Gaming In Our Society

Summer Bates

Games Design L3

Games in Society

Excessive Gaming – http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/21/opinion/gaming-addiction-risks/

Excessive gaming can affect behavior and affect the way people act. It can also cause health problems. Excessive gaming can also be the cause of social isolation. “Man breaks record for longest gaming sessions, clocks 135 hours”, this is one of the stories that involves excessive gaming. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-11/19/videogame-marathon . You can play for hours upon end, just do it wisely and carefully and NOT all of the time.
One of the most played games of 2015 is League of Legends, and we all know that people will be playing this for hours and hours without a break. 

Social Isolation

Some people who play games can become socially isolated, this is where people block themselves off from the real world and they tend to lose their social skills. Social isolation is just a lack of contact with anyone, this could make young people forget out to interact with others.

Cost - http://www.ranker.com/list/8-people-who-spent-an-exorbitant-amount-on-video-games/benjamin-dunn?var=2&utm_expid=16418821-142.-TnVog0iRH60mJdQFvMOxQ.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F

“Heart-Broken Man Sells Engagement Ring and Buys Master Chief Armour”

The cost can be high when it comes to gaming as you may need to buy a console for the game (new consoles tend to be around £300) and then you will need to buy a game itself to play on that console (and new games tend to range from £40 - £80). Most of these games will require a paid membership to be able to play the game, for example, if you were to buy an online membership for PlayStation Plus it can go up to £50 a year if you were to pay monthly. Some games also require you to buy a certain object to allow you to progress through the game, people have spent thousands on these objects, like this man who: “Spends $16,000 for Virtual Sword”. (Can be viewed in the link above). Don’t waste all of your money on digital items on a game that you may stop playing one day. This virtual sword was purchased in a game called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it is a well-known game and people spend their money on this almost everyday. 

Benefits

However, there are some benefits when it comes to gaming. It is known to improve hand-eye coordination and it can involve brain training, it has also brought families together and it has allowed online gamers to make friends http://gamessavedmylife.tumblr.com/
Most parents don’t believe that gaming can help their children, but sometimes it can, it can improve their strategic skills and their thinking skills which could be helpful for when they are in school. Another benefit is that it can provide team work skills in some games like Call of Duty or Rocket League (One of my favorite games!), and this may also help you with team working in real life. Some strategy games, like Civilization V or Plants vs Zombies, and this will improve your skills and this could potentially help you in real life.

Separation from reality
This can also relate to social isolation, as you are blocking yourself off from the real world, meaning that you aren't meeting anyone new and you are losing your social skills.

Psychological Factors

Sound

Sound within games can make people react in different ways, like in Horror games, sound is one of the key methods that developers use to make you feel frightened or worried. The music in particular can make you feel scared even if nothing is happening at the time. Other games use music to build up tension or to make you feel relaxed and calm, the sound that is used in games is one of the main features.          
 Games like Outlast and Five Nights at Freddy's use sound very effectively to create the atmosphere.

High Score Listings

Everyone wants to be on the top of the leader board when it comes to online games, it makes you feel proud, but this can cause excessive gaming too. After playing for hours upon end, you make it to the top of the board, but of course someone will beat it. This will cause even more excessive gaming as you feel like you HAVE to keep your crown, so you play for hours and hours until your score is better than everyone else’s. But someone will beat it again one day, and this will cause you to waste more of your time trying to get back to the top. And this brings us back to social isolation.

Competitive Games

Some people who play games like Call of Duty, say that it isn’t competitive. Well, it is. Some gamers who play these competitive games can become angry and enraged, and this has led to people losing friends or family.

Peer Pressure

Some people get peer pressured into buying/playing a game. If your friend has a game that you don’t have, maybe even one you’ve never even heard of, they might say something like, “Hey go and buy this game, it’s only £30, we can play online together, I promise it’s great.” Some people actually give in to this peer pressure and then actually go and buy this certain game, sometimes they don’t even like the game so they instantly regret paying that mass amount of money for it, they have wasted their money on a game that they will probably only play once or twice. You may also be peer pressured by people at school, you may hear everyone talking about a game that you haven’t got and this may force you to go and buy it so you are a part of the crowd, this also leads to a loss of money.

Fun

Games bring entertainment to people, maybe because they like a challenge or they like the way the game is presented, it’s obvious that people enjoy games. Action-adventure games tend to be the most played genre, it is also one of my favorite game genres because I think it is ‘fun’.
We all play video games for different reasons, maybe we are just bored and have nothing to do, maybe we want to do something that will pass the time, or maybe we just want to do something entertaining with our friends. Overall. It. Is. Fun. No matter what  all of those non-gamers say, we are still going to play games until the day that we die because we are entertained by them. We may also play these games because we LIKE to be scared, it gives us a thrill and afterwards we just laugh about it.

Educational value
Games are sometimes used for educational purposes. One of the classic educational games was 'Brain Training' which was on the DS, this provides children with basic Maths and English skills! See, games can be 'boring' too! (They are perfect for young people who want to learn something new!)
But it's not just Maths and English that we learn from these types of games, they can even help us with social skills and concentration skills which would DEFINITELY be useful when at work or in school.

Leveling

Most gamers will know what leveling is, you have to level up to progress through the game. This only occurs in games like Borderlands World of Warcraft, leveling up allows us to obtain more gear and more in-game abilities, or we just level up to progress through a story. For example, there may be an area in a game where you have to be Level 50 to be able to progress through it, but you may only be Level 40 so you have to keep on working up to the required level in order to be able to progress.