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Video Games Essay | Essay on Video Games for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Video Games Essay:  Video games are electronic games that requires a user interface, input device (it can be joysticks, controllers, motion-sensing devices, keyboard, etc.) that generates visual feedback for the player or players, an output device that is either a two or three-dimensional display device (like TV monitor, touchscreen, VR headset, etc.).

Video games also are augmented with audio feedback using either headphones or speakers. Other types of augmented feedback systems of video games include haptic technology.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Video Games for Students and Kids in English

We are providing students with a long essay sample of 500 words and a short essay sample of 150 words on the topic Video Games in English for reference.

Long Essay on Video Games 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Video Games is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Video games have undeniably become an imperative part of most of our life, either as a form of entertainment and even hobby. Video games came into existence through the invention of the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device by Thomas T Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947. And in 1948 they got the patent for their invented device with knobs and buttons used for stimulating airborne enemies. It was not until the 1970s, and 1980s those video games reached the mainstream popularity.

One of the biggest technological evolution examples is that of what is seen in video games. Over the years there had been massive changes and several creations since the first released video game. Before the age of Playstation, Xbox, or even computer games, people used to be engrossed in playing video arcade games and later the 8-bit video games using consoles, joysticks, and other controllers. Now we have video games with much higher graphics, better storyline, and even more options. This makes the gaming experience more thrilling and enjoyable; however, it does not change the fact that video games have turned almost an entire generation into couch potatoes.

It is no news that video games are fascinating and because of the graphics along with sound effects gives the player a real-like experience. The video game industry has also started experimenting with virtual reality resulting in even more realistic games which give the player the sensation of truly witnessing the activities of the game. Bur we all know that technology is both a good and a bad effect. The condition is not much different when it comes to video games as well. There are several benefits of playing video games; similarly, there are also adverse effects of the same.

The positive effects of video games include developing one’s skills, like strategic thinking, quick learning, cooperation, creativity, etc. Simulations which are based on the similar technology behind video games are used for training purposes (like shooting, golfing, driving, etc.). Simulations have helped in reducing the risk of accidents occurring during training by allowing the user to practice longer without the requirement of frequent maintenance.

However, there are also some very destructive negative effects of video games. Firstly, children and young adults often get very addicted to playing video games and end up wasting a lot of time and becoming socially isolated. Another aspect of video games which has affected the players immensely is the increase in the violence and aggressiveness in them while trying to imitate the competitive traits of the game.

As intelligent beings, we must use our wisdom and self-control to spend our time wisely and efficiently while avoiding things that have the potential of causing us harm. The gaming industry should monitor the type of games being manufactured and restricting the game for the age for only which it is suitable. Players too should understand the negative impacts of excessive video game playing and addiction. Hence, it can be concluded that the effect of video games depends a lot on the player.

Short Essay on Video Games 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Video Games is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

The electronic games that involve the user interface interacting with a human that results in generating feedback onto the video device are called video games. The platforms are the electronic devices used for playing various video games. The size of platforms or gaming units can range from large mainframe computers to even small handheld devices. The trend of playing video games became prominent from the late 1970s and has only increased over time with the advancement of technology. At present, the global value of the video game industry is stated to be USD 152 billion approximately.

The large scale engagement of youth and people of other age groups as well has turned video games into a trend factor. However, there has been a lot of debate on the matter of the positive and negative impact of games on people. Thus, both the industry and the user need to monitor the content of the games being made, and the amount of time being spent on it, respectively.

10 Lines on Video Games in English

• There are several types of video games like arcade games, console video game, computer video games, and mobile games.
• The evident increase in the commercial importance of the video gaming industry began from the 2010s.
• The Asian market is the biggest contributor to the growth of the video gaming industry.
• As of 2018, video games were the third-largest segment drawing revenue in the entertainment market of US, behind broadcast and cable TV.
• Today, numerous people are involved behind creating video games like developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, third party manufacturers, etc.
• Studies show that gaming addiction causes several physical and behavioural problems in people, especially in children.
• There are also competitions held for video games in various stages (local, national and international) to find the best player among all.
• The growth and expansion of the video gaming industry have opened up several job opportunities as well.
• Parents should monitor the game playing type and time of their children so that it doesn’t turn into an addiction.
• Lack of motion because of excessive video game playing can cause diseases like obesity and diabetes, along with muscle pain.

FAQ’s on Video Games Essay

Question 1. Mention some positive effects of playing video games.

Answer: Some positive effects of video game playing includes the following-

• It improves IQ and reflexes of an individual.
• It develops skills like decision making, attentiveness, multi-tasking, etc.
• It improves motor skills of players.

Question 2. Which is the most iconic video game character of all time?

Answer:  Mario

Question 3. What is the first invented video game?

Answer:  Tennis for Two is the first video game, and it was created in 1958.

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Essays About Video Games: Top 12 Examples and Prompts

Video games have revolutionized the way we have fun today. If you are writing essays about video games, check out our guide to inspire your writing.  

Few can contest the fact that video games have taken over the world. From the basic, almost “primitive” games of the 1970s like Pong to the mind-bending virtual reality games of the 2020s, they have been a source of entertainment for all. Moreover, they have proven quite profitable; countries like Japan and the United States have made tens of billions of dollars solely from the video game market.

Despite their popularity, much has been debated over the potentially harmful side effects that video games may have, particularly on children. One side argues that playing certain video games can lead to people exhibiting violence in the future, while others believe that video games teach players essential life skills. Regardless, they will continue to be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. 

For engaging essays about video games, read the essay examples featured below for inspiration.

1. What electronic games can teach us by Kendall Powell

2. designers are imagining video games without guns by keith stuart, 3. playing video games all summer won’t make you feel worse by nicole wetsman, 4.  violent video games bad by andrea newman.

• 5. ​​The health effects of too much gaming by Peter Grinspoon

Writing Prompts For Essays About Video Games

1. video games: good or bad, 2. the benefits of video games, 3. what is your favorite video game, 4. do video games cause people to become violent, 5. video games in your life, 6. video games vs. traditional games, 7. is the video game rating system enough.

“In other studies, researchers found that gamers who trained on Tetris were better at mentally rotating two-dimensional shapes than those who played a control game. Students who played two hours of All You Can E.T., an educational game designed to enhance the executive function of switching between tasks, improved their focus-shifting skills compared with students who played a word search game.”

Powell explains a few possibilities of applying video games to education. As it turns out, certain video games can improve players’ skills, depending on the mechanics. Researchers are inspired by this and hope to take advantage of the competitive, motivational nature of gaming to encourage children to learn. New games are designed to help kids improve their focus, coordination, and resilience, and game designers hope they will succeed. 

