Critics of video games not seeing the big picture
IT HAS been a pastime for all to enjoy at least for the last 30 years or so. Playing video games, whether on a PC or a console, came into our homes in 1977 with the Atari 2600.
This was the classic American arcade in your living room.
Since then the gaming industry has evolved past Pac-Man and the other basic games to the modern era with Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, Fifa and Assassin’s Creed being some of the biggest titles out there.
The majority of these games involve a form of violence in some way or another and thus has drawn controversy from many critics all around the world.
That is the basis of all the arguments – no matter what happens, it always come back to this question. Are video games making our generation violent?
Many concerned parents or detractors of video games claim strongly that the ability to go on a killing spree in Grand Theft Auto, stab people in Assassin’s Creed or mow down other players in Call of Duty is going to make us into that type of person in real life.
But people who were psychotic and had a tendency to murder others existed and committed these acts long before video games ever existed – so why now that they do, does everyone decide to blame them if it is found that a killer had even the slightest connection to gaming?
It is my firm belief that if someone was going to be crazy and kill people they would do so, whether they had played video games or not.
In some ways video games may actually help prevent this type of behaviour. Personally, I can say that the ability to go out and do whatever you want in your own little world provides a great stress reliever if you’re frustrated, and I think we can all agree we would prefer it if anger was taken out on pixels instead of people.
A lot of people also say that video games are making everyone antisocial, which I will admit in some cases may be true. But it is definitely not the case on a global scale. With so many games being online and some even requiring teams or at least a little bit of co-operation between friends, playing video games online can be seen almost as the new equivalent of having friends over to play a board game.
One of these sessions can contain the same amount of fun, laughter and memories too, and as a bonus you can also meet new people from all around the world.
Lastly there are actually, believe it or not, some basic positives to playing video games. Shooters such as Call of Duty and Battlefield have specifically been shown to improve reflexes and the gamers’ spatial awareness just as much as courses aimed at this skill.
Spatial awareness is particularly helpful for engineering, math and science. Role playing games have been shown to increase problem solving abilities and most games in general have shown a positive effect on creativity in the gamer.
Overall I hope it is abundantly clear that while the violence of video games may exist, it is important to realise that they are not harmful to the mind of the average teen. They are useful as both a stress reliever and a brain training tool. As to whether the perception of video games will ever change … we will just have to wait and see.