Effects of Video Game in the Students Study Habits

Ever since their conception, video games have contained violence, violence being to cause pain or death onto other beings. From the earliest games to most advanced modern 1st person shooter violence plays an important role in games. Determining that violence is present in video games is easy and the answer is yes. The early games like Wonder Boy and Space Invaders contain violence. Wonder Boy contains violence in the form of the hero killing monsters that vanish upon death, the hero himself is subject to violence enemies shoot arrows, throw rocks and swing swords at him. Upon death, the hero himself falls off the screen and the enemies disappear in a small explosion, or puff of smoke. This common depiction of early video games (Crawford 1984; Provenzo 1991) is it violent, yes; it is a high degree of violence that is a little harder to answer. Some people would argue that any violence at all is more than an acceptable, while others may argue that due to the lack of gore and the obvious “cartoons” like appearance of the charters the violence is not a high degree at all. But what where to happen if gore was added and the cartoon appearance were to become much more realistic, with the passing of time new hardware and programming technique this is just what has happened.

Since the earliest days of video games, the debate about any psychologically negative effects that they may have on children has raged on. The more realistic and violent games become, the more this argument heats up. Things like the game rating system have been put in place to try to keep kids from playing the most violent games, but the question about how they affect teen behavior has yet to be definitively answered. Video games can have both a positive impact on academic performance as well as a negative effect on academic performance. It is believed the amount of video game playing is the difference. Students who play video games in moderation (less than two hours per day) have shown a positive correlation with antisocial and aggressive behavior as students who played video games more often displayed signs of increased aggression. Additionally, students who played video games in moderation got into fewer fights that kids who played video games more often.

In the past few decades, interactive electronic media has grown from virtual non-existence to one of the primary means of entertainment for college students. In more recent years, the Internet has completely changed the landscape of electronic media from something individual and static into something with the potential to be interactive and social. This paper examines the effects of increased student usage of traditional video games as well as online games. The demographics of the typical game player will be examined along with effects on the individual development and sociological perceptions. This will also look at the potential education utility of video games and the effect of games on student engagement and social development. Video games have had a major impact on how people spend their leisure time. The first generation of video games were nothing more than simple geometric shapes, one or more of which could be controlled by the game player. Each generation of games always uses the newest technologies available, leading to more impressive graphics and realism. Along with these new technologies come more realistic violent acts and situations.

Also with each new generation of video games, people are spending more time and money on them. In this article the term video games will be used to define any interactive multimedia in which the human game player has control over the main “character” in a simulated game world. This can include all types of video games such as those played on arcade machines (like the Tekken series), home consoles (like Sony’s Playstation), hand-held consoles (like Nintendo’s Gameboy) and personal computers (like the Doom series). In the modern popular game Goldeneye 007 bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed, instead perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. Since Goldeneye 007 is a shooting game, a maneuver performed by dying enemy soldiers varies depending on where they got shot. Those shot in the foot hop around holding their feet while those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then face while clutching at their throats thus adding to the realism on the game. Lacking in this game is gore but this is more than covered in the popular games such as Unreal Tournament and Half- Life. In these games when characters get shot there is large spray of blood that covers the walls and floor near the character, also on the occasions in which explosives are used, character burst into small but recognizable body parts.

Now ask the same question about their being a high degree of violence in video games and almost everyone would agree. The reasons for the inclusion of violent content in many video or varied, but there seem to be two main ones. First is, the games centered are easily to designed, for the designer all that has to be created is the situation in which to put the hero, since it is all ready known that it is killed or be killed, this is easily done. Another reason for the violence is market demand; as long as violent video games are being bought producers are going to keep on making them. As girls, who tend to stay away from violent games, enter the video game market there will be a corresponding trend in the increase of non-violent games as gore designers try to capture this new market. As long as boys stay the dominate audience for video games violence will be continue to be present. Having high degree of violence does not necessary mean anything, the nightly news is filled with violence and very few people are concerned about its effects. What important is to look at the relation between video games players and their social interaction to see if the violence affects its player in any way.

Chapter I:

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The history of video games is not as simple and straight forward as of the earliest games. Ralph Baer was a TV engineer, who works at Loral, a TV company. In the year 1951, his Chief Engineer, Sam Lack, asked him to build the best television set in the world. However, Ralph wanted to build something more than a TV, he wanted to introduce the concept of playing games on it. Though the basic idea came into being, it could not see implementation, as Ralph’s boss discarded it. Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a “Cathode ray tube Amusement Device” was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U.S. Patent 2455992. Inspired by radar display tech, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.

Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim, OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe Tennis for two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court, and Space war! Used the DEC PDP-1’s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In the absence of electronically drawn graphics, small targets were placed on the CRT, drawn on a simple overlay. Since the game did not generate video signals for a raster scan display, like an ordinary TV set monitor, it could not be classified as a video game. In the year 1952, A.S. Douglas was working for a PhD degree at the degree at the University of Cambridge (UK), which had an EDSAC vacuum-tube computer. It is used a cathode ray tube to display the contents of the one 32 mercury delay lines and had a 35×16 pixels display.

In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold, coin-operated video game. It used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green. Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the “Brown Box”, it also used a standard television. These were followed by two versions of Atari’s Pong; an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry. A flood of Pong clones eventually led to the video game crash of 1977, which came to an end with the mainstream success of Taito’s 1978 shooter game Space Invaders, marking the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games and inspiring dozens of manufacturers to enter the market. The game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores.

The game also became the subject of numerous articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines, establishing video gaming as a rapidly growing mainstream hobby. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS (later known as Atari 2600), becoming the first “killer app” and quadrupling the console’s sales. This helped Atari recover from their earlier losses, and in turn the Atari VCS revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, up until the North American video game crash of 1983. The home video game industry was revitalized shortly afterwards by the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which marked a shift in the dominance of the video game industry from the United States to Japan during the third generation of consoles. A video game, like most other forms of media, may be categorized into genres based on many factors such as method of game play, types of goals, art style, interactivity and more. Because genres are dependent on content for definition, genres have changed and evolved as newer styles of video games have come into existence. Ever advancing technology and

production values related to video game development have fostered more lifelike and complex games which have in turn introduced or enhanced genre possibilities, pushed the boundaries of existing video gaming or in some cases add new possibilities in play (such as that seen with titles specifically designed for devices like Sony’s Eye Toy). Some genres represent combinations of others, such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or, more commonly, MMORPGs. It is also common to see higher level genre terms that are collective in nature across all other genres such as with action, music/rhythm or horror-themed video games. Although departments of computer science have been studying the technical aspects of video games for years, theories that examine games as an artistic medium are a relatively recent development in the humanities. The two most visible schools in this emerging field are ludology and narratology. Narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls “Cyberdrama”. That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction.

Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from Star Trek, arguing for the video game as a medium in which we get to become another person, and to act out in another world. This image of video games received early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as Tron, eXistenZ and The Last Starfighter. Ludologists break sharply and radically from this idea. They argue that a video game is first and foremost a game, which must be understood in terms of its rules, interface, and the concept of play that it deploys. Espen J. Aarseth argues that, although games certainly have plots, characters, and aspects of traditional narratives, these aspects are incidental to game play.

While many games rely on emergent principles, video games commonly present simulated story worlds where emergent behavior occurs within the context of the game. The term “emergent narrative” has been used to describe how, in a simulated environment, storyline can be created simply by “what happens to the player.” However, emergent behavior is not limited to sophisticated games. In general, any place where event-driven instructions occur for AI in a game, emergent behavior will exist. For instance, take a racing game in which cars are programmed to avoid crashing, and they encounter an obstacle in the track: the cars might then maneuver to avoid the obstacle causing the cars behind

them to slow and/or maneuver to accommodate the cars in front of them and the obstacle. The programmer never wrote code to specifically create a traffic jam; yet one now exists in the game. The explosion of the video game industry in the past decade has had many people questioning the content of the games being released. The main concern is that of violence and violent acts within the games. The newest generation of games is so realistic that the line between “simulations” and video games has greatly been blurred. They are so realistic that the United States government has even released a game, entitled America’s Army, to help train the next generation of military specialists. In the late 1990’s a large number of high-school shootings were blamed on violent video games, the most devastating being the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. These shootings raise a valid concern that violent video games may be affecting the aggression of children and developing adolescents. With time, the games became extremely popular and started to being sold by many companies. Europe was introduced to the concept of video games in 1974. General Instruments released the first low-cost chip and allowed the building of complete Pong system, with few external components.