“Imagine a game where you’re a war reporter seeking to capture the most iconic, representative images in a battle environment: You’d still get the sense of peril that audiences expect from action adventures, but your relationship with the environment would be more profound. It would be Call of Duty from the perspective of a creative participant rather than a violent interloper.”

The graphic nature of some video games is said to make kids violent, so it is only natural that some creators try to change this. Stuart writes that it is possible to maintain the fun that shooter-type games induce without using guns. He gives examples of games where you do not kill your enemy, simply stunning or capturing them instead. He also suggests photography as an alternative to killing in a “shooting” game. Finally, he suggests basing video games around helping others, making friends, and doing more peaceful, creative tasks.

“Any role video games play in skewing well-being that did pop up in the study was too small to have a real-world impact on how people feel, the authors said. People would have to play games for 10 more hours per day than their baseline to notice changes in their well-being, the study found.”

Wetsman counters the widespread belief that video games “destroy your brain.” Research done with a sample of 39,000 players over six weeks has shown that whether one plays video games for long or short periods, their mental health is not impacted much. There are some exceptions; however, there are not enough to conclude that video games are, in fact, harmful.

“Some people believe that the connection between violent games, and real violence is also fairly intuitive. In playing the games kids are likely to become desensitized to gory images;which could make them less disturbing, and perhaps easier to deal with in real life. While video games aren’t about violence their capacity to teach can be a good thing.”

In her essay, Newman writes about the supposed promotion of violence in some video games. However, she believes this violence does not cause people to be more aggressive later. Instead, she believes these games expose children to certain atrocities so they will not be traumatized if they see them in real life. In addition, these games supposedly promote connections and friendships. Finally, Newman believes that these “harmful” can make you a better person.

5. ​​ The health effects of too much gaming by Peter Grinspoon

“Gamers need to be educated on how to protect their thumbs, wrists, and elbows, their waistlines, their emotional state, their sleep, and their eyes. Simple education around taking breaks, stretching, eating healthy snacks, and resting and icing your thumb, wrist, or elbow when it starts hurting can address injuries early, before they become significant. For the eyes, gamers can try the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, try to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.”

Grinspoon discusses both the benefits and the health risks of gaming. Video games allow people to interact with each other remotely and bond over specific missions or tasks, and some research shows that they have cognitive benefits. However, some gamers may develop vision problems and hand and wrist injuries. Gaming and “staring in front of a screen the whole day” is also associated with obesity. Overall, Grinspoon believes that gaming is best done in moderation.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about hobbies .

Many parents believe that their children’s “bad behavior” is because of video games. Based on your experience and others, decide: are video games good or bad for you? Make sure to read viewpoints from both sides and write an essay based on your position. Would you encourage others to play video games? Discuss these pros and cons for an interesting argumentative essay.

Like anything else, video games have both positive and negative aspects. Explain the good that video games can do for you: the skills they can equip you with, the lessons they can teach, and anything else. Also, include whether you believe their benefits outweigh the disadvantages they may pose. 

For your essay, write about your favorite video game and why you chose it. What is its meaning to you, and how has it affected your life? Describe the gameplay mechanics, characters, storyline, and general impact on the gaming community or society. You can write about any game you want, even if you have not played it; just ensure the content is sufficient.

Many claim that playing violent video games can make you violent in the future. Research this phenomenon and conclude whether it is true or not. Is the evidence sufficient? There are many resources on this topic; support your argument by citing credible sources, such as news articles, statistics, and scientific research.

Video games have been a part of almost all our lives. Recall a treasured experience with video games and explain why it is significant. How old were you? Why do you remember it fondly? How did this experience make you feel? Answer these questions in your own words for an exciting essay.

There are stark differences between video and traditional games, such as board games and card games. For an engaging essay, compare and contrast them and write about which is more entertaining, in your opinion. Be creative; this should be based on your own opinions and ideas.

The video game content rating system is used to classify video games based on their appropriateness for specific ages. However, parents complain that they are not strict enough and allow the display of violent content to children. Explore the criteria behind the rating system, decide whether it needs to be changed or not, and give examples to support your argument.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

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107 Video Game Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Video games have become a popular form of entertainment for people of all ages. From action-packed shooters to immersive role-playing games, there is a video game out there for everyone. With such a wide variety of games to choose from, it can be overwhelming to decide on a topic for an essay about video games. To help you get started, here are 107 video game essay topic ideas and examples to inspire your writing:

• The impact of violent video games on children's behavior
• The evolution of video game graphics over the years
• The rise of esports and its influence on the gaming industry
• The benefits of playing video games for cognitive development
• The representation of gender and race in video games
• The history of virtual reality gaming
• The psychology of loot boxes in video games
• The role of music in enhancing the gaming experience
• The ethics of video game journalism
• The impact of video game addiction on mental health
• The cultural significance of video game franchises like Mario and Pokemon
• The future of cloud gaming and streaming services
• The role of storytelling in video games
• The influence of video games on popular culture
• The relationship between video games and education
• The impact of video game censorship on creative expression
• The portrayal of mental health issues in video games
• The role of social media in video game marketing
• The history of video game consoles
• The impact of online multiplayer games on social interaction
• The evolution of game mechanics in the survival horror genre
• The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in video games
• The influence of Japanese culture on video game aesthetics
• The role of nostalgia in the popularity of retro gaming
• The impact of microtransactions on player experience
• The relationship between video games and violence in society
• The role of artificial intelligence in game development
• The impact of video game streaming platforms like Twitch
• The representation of disability in video games
• The influence of game design on player engagement
• The evolution of mobile gaming
• The role of virtual economies in online multiplayer games
• The impact of video game sound design on immersion
• The portrayal of mental illness in video games
• The influence of Eastern philosophy on game narratives
• The role of user-generated content in game communities
• The impact of fan culture on video game development
• The representation of indigenous cultures in video games
• The influence of literature on game storytelling
• The role of game difficulty in player satisfaction
• The impact of video game piracy on the industry
• The portrayal of war in military shooter games
• The relationship between video games and sports
• The influence of board games on video game design
• The role of player choice in game narratives
• The impact of virtual reality on therapy and rehabilitation
• The representation of historical events in video games
• The influence of film on game aesthetics
• The role of gender stereotypes in video game marketing
• The impact of game mods on player creativity
• The portrayal of mental health professionals in video games
• The influence of tabletop role-playing games on video game mechanics
• The role of game mechanics in promoting teamwork and cooperation
• The impact of game development crunch on industry workers
• The representation of animals in video games
• The influence of science fiction on game narratives
• The role of player agency in game storytelling
• The impact of game difficulty on player motivation
• The portrayal of addiction in video games
• The influence of mythology on game aesthetics
• The role of puzzles in game design
• The impact of game reviews on player purchasing decisions
• The representation of mental illness in horror games
• The influence of architecture on game environments
• The role of game soundtracks in enhancing the player experience
• The impact of game tutorials on player learning
• The portrayal of robots and AI in video games
• The influence of fashion on character design in games
• The role of humor in game narratives
• The impact of game localization on cultural representation
• The representation of environmental issues in video games
• The influence of psychology on game design
• The role of game narratives in exploring complex themes
• The impact of game communities on player engagement
• The portrayal of mental health struggles in indie games
• The influence of mythology on game storytelling
• The role of player feedback in game development
• The impact of game accessibility on player inclusivity
• The representation of gender identity in video games
• The influence of surrealism on game aesthetics
• The role of morality systems in game narratives
• The impact of game tutorials on player retention
• The portrayal of mental health professionals in horror games
• The influence of psychology on game narratives
• The role of player choice in shaping game outcomes
• The impact of game aesthetics on player immersion
• The representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in video games
• The role of environmental storytelling in game design
• The impact of game streaming on player engagement
• The portrayal of mental illness in puzzle games
• The role of player feedback in shaping game development
• The impact of game aesthetics on player perception
• The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in horror games
• The influence of film noir on game narratives
• The role of environmental storytelling in shaping game worlds
• The impact of game tutorials on player skill progression
• The portrayal of mental illness in narrative-driven games
• The influence of science fiction on game aesthetics
• The role of player choice in determining game endings
• The impact of game aesthetics on player emotional response
• The representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in indie games
• The influence of literature on game design
• The role of environmental storytelling in immersive game worlds
• The impact of game streaming on player community building
• The portrayal of mental health struggles in interactive fiction games

