The Gray Nature of Video Games

EC for early childhood, E for everyone, E10+ for everyone ten and up, T for teen, M for mature gamers 17 and older, AO for adults only (18 and older). These are the six ratings used by theEntertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to categorize who is suited to play a game. The frequently sited “violent video games that are corrupting our youth” (Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Modern Warfare, Fallout, Resident Evil, etc.) are mostly rated M for mature. This system was created to ensure that no impressionable minds become influenced by games too mature for them. Why, then, do people continue to blame video games for violent tendencies? If video games are so bad, why do we continue to play them? Both pro and anti video game advocates argue for their sides vehemently. Perhaps it is possible that video games are both bad and good.

 Video games are extremely prevalent in society. 72% of American households play video games. The average game player age is 37 and in 2011, 29% of gamers were over the age of 50. This information, collected by the Entertainment Software Association, shows that games are not simply an adolescent pastime. Adults play games just as much, and often more, than children. This mature presence in the gaming audience is the reason why M-rated games receive the most media coverage. Video game companies market their games to the adults who can actually afford them. However, that does not imply scarcity for age appropriate games. According to the ESRB’s PatriciaVance, “Nearly 60% of the almost 1700 ratings we assigned [in 2011] were E for Everyone, which means there’s a huge selection of games available that are appropriate for all ages.” Children have plenty of games fit for their age to choose from. There is no reason for any child to play an M-rated game and the only reason they would do so is because their parents allowed them to.

Multiple studies have explained that video games do have negative effects. According to a studyconducted by Utah’s Brigham Young University, everything found associated with video games came out negative. The more students play video games, the worse their relationships are with friends and parents. Gamers also tend to smoke pot three times more than non-gamers and female gamers often have a much lower self-esteem. Video games can be addictive, expensive, distracting, destructive, and can rob you of real life experiences. However, there is much good to be said about video games as well.

Video games can be accredited for teaching valuable skills to its players. In video games, timing is everything. If you move too quickly or too slowly, it could mean loss of the game and a return to a checkpoint. Organization is also a skill taught by video games. The key example is Tetris, a block game in which you must stack differently shaped blocks to form a straight line. Considering that organization is vital in day-to-day life, this is not a bad skill to practice when sitting at leisure at your house. Gamers are also well-acquainted with the concept of resource management. In first-person shooters, the gamer has to carefully ration out and preserve various types of ammunition. In role playing games, it’s healing potions, reviving potions, antidotes, and weapons. This type of thinking is valuable in the real world when dealing with money, resources, employees, and various things in between. In addition, video games help to boost brain function in the individuals who play them.

According to Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, "Games are an amazing invention that entertain and inform in ways different than traditional media. "But many critics have little or any experience with them and therefore don't understand where there could be artistic or educational value. No different than with film and TV, media sensationalism and ignorance can contribute to the fear that games are harmful to children. There's absolutely no scientific evidence showing a positive correlation between violence in individuals and the games they play.”

There are two sides to every coin. Perhaps there are negative effects to playing video games, but there is also undoubtedly a positive effect as well. The opinion of the media cannot completely trump the opinion of the public, and the video game public declares that video games are detrimental to them. With such a high percentage of American families who play games, one would expect there to be a great deal more shoot-ups if video games were as bad as they are made out to be. Like most things in life, video games cannot be defined as wholly good or bad, black or white, helpful or hurtful – they are gray.

The Digital Coup D'état

The human race is innovative, progressive and constantly evolving. The never-ending flow of ideas produces a never-ending flow of new technologies that make our lives more and more convenient. However, all of this progress has done more than advance humanity. Technological progression has also created intellectual regression. The increasingly prevalent presence of technology has served as both an advantage and a detriment to our ability to provide our own solutions. Many students shout the merits of a spellchecker – and so do their grades – but can it truly be considered meritorious if those students cannot spell that selfsame word when putting pen to paper?  Technology has provided for us a high level of comfort, improved working and living conditions, and all-around day-to-day convenience. However, by surrendering to that convenience, many people seem to also surrender their ability to operate independently of these digital assistants. To technology, we humans act as both master and slave.

In an article written by BBC News’ Bill Thompson, an experiment performed by psychologist Christof van Nimwegen is described and yields extremely interesting results. Thompson explains, “Van Nimwegen’s investigation focused on the ways in which externalizing interface information influences a user’s performance in solving problems requiring planning”. The experiement involved two groups of users who were asked to solve a complex puzzle where they had to move two differently colored balls using a dish. Two different versions of the game were made, one with more guidance than the other, and were distributed to the users. The results were that those users provided with less support performed better at the puzzle than those who received help. Those with less support were even able to remember how to play the game better after an eight-month gap. This experiment shows that in regards to technology, less help is sometimes more beneficial to people in the long run. However, technology is continuing to grow more and more helpful to the point of being unhelpful.

Far be it from me to pretend that I am removed from this technological fascination. I am the first person to admit that I am regretfully reliant on my electronics. When I’m not talking on my phone, I’m checking for new text messages, Twitter updates, e-mails, text messages again, more Twitter updates, more emails, lather, rinse, repeat. Society is in a constant cycle of communication, everyone always in touch with everyone else. If my phone dies, I am immediately cut off from my social media network. Any teenager can relate to the “tragedy” of a dead cell phone battery. But I have to wonder why it is such a tragedy? What can’t I find as much entertainment and pleasure in the physical world around me as I find in this tiny device that fits right in my hand?

In the study “Teenagers: AGeneration Unplugged”, conducted in July 2008 by Harris Interactive and CTIA, teenagers across the US were asked to complete a survey of more than 100 questions about mobile phone usage, attitudes, behaviors, and desires from the future of technological communications. According to the study, 57% of teens view their cell phone as the key to their social life. The study also found that texting has begun to take the place of talking. Teens admitted spending nearly equal time each month texting as they did talking face-to-face. If texting were no longer an option, 47% of teens feel that their social lives would end.

Technology has become so prevalent in the lives of digital natives that they feel unable to function socially without it. No one is directly to blame for these feelings in the digital natives. All technology developed – writing, language, tools – were created and put to use for the sake of convenience. Technology made life easy, and when you are born into a world surrounded by such convenience, you become wholly accustomed to it. We didn’t have a choice in the matter. As we live life assisted by technology, we became reliant on it to perform tasks that older generations used to be able to perform independently. We now need to use technology as much as it needs to be used by us.

Technology is so beneficial to society and is testament to the inventiveness of humanity. I am excited to see what bigger and better things are to come as humanity continues to advance their technological prowess and as we dive deeper into a digital culture. However, a part of me is also wary of that dive – if we go too deep, won’t we drown? What if our own technology out advances us? In Isaac Asimov’s short story “Runaround”, published in his popular collection of science fiction stories entitled I, Robot , humans have created robots so advanced that they wrench control of a facility from humans because they feel the humans could not perform the task satisfactorily. The robots were stronger, faster, smarter and the humans were powerless to escape their robotic captors. I want humanity to grow and flourish as the advanced, futuristic, Jetsons-like society that people have envisioned for years. But if we continue down this path of ultra-convenience, I can’t help but wonder if eventually humans will become mindless, insufficient blobs of flesh and bones with superior computers doing all the thinking for us.

Ultimately, I do think that technology has done more help than harm and I am glad to be a part of this digital culture. The future holds great things for humanity and I am excited to see where we dare go next. In the meantime, I intend to strive for balance between the digital and the physical realms of my life. There is a whole other world beyond the electronic one sitting in my hand, and I intend to explore and discover all I can about both of them.