Reflections

We are all learning something.

The blog project has been an enlightening and fun experience throughout this semester.  This was my first blog that I have ever done and I may even continue to do some type of work in this setting in the future.  Aside from just a learning experience, I would prefer this over all of the traditional research papers and essays.  Creating a blog was greatly interactive and has taught me some traditional skills, such as citation, along with nontraditional skills involved with writing online.  Using visual rhetoric has also taught me to us more cognition when examining any old picture by breaking it down into pathos, ethos, mythos, and logos.  It has been an emotional journey writing about my past experiences with video games.  I have come to learn not just the outer layer of gaming, but also the inner workings of the human mind and how it all relates to video games. One question has to be asked, are video games helping humans progress towards a brighter future or is it all just a waste of time?

Citation:

Picture of human in front of screen obtained December 11, 2010 from the World Wide Web. http://gamerlimit.com/files/2010/02/videogame_addiction_32.jpg

Video games and the primitive brain

A man named Charles Darwin said something that relays the underlying fabric of what video gaming is all about, “Survival of the Fittest.”  The human brain is wired to release the neurotransmitter dopamine, which gives us a natural pleasure feeling, through a reward and exploration type system.  This is called the “seeking circuitry” of the brain in that humans that are wired to search their environment for food, shelter, and mates are the most likely to survive and pass on their genes.



A look at dopamine pathways in the brain.



The all-powerful video game gods have created just this in a virtual setting so that these primitive desires can be attained in an imaginative way.  I used to play a game called World of Warcraft and in this game was a virtual world that in reality took me months upon months to explore.  It was a fascinating experience to be so deeply involved in this world which took me to exotic landscapes filled with magnificent art designs of huge colorful trees and castles.  In one area it would have a fall time theme with the sounds of the leaves falling to the ground and in the next area would be a vast murky swamp where treasure chests could be hidden anywhere.  I remember when I was in an region, where it was winter time and snow was falling, I could almost feel the cold wind rush upon me when the sound effect was made bringing about chills to my body.  That chilling feeling did not stop me from playing, it made everything all the more real.  When I ventured even further, I came about a large treasure chest with an extremely rare item.  The feeling that brought me was an extreme head rush of an amazing sensation which emanated throughout my body.  Today I now know that it was the dopamine that was released upon finding that treasure chest.

When playing a video game such as World of Warcraft, you are not just playing as some regular old character; you are connected emotionally with your character to the point where you want nothing but the best as if it were you or your new born child.  Knowing this, video games are set up as hybrids of reward and exploration where you enter the virtual world and set off on a path to find treasure chests full of goodies, new weapons, and special privileges.  By using a reward system, such as this, dopamine is triggered in the brain thus the human will come back for more.  

Whether video games will ever have an addiction tag next to their name is still up for debate.  Humans do not ingest video games as you would say we ingest cocaine to release the neurotransmitter dopamine.  A good analogy would be video games are to dopamine as exercising is to endorphins.  Both of these examples produce natural highs except one of these is much less productive towards real life experiences.  We as a human species still have much to learn, especially when it comes to the working cognitive brain. 

Citation:

Willis, L. (2010, n.d.) The Addictive Qualities of Video Games Are Not a Problem. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Retrieved from Opposing Viewpoints December 11, 2010.

Picture of brain obtained December 11, 2010 from the World Wide Web. http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/projects/bifeprunox/images/brain_cross.jpg

Visual Rhetoric

Edited Everquest picture entitling Evercrack obtained December 9, 2010 from the World Wide Web. http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2008/11/340x_evercrack.jpg

This image is based off of a massively multiplayer online role playing game.  This particular game was the first of its kind which has now expanded into video game titles such as World of Warcraft where millions of people play every day.  Any age group can play this game as long as they can cough up the fifteen dollar a month fee.  Who doesn’t want to save the beautiful goddess woman on the cover with the lurking monsters in the background about to jump her?  The actual game is called Everquest but appears as Evercrack in this illustration because this game is very hard to kick.  The game makers made the game in such a way that there is no end and more content is released through expansions or monthly updates.

Pathos in this depiction contains a few layers of connecting feelings.  First there is that aspect of joining the fight against evil monsters to save the damsel in distress.  Then there is that feeling of doing all of this fighting with your friends, brothers, or sisters by your side in that you will not be alone for this war.  But on the other side, this is just a video game and you could be doing something much more productive with your time.

Ethos in this image which is being credible and the belief in something could go either way.  The image is clearly stating that this particular video game and drugs correlate.  Now whether this is credible or not all depends on the user because they ultimately are the consumers of the game.

