Everyone has played a virtual game at least once in our life. Our childhood is abundant with memories of playing with our Game Boy, PlayStation, DS, PSP and many more gaming devices.
It’s a marvel how app creators fabricate an entirely new world out of ones and zeros and we get to interact within it with buttons and a screen. It’s a fun way to pass the time but like all things, it has pros and cons. There have been controversies linked with gaming, like addiction and violence.
The online gaming community is a very busy scene. You get to interact with people who play the same multi-player games from all over the world. Since games can get very intense and heated, use of foul language is inevitable.
Game creators are now more cautious and they have added in word filters in the chat box so profanity will be censored, but voice chat is an entirely different situation. Games that are played through game consoles do not have the option of a chat box and some PC games simply require a player’s whole attention so they cannot stop to type messages, ergo, voice chat.
There is always the option of reporting someone who is just way too fond of rude and obscene language, but as time went by, it just became a part of gaming and players have accepted it. Trash talk has been normalized because it adds to the drive of players in combat games.
There is also the issue of gamers being exposed for hours at a time to violent scenarios in first person games causing them to be desensitized in the matter. This could be disconcerting since more than 85 percent of games have brutal content.
On the plus side, video games also have a positive effect on the brain. According to researchers in Pakistan, there are positive impacts on the cognitive functions of gamers including reaction time, memory and attention. The study even showed that those who play video games have better knowledge, deductive reasoning, analogy, mathematical intelligence and memory.
In my opinion, gaming can be beneficial. Not only can it be used as an escape when reality becomes too difficult, it can also make up for the stimulation that we no longer get by socializing and observing the outside world.
The best part of this dilemma is that the cons are controllable. We have a choice in the matter. We can limit our allotted time for gameplay and control our language when interacting with fellow players. We can think for ourselves and separate the tolerance of violence in the game from our actual life.
If you are able to do that, then it’s a win-win situation – you get to enjoy the games without it influencing your character and your brain will get the stimuli it needs.