This resulted in the creation of a whole video games industry. Hundreds of manufacturers came into being and released their own line of PONG video games around the world. From being a PONG game to Play station, video games have come a long way. After being exposed for two years, Tennis for Two was dismantling. It was only in 1997 that the game was rebuilt, by engineers at Brookhaven, for the 50th anniversary of the BNL labs. It was in September 1966 that Ralph again started working on his 1951-concept and building the first video game prototypes. Thus, Ralph is credited to be the inventor of video games. On the basis of his original ideas, he created seven prototypes that played several video games. The first payable game made by him was a Chase Game, which involved two squares chasing each other. The last prototype, known as Brown Box was built in 1968 and played Ball & Paddle games, Target Shooting games and a number of sets. He then set out on the task of making presentations of his video games before TV manufacturers. It was in the year 1971 that Magnavox signed an agreement with Ralph. The next year, in May, the first video game system of the world,

Odyssey, was released. With this, the era of PONG games and derivates just started. Soon, it spread throughout the world, coming to an end in the early 1980s. Video games started in the USA with the Magnavox Odyssey (first home video game), in May 1972, and ATARI (their first PONG arcade game), Nov. 1972.With the time, the games became extremely popular and started being sold by many companies. Europe was introduced to the concept of video games in 1974. General Instruments released the first low-cost chip and allowed the building of a complete PONG system, with few external components. This resulted in the creation of a whole video game industry. Hundreds of manufacturers came into being and released their own line of PONG video games around the world. From being a PONG game to being a Play station, video game comes along.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. Demographic Profile:
1.1 Gender
1.2 Age
1.3 Years active as a video game player
1.4 School

2. Are your studies affected by playing video games?
3. What effects of video games do you think have already affected you? 4. What specific games have you played?
5. What are the games that you have played: Online games, LAN games, Pop cap games, and Mini games? 6. What are the effects of video games in the students in the terms of: 7.1 Study Habits

7.2 Health
7.3 Financial Condition
7. What are the recommendations that can be derived from this study to prevent the addiction to video games?

Chapter II:
Review of Related Studies and Literature

Definition of video games
Videogames have been studied seriously only for a few years. So, we can wonder how we could use the recent academic works to approach new design methods. This article proposes a first Step: a short and simple definition of what a videogame is, this definition being connected with existing academic works about game, play, interactivity, and narrative. The definition is: A videogame is a game which we play thanks to an audiovisual apparatus and which can be based on a story. The article also shows what the videogame heritage teaches us about what a videogame is.

GAME
Needless to say that a videogame is a game. It is obvious but we have to clearly remember this. Before being a cultural form, an art form, a narrative form, an education tool and more, videogames are games: “However, even if it sounds obvious, videogames are, before anything else, games.” So, what is a game? We have had games for a very long time, but the definitions are not numerous. Nevertheless, some of them are applied to videogames with adeptness. Roger Caillois , inspired by Johan Huizinga, provides elements to define what a game is: a fictional, unpredictable, and unproductive activity with rules, with time and space limits, and without obligation. He also presents an approach for classifying games. He especially identifies two orientations. He calls it paida and ludus. We can understand it as freedom and constraints. Gonzalo Frasca says it “describes the difference between play and game”. Effectively, some games without quantifiable outcome can be considered as toy-games (two famous examples: Sim City, 1989, and The Sims, 2002). I use words that Eric Zimmerman also use (quantifiable outcome), so it is time to discuss his definition of what a game is:

“A game is a voluntary interactive activity, in which one or more players follow rules that constrain their behavior, enacting an artificial conflict that ends in a quantifiable outcome.” This definition, which is not far from Avedon and Sutton-Smith’s is a very accurate definition of what a game is. But, it does not include toy-games and puzzle-games. Is there a quantifiable outcome in toy-games? Is there always an artificial conflict in puzzle-games? My answer would be: a videogame can be a puzzle-game, a toy-game, or any kind of game that can be handled by an audiovisual apparatus. Chris Crawford calls this wide range of games interactive entertainments or playthings. Besides, Wolfgang Kramer advances two sets of criteria to differentiate “games with rules” from the others. Basic criteria for every game: common experience, equality, freedom, activity, diving into the world of the game. And additional criteria for “games with rules”: game rules, goal, the course of the game is never the same (chance), competition. PLAY

