Impact of Computer Games on Society

Impact of computer games on Society

Games in society

Concerns such as excess playing time: spending too much time on computers games can cause an addiction or a borderline addiction, this could cause sleep deprivation and it could effect your education.

social isolation: too much time on computers could cause social isolation which means that you won't have contact with people in reality, and only contact people in game.

cost: spending too much time on games could have a cost on your health e.g forgetting to eat or drink. for example a Korean man died of starvation from playing too much and not eating. it can have a serious affect on your psychical health such as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) which is caused from overworking your wrist which causes your wrist to be inflamed and sore, also it could provoke obesity as you're sat in front of a screen all day and not getting the right amount of exercise. It can also take a toll on your mental health such as becoming addicted and developing insomnia.

separation from reality: people that become so grossed in a game for a long period of time starting believing that they are a part of the game they are playing. an example of this that 2 young girls got addicted to a horror game called 'Slenderman', apparently they got told by Slenderman to take their friend out into the woods and kill her, the girls between them had stabbed the girl 13 times in the chest.

education: computer games could affect your education in both positive and negative ways. the positive ways are that it could increase your hand-eye coordination, brain training and strategy skills. games are useful in the military as it helps your strategy skills. Negative affects of computer games are that it can essentially take over your life and make you skip school or higher education.

future impact: as computer games are constantly evolving, so it computer tech, which can help people develop skills to practice theoretical and practical skills, it will continue to evolve to the point of simulators to help individuals to use high tech tools.

impact on 'mainstream' application development: it has helped people to use computer tech much easier in today's era than what it was years ago with the early computer operating systems, they required users to have high technical knowledge. some of the first games such as pong allowed user to use a joy stick which helped users without high technical knowledge to play the game.

Psychological factors

effects e.g. use of sound: the use of sound in a game can dramatical change the experience of the game, but it could also affect your psychological health, if you look at the paragraph on separation from reality about the 2 young girls, then sound is a major psychological factor especially if you suffer from mental health disorders such a Schizophrenia.

high score listing: High score listing can link to excess playing time, as if you are addicted to a game you can also be addicted to getting the high score, which also then links to cost by affecting your health if you do not achieve the highest score.

competitive games: if you are a competitive gamer for a known competitive team then you may have to leave your home town or country to visit gaming convention such as MLG or Pax which could interfere with you education.

peer pressure: This could be linked to competitive games and high scoring listing, because if you have a group of friends that are doing better on a game than you, then they may make a joke of it as you are not as doing as well as them, therefore pressuring you to play the game more to try and beat them. 

fun: this is a major fact of a playing a game because if you don't find the game fun then you wont play it, but some people have got addicted to fun, in some cases people can't sleep if they don't even get 30 minutes of a game.

educational value: the educational value of a games can go both positive and negative. the positives are that it can help train your brain in a range of areas. the negative are that the game could 

 

expectations, leveling