Essay Example on Video Games: Harms or Helps?

Abstract

The paper will try to look at the different literature available on the issue, which will help in coming with a proper answer to whether video games and the virtual world are causing more violence or more antisocial people. It may be possible that it is doing more harm than good, but this is subjective. Besides, it is paramount that the negative and positive impact of video games is elaborated.

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Introduction

Technological advancement has impacted humanity in many ways. It has made work more manageable, which has made the life of human beings comfortable. The most significant impact it has had is on the entertainment arena by creating a virtual world and video games. Entertainment is crucial to human lives as it helps replenish their energy. People now can have the best times in their world by just combining these two essential innovations. Though it provides comfort to human beings, these technologies also are hazardous.

Statement of the problem

These two innovations have resulted in many changes in society. The video gaming experience has been taken to a whole new level. The sales of video games are skyrocketing, creating a productive economy. In just a year 2017, a total of 18. 4 billion dollars was made in the United States of America alone. It is just a fraction of what major gaming countries like japan and china made in that year.

It is projected that by the year 2022, the amount would rise to two hundred and twenty billion dollars. There are a lot of negative and positive impacts of video games. Firstly, they help to enhance creativity. A child who is playing video games that require much rational thinking will likely be more creative compared to a child who does nothing for fun.

Secondly, playing video games has an impact on the decision-making skills of a child. The University of Rochester was able to carry research into the impact of playing video games on decision making speed. The study concluded that people who play computer video games decision making speeds increase by at least twenty five percent.

Thirdly, video games with multiplayer features develop cooperation among people. These games often require people from different areas to work together to accomplish a specific task. For instance, games like Fortnite require the cooperation of different players during specific missions. The benefit of developing cooperation is that it may help in real-life scenarios when dealing with people.

Fourthly, video games often act as an instrument for releasing stress from the body. When aggression and tension from the real world become too much, video games are the most positive ways of mitigating this situation. Studies have shown that more than half of gamers in the world play to reduce stress in their lives. Many of these people find that video games help them to cope with different life situations. Besides, this is much safer than releasing stress through the use of drugs and alcohol.

Thus it is quite clear that the video gaming culture is gaining popularity at a fast rate. It has also resulted in some negative consequences for society. Thus this paper is going to look at whether these two innovations are causing more violence or more antisocial people. In answering this thesis statement, it is paramount that we first establish the relationship between these two innovations, and then look at the different literature review available on the issue.

The relationship between the Virtual world and Video games

Before the computer era, people used to play with each other different games that they learned physically. Most of the games played during this era were created explicitly for playing outside the home setup. The games need a lot of space. However, with the advent of the computer era revolutionized the way people play games.

Game developers are now creating games, which focus on a person's attention. It involves sitting in front of an electronic device, whether 2D or 3D, and applying the mind in solving a certain task. It resulted in the creation of a new space, the virtual environment, which removed all the previous physical barriers that most games had.

As a result, there has been massive investment in the virtual arena. It has led to the development of new technologies specifically meant for the gaming world. The Massively multiplayer online role-playing and single-player games employ virtual world technology. For instance, grand theft auto v game has used virtual reality to create a 3 D like recreation of the world. A person can play the game and experience real-life features in the game. It should be noted that the massively multiplayer online role-playing is no longer active. It was a result of fall out between the game developers and the electronic arts company.

Literature review

Many different types of research investigate whether these two innovations are causing more violence or more antisocial people. However, findings regarding whether the virtual world and video games are causing more violence or more antisocial people are variable and inconsistent. Researchers at the University of New York undertook a study to find out whether there exists a link between violent games and behavior ("No evidence to support link between violent video games and behavior", 2020). In the study, the researchers were able to show that video games do not influence players to behave in a certain manner.

Also, there were able to display that increasing violence in a game does not affect the aggression of a player. There were about three thousand people who participated in this experiment. The methodology employed by the research is letting people play video games, and then showed some images, which they had to categorize. Soft images have inferred no aggressiveness and hard images indicted aggressiveness.

The only limitation of the study is that they did not conduct the study on children. Thus it did not found out whether video games would affect the children. Ann Christin S.Kimmig, Gerda Andringa, and Birgit Derntl conducted a study to find out the link of violent video game exposure and the expression of traits usually contributing to adverse behavior, including interpersonal-affective and disinhibition traits (S. Kimmig et al., 2018).

About two hundred and three people participated in this study. The study collected information from these people through the use of a questionnaire. The participants were given different games to play, and later on, results recorded down. The study concluded that there was a relationship between violent video game exposure and psychopathic traits. The relationship was stronger in participants who recently played video games and was also strongly linked with the interpersonal-affective deficits.

On the issue of disinhibition traits, ere better predicted by lifestyle choices and diseases such as stress and smoking behavior. The study found that these traits were also enhanced by playing violent video games. The study noted that it was not likely that these violent games may inspire people to become mass shooters. Due to the recent mass shootings in different areas of the United States of America, the media has run the narrative that the main factor is video games. This study disproved the narrative run by the media that video games contribute to mass shootings.

The researchers noted that there is still a need to conduct investigations into the long term impact of extensive violent video games. Jack Hollingdale and Tobias Greitemeyer conducted a study into the impact of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression (Hollingdale & Greitemeyer, 2014). The researchers' basic was that the general aggression model has identified that violent video games increase the levels of aggression, but there has been little study into the impact of online playing.

A total of one hundred and one people participated in this study. The methodology of the study was that the participants were allowed to play violent games and non-violent games, both online and offline. Later on, they were required to fill in questionnaires. The study concluded that playing these games online increased the levels of aggression compared to offline.

The finding of this study is significant in that online is gaining popularity at a fast rate. Currently, online gaming sales have surpassed that of other industries like music. Morgan J. Tear and Mark Nielsen conducted a study into whether playing video games contribute to prosocial behavior (J. Tea & Nielsen, 2013). The two researchers concluded that playing video games has no impact on prosocial behavior. In turn, the researchers found that violent video games will not increase antisocial behavior in people.

Conclusion

To conclude, most of the violent activities and negative behaviors are blamed on violent video games. Society perceives that people who play games are likely to exhibit aggressive feelings. However, it should be observed that these two innovations do not entirely contribute to the change in people's behaviors. Various studies conducted into the matter have borne different results. For instance, it was observed that several participants from the research exhibited aggressive traits after playing a violent video game. Some studies conclude that there exists no link between violent video games and aggression. The inconsistent findings indicate that there needs to be further research into this area.

However, it should be noted that this industry is growing at a fast rate and has become very popular globally. It is enhanced by the fact that technology is also changing day by day and the use of social media. Thus all studies into the matter must consider current matters only. Furthermore, future studies must consider the online realm more as the world is shifting towards the internet.

References

Hollingdale, J., & Greitemeyer, T. (2014). The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression. plos one. Retrieved 3 May 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111790.

J. Tea, M., & Nielsen, M. (2013). Failure to Demonstrate That Playing Violent Video Games Diminishes Prosocial Behavior. plos one. Retrieved 3 May 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068382.

No evidence to support link between violent video games and behavior. ScienceDaily. (2020). Retrieved 3 May 2020, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180116131317.htm.

S. Kimmig, A., Andringa, G., & Derntl, B. (2018). Potential Adverse Effects of Violent Video Gaming: Interpersonal- Affective Traits Are Rather Impaired Than Disinhibition in Young Adults. NCBI. Retrieved 3 May 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964217/.