, there is no need for them to go to a shopping centre or waiting for the delivery if they buy it online. All the actions for buying Apps are being instant. The consumer just need to press an icon and their Apps will be downloaded and installed in their Smartphone. From the time that a person has a idea to have a game Apps to the time which he can play the game, the whole process takes no more than 5 minutes. The convenient of the process encourage people to enter the Apps market and have their game Apps. The sales revenue and the game developers will definitely be beneficial to this.

With the increase in the market share for Smartphone in the handheld game console, it is expected that more game developer will enter the market and provide more games for consumers. With more choices, more consumers will also be attracted. This forms a virtuous cycle and the Smartphone market share in the handheld game console is likely to further increase in the following years.

Reference

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Impact of Computer Games on Human Beings: Societal and Psychological Aspects

Have you ever played Computer Games before? I am sure the answer for most of the the answer will be ‘YES’. The computer games have been getting more and more exquisite in the past decade, and in turns have been gaining popularity since the very first game introduced decades ago and their popularity continues to grow today. This high popularity made the impact of computer games on Human Being, mainly psychological and societal, a main issue. In this essay both the beneficial and adverse effects will be discussed.

To begin with, despite the general worries raised by parents, there are indeed many beneficial effects to people playing computer games. First of all, one obvious advantage is that computer games help train coordination. By playing these games which require high concentration, players are trained to achieve higher reflexes, higher processing brain with advanced eye and hand coordination, more flexible fingers and joints, as well as and increased visual acuity, i.e. an enhanced peripheral vision as the games require player to be cautious of the whole screen.

Other than that, Common skills like problem solving, teamwork, logics and discipline are all demonstrated in some computer games e.g. Puzzle, adventure and word games. For instance, Adventure games where you have to complete certain goals can also help you to ‘think outside the box’. This is especially valuable for children as they find computer games more entertaining than usual school activity hence they will be more willing to learn these skills through such fun method.

Apart from that, there are many other pros for playing computer games depends on the game type. Some games may teach people more about real-life techniques. Virtual pet games, for example, help people learn what is involved in raising a pet; There are many Educational games available which were shown by studies that children playing them learn more because they do not realize that they are learning; By playing the Nintendo Wii which is introduced not long ago, players can actually get a reasonable physical workout, so this provide a chance of exercising even at home. What’s more, computer games are fun to play with during leisure time and help people to relieve stress and temporarily escape from the stressful reality.

Besides these advantages experienced by casual game player, the development of the computer game industry has provided a lot of job opportunities to people. This does not only limited to the occupation of developing new games and technologies, but even playing the computer games may be a job: there are many professional game players who actually earn their living by playing computer games.

Next, although there are many benefits, we are not supposed to ignore the many adverse impacts of computer games on human being, most of them are a result of excessive gaming and may pose great harm to the individual as well as the society.

First of all, one leading problem concerned by the society regarding gaming is Game addiction which leads to a lot of complications. Many people find computer games a great way to escape from the stressful reality as these games provide a high level of quick gratification. You are almost constantly being rewarded and, when you lose, you get to easily start over to work on your goal. This fact predisposes the risk of game addiction. As people get addicted to computer games, they will prefer staying in front of the computers all the time that they skip meals, refuse going out for work or school, do not sleep and exercise enough. They start to lose their social ability and also mix up the real and virtual world which may pose a risk not only to themselves, but other people especially their close relatives. Only earlier in May this year, A heavily game-addicted South Korean couple who left their baby to starve while raising a "virtual child" on the Internet were given prison. This revealed how game addiction can lead to harm of others.