Whether you are writing a research paper, a critical analysis, or a personal reflection on video games, these topics provide a diverse range of ideas to explore. From examining the psychological effects of gaming to analyzing the cultural significance of game narratives, there is no shortage of fascinating topics to delve into. So, pick a topic that interests you and start exploring the world of video games through the lens of your essay. Happy writing!

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Pros and cons of video games: Should kids play them?

Source: Image by Kendra

We debate the pros and cons of video games and to what extent kids should play them. We discuss the effects of  violent video games and gaming as an education tool

Should kids play video games?

Electronic games or video games involve human interaction with a computer monitor or a TV screen. The popularity of video games has reached unprecedented levels. In 2015, the video game industry generated $74 billion in revenues worldwide. In the UK, 8 to 15 year-old gamers spend in average 20 hours a week  playing video games either on PC, consoles, tablets or smartphones. Video games have evolved enormously since the first video games such as Atari's Pong and Taito's Space Invaders. Video games today are much more complex and require greater attention and intellectual engagement from the player.

Since they have become a central element of children's and adults' lives we need to understand better the pros and cons of video games and their potential positive and negative effects on our children. On one hand they help develop not only psychomotor skills but also other intellectual abilities. Many educators are starting to use games to teaching and learning tools. However, many parents are sceptical and fear the effects of video games on kids' development. They are not sure if they should or not let their kids play video games or for how long. Here we outline the main benefits and dangers liked to gaming and open the debate so you can share your thoughts and experiences with us on the discussion forum below.

Pros and cons of video games

Pros of video games

Playing video games has many benefits for the player.

• Learning: video games can help children learn math, spelling, manage resources, understand problems of the world, learn about animals and countries, etc. There are many educational games meant to contribute to our kids development. Through video games educators and parents can get the attention of the children and help them to supplement what they learn in class. Some studies also show that games are a good way to mitigate the effects of dyslexia .
• Problem-solving: there is a growing body of academic literature on the benefits of game-based learning . The potential of games as a teaching and learning tool is an evident opportunity. Video games do not have to be "educational" to help children and adults to develop some problem-solving skills. A variety of studies have shown that playing video games help exercising some mental abilities. They often face also puzzles and problems which become gradually tougher during games, helping the player to understand the logic behind these problems and learn how to solve them.
• Decision-making : video game players face often difficult decisions.  Role-play games and graphic adventure games in particular force players to make tough choices, often involving a cost benefit analysis and ethics. Would you save that person if that means a potential danger for the entire realm? 
• Memory :   Players need to memorize the movements of their characters and their opponents, where things appear on screen, how to avoid dangers, etc. All that stimulates their memory. For instance, researchers form the University of California, Irvine (UCI) found out that students who played Super Mario 3D World improved their scores on memory test designed to engage the brain's hippocampus.
• Spatial intelligence: Video games enhance children's spatial reasoning. 3D shoot-em-up and sandbox games contribute to developing a sense of orientation, and the ability to visualize three dimensional objects. Games such as Tetris, Portal and Minecraft can be particularly good to practice spatial reasoning and creativity. Spatial intelligence is strongly correlated with mathematical abilities and is extremely valuable in engineering and science occupations.
• History and culture: many video games inspire kids' interesests in history and culture. Video games and movies are often one of the first points of contacts with past cultures and civilizations for many children. Video games such as Age of Empires, Civilization, Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty can push children to become interested and read more about different epochs in history.
• Social interaction: although many people think that video games hinder social life and social skills some studies show the contrary. For instance researchers of North Carolina State University observed more than twenty public gaming events and found out  that video gamers spend much time engaged in social behavior online and offline. Gaming did not eliminate social interaction but supplemented it. Moreover, m any children make new friends playing video games online or in arcades.

​Cons of video games

These are the most commons criticisms or risks associated to video games:

• Violence: do video games cause violence? What are the effects of violent video games? Video games have been accused of glorifying violence. In most games players fight and kill enemies. Children are exposed the extreme levels of fictional violence in video games, such as Grand Theft Auto, Dead Island, and  Mortal Kombat . The video game industry has adopted the movie industry parental guidance rating system. However, in practice it is very difficult to prevent children from accessing violent content. Some children may want to imitate the, usually violent, protagonists of games. Not everyone manages to disentangle very clearly what is fiction from what is real life. 
• Real-life risks: video games may generate addiction . According to the University of New Mexico, 6 to 15% of all gamers display signs which can be characterized as addiction. Some children develop an excessive and compulsive pattern of use of video games which may interefere with their normal life and negatively affect their psychological development and personality . Moreover, according to a study published in the Psychological Bulletin based on more than 80,000 people, short-term and long-term risks of substance abuse, reckless driving, gambling and risky sexual behavior were more severe the longer they were exposed to video games and other media glorifying these practices.
• Cognitive functions:  playing video games may affect the way children use their brain. A  study from the University of Montreal shows that playing video games may increase in the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease . According to this study on which people have to move in a virtual maze, gamers use navigation strategies which rely on the caudate nucleus to a much greater degree than non gamers. Past research has shown that people who rely on caudate nucleus based strategies have lower functional brain activity in the hypoccampus and increased risk for nurological diseases such as Alzheimer's.
• Obesity: a study found out that young gamers burned in average 21 extra calories and hour than non players. However, gamers also consume nearly 80 extra calories and usually spend less time doing other physical activities. The World Health Organization blames video games as one of the main causes of childhood obesity.
• Less time to study: children who spend much time playing video games may not have time to do their homework and chores .
• Social consequences: the lack of social interaction is one of the most commonly argued cons of video games. Playing video games a few hours a week would not have a negative effect in kids behavior. However, obsessive gaming can have long-term social consequences. Isolationsim linked to gaming addictions is usually correlated with social awkwardness, which in term incentivizes futher insulation of the gamer.

