CONCLUSION

BENEFITS AND CONSEQUENCES OF VIDEO GAMING

 

Video games are a form of media that is often associated with negative health consequences. However, when games are played in moderation and with mindfulness, they are a viable source of stress relief as well as a catalyst for mental health improvement and development of social skills. Video games themselves are a relatively modern form of entertainment. They are engaging and immersive on a level different from that of traditional board games and other forms of entertainment. The player actively contributes to the level of satisfaction he/she attains from this medium and thus is more  invested and willing to engage in the elements of the video game. The amount of play time is also an important factor in the effects of gaming. Although excessive playtime can have negative consequence, gaming in moderation can be healthy, fun, and educational. 

COOPERATION AND PLAYING WITH OTHERS

Playing video games is a pervasive activity among middle school students. Researchers are now investigating whether such play

carries any educational benefits. One aspect of many video games is teamwork. The goal of the present research was to

investigate whether playing video games cooperatively with or competitively against others affects later teamwork behavior and

team performance. 60 middle school students, all without previous video game playing experience, participated in the present

study. They were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: no video game playing, cooperative video game

playing, and competitive video game playing. Those in the video game conditions then were taught how to play Modern Warfare

3 and played for two hours. They were randomly paired with another subject from the same condition and either played with or

against that person. Two weeks later, all participants were randomly paired with new partners from the same experimental

condition and played a Prisoner’s Dilemma game where points are awarded to players based on whether they play cooperatively

or competitively with each other. Total team scores were tallied after 20 trials. Results showed that those who played Modern

Warfare 3 cooperatively scored the highest, while those who played it competitively scored the lowest. Results suggest that video

game playing can bolster teamwork and team performance when played cooperatively and impair teamwork and team

performance when played competitively.

Playing video games is a pervasive activity among middle school students. Researchers are now investigating whether such play carries any educational benefits. One aspect of many video games is teamwork. The goal of the present research was to investigate whether playing video games cooperatively with or competitively against others affects later teamwork behavior and team performance. 60 middle school students, all without previous video game playing experience, participated in the present study. They were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: no video game playing, cooperative video game playing, and competitive video game playing. Those in the video game conditions then were taught how to play Modern Warfare 3 and played for two hours. They were randomly paired with another subject from the same condition and either played with or against that person. Two weeks later, all participants were randomly paired with new partners from the same experimental condition and played a Prisoner’s Dilemma game where points are awarded to players based on whether they play cooperatively or competitively with each other. Total team scores were tallied after 20 trials. Results showed that those who played Modern Warfare 3 cooperatively scored the highest, while those who played it competitively scored the lowest. Results suggest that video game playing can bolster teamwork and team performance when played cooperatively and impair teamwork and team performance when played competitively.

KEYWORDS- video games, cooperative, competitive, team work, team performance

YOUR DESIRES

Gamers have spent countless hours saving princesses, dodging bullets, and dismembering Grecian monsters. What drives us to keep coming back to these experiences? Researchers around the world have spent decades measuring the effects games have on our society: how they encourage or discourage violence, inspire creativity, or nurture laziness. However, people rarely ask why we play games in the first place. What drives us to collect coins, snipe aliens, or scale the walls of ancient tombs until three in the morning?

Three invisible needs

1. 

Games are work-

At their most basic levels, work and play look a lot alike. The difference between the two is that games couch this kind of work in a fiction that makes them enjoyable. A game’s narrative makes our choices feel significant enough that we buy into the game emotionally, and the feedback system encourages us to keep working.

2.

Students of the game-

It’s difficult to predict exactly how our society will unlock the power of games in the coming decades, but video games have already influenced the fields of science, education, and business. An examination of how these disciplines have profited from gaming concepts could give us a glimpse of our future. 

We’ve exploited one of gaming’s most useful applications for centuries. Chess was used in the Middle Ages to teach war strategies to noblemen. In the ‘70s, computer games like Oregon Trail did a better job of getting kids excited about American history than most history professors. Today, hundreds of web portals like Kidsknowit.com offer teachers a reservoir of tools to help educate students. Games are an indispensable learning tool, but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of their teaching potential.

3.

Building blocks of a better world

While games help us learn about yesterday, they could also be used as a building block for making a better tomorrow. Several businesses have already taken the “sticky” qualities that make video games engaging and applied them to traditionally mundane tasks. 

Gamification is a buzzword often tossed around the conference tables of Fortune 500 companies. The concept promotes the idea of rewarding virtual currency to consumers who complete simple tasks. Foursquare users are familiar with the concept of gamification and its slow drip of new badges and awards. However, gamified services don’t meet our invisible needs on the same level as mainstream video games. Instead of razzle-dazzling customers with extrinsic baubles and badges, in the near future, businesses may fine-tune their feedback systems in a way that tickles our psychological needs. Someday, filing accounting spreadsheets could be more like playing World of Warcraft. But games are already helping people get better at their jobs in a lot of practical ways. 

VAIBHAV SONI