Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Gamers

I'm sure many of you have heard of playing Halo 3 Live. Basically you can sign in online and play this video game with people from around the world. I focus on Halo 3 because i myself have an account and play this game sometimes with friends when i go back home.

My question is why has video games gone to the point where we need to play online with people we don't even know. The entire game is built around killing the other team or other individuals, and whoever gets the most kills wins. I think that just this game says a lot about our society and i can formulate a few questions. Does the basic premise of the game (a kill equals a point) desensitize the gamers to actual death? Does the game make the gamers more violent? Is the game dangerous in the sense that it might become too much a part of our life?

In my personal experience with the game, I have found that some of these questions have truth. I don't think that the game has desensitized me personally. I view the game as being just a game and sort of on its own plain where it isn't effecting "reality. However, i have found that the game can effect stress levels and make gamers quite angry. I am not sure if this is a result of just being a bad loser or if the game actually makes the gamers more violent.

I am interested in your views on this topic. Is this not an issue or does it hold some concerns for you?
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2 comments:

missaligirl said...

Personnally I am not a gamer. My boyfriend on the other hand is. He gets mad when I call him a gamer, though I'm not sure why cause he totally is. I don't mind if he plays, and his game of choice is Call of Duty 4. He plays online with all his friends and they spend countless hours each week working on headshots and kills or whatever the stuff is called. He is not a violent guy at all. Sometimes I see him get pretty pissed off at the game. I asked him "why are you playing if it makes you so mad?" He didn't really respond. The game doesn't effect him as far as reality goes. Once he turns it off he doesn't really think about it. I don't understand the craze of being a gamer but as far as I can see it doesn't affect his realities of the world.

March 17, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Derek C said...

I play halo way way way to much! Enough to where I am a 50, just thought I would throw that in there. :) I've played around 4 to 5000 games and yes it does make me angry! I freak out about losing! If I have a bad day at halo then it can affect my attitude for the rest of the day. I think that it makes me a little angrier when I lose because it doesn't happen very often. It makes it all worse when you get beat by a 8 year old kid thats played for a year. I don't feel that videogames desensitize death in real life at all. Its all fun and games.

March 22, 2009 at 9:26 AM

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