What do you think, are video games overall good or bad for children? Do video games cause more violence than other modes of entertainment? Are the new generations smarter or more competent than previous ones, and if so, do video games play an important role on this? 

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• Our Official List of Great Video Game Essay Topics

Any essay that you write should be well-written, accurate, and interesting to your audience. That begins with finding a great topic for your essay. Check out our list of the best essay topic ideas. You should be able to write a great essay about gaming with one of these topics. If you struggle with it, you can always order a custom essay on video games.

Topics on Social Issues

The topic of video games comes up quite frequently when various social topics are being discussed. If you are taking classes such as sociology, public health, political science, or journalism, your essay might focus on the many social issues relating to video games. Writing essays on violence in games is always an option, but there are others as well. Here are a few topic ideas:

Persuasive Essays Related to Social Issues

• Do Violent Games Cause Behavior Problems?
• Convince readers, in an essay about violence in games, that the average person will not be affected in a negative way.
• Should video game rating systems be more stringent?
• Are parents ultimately responsible for what their kids play?
• As a society, do we unfairly blame video games when we should be focusing on personal responsibility?

Narrative Essays on Video Games And Their Impact on Society

• Write about a video game that you played as a child that was too violent for you
• Have you ever been addicted to online gaming? What was that like.
• Talk about an incident of harassment that you witnessed when playing online video games.
• Write essays on violence in gaming and the impact of that in early dating relationships

Expository Essays on The Social Impact of Video Gaming

• Write a  short essay  on the impact of video gaming on health and wellness
• Compose a research paper that addresses the effects of allowing young children to do violent video games
• Write a case study about a young adult who has never been exposed to video games vs. one who has been

General Essay Ideas That Relate to Social Issues

• What should be done about sexism in gaming?
• How can the gaming industry become more inclusive as a whole?
• Why is sex and violence such a common theme in video games?
• Does early exposure to video games impact the ability of children to self-regulate?
• What are the biggest social problems related to gaming?

Video Game Essay Topics New Technology

If you are an avid gamer, you probably keep up with the latest technologies, reading specialized magazines, and eagerly await the latest and greatest releases. You may have even been part of a beta testing new things or involved in open source gaming projects. Most importantly, you likely have lots of knowledge and opinions on gaming technology. Check out these essay ideas:

Persuasive Essays on Gaming Technology

• Will virtual reality impact video game technology or is it simply a fad?
• Which release is causing the most buzz?
• Streaming will replace consoles, yes or no?

Expository Essay Ideas on Gaming Technology

• Pick an up and coming technology and explain how it works
• Explain the history and development behind an upcoming technological advancement in video tech
• Discuss the trend of gamers as designers

Other Video Technology Essay Ideas

• Write a compare contrast essay on virtual reality in gaming vs. augmented reality
• Write a review of a new gaming system that you have recently tried out.

Topics About Educational Games

Persuasive Essays on Video Games in Education

• Should children spend more time focusing on lectures and hands-on work than gaming?
• Argue which educational video game parents of toddlers should choose
• Video games have no place in education. Argue a side
• Is gaming a possible solution when dealing with disengaged students?

Expository Essay Ideas For Gaming in Education

• Explain how gaming is used in special education
• Describe the features that make a game educational vs. entertainment
• Research and explain the process educators use to integrate gaming into the classroom

Other Educational Essay Ideas

• Review the most popular educational games that have been released this year
• Write a paper about the differences between educational games today vs. 10 or 20 years ago
• Write a case study about a school that incorporated gaming into their classrooms    

Essay Topics For Passionate Gamers

If you don’t find anything that interests you above, don’t fret. You can still improve your writing skills while expressing your passions for gaming. If you have an interest in gaming, you have many options when it comes to writing essays. This is especially true when it comes to classes where you have a bit more flexibility in your writing assignments. Check out these topic ideas:

• Write a descriptive essay about the first gaming experience you have had
• What are your predictions about the future of console gaming
• What is the funniest thing that happened to you in an online gaming experience
• What 10 worst things that impact the world of video gaming be opinionated!
• Compare and contrast the first release of a video game with the most current
• If you could invent a video game, what would it look like
• Write a review of the most popular game available today

Remember that you must balance your passion for the topic of gaming with good writing skills and factual knowledge. You will still have to research, cite your sources, and do the other work that goes into writing a good paper. As always, if you need help with a gaming essay remember that we are available to help as we are top essay writing service . Happy gaming!

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Persuasive Essay: Video Games

Teenagers today often spend a great deal of time playing video games. These games are fun and engaging and young people often feel like playing games is a great thing to do in their spare time. However, you shouldn’t spend too much time gaming and there are a number of reasons for this: it’s unhealthy, you should spend more time studying, and you need to socialize more.

The primary reason to cut down on gaming time has to be that youths that spend a long time on computers and games consoles are often not getting enough exercise. With high obesity rates, it’s very important for young people to spend as much time being active as possible, especially since studies show that people who are overweight during childhood and adolescence are far more likely to become overweight adults than those of a healthy weight when they’re young. There is just as much, if not more, fun to be had in getting out and about and being active. This doesn’t have to mean going for long runs if that’s not your thing; team sports are both fun and great exercise. Dance or fitness classes are also a good option for those not into sports.

Secondly, getting a good education is that best thing that you can do for your future. If every teenager cut down on their gaming time by 30 minutes per day and used this time to study, the whole of that generation would achieve better results and be more likely to have the career that they want. With education, you get out what you put in, so it’s really up to you to put in the additional effort. If you want to go to a good college, extra study in your own time will be completely vital, but gaming can reduce your concentration span and make this more difficult.

