9 50 Part 3
OK – so where are we now? How important are video games in our society and what impact are they having on people’s lives? Well, one way to answer these questions is to look
at the number of people playing video games and we can see that playing video games is very much part of people’s daily lives. In some countries, over 75% of the population play some form of video game every day, which is quite amazing. This is not distributed equally by age groups and gender, but there is a much wider spread of people playing games than previously. One reason for this, as we have seen, is the types of platforms that people can play games on have grown and the games that people can play have increased very rapidly. Another way to look at this is to consider gaming as
an industry. As part of the entertainment industry, gaming has now become far more important. According to a report by the Entertainment Software Association – you can find the full report on their website, which is www.
theesa.com. The title is Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Anyway, the report shows that in the US in 2019, the amount of revenue from the computer and video games industry surpassed the revenue from films and streaming video combined. An interesting fact about this is that seven times more is spent on video games, compared to the gaming hardware. By the way, I see that some of you are using the
Cornell note-taking system. That’s very good. Do you all know about this? No? Right, well, if you want to know more about it, I suggest you look at How to Study in College by Walter Pauk, the 11th
edition, published in
2014. It’s very good, and it should be in the university library. I’m sure that you all know the importance of taking good notes – and this system is particularly useful. Still another area we can look at is the emergence
of e-sports. E-sports can be defined as gaming in an organized competitive setting. The range of sports represented and the number of people involved has grown. A major step forward for e-sports was the Olympic Virtual Series, which was held in 2021. This was supported by the Olympic Committee and the sports represented included motor sports, sailing, baseball, rowing and cycling. You can look at their website to see some videos of the finals of the games. Apparently, some colleges in the US are offering e-sports scholarships to students in the same way they provide scholarships for real games. So, clearly, e-games are having a major impact here as well. So, gaming is rapidly becoming more of a part of
people’s lives around the world. However, gaming is also causing concerns for a number of reasons. One of these is that gaming is seen as addictive in the same way that drugs and alcohol can be addictive: people feel that they have little or no control over the amount of time or money that they spend gaming. Because they spend too much time on games, players can find that they develop physical and psychological symptoms. Some studies have shown young players regularly spending more than 20 hours per week on games and ignoring other activities. The World Health Organization views this as a major problem
9.3 Extending skills
and their list of diseases now includes ‘gaming disorder’. The definition of gaming disorder given by the World Health Organization has three parts: loss of control over gaming, playing games instead of other daily activities and continuing to play games despite negative consequences. Many of the physical symptoms arise because of the
amount of time spent looking at screens. This can cause eye strain and headaches. In addition, there appears to be a strong link between the amount of screen time playing games and the amount of sugar and caffeine consumed, resulting in people being overweight. More screen time is also linked to less sleep and lower quality sleep. Games can also cause psychological problems.
Studies have shown that people who play violent video games become desensitized to violence, even though they may not become more violent themselves. Players can also become isolated from their friends who do not play the same games. They can lose interest in other activities and spend large amounts of time away from other people. So, on a practical level, games can cause many
problems … and these problems do not only affect young people. One of the best examples of this was in Los Angeles, in the United States. Two police officers lost their jobs because they were playing Pokémon GO instead of going to a robbery! … So, it is important for games developers to think about what they can do to reduce the chances that their game will be addictive. I know that it is important for developers to create games that people want to play … but they should also think about the harm they can cause. One example of a developer who did this was a Vietnamese developer called Dong Nguyen. His smartphone game called Flappy Bird was extremely popular and he was making a lot of money from it. However, he withdrew the game because he felt that it was too addictive and people were spending too much time on it. OK, so that’s all I’m going to say for the moment
about gaming addition. Does anybody have any questions? No? Good. OK, so when I see you in tutorials, we’ll look in more detail at different types of games. In the meantime, I’m going to set you a research task. Right, now listen carefully … your task is to find out more about the effects of gaming addiction and which types of games are more likely to cause the different types of effects. Each group should focus on one type of game and report back on their findings.
D
Explain to students that lecturers will often give source references in passing, as part of the lecture. It is important to note these down for any further research that might be necessary – especially if they are recommendations from the lecturer. (Important source references may sometimes be written down on a lecture handout or on a slide, but this will not always be the case.)
The kinds of information given may differ between sources. The lecturer could just give the name of a book or article and its author; they may quote exactly (a direct quotation); or they may paraphrase (sometimes called an indirect quotation).
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