Growing up, I had a great fondness for video games. They gave me a story over which I could be immersed in with sight and sound, where my actions created a better world. I recognized these painted worlds were just instruments of amusement. They were objects that conveyed drama and joy, just like any play, book, or movie. However, I also recognized the looming threat of being to attached to these things. Of losing oneself in a fantastical world, of wishing that you could be the hero and defeating the final boss and winning the heart of the fair maiden. People often use wow (World of Warcraft) as an example of escaping reality, where someone who feels alone and small in real life can take on the vestige of an imposing and colossal figure. While there are those who become over attached to the idea, there are also those who view playing the game the same way as reading a book or watching a movie, they want to immersed in the spectacle.
Video games also have the aspect of being a reinforcement system, like drug addiction or education. You have a goal (finishing a quest, getting a hit, or doing well on a test) and you are rewarded for achieving it (the praise of the virtual village folks, seeing purple dragons eating bacon tacos, or getting an A). Getting that itch scratched can become compulsive, requiring time and money to fulfill that goal, neglecting kids, buying Adderall, etc. However, it should be recognized that a group can not always be defined by a selection of its members. Not all children are ADD time bombs, not all students are engines that run on caffeine, and not all gamers are addicted to the fantasy world they occupy.
Gaming's impact is growing exponentially within society, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 recently had the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Starcraft 2 has international tournaments viewed by hundreds of thousands featuring its own star athletes and broadcasters. This trend is quickly bringing video games to the forefront as they have become to society what colored tv and the printing press were to previous generations. It displays a leap in technology as an information conduit that shapes the culture of the times, and it up to those it effects to guide its growth.
To understand this conflict of the harm of gaming addiction versus those that view it as it as a new entertaiment medium, you need to see the relationships and their effects. This is difficult and applies to many other conflicts, not all students study the same way, not all illicit drugs have identical effects, and not all games contain the same content. They all have genres, aspects that adhere them to specific labels like books and films. You have to look at the trends that develop and the actions that are reinforced. Looking at how the effected person reacts to it and whether their reactions are harmful to their wellbeing and to that of others.
This was a really interesting post, you brought up some really good, key points. Wow made me think of that other computer site called Second Life, which has a similar concept of leading a character's life and being able to do whatever you want. I watched a news documentary awhile ago that talked about the site and found that women with husbands who had Second Life accounts were accusing them of cheating because they had girlfriends and wives in the game. Though there were other people in the documentary who praised the game for enabling them to be social and outgoing, which they were unable to be in real life. Its a very bizarre and interesting debate.
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