Impacts of computer games on society
Games in society:
(Concerns such as excess playing time.)
There are a lot of health problems with playing games for long periods of time without breaks, some games even offer suggestions to take a break after a hours game play and repeat the warnings.
This can create depression and anxiety and ignoring responsibilities. Time that has spent on gaming can affect the activities that are fundamental to their physical, social and intellectual development.
Addiction is a severe problem in Asian countries such as China and Korea.
(Social isolation)
Social isolation is when a player spends more time on games than in the real world. This can cause huge problems that can end in extreme ways if its not handled. People that are addicted to playing video games for a long time can create a addiction, which can be severe in some cases. The higher the addiction the less likely they are to have good social skills.
(Cost)
All video games come with a price to either buy the product or to later pay in the game. Most games now a days like the idea of making you pay for it, then showing you exclusive deals you can get, for example: DLCs, game extensions, weapons. Some games are made to be that impossible to beat you would likely have to buy the products its recommending.
Theirs another way games produce money and that's the things the game requires for example:
Kinect, microphone, live, console, controller etc...
Phones especially are giving out free games that have ads that pop up and other mission which you have to unlock by a very high level or some money.
(Separation from reality)
Separation from reality is when the player doesn't know what's the real world, this usually happens to those that are addicted to gaming. These people will not interact with anyone and can be dangerous depending on how bad their addiction is. Which can result in tragic endings.
Some examples of this are games that include things such as, stealing cars, racing, violence and even murder. An example of this is the game "Manhunt" in which you play a character in a strange and dangerous situations, this was also related to a murder in the UK after someone playing the game was claimed to be obsessed with the game.
Benefits (hand-eye coordination, brain training)
A growing body of research indicates that playing first-person action games, particularly shooters, improves brain function. Studies cited by Scientific American Mind found that players who played shooters often fared better in tests of abilities such as spatial reasoning, spatial focus, visual acuity and decision-making.
Games can help the brain improve with English and Maths though simple objectives, a good game which is a good example for helping you with English is "The typing of the dead", which makes you have to type certain words to kill the zombies (18+)
(Thinking and strategy skills)
A new British study finds that some video games can help to train the brain to become more agile and improve strategic thinking.
From biological and chemical research doctor said
"Previous research has demonstrated that action video games, such as Halo, can speed up decision making but the current work finds that real-time strategy games can promote our ability to think on the fly and learn from past mistakes,"
Strategy games such as war games were the player has to think of a strategy to play the game help players develop thinking skills. Instead of actually controlling the player through a game time needs to be taken to make the correct decision to guide the main game playing character through the game
(Future impact)
Their are positives and negatives when playing video games for sometime.
The positives is that:
gaming has seen benefits for hand-eye coordination in various sectors. Some reports say that surgeons who play games have become more skilled after they have practiced gaming over a period of time. Other simulation games such as pilot or driving games have advanced so far recently that virtual environments are used to train pilots and drivers.
Specific brain training games have been developed in a range of subject areas so that hand held consoles can be used as brain training games. It is thought that by giving players challenge and fun activities in game format that they are challenged using a platform that they are used to and find learning more enjoyable.
(Impact on 'mainstream' application development)
Game development is constantly requiring more advanced hardware, an example of this is the iPhone gyroscope shown below.
iPhone gyroscope link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzjnZsQc7M
Its shows it from different angles as if you where inside the game and physically looking round, by using things such eyefinity we are tying to immerse ourselves in the game more.
Game development is progressing rapidly and are producing more games with high quality.
Game development is progressing rapidly and are producing more games with high quality.
Psychological factors:
(Sound)
Sounds in games are used to give off different emotions, to make the feeling of the games atmosphere come out. Sound is very important to make the game seem funny or scary.
Their are two different types of sounds:
Non-linear sounds which is a sound from a living thing or a instrument, the sounds can change depending on how the noise is edited.
Non-linear sounds are used in a load of different types of horror games:
Silent Hill, Resident Evil and F.E.A.R
These games are great examples of making dramatic sound affects.
(High score listings)
High score listings on games are very important if the game wants people to still play their game when its getting popular. People fight to become first place or in the top ten in most games which makes the games make a good amount of money, this is annoying for players yet will keep them playing the game.
Making a high scores available in games make players want to continue playing and to beat others while their at it. This boosts the players confidence and also makes the player like the game.
In fact, this so-called “big-fish-little-pond Effect” which proves that game designers want people to feel better on a higher rank.
(Competitive games)
Most games are competitive which makes players want to show you their skills yet wanting to win. In these games for example call of duty, Borderlands, Skyrim, Star craft 2 are all games that compete in different ways, to leveling up to having the best gear to completing the game or even having the highest kills at the end of the game.
Everyone likes to seem to be better than their friends when something they enjoy is on. Competitive games are very good at selling as their target audience is huge.
(Peer pressure)
Peer pressure is found to be a case for most games to be sold, this can come from your friends that want you to get it so they can play with you or it can be the business which wants you to buy it. For example GTA 5 was said to be a great game from the company Rockstar which advertised the game greatly which made people want to buy it, it also gave out an online few weeks after which made even more people buy it as the company Rockstar had shown things that most people would want to play online with friends, which results into peer pressure from friends and family.
(Fun)
Every gamer plays a game because its fun, their are a range of different types of games which will have your type of game in it. Every game is aimed at a certain target audience to horror or adventure everyone plays a game because its enjoyable and its something that they like. We enjoy video games the most when we share similarities with the characters we play as which a new study has found. More generally, we love video games because they're the best way to try out characteristics we'd like to have, or they allow us to try on different hats, a study from Essex University has found. Gaming is also fun for those that find it hard to socialize with people, which makes them feel more confident when playing a game or behind a screen.
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