After watching the BBC Horizon programme, Are Video Games Really That Bad? I thought about putting what I learnt into a summary to get rid of the idea that video games are bad and instead to emphasise the point Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) and that video games in general have a lot of positive effects on people.
Brad Bushman from Iowa State University says that video games are bad and enforces what he’s talking about saying that you get rewards for killing and other violent actions in games and in video games especially first person games you have to pay attention and can’t zone out because you are immersing yourself into the game and becoming the killer. Next Dr. Doug Gentile who is also from Iowa State University did a test where they pickled out a set off young adults and made half played violent videogames and half play calmer games such as simple balancing games, they were then showed real violent situations to see their reactions to which the ones who played the violent game had less of a reaction and those who played the other games had far less of a reaction. Dr. Doug Gentile concluded that playing violent video games increases aggression from anywhere between 4% and 9% he also concluded that they’re not copying what’s happened in the game and instead they are themselves changing for the worst. In my own opinion this is not because of the game but because of the person themselves which will be talked about later on.
Chris Ferguson from Stetson University had a completely opposite opinion to Brad Bushman and Dr. Doug Gentile while giving much greater facts. He went onto say that in the two decades leading up to 2003 and since violent video games have come out youth violence has decreased by 83% but the actual reason behind this is unknown whether this is because of games or other reason is unknown but when violent games come out youth violence drops because people become preoccupied. He then talked about the “Routine activity theory” which says that even if the games don’t stop people from being violent it would still occupy their time to actually act violent. He and others concluded that violent videogames have little effect but other factors such as anti-social behaviour, poverty and a lot of other things do have a major effect.
Dr. Andy Przybylski from the University of Oxford made a test where they made one group of people put their hand in ice water and then to play Tetris and others do the same but play Bastet a version of Tetris that tries to make you lose by picking the worst piece. Then that person had to choose how long the next person had to put their hand in the ice water. Those who played Bastet wanted to put the next person’s hand in water for roughly 7 more seconds than those who played Tetris, this aggression has nothing to do with violence but frustration which is the something the FNAF games play on because the game can become quite frustrating.
Professor Rene Weber from University of California Santa Barbara scanned peoples brain while playing violent games and he found out that a certain part of the brain lit up, that certain part of the brain supresses another part of the brain that makes us emotional, an example of the emotions that gets suppressed is what makes us feel fear. He concludes that his study does not show that people are desensitised after playing video games. Simone Kuhn from Max Planck Institute for Human Development added on that that part of the brain can also be used to supress your emotions when you see something sad but you don’t want to let it get to you, in the FNAF games this can explain why you become less sensitive to jump scares the longer you play the game.
Professor Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University starts to talk about video game addiction and that being rewarded in games can lead to addiction which FNAF goes against since the only reward you get in the game is a mediocre pay check at the end and the satisfaction of completing the game, the game is more off putting because of difficulty which makes it a game that wouldn’t cause addiction.
Dr. Valerie Voon of the University of Cambridge adds on that people usually prefer immediate reward such as playing games rather than rewards that are longer and harder to obtain such as getting a degree. She then goes on to say that games could be used to teach things to kids such as Minecraft to teach creativity or in my game FNAF could definitely teach time management and multitasking.
Professor Daphne Bavelier from University of Geneva believed that the visual abilities of gamers are better being able to follow multiple items at a time. This was checked by a test where they have to remember whether a smiling face was blue or yellow similar to the card game Concentration, also known as Match Match, Memory, Pelmanism, Shinkei-suijaku, Pexeso or simply Pairs where you have flip cards over and get two of the same. This is because you have to be very precise and continually monitor everything which is the exact same as FNAF because you have to follow multiple cameras, multiple animatronics, two doors and battery life all at the same time.
Next Simone Kuhn of Max Planck Institute for Human Development returned and talked about a test she did where she monitored two groups, one group played Mario 64 and the other did nothing and she found those who played games had more active brains with a brain increase in the brain where it controls strategic planning and the part which controls special navigation. FNAF would increase both of these parts of the brain because the game is very strategic where you have to look at where you are.
Then Professor Adam Gazzaley of the University of California San Francisco talked about that by playing games you can increase multi-tasking abilities, he checked this by making adults play this game over a couple of weeks and over time their multitasking abilities did increase as well as attention span and working memory a game that could do this would be FNAF since in this game you’d need to use your multitasking, attention span and memory abilities.