To introduce what playing a videogame is, I will quote Zimmerman again: “Play is the free space of movement within a more rigid structure. Play exists both because of and also despite the more rigid structures of a system.” Zimmerman also defines three categories: game play, ludic activities, being playful. Given these categories, the famous Huizinga definition is related to the first category: “Such a concept, we felt, seemed to be tolerably well defined in the following terms: play is a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy and the consciousness that it is ‘different’ from ‘ordinary life’.” We can also try to list the pleasures of playing. The Le Diberder brothers have their answer: competition, accomplishment, system mastering, narrative enjoyment, and audiovisual experience. Moreover, we can think of other aspects beyond system mastering and that game designers know very well: discovering hidden elements (secrets, Easter eggs) and cheating. Richard Rouse draws up a large list of players’ motivations and expectations. Newman selects three of them: challenge, immersion, players expect to do (not to watch). This last item brings me to the next term of my definition: the audiovisual apparatus.

STORY
A videogame can be based on a story. In most cases, it is, but sometimes not. Tetris (1985), for example, is an abstract challenge that does not need a story. They are many ways to insert narrative elements in a videogame: back-stories (videos in the beginning for instance), cutscenes between levels or to introduce a special event in the game, discussions with othercharacters, etc. Then, academics wonder if we can study and design videogames like literature and film . Some answers are very clear, for example: “The first and most important thing to know about games is that they center on PLAY. Unlike literature and film, which center on STORY, in games, everything revolves around play and the player experience. Game designers are much less interested in telling a story than in creating a compelling framework for play.” Hence, videogames are often seen as simulations: “Narrative is based on semiotic representation, while videogames also rely on simulation, understood as the modelling of a dynamic system through another system.” We know that a videogame can be based on a story. But is a videogame always a simulation? Answering is not easy when we consider abstract games like Qix (1981) and Tetris (1985). But the answer, according to Frasca, could be that these games are simulations of systems that their designers have imagined. It would mean that a videogame would always be a virtual game, because we do not manipulate the game elements in the real world. VIDEOGAME HERITAGE

By looking back to the past, we can see how the videogame heritage can help us to know what a videogame is. Chris Crawford lists games that “explore interesting design concepts or define a genre.” For example, Space Invaders (1978) and its “extremely simple game play that made this game accessible for everybody.” John Sellers also identifies milestones. For example, Ms. Pac-Man (1981) was the “first game to star a female character.” Besides, we can look at the history of videogames] to identify periods. Our starting point could be the first commercial game (Computer Space, 1971, the arcade version of Spacewar! 1962 and we could identify the four following periods: • 1971-1978: first years, pioneers’ success,

• 1978-1983: golden age, genre development,

• 1983-1994: less technological limits, strong ideas,
• 1994-now: CD-ROM, 3D, PlayStation, PC, big productions, less diversity, online games. From the pioneers’ success, we learn what an arcade videogame is (for example: Pong, 1972). From the golden age, we learn how diversified the videogames can be (sports, adventure, fighting, etc.).

From the years between, 1983 and 1994, we learn that strong ideas make the difference. I have to give some details about what I call strong ideas. I will do it trough famous examples: new powerful ideas (Tetris, 1985), deep game plays (Bubble Bobble, 1986, and Shinobi, 1987), genre crossings (The Legend of Zelda, 1986), innovative narrative elements (fights in Battle Chess, 1988), complex system simulations (Sim City, 1989), multiplayer fun (Bomberman, 1990, Super Mario Kart, 1992), leading unintelligent animals (Lemmings, 1990), simple and strong ideas (Pang, 1990).Finally, from recent big productions, we learn about the future of videogames: bigger and bigger, more and more online, and less and less diversity. About this last point, the Le Diberder brothers say: “War games, games of skill, racing games, and even fighting games and shoot’em up games will be simple levels in simulators that will combine them.” Positive Effects of Video Games

When your child plays video games, it gives his brain a real workout. In many video games, the skills required to win involve abstract and high level thinking. These skills are not even taught at school. Some of the mental skills enhanced by video games include: o Following instructions

o Problem solving and logic – When kids play games such as The Incredible Machine, Angry Birds or Cut The Rope, they train their brain to come up with creative ways to solve puzzles and other problems in short bursts o Hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills. In shooting games, the character may be running and shooting at the same time. This requires the real-world player to keep track of the position of the character, where he/she is heading, their speed, where the gun is aiming, if the gunfire is hitting the enemy, and so on. All these factors need to be taken into account, and then the player must then coordinate the brain’s interpretation and reaction with the movement in their hands and fingertips. This process requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination and visual-spatial ability to be successful. Research also suggests that people can learn iconic, spatial, and visual attention skills from video games. There have been even studies with adults showing that experience with video games is related to better surgical skills. Also, a reason given by experts as to why fighter pilots of today are more skillful is that this generation’s pilots are being weaned on video games.

