“Punish him!” demanded the Mortal Kombat narrator back when I was a thirteen-year old. In no time, I learned that my MK charachter had the power to reach inside the chest of an opponent, only for their heart to be squeezed out like a lemon and the plump organ was triumphantly raised into the air - COOL, right?
Blood provided the landscape for the game, whereas rain and sun were missing in action. Vividly, I recall the sheer excitement that I got from ripping the hearts out of my video game victims. Although it was a while ago since playing the game, it’s for certain that malcontent had never been a friend of mine, and if breaking anyone’s heart were included in my fate, it would be in the figurative way.
Fast forward fifteen years and the games have gotten far more aggressive. Instead of ripping out hearts - which was questionable in the first place – morals and ethical standards are being questioned by video games such as Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas where it is the gamer’s “mission” to murder, rob and annihilate surroundings. Although this blog topic isn’t intended as news – everyone knows video games are violent – I must argue that parents are more of an influence in a child’s life than any decision a kid makes from playing violent video games.
Even if my opinion above isn’t worth debating. And even though video games probably have an intrinsic link to aggression and increased desensitivy towards real-life violence and occurrences, then at the very least, its worth introducing you to the other side of the argument. Video games and their benefits.
Steven Johnson is a controversial media critic daring enough to argue that video games make us smarter, and provides several key arguments for his case in the book, “Everything Bad is Good for You.” Contrary to what many believe, he doesn’t even give the “hand-eye coordination” cop-out.
Instead, he tells us that video games do the following:
1) Video games gives us rewards. When there is a reward in a video game (which there is, even in violent games), then we subconsciously translate this into our daily lives and consequently learn how to set goals for ourselves. Concept: Goals lead to rewards.
2) The interactivity in video games is sophisticated. Unlike a book where word are read, imagined and comprehended, Johnson hypothesises that video games force us to fill in neccessary “information gaps.” By doing so, we adapt to unexpected situations on-the-fly, which bodes well for real-life-situations.
3) Video games teach us how to learn not what to learn in our society (which is arguably becoming lazier than ever). By teaching us how to learn, it forces how to tackle more situations, whereas teaching us what to learn implies an undeserved limitation on what information that we should know.
Here are several more key arguments as to whether or not video games are good for you. Please comment on this: Do you think video games can be good? I got you started on such an idea, so how can video games benefit us and possibly outweigh the obvious negativity impact associated with them known as violence?
June 6, 2007 at 8:04 pm
I think the time has come for video games to gain recognition as art. The video game experience is different for every player in much more of a way than the interpetation of a painting, for example.