The third main reason that playing video games too often is that it’s no good for your social skills. Some teenagers may argue that because they can now play their games online with friends, they are socializing in their own way. However, you can’t beat face-to-face contact, and if you want to succeed in interviews and build good relationships in later life, you need to develop some proper communication skills. This shouldn’t be a chore, or difficult, because hanging out with friends is far more fun than sitting indoors playing on games all day anyway!

In conclusion, there can be no doubt that spending too much time gaming isn’t good for you. You don’t have to stop all together, but it’s all about moderation. Cut down and allocate your additional free time to doing things that are good for you, and you definitely won’t regret it in later life.

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Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?

Around 73% of American kids age 2-17 played  video games  in 2019, a 6% increase over 2018. Video games accounted for 17% of kids’ entertainment time and 11% of their entertainment spending. The global video game industry was worth contributing $159.3 billion in 2020, a 9.3% increase of 9.3% from 2019.

Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings , increases in bullying , and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts.

Video game advocates contend that a majority of the research on the topic is deeply flawed and that no causal relationship has been found between video games and social violence. They argue that violent video games may provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and may reduce crime. Read more background…

Pro & Con Arguments

Pro 1 Playing violent video games causes more aggression, bullying, and fighting. 60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone, compared with 39% of boys and 14% of girls who did not play M-rated games. [ 2 ] A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that habitual violent video game playing had a causal link with increased, long-term, aggressive behavior. [ 63 ] Several peer-reviewed studies have shown that children who play M-rated games are more likely to bully and cyberbully their peers, get into physical fights, be hostile, argue with teachers, and show aggression towards their peers throughout the school year. [ 2 ] [ 31 ] [ 60 ] [ 61 ] [ 67 ] [ 73 ] [ 76 ] [ 80 ] Read More

Pro 2 Simulating violence such as shooting guns and hand-to-hand combat in video games can cause real-life violent behavior. Video games often require players to simulate violent actions, such as stabbing, shooting, or dismembering someone with an ax, sword, chainsaw, or other weapons. [ 23 ] Game controllers are so sophisticated and the games are so realistic that simulating the violent acts enhances the learning of those violent behaviors. [ 23 ] A peer-reviewed study found “compelling evidence that the use of realistic controllers can have a significant effect on the level of cognitive aggression.” [ 118 ] Two teenagers in Tennessee who shot at passing cars and killed one driver told police they got the idea from playing Grand Theft Auto III . [ 48 ] Bruce Bartholow, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, spoke about the effects of simulating violence: “More than any other media, these [violent] video games encourage active participation in violence. From a psychological perspective, video games are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behavior. Unfortunately, in many popular video games, the behavior is violence.” [ 53 ] Read More

Pro 3 Many perpetrators of mass shootings played violent video games. Kevin McCarthy, former U.S. Representative (R-CA), states: “But the idea of these video games that dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others – I’ve always felt that is a problem for future generations and others. We’ve watched from studies shown before of what it does to individuals. When you look at these photos of how it [mass shootings] took place, you can see the actions within video games and others.” [ 146 ] Many mass shootings have been carried out by avid video game players: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the Columbine High School shooting (1999); James Holmes in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting (2012); Jared Lee Loughner in the Arizona shooting that injured Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others (2011); and Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway (2011) and admitted to using the game Modern Warfare 2 for training. [ 43 ] [ 53 ] An FBI school shooter threat assessment stated that a student who makes threats of violence should be considered more credible if he or she also spends “inordinate amounts of time playing video games with violent themes.” [ 25 ] Dan Patrick, Republican Lieutenant Governor of Texas, stated: “We’ve always had guns, always had evil, but I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill.” [ 145 ] Read More

Pro 4 Violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence. Desensitization to violence was defined in a Journal of Experimental Social Psychology peer-reviewed study as “a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence.” [ 51 ] [ 111 ] [ 112 ] The study found that just 20 minutes of playing a violent video game “can cause people to become less physiologically aroused by real violence.” People desensitized to violence are more likely to commit a violent act. [ 51 ] [ 111 ] [ 112 ] By age 18, American children will have seen 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence depicted in violent video games, movies, and television. [ 110 ] A peer-reviewed study found a causal link between violent video game exposure and an increase in aggression as a result of a reduction in the brain’s response to depictions of real-life violence. [ 52 ] Studies have found reduced emotional and physiological responses to violence in both the long and short term. [ 55 ] [ 58 ] In a peer-reviewed study, violent video game exposure was linked to reduced P300 amplitudes in the brain, which is associated with desensitization to violence and increases in aggressive behavior. [ 24 ] Read More

Pro 5 By inhabiting violent characters in video games, children are more likely to imitate the behaviors of those characters and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy. Violent video games require active participation and identification with violent characters, which reinforces violent behavior. Young children are more likely to confuse fantasy violence with real world violence, and without a framework for ethical decision making, they may mimic the actions they see in violent video games. [ 59 ] [ 4 ] Child Development and Early Childhood Education expert Jane Katch stated in an interview with Education Week , “I found that young children often have difficulty separating fantasy from reality when they are playing and can temporarily believe they are the character they are pretending to be.” [ 124 ] U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent in Brown v. ESA that “the closer a child’s behavior comes, not to watching, but to acting out horrific violence, the greater the potential psychological harm.” [ 124 ] Read More

Pro 6 Exposure to violent video games is linked to lower empathy and decreased kindness. Empathy, the ability to understand and enter into another’s feelings is believed to inhibit aggressive behavior. In a study of 150 fourth and fifth graders by Jeanne Funk, professor of psychology at the University of Toledo, violent video games were the only type of media associated with lower empathy. [ 32] A study published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin found that exposure to violent video games led to a lack of empathy and prosocial behavior (positive actions that benefit others). [ 65] [ 66] Eight independent tests measuring the impact of violent video games on prosocial behavior found a significant negative effect, leading to the conclusion that “exposure to violent video games is negatively correlated with helping in the real world.” [ 61] Several studies have found that children with high exposure to violent media display lower moral reasoning skills than their peers without that exposure. [ 32] [ 69] A meta-analysis of 130 international studies with over 130,000 participants concluded that violent video games “increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behaviors, and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviors.” [ 123] Read More

Pro 7 Video games that portray violence against women lead to more harmful attitudes and sexually violent actions towards women. A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that video games that sexually objectify women and feature violence against women led to a statistically significant increase in rape-supportive attitudes, which are attitudes that are hostile towards rape victims. [ 68 ] Another study found that 21% of games sampled involved violence against women, while 28% portrayed them as sex objects. [ 23 ] Exposure to sexual violence in video games is linked to increases in violence towards women and false attitudes about rape, such as that women incite men to rape or that women secretly desire rape. [ 30 ] Carole Lieberman, a media psychiatrist, stated, “The more video games a person plays that have violent sexual content, the more likely one is to become desensitized to violent sexual acts and commit them.” [ 64 ] Target Australia stopped selling Grand Theft Auto V in response to customer complaints about the game’s depiction of women, which includes the option to kill a prostitute to get your money back. [ 70 ] Read More