The excessive gaming of game addicts also poses harm to their own health. There are many computer-related diseases. One most common disease is Repetitive Strain Injury, an injury of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, mainly in the upper limb for gamers, due to repetitive use of their upper limb in playing the computer games. Also, Computer vision syndrome condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer display for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time are common. Other than that, the repetitive motion of the thumb constantly being required to move up and down may lead to DeQuervain's Syndrome, which is pain and swelling over thumbs. Besides, as the players are always sitting while playing the games, deep vein thrombosis may be resulted due to blood clot in the lower limb vessels. Some players like placing their laptops on the lap while playing which may actually lead to superficial skin burnt and reduced fertility due to the hot laptop: The Lancet medical journal reports the case of a healthy 50-year old scientist, fully dressed, burned his genital area after placing his laptop on his lap for an hour; A recent research study showed that Long-term exposure to repetitive hot laptop use in the lap may have a negative impact upon fertility, specifically in young men. Apart from that, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Back pain and epileptic seizures are some other examples. Despite these physical diseases, game addicts may also experience different mental problems. For instance, they may develop insomnia because they could not stop themselves from thinking about the computer games even when they need to sleep. Depression and Aggression are also possible complications of excessive gaming, in which aggression will be discussed in the next paragraph.

Due to the interactive and engrossing nature of many computer games, aggression and violence has been a main problem developed by game addicts. Many of these violent computer games, e.g. Mortal Combat, Marvel Vs. Capcom and Doom, are "First-person" and very interactive in the violence of slaughtering the opponent . This view of oneself as a shooter can desensitize the player to violence.

Many studies has investigated the effects of playing a violent versus a nonviolent video game, and revealed that violent-game players displayed more verbal and physical aggression. For instance, a study by Calvert and Tan showed that college students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game do. Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. & Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D did a similar study and concluded, ‘Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. It the short run, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts.’

Moreover, many computer games seller have actually treat violence of a game as a selling point to teenagers that their focus on the game design is violence and they put Signs like "Real-life violence" on the box covers and arcade fronts. In the modern popular game Goldeneye 007, for example, bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed. Instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. For instance, those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then face while clutching at their throats.

There have been reports of criminals copying violent video game crimes. For example, On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two teenagers who enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-them-up video game Doom which is a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill, launched an assault on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, murdering 13 and wounding 23 before turning the guns on themselves. Before this tragedy happened, Harris and Klebold had already showed their interest in imitating the game that they made a videotape that was similar to their customized version of Doom where they were dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes. This real-life example shows the seriousness of violence induced by excessive playing of violent computer games.

Only considering the year 2010, there are already many violent crimes caused by computer addiction other than the couple mentioned earlier. A middle-school teen strangled his mother to death for forbidding him to play computer games and then committed suicide. A while ago, a game addict in his 20s killed his mother with a knife. Another compulsive game player in his 30s died after playing games nonstop for five days without a decent meal. All these illustrate the serious risk that computer addiction has posed on social security.

Apart from the disease and violence, another societal problem caused by computer games is Virtual crime. This is the virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) which requires huge investment in time and effort. As the popularity of computer games are increasing, virtual crimes are indeed on the rise as well. In South Korea, there is a report of 40,000 or so cybercrimes in the first six months of 2003, more than half (22,000) had something to do with online gaming. As this is a rising problem, many countries are actually now discussing about whether there need to implement laws covering the online dispute.

All in all, from what mentioned above, we can see that there are actually both pros and cons for playing computer games, and whether which one outweighs the other actually depends on the type of games played, duration of game playing, and our attitude towards the game. When used in moderation, the advantages can be very helpful. The negative effects are found with excessive play, so the benefits may outweigh any possible negative impact if the time spent is kept within reasonable limits. Also, we need to remain rational that games are virtual that they are different from the reality, and critically analyze the game content. By these, we can maximize the advantages and avoid the disadvantages and make the most out of playing computer games.

References

http://wpangel.com/health_center.html
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Calvert, Sandra L., & Tan, Siu-Lan. (1994). “Impact of virtual reality on young adults' physiological arousal and aggressive thoughts: Interaction versus observation”, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 125-139. PS 527 971
Sheynkin ,Y., Jung, M., Yoo, P., Schulsinger, D. and Komaroff, E. (2005) “Increase in scrotal temperature in laptop computer users”, Hum Reprod., 20 (2) 452-5.
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Rani A. Desai, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, Dana Cavallo, Marc N. Potenza ,“Video-Gaming Among High School Students: Health Correlates, Gender Differences, and Problematic Gaming”, Pediatrics published online Nov 15, 2010