Psychological Effects of Video Gaming Nawalf Alsuwailem University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee English 102 I entered into the field of playing video games and puzzles games in childhood stage of my life. I found puzzle games quite interesting and most of the time my mother wondered why I had so much passion for such games; when left home alone with no other activities to do my only work was playing these games. According to Dr. Craig Anderson, a professor and director of the psychology department at Iowa State University, “Video games have been known to have serious psychological and social effects to the player.” Addiction has been known to be the leading effect of these types of games. Secondly, as people play games with their colleagues they usually interact and share a lot in common through those games; sharing and interacting continues between the game players which eventually result to improved social skills and communication skills. With my personal experience that can also mirror the experience of others, do video games really have an effect on the psychological and sociological aspects of a video game player? The Strong National Museum of Play houses the world’s largest collection of historical materials that relates to play. It is also the home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games. According the The Strong’s Video Game History Timeline, video games started in the year of 1958 when William Higginbotham created the first video game, “Tennis for Two” which utilized simple two dimensions (2D) technology. This video game was played by two players, who moved sticks up and down to bounce the ball between each other. His idea of video games triggered so many other game developers to create more games. By building on to his ideas, new game developers have advanced in their research leading to creation of more modern games which uses the latest three dimensional technologies (3D). Currently, there about 45 video games in existence those are using the modern technology in the video industry (The strong). In early stages of video games development there were no known psychological effects related to games. Since then, games have evolved forming more complex ones that are known to develop a strong bond with the player; leading to psychological effects. Simple games that existed in the previous decades had few players because they had not become common to more people; few people had skills in playing those games (The strong). People have learned the fun in those video games and more keep on playing them. There has been a lot of influences between peers which has seen so many people develop addiction in playing of games. People would want to be known and beat others in competitions related to video games. Creating perfection in video games is a learning process which may take some time, as more time is spent in playing the more interesting the games becomes, it results in addiction of the player. The strong bond between the player and the game has given psychological effects to the player. RPG and FPS first person shooter games are becoming common to people. These types of games are using fictional characters, in which a player takes an identity of fictional player and set to an adventure in its fantasy world. Avatars are what players use to represent themselves in the virtual world of playing these video games. According to a study conducted by Nick Yee, an American researcher who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Ph. D in communication from Stanford University who studies and Jeremy Bailenson, a professor in the department of communication at Stanford University, avatars and self-representation have a strong link on the behaviors of the player who creates them. “False self-concept causes players to interact with the perceiver in a way such that the perceiver behaves in a way that confirms the target’s false selfconcept—can occur” (Yee and Bailenson, 2007). In other words, the mismatch of self- representation on avatars and how others perceive us with attractive avatars showed intimate and friendly behaviors. Avatars make players change their social behavior with its avatar accordingly. In the virtue world, we are not ourselves and some players might lose their sense of self due to a long exposure of interacting with other players in a virtual world. World of Warcraft is one of the most popular MMORPG games which stands for massively multiplayer online role playing. It has more than 10 million players in the world. In this type of game, players pick a race and class and identify with weather its human paladin a warrior of light or an orc warlock dark sources that can summon demons. MMORPG games have made some people identify their social lives with MMORG virtual world. Today, most of the players of these games associate themselves with behaviors of avatars in the virtual world of games, hence losing touch with the real world. Modern video games are becoming emotionally touching and have developed a deep bondage with the player due to wide use of computers in the world of games. Computers have made video games to become more sophisticated. They now have genres to give a player an option on the choice of games one want to play. According to Dr. Christopher Shawn Green, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and Aaron R. Seitz, a psychology professor at the University of California, their article mentions that action video games are games that have quick moving targets that come in and out of view, include large amounts of clutter, and needs players to make rapid, accurate decisions. “Playing action video games has been linked with myriad enhancements in cognitive function, from low level vision through high-level cognitive abilities, while playing many other types of games fails to produce equivalent impact on perception and cognition.” (Green and Seitz, 2015). This action of games that require one to make faster and accurate decision on what measure to take to enable the move ahead has been seen to have a positive cognitive impact on video game players. For instance, Dr. Green gives an example of the video game “Call of Duty”. He pointed out that the game requires the player to choose quickly and act accordingly such a shooting targets that are moving fast or moving away from danger in a fast and accurate manner. Practicing these kind