Video Gaming as Socializing

What do video games say about socializing? Can playing games with friends and "friends" over the internet replace actual socializing with people. I say "friends" because a lot of people have friends that are similar to myspace or facebook friends. These are people that they don't really know but are there to bolster a friends number that everyone can see. I do think that as long as you are socializing with persons that you actually know, online game playing can replace real life socializing for the most part. I play games online all the time with people that I actually know and that saves me the time of making the sometimes hour-long drive out to see them. And all we'd be doing is playing the same game together but we'd be in the same room. Online communication is a good replacement for socializing as long as you're actually communicating on not simply a superficial level.

Anonymity in Gaming

Whenever I play games online with complete strangers, they really seem to take that anonymity for all it's worth. In playing games over the internet, I hear so many racist and homophobic remarks it's surprising. The anonymity of online play seems to lead to very aggressive behaviour from gamers and I think that's an important part of the culture and identity of being a gamer. If someone is not a regular game player and they are just starting playing games online, they will probably be incredibly surprised at the downright offensive language used by many people who play games online. I'm still deciding whether these people are homophobic or racist in reality, or if they are just trying to get under their opponent's skin.
I'm thinking that it's all part of the trash talking that is part of any competition.
Anonymity changes a person and I think you can see that in any situation. When someone is anonymous and does not have to fear backlash for their expression, they reveal what they are really thinking. Hiding behind anonymity may also just be allowing people to be racist behind a shield that keeps them out of the public eye. It does seem like people expose their true colours when they're anonymous.
If we look at anonymous literature or poetry, it's often people exposing their true thoughts an feelings because they fear persecution for their ideas. Throughout history, anonymous literature has caused controversy. Anonymity is a way to hide yourself while you put forth controversial, and perhaps the racist or homophobic things that you are really thinking. If that is the case with internet anonymity that I see in forums and gaming, we have a lot of work to do as a society to get rid of racism.

Video Games Can Teach Us how to Teach

I've just read an article by a professor of media research at a German university. The article makes a very important point. Video games often tell a story, usually a lengthy and in depth one at that. Yet, even with these long stories, children still maintain interest in playing games. How do video games hold the interest of ADD children and keep them interested in a long story? We can learn from video games and apply their techniques to school teaching. If a teacher can hold a students interest like a video game can, we would have much more successful teaching and students would retain much more knowledge. Not only can the lessons of video games be applied from a teaching perspective, but they could also be relevant to many industries that try to focus on the youth demographic.

An Important Statistic

I was reading the most recent issue of Game Informer magazine and they had an interesting statistic. 82% of 2 to 17 year old children in the United States play video games. I don't know to what extent a 2 year old can play a video game but, nonetheless, this is quite the statistic to look at. This number is surely higher than the percentage of this same age group that visits museums or reads for leisure. This, in my opinion, shows that video games, among young people, are more culturally significant than artwork and literature.

This is what Video Game Commercials Teach Us about Censorship

After I watched the most recent commercials for Assassin's Creed 2(see video), I noticed something about them. In a game about an assassin whose job is to kill, the commercials do not depict a single death. Why can I turn on CSI and hear the tale of the Las Vegas Stripper Rapist/Murderer/Cannibal but a commercial cannot show a virtual historical person being killed. Perhaps more confusing is that I can watch a sword make a bee line for someone's chest but the camera will cut away right before the contact. Is there anyone out there that doesn't know what's coming next? Has censorship gone so far as to forbid virtual death in a commercial? Or is it simply picking on video games "Up next on CBS: the crime lab at CSI:Miami tackles the grisliest case of child rape and murder they've ever seen." Why can we tease people with CSI, Law and Order, 24, etc. and the murders of real life people but we can't show a historical figure being killed by an assassin (many of the targets in the game are real life historical figures killed under mysterious circumstances, perhaps by an assassin)? Or is it simply alright to show corpses but not someone actually being killed?

The Impact of Video Games

What was the last thing you discussed with a casual acquaintance at length? I'm betting it wasn't a book. As I sat with a coworker discussing the most recent Call of Duty game, I got to thinking about the cultural relevance of video games. My coworker is almost ten years older than me, he is a veteran, and has worked as a mechanic. Other than our understanding of how computers work, we have almost nothing in common, yet we were able to have a lengthy dialogue about video games. Could we possibly do the same thing with a book? I doubt it. I'd be willing to bet that more young Americans today play video games more than they read for leisure. I know much more about video game history and different video games and how they compare than I do about classic literature. It is my opinion that in modern times, video games are more culturally relevant to young people than are books. It's been a few months since I read a book for leisure (a shorter record than most people my age I'm sure) but I play multiple video games every day. Video games do have their own culture and history, and I think many young people are more familiar with the works of Electronic Arts and Bungie Entertainment than they are with those of Chaucer and Whitman.

Health care and Video Games

So, we were asked to write about our blog topics and how they relate to health care. At first, it appears there is no relation between health care and video games. While I do not have current statistics with me at the moment, I can assume there is a link between the inactivity of video games playing and the obesity epidemic facing the youth of America (but I contend that reading a book is just as much exercise as playing a video game but we tell our kids to read)
Obesity is a main contributor to the massive health care costs in America (that and the free-loader problem) and it can only be assumed that video games have played some role in that. But they mustn't receive all the blame. Many games require activity by those playing them (the Nintendo Wii comes to mind). The question is, how much of an effect is this having, and what can we do to stop it?