Mythos in this photo of bringing people together is the main attraction.  This is what I believe is the most powerful part of these types of video games since they are massively multiplayers.  This game brings in millions of people from around the world to fight alongside each other in a virtual world.  That in turn forms friendships, some even lifelong. 

Logos in this picture is where the artist wants this video game and drugs well connected.  Calling the game Evercrack instead of its original name, we are supposed to believe that this game is as addictive as the most addictive substance known to man, crack cocaine.  It goes on to say that the game will ruin your life and that the lives of loved ones will suffer at your expense due to the video game habit.

Picture of crazed gamer behind computer obtained December 9, 2010 from the World Wide Web. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sl5S3IKCKLA/SfIvHmHEqwI/AAAAAAAABAw/k56hce8d6P0/s400/internet_addict.jpg

The next image I have is of a crazed computer video game user.  This is trying to show what the typical video game addict looks like and is feeling.  The illustrator is trying to scare the audience from becoming like this particular image with the bulging bloodshot eyes and I.V. of espresso hooked up to the guys arm.  Any gamer can tell you that keeping up with the pace requires full attention and that caffeine helps in a huge way.

Pathos in this illustration is the craziness and wackiness that is seen in the face expression.  Bloodshot eyes, grinding teeth, and messed up hair all show that this person is heavily involved in some type of drug induced state of mind.  How and why would a particular person want to feel this way?

Ethos in this photo is the belief that video games can be dangerous.  It looks like the said person is on one or many kinds of drugs and that alone is not healthy.  Gaming may turn the ordinary person into a semi similar picture if left uncontrolled.

Mythos in this depiction you could say are the people he is playing with in the virtual world.  But that is really stretching it because he sitting alone in the dark behind a computer screen.  He could possibly even be playing a single player game which involves no mythos what so ever. 

The logos in this picture involves a very key aspect involved in video gamers lives which is speed.  The ability to do things very fast pace in order to maximize time greatly separates a good gamer from a great gamer.  In the photo he has notes that say “ASAP” and the espresso concentrate I.V. hooked in his arm as if a regular espresso was not potent enough.  This guy could be said to be a super gamer by the looks of this picture.

Are video games changing us?



It all starts at young ages.

 Are video games changing us?  This was a very interesting topic I came across because I have grown up on video games and can only read into the past to see if any kind of changes are occurring.  This all started in the late 70’s when the Atari 2600 was released which was followed by the original Nintendo system in 1986.  Since then there have been many different kinds of gaming systems along with thousands upon thousands of games to play.  We are making history at this exact moment because no one knows how the video game generations will turn out.

I can admit that I have an addictive personality and that it possibly all started back in the late 80’ when I first received a Nintendo system as a Christmas present.  I had no clue what the thing was because I was only four years old the time.  The system had all sorts of wires and looked so alien to me.  But once my father plugged everything up and inserted the video game Mario Bro’s I became hooked.  This did not help me through my years of elementary school for I would always be daydreaming of how to beat the next level of whatever game I was playing at the time.  What made video games even more fun was hooking up a second controller and player with or against your friend.  This brought a few more key aspects into the expanding video game world attracting more players in that socializing, team play, and competition are qualities that most humans desire.  Being that I was already in love with gaming, this only made it one hundred times better.  But what does this all mean, are all gamers alike being trained in different ways for some kind of futuristic jobs or is it all just entertainment?

Over 60% of the United States population has fooled around with some kind of video game and more than 50% of kids age’s four to six have played.  Boys in particular are putting aside the puzzles, action figures, and legos and immersing themselves with video gaming.   The kids today most likely have parents who have played or still do play video games.  The average age of a typical gamer is twenty nine years of old and seventeen percent of that crowd is over fifty.  A whole generation of kids knows the famous John Madden from his NFL football video game, not of his early playing years, coaching, or announcing Monday night football games.  Young adults can even make careers out of playing video games such as Madden NFL where thousands of dollars of prize money is put up for a tournament.  With so many people playing video games it has become the new normality. 

Some researchers are saying video games are affecting young kid’s creativity, empathy, and attention.  This is still trying to be validated but teachers say that they do not need to wait for the results.  According to an elementary teacher, the kids that are obsessed with gaming are easily identifiable for their participation and attention in class is negligible.  These kids are also said to be unable to sit still, have no patience, and a lot of the time are even overweight.  A mother of such an obsessed child says that when she watches her kid play, the adolescent looks like a “mini worker bee” with his eyes bonded to the screen, oblivious to the real world, and interacting at lightning speed with his buddies playing the game. 