o Planning, resource management and logistics. The player learns to manage resources that are limited, and decide the best use of resources, the same way as in real life. This skill is honed in strategy games such as SimCity, Age of Empires, and Railroad Tycoon. Notably, The American Planning Association, the trade association of urban planners and Maxis, the game creator, have claimed that SimCity has inspired a lot of its players to take a career in urban planning and architecture. o Multitasking, simultaneous tracking of many shifting variables and managing multiple objectives. In strategy games, for instance, while developing a city, an unexpected surprise like an enemy might emerge. This forces the player to be flexible and quickly change tactics. o Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions. Sometimes the player does this almost every second of the game giving the brain a real workout. According to researchers at the University of Rochester, led by Daphne Bavelier, a cognitive scientist, games simulating stressful events such as those found in battle or action games could be a training tool for real-world situations. The study suggests that playing action video games primes the brain to make quick decisions. Video games can be used to train soldiers and surgeons, according to the study.

o Accuracy – Action games, according to a study by the University of Rochester, train the brains of players to make faster decisions without losing accuracy. In today’s world, it is important to move quickly without sacrificing accuracy. o Strategy and anticipation – Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, calls this “telescoping.” Gamers must deal with immediate problems while keeping their long-term goals on their horizon. o Situational awareness – – Defense News reported that the Army include video games to train soldiers improve their situational awareness in combat.

Many strategy games also require players to become mindful of sudden situational changes in the game and adapt accordingly. o Developing reading and math skills – Young gamers force themselves to read to get instructions, follow storylines of games, and get information from the game texts. Also, using math skills is important to win in many games that involves quantitative analysis like managing resources. o Perseverance – In higher levels of a game, players usually fail the first time around, but they keep on trying until they succeed and move on to the next level. o Pattern recognition – Games have internal logic in them, and players figure it out by recognizing patterns. o Estimating skills

o Inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing – James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. Like students in a laboratory, gamers must come up with a hypothesis. For example, players in some games constantly try out combinations of weapons and powers to use to defeat an enemy. If one does not work, they change hypothesis and try the next one. Video games are goal-driven experiences, says Gee, which are fundamental to learning. o Mapping – Gamers use in-game maps or build maps on their heads to navigate around virtual worlds. o Memory – Playing first person shooter games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield series enables players to effectively judge what information should be stored in their working memory and what can be discarded considering the task at hand, according to a study published in the Psychological Research. o Concentration – A study conducted by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory reveal that children with attention-deficit disorder who played Dance Dance Revolution improve their reading scores by helping them concentrate. o Improved ability to rapidly and accurately recognize visual information – A study from Beth Israel Medical Center NY, found a direct link between skill at video gaming and skill at keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery. o Reasoned judgments

o Taking risks – Winning in any game involves a player’s courage to take risks. Most games do not reward players who play safely. o How to respond to challenges

o How to respond to frustrations
o How to explore and rethink goals
o Teamwork and cooperation when played with others – Many multiplayer games such as Team Fortress 2 involve cooperation with other online players in order to win. These games encourage players to make the most of their individual skills to contribute to the team. According to a survey by Joan Ganz Cooney Center, teachers report that their students become better collaborators after using digital games in the classroom. o Management – Management simulation games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon and Zoo tycoon teach players to make management decisions and manage the effective use of finite resources. Other games such as Age of Empires and Civilization even simulate managing the course of a civilization. o Simulation, real world skills. The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane.

All of the controls, including airspeed, wing angles, altimeter, and so on, are displayed for the player, as well as a visual representation of the world, and are updated in real time. Video games introduce your kid to computer technology and the online world. You should recognize that we are now living in a high-tech, sophisticated world. Video games make your kid adapt and be comfortable with the concepts of computing. This is particularly important for girls who typically are not as interested in high technology as much as boys. Video games allow you and your kid to play together and can be a good bonding activity. Some games are attractive to kids as well as adults, and they could be something that they share in common. When your child knows more than you, he can teach you how to play and this allows you to understand your child’s skills and talents.