of reactions constantly for a period of time while gaming would improve the player general awareness and decision making. When one encounters real life threatening situation he/she can apply these skills acquired from the games to solve problems in the real life situations. For example, when one encounters a lion, he/she has to act in the most appropriate manner that can save life without having legs not to run cold feet. Psychologically, video games involving complex situations to be solved give the player a stable condition of mind against any ideal life situations that can be applied in executing a plan together with skills acquired from such games. Video action games improve attention and helps maintain focus for a long period of time. These games require a player to concentrate and dedicate more time in playing it due to the strong bond with the games (Anderson). This is usually beneficial for people who are at their learning age, because they don’t lose concentration easily especially when a teacher is explaining concepts that are regarded by students as difficult in learning situation. Video games increase our ability on decision making process (Green and Seitz, 2015). To win and become a master of action video games, one must have won more and outstanding points. These games pose a challenge to the player which must be encountered for the player to win. As the player wins more of this game he/she gets skills that are more applicable in daily life issues with accuracy. According to Andrew Przybylski, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and coauthor Richard Ryan, a motivational psychologist at the University of Rochester, video game playing offers opportunity for leisure time. Many video games have really challenging levels to beat in order to keep the player hooked to the game. If the game is not challenging and anyone can beat it easily, it can be boring and make the player less likely to continue playing. We only experience leisure when the challenge that we are faced with meet our skill even in violent video games. However Craig Anderson states, “Many situational factors can increase arousal and anger, even certain nonviolent video games. For instance, race driving video games, sports video games, and even perceptual/motor skills games that require intense concentration and rapid responses (e.g., Tetris, Bejeweled) can increase heart rate and blood pressure. Similarly, video games that are too fast paced or too difficult for the player are likely to increase frustration and anger, which in turn might activate aggressive thoughts” (Anderson, 2010). Many scholars and educators have argued that many action videogames impact video game players to engage in a wide range of immoral activates and promote violence and aggression. Even non-violent video games can make a player frustrated and angry. This is referred to as “rage quit” in the gaming community. When a player is stuck at a level for a long period of time or loses rights before completing the level, having to redo it again from the start can be agonizing. The player leaves the game in a bad state of mind and high blood pressure due to frustration. Video games production companies noticed this and didn’t want the players to leave with frustration or rage quit the game. So these games were redesigned to be fun and give a player an enjoyable experience (Przyblski and Richard Ryan, 2009). To reduce frustration in game playing, game developers started to offer difficulties mode in order to allow the players to have the flexibility to change difficulties level. Players with different skills can now play the same game and have fun. Anderson was looking at action video games from a different prospective saying that playing fast paced games that require a huge amount of attention and concentration would increase the anger and frustration of the player and that might lead to aggression. People like Anderson and many other scholars have linked anger and aggression to video games, however, Przyblski and Ryan disagrees with Anderson. The study focused more on the psychological player experience rather than solely on video games content. The experience of frustration and anger is not unique to gamers. Richard Ryan says, “When people feel they have no control over the outcome of a game that leads to aggression”. He argues that, players in sports may lose a game as a result of a bad call and face the same anger and frustration. He continues to explain, “If you press someone’s competencies, they’ll become more aggressive, and our effects held up whether the games were violent or not.” This is really an interesting argument because if sports can lead the player sometimes toward anger and frustration, can we say that they promote violence and aggression? The answer is no. Frustration and anger comes from inability to perform in a certain given challenge whether if it’s a video game or not. Przyblski mentions, “The researchers also surveyed 300 avid gamers to identify how real world gamers might experience the same phenomena. When asked about pre- and post-game feelings, gamers reported that their inability to master a game or its controls caused feelings of frustration and affected their sense of enjoyment in the experience’’ (Przyblski, 2009). I have experienced frustration in different game playing. For instance, I have wanted to learn how to play chess effectively, but whenever I gave a try with more experienced player I lost more often, it left me frustrated and angry due to my inability to master even the basic rules of the game. According to Ryan, patience is key in learning rules of games and becoming a master in a given play, through learners excising patience in learning games, frustration will be a thing of past. The American Medical Association doesn’t recognize video games as a psychiatric disorder even though many educators and scholars have curtsied video games for being mostly violent, addictive, and having bad psychological effects on us, especially children. Douglas Gentile, the director of psychological department at Iowa state university states, “There are now scores of studies showing that the pattern of problems pathological gamers face are very similar to the problems people with substance abuse or gambling addictions have.” Game players have lost money and won money in other games for which they have won a match. This has been