Pro 8 Violent video games reinforce fighting as a means of dealing with conflict by rewarding the use of violent action with increased life force, more weapons, moving on to higher levels, and more. Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, players exhibit increased aggressive behavior compared to players of video games where violence is punished. [ 23 ] [ 59 ] The reward structure is one distinguishing factor between violent video games and other violent media such as movies and television shows, which do not reward viewers nor allow them to actively participate in violence. [ 23 ] [ 59 ] An analysis of 81 video games rated for teens ages 13 and up found that 73 games (90%) rewarded injuring other characters, and 56 games (69%) rewarded killing. [ 71 ] [ 72 ] People who played a video game that rewarded violence showed higher levels of aggressive behavior and aggressive cognition as compared with people who played a version of the same game that was competitive but either did not contain violence or punished violence. [ 71 ] [ 72 ] Read More

Pro 9 The US military uses violent video games to train soldiers to kill. The U.S. Marine Corps licensed Doom II in 1996 to create Marine Doom in order to train soldiers. In 2002, the U.S. Army released first-person shooter game America’s Army to recruit soldiers and prepare recruits for the battlefield. [ 6 ] While the military may benefit from training soldiers to kill using video games, kids who are exposed to these games lack the discipline and structure of the armed forces and may become more susceptible to being violent. [ 79 ] Dave Grossman, retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and former West Point psychology professor, stated: “[T]hrough interactive point-and-shoot video games, modern nations are indiscriminately introducing to their children the same weapons technology that major armies and law enforcement agencies around the world use to ‘turn off’ the midbrain ‘safety catch’” that prevents most people from killing. [ 77 ] Read More

Con 1 Studies have shown violent video games may cause aggression, not violence. Further, any competitive video game or activity may cause aggression. Lauren Farrar, producer for KQED Learning’s YouTube series Above the Noise , stated: “Often times after tragic mass shooting, we hear politicians turn the blame to violent video games, but the reality is that the research doesn’t really support that claim… In general, violence usually refers to physical harm or physical acts that hurt someone– like hitting, kicking, punching, and pushing. Aggression is a more broad term that refers to angry or hostile thoughts, feelings or behaviors. So everything that is violent is aggressive, but not everything that is aggressive is violent. For example, getting frustrated, yelling, talking back, arguing those are all aggressive behaviors, but they aren’t violent. The research on the effects of violent video games and behavior often looks at these milder forms of aggressive behavior.” [ 140 ] A peer-reviewed study in Psychology of Violence determined that the competitive nature of a video game was related to aggressive behavior, regardless of whether the game contained violent content. The researchers concluded: “Because past studies have failed to equate the violent and nonviolent video games on competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action simultaneously, researchers may have attributed too much of the variability in aggression to the violent content.” [ 125 ] A follow-up study tracked high school students for four years and came to the same conclusion: the competitive nature of the games led to the increased hostile behavior. [ 126 ] Read More

Con 2 Violent video games are a convenient scapegoat for those who would rather not deal with the actual causes of violence in the US. Patrick Markey, psychology professor at Villanova University, stated: “The general story is people who play video games right after might be a little hopped up and jerky but it doesn’t fundamentally alter who they are. It is like going to see a sad movie. It might make you cry but it doesn’t make you clinically depressed… Politicians on both sides go after video games it is this weird unifying force. It makes them look like they are doing something… They [violent video games] look scary. But research just doesn’t support that there’s a link [to violent behavior].” [ 138 ] Markey also explained, “Because video games are disproportionately blamed as a culprit for mass shootings committed by White perpetrators, video game ‘blaming’ can be viewed as flagging a racial issue. This is because there is a stereotypical association between racial minorities and violent crime.” [ 141 ] Andrew Przybylski, associate professor, and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, stated: “Games have only become more realistic. The players of games and violent games have only become more diverse. And they’re played all around the world now. But the only place where you see this kind of narrative still hold any water, that games and violence are related to each other, is in the United States. [And, by blaming video games for violence,] we reduce the value of the political discourse on the topic, because we’re looking for easy answers instead of facing hard truths.” [ 139 ] Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary of State and First Lady, tweeted, “People suffer from mental illness in every other country on earth; people play video games in virtually every other country on earth. The difference is the guns.” [ 142 ] Read More

Con 3 Simple statistics do not support the claim that violent video games cause mass shootings or other violence. Katherine Newman, dean of arts and sciences at Johns Hopkins University, explained: “Millions of young people play video games full of fistfights, blazing guns, and body slams… Yet only a minuscule fraction of the consumers become violent.” [ 84 ] [ 86 ] [ 87 ] [ 91 ] [ 92 ] A report by the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education examined 37 incidents of targeted school violence between 1974 and 2000. Of the 41 attackers studied, 27% had an interest in violent movies, 24% in violent books, and 37% exhibited interest in their own violent writings, while only 12% showed interest in violent video games. The report did not find a relationship between playing violent video games and school shootings. [ 35 ] Patrick M. Markey, director of the Interpersonal Research Laboratory at Villanova University, stated, “90% of young males play video games. Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks.” [ 84 ] Further, gun violence is less prevalent in countries with high video game use. A study of the countries representing the 10 largest video game markets internationally found no correlation between playing video games and gun-related killings. Even though US gun violence is high, the nine other countries with the highest video game usage have some of the lowest violent crime rates (and eight of those countries spend more per capita on video games than the United States). [ 97 ] Read More

Con 4 As sales of violent video games have significantly increased, violent juvenile crime rates have significantly decreased. In 2019, juvenile arrests for violent crimes were at an all-time low, a decline of 50% since 2006. Meanwhile, video game sales set a record in Mar. 2020, with Americans spending $5.6 billion on video game hardware, accessories, and assorted content. Both statistics continue a years-long trend. [ 143 ] [ 144 ] Total U.S. sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to 2014, reaching $13.1 billion in 2014, while violent crimes decreased 37% and murders by juveniles acting alone fell 76% in that same period. [ 82 ] [ 83 ] [ 133 ] [ 134 ] [ 135 ] The number of high school students who had been in at least one physical fight decreased from 43% in 1991 to 25% in 2013, and student reports of criminal victimization at school dropped by more than half from 1995 to 2011. [ 106 ] [ 107 ] A peer-reviewed study found that: “Monthly sales of video games were related to concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults.” [ 84 ] Read More