What if these kids are playing a violent video game, how will it affect them?  Researchers are still up in the air over this controversial issue but the first person shooter game Doom did not stop a fourteen year old kid from shooting up his school killing three girls back in 1997.  The shooter, Michael Carneal, told authorities that he learned to shoot from playing the video game Doom.  According to Dave Grossman, a retired US Army Ranger who studies psychologically aggressive behavior, violent video games desensitize the gamer to the act of killing. This can affect all players across the board in that they will be more tolerant to violence in the real world. 

Plugging in and escaping harsh realities.

I can vividly remember the moment I said to myself that I would never stop playing video games.  I was sitting in the family room in my little kid chair at five years old playing a brand new game called Super Mario Bro’s 3.  My father walks in and tells me that someday I will get too old to play these games and won’t enjoy them anymore.  In the back of my mind I told myself there was no way I would ever quit, I loved gaming more than anything.  To this day I still enjoy video games, but not to the extreme of my past experience.  Playing those games may have affected my school work but they did not make me a violent person, though you could say I am desensitized.  But thinking back, gaming made everything simpler like an escape from reality.  Maybe that is a big part of the future, a world of virtual reality for those that either need training or an escape from the real world violence.

Citation:

Mayor, T. (2005, February 20). What are Video Games turning us into? The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 1,2010, from the Factiva Database.

Picture of child in front of television retrieved December 1, 2010 from the World Wide Web. http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/addicted-to-video-games-lawsuit.jpg

Picture of teen in corner of a room retrieved December 1, 2010 from the World Wide Web. http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/videogame_addict.jpg

You play video games? You’re hired!

I have to admit, there are many different types of skills to acquire through the playing of video games.  It all comes down to what type of game you are playing at any given moment that determines the set of skills being interpreted and then applied.  For instance, let’s put the semi popular massively multiplayer game Everquest 2 in perspective as a tool for learning. 

Being hired for a job you actually
enjoy is a great feeling.

To do this, I will share with you my two years of experience as a co-leader of a hardcore raiding guild.  In other words a good buddy of mine and I led a group of roughly thirty-five random people in order to slay virtual monsters for three hours a night, six days a week.  Some of these virtual monsters were very rare, so we even had a call list for everyone in our guild to log online when the monster spawned which meant being ready at all hours of the day.  The game meant serious business for the type of players that I would recruit, so I made sure everything would go as smoothly and efficiently as possible.   

The surface layer of knowledge I acquired was setting up a website for out of game communication such as people posting if they will be late or not online at all.  Going in a bit deeper, we set up a virtual currency as sort of a control system for the players in the guild to use for buying items that the big bad virtual monsters would give us when killed.  Now being that this game was very competitive, we were not the only guild out there going after the same monsters.  This meant dealing with competition and how that competition affected your group of people.  Sometimes we won and sometimes we lost.  Everyone was happy when we won but wow did emotions run high when we lost.  Players would start blaming each other for not doing something the right way, but in the end we the leaders had to take responsibility to keep everyone in control.  This way we were able to regroup and recover for the next time opportunity came our way.  By running the guild in this particular way we were able to be ranked in the top ten out of nearly twenty thousand other guilds in this single game.

Now the question is, “Do video games prepare young people for the future job market?”  As far as a leadership role is proposed, the leader must be good in the skills of communication, strategy, persuasion, setting up programs, and handling disputes.  I can say that I have immersed myself in all of these aspects as a combined leader and gamer.  The people that follow the leader must be able to work well in group settings, if they do not, they only cause problems.  Looking down the road of the global economy everyone talks about innovation.  Well the gamers of the past twenty or so years have been learning, through their video games, “that repeated failure is the road to success.”  Having no fear of failure is the way of the future.  Three simple rules have been ingrained into the minds of the gamer, “If you get there first, you win; Trial and error is the best and fastest way to learn; After failure, hit the reset button; don't shrink away.”

Traditional schooling has become an issue according to a professor of learning science where he states most of the jobs we have today will be outsourced and that the jobs of the future will involve creativity and invention.   This is why the particular gaming aspects need to be intertwined with schooling as a new way of teaching and learning.  Simulation games have come a long way in teaching a variety of skills.  A video game called America’s Army came out in 2002 which basically taught the player what the military is all about, such as basic combat training and a military medic course.  American soldiers who fought in Iraq came back and said that playing this specific game attributed to some of the knowledge that they needed in live combat.  Overall, the combination of video games and education has major potential for ushering in a new era of a bright world society.

I have personally not played the America’s Army video game but am somewhat interested after reading this article.  Looking back and realizing what I have learned throughout my experience has brought me some insight.   Leading groups of people was no easy feat, it was quite a challenge and very time consuming.  But other than dedication, the key to success was controlling the emotions of the group of players in such a way as to accomplish the goal in mind.  This meant dealing with different individuals every night because everyone has different personalities and different ways of being coerced.  If the situation called for it, such as throwing off the synergy of the guild, friends of long standing would be kicked out regardless of my personal feelings towards them.   Friendships can have bitter endings when playing the role of leader.

