Games Design Weeks 1 - Ethics - Impact of computer games on society

Ethics

Impact of computer games on society

Games in society:

Concerns such as excess playing time:

Parents are going to worry about their children no matter what they do; if they go out too much they'll be worried that they might try gateway drugs and start smoking, if they don't go out enough they'll worry that they're addicted to games and may develop antisocial behaviour. 

In 2009 a Father let his toddler starve to death because he forgot about it - 

"The jobless 22-year-old father, who is called Chung, allegedly played for over a week and only broke off from his computer every few days to return to feed the tot.

He arrived back last month to find the home alone toddler dead at their apartment in South Korea"

- Daily Mirror

This is a rare case where his addiction got out of hand and it distorted his reality so far as to where he forgot about his own baby. I don't think anybody who grew up in society and managed gaming with the real world would ever let it happen. Even people who spend all day and night on the internet have ethics. I think that a lot of older beings don't understand that we're different generations. Children nowadays have electronical equipment shoved in their faces from a young age. I know children as young as 4 more competent on an iPad than my Father. It's ludicrous to blame children for playing an excessive amounts of games in the times we live in - it's the most efficient way to learn. People vary in the things that they enjoy doing, while one person might read 12 hours a day whereas the other might play games for 12 hours a day. 

The media tries to butcher the minds of parents even though it was always inevitable it was going to happen. Children like interactivity, reading isn't as interactive as catching a PokeMon. In reality it was inevitable that children were always going to favour games.

Social Isolation:

Many people depict a "gamer" as an isolated human being slumped in a room whom struggle with interacting with other human beings that aren't like them. Though the first part may be true, I personally play with up to 6 in real life friends at one time these are friends I've known since secondary school we enjoy each others company and spend time on games, when we get bored of games we'll meet up and go round one-and-other's houses. I think it's very unfair to generalize people, especially gamers. However people are diverse and everyone differs from others whilst I enjoy playing games I understand when it's too much and can separate myself from the game, whereas others may not be able to do this.

Games make people feel in control, people who have had traumatic childhoods enjoy being able to control 'their own little world' so to speak. I'm not saying these types of people are the only people who are addicted to games, many people just enjoy playing the game for a sense of achievement or just for fun.




Cost:

 

Depending on the games you play gaming can be surprisingly cheap for example the popular MOBA "League of Legends" is a free game, and this game is the most played PC game of all time. The game relies on micro-transactions (Buying things in game: skins, xp boosts, riot points). While you can buy things absolutely NOTHING you can buy will give you an advantage in game. However to build a PC that is capable of running the game is quite costly costing anything from £500-£2000 which is why a lot of kids and early teenagers tend to have consoles rather than a PC. Consoles are a lot easier to set up and a lot cheaper, furthermore a lot of that age group has one so it makes sense to get what your friends have so you can play with them.



Separation from reality:

As previously mentioned people that have had a traumatic child experience often want to be in control of their life and playing games allow them to be in control of what happens all of the time instead of being sporadic like life often is. Playing games can give them a sense of motivation and achievement. In this day and age when you're young games and technology is shoved in your face from a very young age so people playing games is on the rise and always will be.