Con 5 Studies have shown that violent video games can have a positive effect on kindness, civic engagement, and prosocial behaviors. Research shows that playing violent video games can induce a feeling of guilt that leads to increased prosocial behavior (positive actions that benefit others) in the real world. [ 104 ] A study published in Computers in Human Behavior discovered that youths exposed to violence in action games displayed more prosocial behavior and civic engagement, “possibly due to the team-oriented multiplayer options in many of these games.” [ 103 ] Read More

Con 6 Many risk factors are associated with youth violence, but video games are not among them. The U.S. Surgeon General’s list of risk factors for youth violence included abusive parents, poverty, neglect, neighborhood crime, being male, substance use, and mental health problems, but not video games. [ 118 ] A peer-reviewed study even found a “real and significant” effect of hot weather on homicides and aggravated assaults, showing that heat is a risk factor for violence. [ 124 ] Read More

Con 7 Violent video game players know the difference between virtual violence in the context of a game and appropriate behavior in the real world. By age seven, children can distinguish fantasy from reality, and can tell the difference between video game violence and real-world violence. [ 99 ] [ 100 ] Video game players understand they are playing a game. Kids see fantasy violence all the time, from Harry Potter and the Minions to Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. Their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality prevents them from emulating video game violence in real life. [ 9 ] Exposure to fantasy is important for kids. Fisher-Price toy company stated: “Pretending is more than play: it’s a major part of a child’s development. Fantasy not only develops creative thinking, it’s also a way for children to deal with situations and problems that concern them.” [108] Read More

Con 8 Violent video games provide opportunities for children to explore consequences of violent actions, develop their moral compasses and release their stress and anger (catharsis) in the game, leading to less real world aggression. Violent games allow youth to experiment with moral issues such as war, violence, and death without real world consequences. A researcher at the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media wrote about her research: “One unexpected theme that came up multiple times in our focus groups was a feeling among boys that violent games can teach moral lessons… Many war-themed video games allow or require players to take the roles of soldiers from different sides of a conflict, perhaps making players more aware of the costs of war.” [ 2 ] [ 38 ] A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that children, especially boys, play video games as a means of managing their emotions: “61.9% of boys played to ‘help me relax,’ 47.8% because ‘it helps me forget my problems,’ and 45.4% because ‘it helps me get my anger out.” [ 37 ] Researchers point to the cathartic effect of video games as a possible reason for why higher game sales have been associated with lower crime rates. [ 84 ] A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Adolescent Research concluded that “Boys use games to experience fantasies of power and fame, to explore and master what they perceive as exciting and realistic environments (but distinct from real life), to work through angry feelings or relieve stress, and as social tools.” The games serve as a substitute for rough-and-tumble play. [ 36 ] Read More

Con 9 Studies claiming a causal link between video game violence and real life violence are flawed. Many studies failed to control for factors that contribute to children becoming violent, such as family history and mental health, plus most studies do not follow children over long periods of time. [ 10 ] [ 95 ] Video game experiments often have people playing a game for as little as ten minutes, which is not representative of how games are played in real life. In many laboratory studies, especially those involving children, researchers must use artificial measures of violence and aggression that do not translate to real-world violence and aggression, such as whether someone would force another person eat hot sauce or listen to unpleasant noises. [ 84 ] [ 94 ] According to Christopher J. Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, “matching video game conditions more carefully in experimental studies with how they are played in real life makes VVG’s [violent video games] effects on aggression essentially vanish.” [ 95 ] [ 96 ] Read More

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ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order):

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Video Game Addiction

The argument against video game addiction, many researchers are skeptical that video games are truly "addictive.".

Updated July 3, 2023 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• What Is Video Game Addiction?
• Find a therapist near me
• Video games have many benefits for gamers.
• Research on gaming disorder—aka video game addiction—is flawed and not sufficiently conclusive.
• Because video games are less socially acceptable, they may be unfairly targeted.
• There are other explanations for many reports of video game addiction, including autism, ADHD, and depression.

This is half of a pair of articles that highlight the evidence for and against the existence of video game addiction . Read the counter-argument here .

For decades, psychologists, parents, and gamers have asserted that video games can be addictive. Although video games seem to influence enthusiasts differently from those of other hobbies, there is insufficient empirical evidence to designate them as an actual addiction . Further, video games are a fun and socially beneficial activity for many, so labeling them as addictive would prevent many from accessing these benefits.

For example, video games connect lonely or introverted people with one another , relieve stress , and even help people explore their own identities . Some therefore argue that, because of video games’ benefits and popularity, gaming addiction should not be considered an official diagnosis until overwhelming evidence supports this assertion.

Flawed Research

Several studies have concluded that gaming disorder qualifies as an addiction. Because addictions share several characteristics, researchers created theoretical criteria that a gamer must meet to have the diagnosis. For example, people with addictions suffer consequences in various aspects of their life and struggle to quit without help. This is true regardless of the substance.

Based on the assumption that people with video game addiction must be affected similarly, researchers have surveyed gamers on similar criteria to determine what percent have an addiction. These include questions such as, “How often do you find it difficult to stop gaming?” and “Have you deceived a family member, significant other, employer, or therapist regarding the amount of time spent engaging in gaming activities?”

Although questions like these may reasonably assess someone’s behavior, researchers use too many different questionnaires to be compared cleanly. Even when researchers use the same survey, they sometimes interpret the results differently.

In other words, someone would need to answer “Yes” to six of the eleven Gaming Addiction Screening questions to be considered addicted. They would need to respond “Sometimes” or “Often” to five or more of the ten questions in the Ten Item Internet Gaming Disorder Test to qualify. If the same person took both surveys, one survey might conclude that they had an addiction and the other might not. Further, some studies only measure how many hours per week a person spends gaming instead of targeting the effect games have on their functioning.

This has resulted in wildly different estimates of gaming addiction’s prevalence. It is difficult to draw meaningful conclusions from these data until researchers use standardized measures.

It is also very difficult to estimate one’s actual screen time each week. One meta-analysis of the research found that in 95 percent of studies, participants did not accurately report how much time they spend on screens . This calls into question all studies which rely on participants’ subjective estimates of how they use their time because they have based their conclusions on a statistic that is likely inaccurate.

Why Not Other Hobbies?

Other critics of the diagnosis point out that gaming has been unfairly targeted and pathologized. A person who plays golf instead of spending time with family is inconsiderate. A person who plays video games instead of spending time with family is addicted.