Citation:

Glazer, S. (2006, November 10). Video games. CQ Researcher, 16, 937-960. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online Database.

Citation: Picture obtained on November 17, 2010 from the World Wide Web  at www-rohan.sdsu.edu/.../notes/chapt02/index.htm

Should video game addiction be considered a mental illness?

This past decade has seen an explosion of video game entertainment sales, even surpassing the music industry.  More and more kids to adults are plugging in and intoxicating themselves with the ever evolving gaming world.  I can honestly say that I still to this day take part in this gaming universe but not to the addictive level of play that was in my past.  But addiction is such a loaded word that there are many different viewpoints on the subject at hand.

One side of the argument there are those that say that occasional use is harmless and even helpful with some people with disabilities.  Ask the Entertainment Software Association, which made over 30 billion dollars in the video game industry in 2007,  and they will tell you much more research is needed for any conclusion to come about.  On the other side doctors are saying that certain types of kids may be susceptible to over play.  Dr. Thomas Allen of the Osler Medical Center in Towson, Maryland had this to say, "Working with this problem is no different than working with alcoholic patients. The same denial, the same rationalization, the same inability to give it up."  One fact does remain and that is the more time a person engulfs themselves in video games, the less time that person will spend in other areas of life such as spending time with those they love, energetic play, and even eating and sleeping.

Psychologists have their opinions.

According to the APA (American Psychiatric Association) the underlying theme of video game addiction goes as this, “psychiatrists should study the issue more.”  Even the group of psychiatrists that brought the issue to the table backed away from presenting their thoughts to the committee.  This group proposed that they would reevaluate video game addiction and if they have the scientific evidence backing them, then at the next meeting for the diagnostic manual set to be in 2012 they would present the issue thoroughly. 

This report was done in 2007 and since then the video game industry’s profit margins have nearly doubled from 30 billion dollars a year to over 50 billion dollars this year alone and there are still 2 months to go!  This could be good or bad news to whoever is viewing the material.  It is always good to see an industry do well when the impact creates more jobs and helps the economy.  With the influx of customers means more data for the APA to evaluate concerning the addiction.  The bad news is if there is correlation between video games and addiction then more people will fall victim to the new video induced drug platform.

Citation:

Reporting by Scott Hillis of San Francisco 25 June 2007.  ExtremeTech 2007 ZIFF DAVIS MEDIA Inc.  Retrieved on 11-02-10 from Factiva database.

Picture of nurse with sign saying, "addicted to video games?" retrieved November 5, 2010 from the World Wide Web. www.skuggen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/video-game-addiction6-thumb-500x384.jpg

A Biological View of Video Gaming Addiction

From what I have heard, video gaming addiction is a very controversial topic being that many doctors do not buy into this addiction.  For a little background of myself, I have been an avid  gamer since I first received my NES Nintendo system back in 1985 and since then I have never really stopped playing the wide range of video games there are to be enjoyed.  With some basic science and psychology courses under my belt I finally understand why I am the way I am. 

The original nintendo controller.

There is something called a natural high when a person experiences some aspect of life and a chemical reaction in the Central Nervous System occurs.  This chemical reaction can be a release of endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and others.  But here is the kicker, depending on the type of game (type of experience) one of those chemical reactions occurs and that is what the gamer becomes addicted to thus needing to play more and more for longer hours.  For example let us say we are playing a first person shooter game (FPS), this is where you have a weapon to kill your enemy using your hand eye coordination as the skill to beat the enemy, and you are the only player left alive on our team while the other team has all five of their players still alive.  You then proceed to annihilate the enemy team one by one through a series of maneuvers that keeps you alive, hiding behind a wall and jumping out at just the right moment because you heard the enemy’s footsteps, until you are the last player standing thus winning the game for your team. 

In this scenario, each enemy kill represents a chain of minor dopamine drips that keep building up until the final game winning kill where the big drip takes place and a full body rush occurs.  Your fellow teammates cannot believe you beat those odds of 5:1 and are amazed and complimenting you on your skill thus adding more pleasure to the experience. Now if you are human I assume you like feeling good because I know I do and as simple as a video game may seem there is another side to the pretty graphics and lore.  The video game industry may as well be selling cocaine or heroin.

Citation:

Nintendo controller picture obtained on 10/24/10 from the World Wide Web. www.mrtees.com/images/Nintendo-Controller.gif