Video games make learning fun. Your kid likes games because of the colors, the animation, the eye candy, as well as the interactivity and the challenge and the rewards of winning. The best way to learn is when the learner is having fun at the same time. That’s why video games are natural teachers. Having fun gives your kid motivation to keep on practicing, which is the only way to learn skills. Video games is also capable of making difficult subjects such as math fun. Video games can make your kid creative. A study by the Michigan State University’s Children and Technology Project found a relation between video game playing and greater creativity, regardless of gender, race or type of video game played. (In contrast, use of cell phones, the Internet and computers other than video games was unrelated to creativity, the study found). Video games can improve your kid’s decision making speed. People who played action-based video and computer games made decisions 25% faster than others without sacrificing accuracy, according to a study from the University of Rochester.

Other studies suggests that most expert gamers can make choices and act on them up to six times a second—four times faster than most people, and can pay attention to more than six things at once without getting confused, compared to only four by the average person. Surprisingly, the violent action games that often worry parents most had the strongest beneficial effect on the brain, according to cognitive neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier, who studies the effect of action games at Switzerland’s University of Geneva and the University of Rochester in New York. Video games increase your kid’s self-confidence and self-esteem as he masters games. In many games, the levels of difficulty are adjustable. As a beginner, your kid begins at the easy level and by constant practicing and slowly building skills, he becomes confident in handling more difficult challenges. Since the cost of failure is lower, he does not fear making mistakes. He takes more risks and explores more. Your kid can transfer this attitude to real life. Games that involve multiple players encourage your child to work cooperatively to achieve his goals.

Your kid learns to listen to the ideas of others, formulate plans with other kids, and distribute tasks based on skills. Some online games are even played internationally, and this can introduce your kid to players of different nationalities and cultures. This fosters friendships among different people. Video games that require your kid to be active, such as Dance Dance Revolution and Nintendo Wii Boxing give your kid a good workout. When playing these active games for 10 minutes, your kid spends energy equal to or exceeding that produced by spending the same amount of time on a three miles an hour treadmill walk. Kids are not necessarily drawn to video games because of their violence. The attraction lies in their being rewarded by awesome displays of explosions, fireworks, and yes, blood splattering. Also, violent games have the most emotional appeal for kids. But these factors are only secondary to what kids actually enjoy in these games – the opportunity to develop and master skills and have the freedom to make choices in the game universe.

Violent video games may act as a release of pent-up aggression and frustration of your kid. When your kid vents his frustration and anger in his game, this diffuses his stress. Games can provide a positive aggression outlet the same way as football and other violent sports. Playing video games is safer than having your teens do drugs, alcohol and street racing in the real world. Negative Effects of Video Games

Most of the bad effects of video games are blamed on the violence they contain. Children who play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping, according to a scientific study (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). The effect of video game violence in kids is worsened by the games’ interactive nature. In many games, kids are rewarded for being more violent. The act of violence is done repeatedly. The child is in control of the violence and experiences the violence in his own eyes (killings, kicking, stabbing and shooting). This active participation, repetition and reward are effective tools for learning behavior. Indeed, many studies seem to indicate that violent video games may be related to aggressive behavior (such as Anderson & Dill, 2000; Gentile, Lynch & Walsh, 2004). However, the evidence is not consistent and this issue is far from settled. Many experts including Henry Jenkins of Massachusetts Institute of Technology have noted that there is a decreased rate of juvenile crime which coincides with the popularity of games such as Death Race, Mortal Kombat, Doom and Grand Theft auto.

He concludes that teenage players are able to leave the emotional effects of the game behind when the game is over. Indeed there are cases of teenagers who commit violent crimes who also spend great amount of time playing video games such as those involved in the Columbine and Newport cases. It appears that there will always be violent people, and it just so happen that many of them also enjoy playing violent video games. Too much video game playing makes your kid socially isolated. Also, he may spend less time in other activities such as doing homework, reading, sports, and interacting with the family and friends. Some video games teach kids the wrong values. Violent behavior, vengeance and aggression are rewarded. Negotiating and other nonviolent solutions are often not options. Women are often portrayed as weaker characters that are helpless or sexually provocative. Games can confuse reality and fantasy.

