While some believe that gaming is bad for people, some studies suggest the opposite.
steven devine | rawr
Bill Tracy enjoys one of his favorite racing games Monday afternoon. Video game culture has become a popular distraction for many students that have made gaming a part of their life.
Jane McGonigal, an American game designer, claims that games are essential for everyone to play.
McGonigal notes the many good effects gaming has on those who game at least an hour every day.
“Games challenge us with voluntary obstacles and help us put our personal strengths to better use,” McGonigal said in her book “Reality is Broken.”
Gaming is the direct emotional opposite of depression, according to McGonigal. The clinical definition of depression states that people suffer a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity.
This makes the definition of gaming an optimistic sense of our own capabilities and an invigorating rush of activity, McGonigal said. She said the positive emotional effects of games and gaming produced by working are eustress and fiero.
McGonigal cites many psychologists in her book that say humans are the happiest when they are working. She said games emulate the emotional level of activity people go through when doing satisfying work. Seeking hard work is actually the best way to create these levels of eustress.
In this stressful state there are still high levels of adrenaline and blood flow like in a normal stressful situation. However, the mind is not experiencing any fear or pessimism that is associated with stress. Instead, people are confident and optimistic. They are enjoying the stimulation and activation of the hard work they chose within this game.
She said working also produces “fiero” and it is the most primal rush we can experience. Fiero describes the emotional high after one beats some form of adversary.
“It is a craving for challenges that we can overcome, battles we can win and dangers we can vanquish,” McGonigal said.
McGonigal said that fiero is one of the most powerful neurochemical highs we can experience.
“The more challenging the obstacle we overcome, the more intense the fiero,” McGonigal said.
Assistant professor Russell Jackson of the University of Idaho Psychology Department said that there was not enough research on the subject to concur with McGonigal or disprove her.
Jackson did say however that correlation does not imply causation when it comes to violent videogames influencing violent behavior.
“For example, most people that are involved in car accidents have consumed caffeine but that doesn’t mean caffeine causes car accidents,” he said.
Jackson said as the definition of video games changes it is hard to determine whether gaming is good or bad. He said that there was mixed research when it came to the claims that gaming enhances hand-eye coordination, reflexes or critical thinking abilities.
“There are certainly components that transfer from one to the other, but I don’t think that there is a clear answer to that,” Jackson said.
A group of UI student video gamers listed off several things they believe gaming has taught them. They discussed everything from hand-eye coordination to anger management.
“Games help you practice perseverance,” Trevor Hooper said.
Nicholas Hall said that gaming can help people explore their moral compasses and the consequences of choosing good versus evil in a controlled environment.
While this group of people had their own reasons for gaming most of them came to the same conclusion: the reason that they gamed was simply because games are fun and a form of stress relief.
Hall said one of his reasons for gaming was that gaming offers more than any other medium [of entertainment] and was more immersive than reading or movies. He said gaming challenges his critical thinking and lets him explore the effects certain decisions have on an environment.
The debate that video games are bad for people is still widely discussed. Gamers believe that they are learning new ways to interact with the world around them while increasing numbers of studies are being done on the effects games have on players.
As of yet there is no clear answer but video games are everywhere. More and more people have picked up a controller, mouse or even a smartphone.
“Whether we like it or not…videogames are an increasing part of how we interact with the world,” Jackson said.
Claire Whitley can be reached at [email protected]