Video game literature review Essay Example for Free

Video game literature review Essay Violent video games are said to have a negative effect on those who play them, but there is also the debate that violent video games help those who play them rather than hurt them. There is a rating system that separates games into groups from games for everyone all the way to games that can only be bought if youre eighteen and older. The main questions with this rating system seem to be, Where do we draw the line, and Who draws the line? All to often younger teens get their hands on the video games that are made for the eighteen and older crowd, but will the game actually have a negative effect on the teen, or will it help the teen by allowing them to vent some anger or make them feel good about themselves because they solved a difficult puzzle within the game. As you may have seen there are many contrasting viewpoints, but before we explore the contrasting views on violent video games, we should try to understand our own views, and those of others who take positions that are different from ours, by reviewing some key insights. First we can start with the insights of a few different people who dont think violent video games are bad for teens. From there we can move to a couple of pieces that think violent video games are bad. To finish we will look at an article doesnt take a stance either way, but does provide some very good facts. Greg Costikyan, also known as Designer X, is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyans career spans nearly all genres of gaming, including hex-based war games, role-playing games, board games, card games, computer games, online games and mobile games. Several of his games have won Awards. In Costikyans argument, The Problem of Video Game Violence is Exaggerated, he tackles violence in video games from many different angles such as video game advertising, the successful way to incorporate violence into video games, how violence is part of human nature, and the ignorance of the opposing viewpoint. When reading the argument it is easy to see that Costikyans viewpoint is biased, but he does a good job of stating the opposition and then shooting it down with his own research, and he does not avoid certain questions just to prove his point. I think that Costikyan makes his best argument when he talks about the artistic use of violence in video games. He says that when people play video games they develop a rhythm, but when violence is thrown in it creates a dissonance which breaks the players rhythm, which in turn makes the game that much more of a challenge. Costikyan sums it up best when he says, Violence used artistically is effective; violence used crudely is vile. Tom Kalinske is the former president and CEO of Sega America, Inc. , and now works for Educational Technology, LLC. In Kalinkses speech, Video Games do not Cause Aggressive Behavior in Children, he makes some very good points on why people might think that video games are bad. Kalinske poses a very good point in his speech where he says, Parents and educators who look casually at boys playing out fighting games are quick to condemn because the content of the games mirrors real societal problems. But to jump to the conclusion that game content leads to really inappropriate behavior is like speculating that students studying the Napoleonic Wars may lay siege to their neighborhood. Kalinske argues that parents fear technology because they have less of an understanding of it than their children, and those who think that kids will emulate the violence seen within the video games that they play have a very pessimistic view of kids. Kalinske also makes a very good argument about how video games can improve academic performance. He says that beating a video game takes more than good hand-eye coordination. It takes good puzzle solving, critical thinking, deductive reasoning, and problem solving skills, which all happen to be key skills for academic success. I think that Kalinske has many good points in his speech that will help me in writing my paper. David Deutsch is a physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation, Clarendon Laboratory. He pioneered the field of quantum computers, and is a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In Deutschs interview he talks about how video games are beneficial to children, because it gives children a different and unique learning environment. Deutsch says that all the evidence that video games are bad boils down to the fact that children like them, and prima facie video games are bad. He suggests that if children like doing something so much, such as playing video games, then we should find ways to make it better and allow them to do more of it. Deutsch make a very good argument when he compares playing video games to playing the piano or playing chess. He says that all three take a lot of time to master, some more that others, and if a child is seen playing chess for long periods of time he is considered a genius, but if a child is seen playing video games for long periods of times he is stigmatized. This doesnt make sense, because all three are done for the same reason which is the impulse to understand things. Deutsch also argues the addiction to video games very well by saying that the reason why people choose to play video games so much is because the games make you engage you emotions as well as your intellect. He also gave this as a very good example, I remember once, I came back to playing the Piano after a long time, and I ended up with blood all over the keys. I saw that I had a cut, but I did not want to stop, so I carried on playing. If that had been a video game and I had been younger, people would have used that as evidence of addiction. Kevin