Academic achievement may be negatively related to over-all time spent playing video games. Studies have shown that the more time a kid spends playing video games, the poorer is his performance in school. (Anderson & Dill, 2000; Gentile, Lynch & Walsh, 2004). A study by Argosy University’s Minnesota School on Professional Psychology found that video game addicts argue a lot with their teachers, fight a lot with their friends, and score lower grades than others who play video games less often. Other studies show that many game players routinely skip their homework to play games, and many students admitted that their video game habits are often responsible for poor school grades. Although some studies suggest that playing video games enhances a child’s concentration, other studies, such as a 2012 paper published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture, have found that games can hurt and help children’s attention issues — improving the ability to concentrate in short bursts but damaging long-term concentration.

Video games may also have bad effects on some children’s health, including obesity, video-induced seizures. and postural, muscular and skeletal disorders, such as tendonitis, nerve compression, carpal tunnel syndrome. When playing online, your kid can pick up bad language and behavior from other people, and may make your kid vulnerable to online dangers. A study by the Minneapolis-based National Institute for Media and the Family suggests that video games can be addictive for kids, and that the kids’ addiction to video games increases their depression and anxiety levels. Addicted kids also exhibit social phobias. Not surprisingly, kids addicted to video games see their school performance suffer. Kids spending too much time playing video games may exhibit impulsive behavior and have attention problems. This is according to a new study published in the February 2012 issue of the Journal of Psychology and Popular Media Culture. For the study, attention problems were defined as difficulty engaging in or sustaining behavior to reach a goal.

Aggression- is behavior, or a disposition, that is forceful, hostile or attacking. It may occur either in retaliation or without provocation. aggressive behavior- is a category of interpersonal interactions characterized by an obstructionist or hostile manner that indicates aggression, or, in more general terms, expressing aggression in non-assertive, subtle ways AI – Artificial intelligence- is the intelligence of machines and robots and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. Analog device – is usually a combination of both analog machine and analog media that can together measure, record, or reproduce continuous information, for example, the almost infinite number of grades of transparency, color, voltage, resistance, rotation, or pressure. Antisocial behavior- is behavior that lacks consideration for others and may cause damage to the society, whether intentionally or through negligence.

Cathode ray tube Amusement Device- is the earliest known interactive electronic game to use a cathode ray tube (CRT) Consoles- is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game. Cyber drama- is used to describe a new type of storytelling. Demographics- are statistical characteristics of a population. Disseminate- in terms of the field of communication, means to broadcast a message to the public without direct feedback from the audience. Education utility- the power to revitalize education and society Electronic media – are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user (audience) to access the content. Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics.

Fictional – is the form of any work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and theoretical—that is, invented by the author. Individual development – Growth or maturation in the individuals of a species due to aging, learning, or experience. Interpersonal skills – skills used by a person to properly interact with others. Leisure- or free time is time spent away from business, work, and domestic chores. Maneuver – perform or cause to perform a movement or series of moves requiring skill and care MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) – a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world. Oscilloscope- is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical or yaxis, plotted as a function of time. Physiological arousal- state of being awake or reactive to stimuli Positive correlation – A relationship between two variables in which both variables move in tandem Prevalent – accepted, widespread

Prototype – is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. Quadrupling – Consisting of four parts or members.
Realism- in the visual arts and literature is the general attempt to depict subjects as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation and “in accordance with secular, empirical rules Simulations- is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time Sociological perceptions- the sociological imagination is the of individuals. It includes both the capacity to see relationships between individual biographies Virtual- being such in power, force, or effect, though not actually or expressly

REFERENCE

http://www.livestrong.com/article/279646-health-effects-of-video-games/#ixzz2alBXK82x The Psychological Effects of Video Game Playing | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6325989_psychological-effects-video-game-playing.html#ixzz2alDO52qY Do Violent Games Cause Behavior Problems in Teens? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8220092_do-cause-behavior-problems-teens.html#ixzz2alDm8SAa www.google.com/wikipedia

Microsoft Encarta/dictionaries
www.newsmax.com
www.taglevelone.com
Assorted Gaming Statistics, A good reference for game statistics Video games: Research, ratings, and recommendations, Contains many references for empirical studies dailylife.com
http://www.nintendo.com

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Report of the Council on Science and Public Health”; Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games; Khan, Mohamed; 2006 Palo Alto Medical Foundation: The Impact of Video Games on Children Article reviewed by Carolyn Williams

Last updated on: Apr 26, 2011
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