seen to have a lesser effects as compared to gambling and drug use. In video games, addiction has been seen when a player loses a game, he/she tries to replay the game until a certain level is reached. Before the level of win as per the player is reached, then they cannot leave the game. This makes them to stay long glued to their mobiles phones or computers. Although, video gaming has been known to cause addition, the extent to which gambling and substance use because addition is more severe. A research conducted by Dr. Michael M. Merzenich, the director of the Scientific Learning Corporation showed that video games played in excess cause severe and bad social consequences. The time one spends in school, work place and playing of video games has been causing severe effects on the social life of a person. Video games have serious consequence in our social lives, behaviors, and academic life. According to his research, “The increasingly heavy use of video games and related virtual reality simulation environments for training combat military personnel provides clear testimony of their effectiveness for inuring the ‘player’ against the social challenges and stress associated with observing or voluntarily imitating aggressive and violent behaviors” (Merzenich, 2014). Simulation games are becoming more common nowadays. This is a genre of games that create games having similar real life experience. Some of these simulation games are rich in educational content that can be tapped by educators to add value to learners. Merzenich argues that simulation games can be very effective not only in our technical skills but also they can have serious psychological impacts. In training programs of soldiers, simulation games on combats are widely used to impact skills to offer solutions to challenging circumstances of war. These simulations have caused stress to the trainees and other psychological effects. Although these simulations may cause psychological effects, it allows the soldiers look at his/her job or mission objectively rather than what is morally sensible. On a normal civilian, it may cause worse psychological effects. However, that may not mean all simulation games have negative psychological effects. Dr.Merzenich explains, ‘’As more true game developers turn their attention to educational and/or clinical applications, new fields are emerging in which educational and medical practitioners are collaborating with game designers to develop fun and attractive activities that will guarantee time on task and at the same time have the educational or rehabilitation impact that experts in the field are seeking.’’ (Merzenich, 2014). Dr. Merzenich, wants developers to invest more in games that promote learn and play. This is extremely important because some video game players might have lost their sense of achievement through school or work so to fulfill their lost, they replace it with video game achievements. According to Randy Brown, the vice president of Virtual Heroes Division, virtual simulation games have also been developed in the field of medicine and surgery. Virtual Heroes Division of Applied Research Association have developed a video game more specifically a surgical simulation software known as “HumanSim” It is a game on surgical simulation that is available for the general public. This game was developed in the honor of United States Army, tying to prepare them psychologically on the real effects of war in the field. More complicated games with education contented need to be developed. "It was an honor to create this medical training application for the U.S. Army, in support of their pre-deployment training for Soldiers returning to the field. Combining our UnrealEngine-based virtual training systems with a real-time physiology engine created a significantly challenging sedation and airway trainer applicable to the military and commercial medical spaces. Our hope is by releasing this application that more patients can be saved in the real world through our virtual training" (Brown 2015). People from millennial generation have been known for their multitasking ability to be better than other previous generation and this is all thanks to technology. In a video game, multitasking is an important skill to have or develop through the players interacting with different objects and try to connect and match while at the same time, the players also need to avoid threats being thrown at him. Through playing video games, players are able to gain these multitasking skills into the real world. Conclusion Technology has been changing and affecting life in various ways. The field of video games has not been spared either by such changes. More complicated video games continue to emerge every day. According to Gentile, such games improve on the social life of the player significantly and more so where competition involves more than one layer. The video games have also been accredited with giving players a more complicated approach in solving real life issues (Gentile, 2011). Despite the advantages that the games have, such games have been known to arouse aggression between players and even spectators. This does not mean that we should outlaw games but certain measures need to be taken by people to avoid those negative effects associated with the games, for instance parents should help their children balance their time in every activity they do. This will help solve addiction to a greater extent. Society have been ignorant toward video games by generalizing it being bad for us and media has the tendency to produce breathless headlines about video games effects. Dr. Green described, “Tt is worth noting that the term ‘video games’ is far from a single construct and thus, has almost no scientific predictive power. One can no more say what the effects of video games are, than one can say what the effects of food are.’’ (Green, 2015). There are many types of games out there. Especially in the modern Age, video games are becoming much bigger and more sophisticated. By examining the different aspects of my own experiences, other stories of people, and researches on video gaming. It is clear that video gaming does have many psychological effects in people out in the real world on people. ! GOALS!AND!OUTCOMES!FOR!PORTFOLIO!ASSESSMENT!! IN!ENGLISH!102! ! In#the#portfolio,#you#will:# # ! 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