So to conclude there’s no evidence that video games and violence goes hand in hand but there is evidence that video games could have a lot of positive effects on people who play them. FNAF could have a lot of positive effects and no actual negative effects.
Brad Bushman from Iowa State University says that video games are bad and enforces what he’s talking about saying that you get rewards for killing and other violent actions in games and in video games especially first person games you have to pay attention and can’t zone out because you are immersing yourself into the game and becoming the killer. Next Dr. Doug Gentile who is also from Iowa State University did a test where they pickled out a set off young adults and made half played violent videogames and half play calmer games such as simple balancing games, they were then showed real violent situations to see their reactions to which the ones who played the violent game had less of a reaction and those who played the other games had far less of a reaction. Dr. Doug Gentile concluded that playing violent video games increases aggression from anywhere between 4% and 9% he also concluded that they’re not copying what’s happened in the game and instead they are themselves changing for the worst. In my own opinion this is not because of the game but because of the person themselves which will be talked about later on.
Chris Ferguson from Stetson University had a completely opposite opinion to Brad Bushman and Dr. Doug Gentile while giving much greater facts. He went onto say that in the two decades leading up to 2003 and since violent video games have come out youth violence has decreased by 83% but the actual reason behind this is unknown whether this is because of games or other reason is unknown but when violent games come out youth violence drops because people become preoccupied. He then talked about the “Routine activity theory” which says that even if the games don’t stop people from being violent it would still occupy their time to actually act violent. He and others concluded that violent videogames have little effect but other factors such as anti-social behaviour, poverty and a lot of other things do have a major effect.
Dr. Andy Przybylski from the University of Oxford made a test where they made one group of people put their hand in ice water and then to play Tetris and others do the same but play Bastet a version of Tetris that tries to make you lose by picking the worst piece. Then that person had to choose how long the next person had to put their hand in the ice water. Those who played Bastet wanted to put the next person’s hand in water for roughly 7 more seconds than those who played Tetris, this aggression has nothing to do with violence but frustration which is the something the FNAF games play on because the game can become quite frustrating.
Professor Rene Weber from University of California Santa Barbara scanned peoples brain while playing violent games and he found out that a certain part of the brain lit up, that certain part of the brain supresses another part of the brain that makes us emotional, an example of the emotions that gets suppressed is what makes us feel fear. He concludes that his study does not show that people are desensitised after playing video games. Simone Kuhn from Max Planck Institute for Human Development added on that that part of the brain can also be used to supress your emotions when you see something sad but you don’t want to let it get to you, in the FNAF games this can explain why you become less sensitive to jump scares the longer you play the game.
Professor Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University starts to talk about video game addiction and that being rewarded in games can lead to addiction which FNAF goes against since the only reward you get in the game is a mediocre pay check at the end and the satisfaction of completing the game, the game is more off putting because of difficulty which makes it a game that wouldn’t cause addiction.
Dr. Valerie Voon of the University of Cambridge adds on that people usually prefer immediate reward such as playing games rather than rewards that are longer and harder to obtain such as getting a degree. She then goes on to say that games could be used to teach things to kids such as Minecraft to teach creativity or in my game FNAF could definitely teach time management and multitasking.
Professor Daphne Bavelier from University of Geneva believed that the visual abilities of gamers are better being able to follow multiple items at a time. This was checked by a test where they have to remember whether a smiling face was blue or yellow similar to the card game Concentration, also known as Match Match, Memory, Pelmanism, Shinkei-suijaku, Pexeso or simply Pairs where you have flip cards over and get two of the same. This is because you have to be very precise and continually monitor everything which is the exact same as FNAF because you have to follow multiple cameras, multiple animatronics, two doors and battery life all at the same time.
Next Simone Kuhn of Max Planck Institute for Human Development returned and talked about a test she did where she monitored two groups, one group played Mario 64 and the other did nothing and she found those who played games had more active brains with a brain increase in the brain where it controls strategic planning and the part which controls special navigation. FNAF would increase both of these parts of the brain because the game is very strategic where you have to look at where you are.
Then Professor Adam Gazzaley of the University of California San Francisco talked about that by playing games you can increase multi-tasking abilities, he checked this by making adults play this game over a couple of weeks and over time their multitasking abilities did increase as well as attention span and working memory a game that could do this would be FNAF since in this game you’d need to use your multitasking, attention span and memory abilities.
So to conclude there’s no evidence that video games and violence goes hand in hand but there is evidence that video games could have a lot of positive effects on people who play them. FNAF could have a lot of positive effects and no actual negative effects.
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