What benefits do computer games bring to society?
Arsham Askari
Arsham Askari
What benefits, if any, do computer games bring on society? There seems to be a wide number of different views and opinions on this subject, ranging from negative to neutral to positive, but the important thing to keep in mind is that no one is wrong.
People look at things in different ways; something that is positive to someone can be a negative thing to someone else. A good example of this is a reply to a questionnaire posted on three different online communities, where UltimateMetal.com member Mystique1721 commented:
“I like to feel productive so I would rather practice guitar or study for the (really intense) university classes I'm taking”, while member Hedon- commented:
“I guess it gives u a good feeling to be good at something”.
They are both commenting on advantages and disadvantages of playing computer games. Both comments are valid and they contrast each other very well. While Mystique1721 thinks that playing computer games instead of learning a skill or gaining knowledge to feel better about one is a bad thing, Hedon- thinks the opposite.
The results of the questionnaire reveal that people’s views towards computer games are largely influenced by the experiences they have had with them. An example that can illustrate this point is the number of replies to one of the questions on the questionnaire, which was: Name a good thing and a bad thing about video/computer games. Most of the replies were comments such as “Games can be very addictive”, “can take over your life” or “It can make you addicted and unsociable” and “They can often be addicting to the point where you lose friends, money, academic grades, and other opportunities in life”.
Some of these comments, especially the last one, are very strong. The number of people who get addicted to games is reasonably small, but nevertheless, it is a real problem in the world of gaming today.
However, this raises the question Why do people get addicted to games? Is it because they get a rush for playing them? Is it because games can provide something that nothing or no one else can provide them? Or is it that games are the main source of interaction for them?
Compulsive gamers ’not addicts’, a news article on the BBC website about people addicted to gaming, or according to Mr Keith Bakker, the founder of Europe’s only clinic to treat gaming addicts, compulsive gamers.
Mr Bakker says that ”Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated”
That makes one think, is it games that affect society, or is it society that is affecting games and gamers?
If games are the only way for these compulsive gamers to get some kind of recognition and communicate with others, then society is to blame, or at least the community they live in, and according to Mr Bakker, this is the case for most of the patients at his clinic:
”This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today”
But why is it society’s fault? It is hard not to notice the vast amount of games being released one after the other, each more competitive than the last. These games are designed to sell, that is why when successful titles such as Counter Strike, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft hit the market, it is almost impossible to prevent people from getting hooked on them, and with so many addiction cases around the world one would think that the government, the gamers’ parents or even the games companies would do something about this, but the fact is that most people don’t see this as a big problem. A good example of this is Mr Smith’s [not his real name] experience with World of Warcraft.
”I would play WoW all night long” he admits. ”I slept in class, then I would go home and play WoW until the next day and I would repeat that routine for weeks”
Surely someone would have noticed this, and many, if not all of his classmates and teachers did, but did they do anything about it?
”The worst thing about it was that I knew I had a problem and so did people around me, but I couldn’t help it, and no one around me helped me either, I had to go through it by myself”
This perfectly illustrates the point that society is responsible for gaming addiction. If people don’t take gaming addiction seriously, the problem will always exist.
However, that is not the only problem with society and video games. Today’s games are each more violent, more realistic and have bigger consequences than the last. This violence in games that we play today has proven very popular with the one-sided people who blame computer and video games for every violent crime committed by teenagers in today’s world. But, according to Mr Steven Johnson, s reporter for the L.A. Times ”The last 10 years have seen the release of many popular violent games, including “Quake” and “Grand Theft Auto”; that period has also seen the most dramatic drop in violent crime in recent memory” and this brings us to a conclusion.
It is easy to ask whether computer games affect society, but no one ever stops to think about the effects society has on games and the people who play them. The media plays a big part on this. Computer games are stigmatised by society the media and those to whom the stigma is applied are stereotyped and labelled - usually as nerd.
Maybe we should stop asking whether computer games have benefits on society or not, because no matter how much research one does or how many benefits one can think of, there will always be people who will find a way to turn those benefits into something negative.