Saunders is currently a professor at Michigan State University and is the author of two books, Violence as Obscenity: Limiting the Medias First Amendment Protection and Saving Our Children from the First Amendment. He has authored dozens of book chapters, law review articles, and commentaries in legal and popular periodicals. He also teaches a variety of courses and seminars on topics in Constitutional Law. In this article Saunders establishes a good topic for debate when he says that fps (first-person shooter) games create a realistic adaptation of an actual gun fight to whereas the armed forces and law enforcement agencies use fps games to train their soldiers. He then gives us a couple of examples of what these violent games can make teens do in real life. The first example is about Michael Carneal, a fourteen-year-old freshman who enjoyed playing the popular fps Doom. One morning Michael showed up at school with a stolen pistol and open fired on a group of kids. He killed three and injured eight. The second example is about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold the two students who showed up at Columbine High School heavily armed and killed one teacher, twelve students, and injured twenty-three others. They too were avid players of the game Doom. These are both prime examples of what violent video games can do to teens. Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr. is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami. Provenzos academic interests include the role of the teacher in American society, and the influence of computers and video games on children. His work has been reviewed in American and British media, including ABC World News Tonight, The Economist, and The New York Times. In this article Provenzo says he believes that real life simulators, such as video games, are taking kids out of the real world and teaching them about violence, and how to be violent. He argues that when teens play an fps (first-person shooter) game they virtually put themselves into an emotionless killing machine and by doing this they are behaviorally reinforced as they play the game thus being taught that its ok to shoot people. Provenzo makes a great comparison when he compares playing an fps and playing a game of paintball. He says that they are two different things because while playing paintball you can get tired and wounded, and there are serious consequences for getting out of control. When playing an fps there are no limits, players are not responsible for what they do, and there are no consequences for anybody. I think that Provenzo makes a great point when he says, Video and computer games are, in fact, highly effective teaching machines. You learn the rules, play the game, get better at it, accumulate a higher score, and eventually win. This next article is titled Video Games and Violence and it was taken from Issues and Controversies at facts. com database. The article covers both sides of the argument. It says that supporters of the legislation against violent video games say that violent video games make kids more acclimated to violence, and that violent video games cause an increase in violence within the kids. Critics of the legislation against violent video games say that our current rating system for video games is working and that video games should be protected as free speech. Within this article are some very good statistics one of which being in the year 2000 85% of minors sent to buy a video game rated M (M for Mature) were successful. Sometime after that study stores started to enforce an ID rule for M rated video games, and in the year 2003 the percentage of minors able to purchase M rated video games fell to 69%. Another good statistic within the article is that in the year 2003 out of all the video games purchased only 11. 9% were M rated games. The biggest percentage of games being bought were rated E (E for Everyone) with 54%, and in second were T (T for Teen) rated games with 30. 5%. This article brings up a very good point when it says that parenting is a big part of regulation in what youth under the age of eighteen watch and do. The video game rating system was originally put in place for parents to be able to judge what their children should be playing and to have an idea of what would be in the game that their children were playing. As you can see, with the information provided, there are many valid points around this debate. While reading Saunders and Provenzo I noticed that both of them brought up the Columbine school shooting which is a very emotional subject for some people. Kalinske and Deutsch both portray the general argument that video games can help educate teens, and video games could be a very powerful educational tool, if used correctly. All of these sources have helped me a lot in understanding more about the effects of violent video games on teens. Before my research I was not sure if I was for or against changing the rating system for video games, but now, with all this information, I will be arguing against creating a more strict rating system for video games. Works Cited Costikyan, Greg. The Problem of Video Game Violence Is Exaggerated. Video Games (2003) 25 Jan. 2007 . Deutsch, David. Playing Video Games Benefits Children. Video Games: Harmfully Addictive or a Unique Educational Environment? (1992) 02 Feb. 2007 . Kalinske, Tom. Video Games Do Not Cause Aggressive Behavior in Children. Violent children (2000) 02 Feb. 2007 . Provenzo, Eugene. Violence in Video Games Is a Serious Problem. Is Media Violence a Problem? (2002) 02 Feb. 2007 . Saunders, Kevin. Censorship Should Be Used for the Protection of Children. Censorship (2005) 05 Feb. 2007 . Video games and violence. Facts. com. (2007). Issues and Controversies. 25 Jan. 2007.