This demonstrates a clear bias . Society considers video games a waste of time, so an enthusiastic gamer is criticized more harshly than someone with a more acceptable hobby.

What Else Might Account for Excessive Gaming

Many of my clients report that they feel addicted to technology. When I continue the assessment process, many report that they were previously diagnosed with autism or ADHD . This complicates the diagnostic process because many people with these disorders already struggle to stop scrolling through social media or playing video games.

Most of us have looked up from our phones and realized that half an hour or more had suddenly passed. The hypnotic “flow” which we experienced blinded us to the passage of time. Autistic people* and those with ADHD are especially susceptible to this phenomenon. So if, for example, a person with ADHD finds it particularly difficult to turn off a game, does that person have an addiction or is it simply how this kind of stimulus affects those with ADHD?

Some research has found that heavy gamers have reduced gray matter in areas of the brain associated with attention , impulse control. However, these studies do not sufficiently demonstrate that gaming caused the differences, only that they are associated. Correlation is not causation. Some studies even show that brain scans for people with ADHD look remarkably similar to scans of those with gaming disorder , even after treatment.

One researcher pointed out this conundrum by relating it to depression . “We would not diagnose depressed individuals with hypersomnia with a comorbid ‘bed addiction.’” In other words, someone with depression might stay in bed for days, but this does not mean that they are addicted to the bed. In the same way, an autistic person or someone with depression or ADHD might appear to be addicted to video games even when they are not. In short, many diagnosed with gaming disorder may simply be autistic or have ADHD.

It is possible that video games are addictive. However, the current body of research is too flawed to state decisively that the negative consequences outweigh the benefits the games afford players. It is premature to consider gaming disorder to be an official addiction.

*Although many refer to autistic people as “people with autism” or “people with autism spectrum disorders,” almost 90 percent of autistic adults prefer “autistic person.” This language is used here to respect that preference.

Bean, A. M., Nielsen, R. K. L., van Rooij, A. J., & Ferguson, C. J. (2017). Video game addiction: The push to pathologize video games. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 48 (5). Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-29288-001

Diament, M. (2022, December 2). 'Autistic' or 'person with autism'? It depends. Disability Scoop. https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2022/12/02/autistic-or-person-with-auti…

Fishman, A. (2019, January 22). Video games are social spaces. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/video-game-health/201901/video-…

Fishman, A. (2022, November 7). Why it's so hard to walk away from a video game. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/video-game-health/202211/why-it…

Fishman, A. (2023, February 20). How gamers use video games to explore their gender identity. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/video-game-health/202302/how-…

Gentile, D. (n.d.) Gaming Addiction Screening. University of California, Santa Cruz. https://caps.ucsc.edu/pdf/gaming-addiction-screening.pdf

Han, D.H., Bae, S., Hong, J., Kim, S.M., Son, Y.D., & Renshaw, P. (2019). Resting-state fMRI study of ADHD and Internet Gaming Disorder. Journal of Attention Disorders, 25 (8). Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1087054719883022

Király, O., Bőthe, B., Ramos-Díaz, J., Rahimi-Movaghar, A., Lukavska, K., Hrabec, O., Miovsky, M., Billieux, J., Deleuze, J., Nuyens, F., Karila, L.M., Griffiths, M.D., Nagygyörgy, K., Urbán, R., Potenza, M., King, D.L., Rumpf, H., Carragher, N., Lilly, E., & Demetrovics, Z. (2019). Ten-Item Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGDT-10): Measurement invariance and cross-cultural validation across seven language-based samples. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 33 (1). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328615597_Ten-Item_Internet_Ga…

Parry, D.A., Davidson, B.I., Sewall, C.J.R., Fisher, J.T., Mieczkowski, H., & Quintana, D.S. (2021). Nature Human Behavior, 5 . Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01117-5

van Rooij, A.J., Ferguson, C., Carras, M.C. Kardefelt-Winther, D., Shi, J., Aarseth, E., Bean, A., Bergmark, K.H., Brus, A., Coulson, M., Deleuze, J., Dullur, P., Dunkels, E., Edman, J., Elson, M., Etchells, P.J., Fiskaali, A., Granic, I., Jansz, J...& Przybylski, A.K. (2018). A weak scientific basis for gaming disorder: Let us err on the side of caution. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7 (1) Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323542721_A_weak_scientific_ba…

van Rooij, A.J., Schoenmakers, T., van den Eijnden, R.J.J.M., Vermulst, A.A., & van de Mheen, D. (2012). Video Game Addiction Test: Validity and psychometric characteristics. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15 (9). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230696095_Video_Game_Addiction…

Andrew Fishman is a licensed social worker in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a lifelong gamer who works with clients to understand the impact video games have had on their mental health.

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Living Better

Worried about your kids' video gaming here's how to help them set healthy limits.

Yuki Noguchi

I grew up in the 1980s and '90s with parents who strictly controlled my "screen time," which almost exclusively meant TV back then, as well as a pocket game that died when I was 10 and was never replaced. Like many in my generation, I absorbed a general sense that video games, like TV, were frivolous brain rot.

Now, my two boys, ages 12 and 13, are growing up in a digital world in a way I did not. Their generation lives online, spending more hours in virtual spaces since the pandemic began.

I'm lucky: My sons are hardworking and kind to their chronically frazzled single mother. They make raising them as easy and joyful as adolescence could possibly allow.

But still, our house rules about video games are arbitrary and our disputes over them constant. No amount of yelling "No games on school nights!" or "Not before dinner!" has worked, or inspired them to learn a new skill instead.

I feel like I'm flying blind when it comes to regulating their game use and I know I'm not alone. Many parents worry that they should be doing more to limit online play.

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Want to understand your adolescent get to know their brain.

But as I learned from talking to numerous experts — psychologists, game designers and researchers — the impact of video games is more nuanced than that of other kinds of screen time, like social media. In fact, some research shows it can have positive effects, like promoting problem solving, or teamwork and communication.

Here are these experts' insights and advice for how to optimize the upsides of gaming and protect kids from potential hazards.

Video games are different from other screen time in crucial ways — and have some benefits

"Screen time" is an outdated concept. Kids study, play video games, use social media and watch videos on screens, but those do not all have the same developmental impact. Video games, in fact, do not show the kind of negative behavioral or emotional effects researchers correlate with social media use, says Kelli Dunlap , a clinical psychologist and community director for Take This, a mental health advocacy group within the gaming community.

"Research has shown again and again and again, time spent playing video games is not predictive of mental health outcomes," she says.

One reason for the difference in impact may be that social media is primarily about marketing, or comparing oneself to others, while gaming is generally about socializing with friends, solving a puzzle, or engaging in competition.

In fact, Dunlap says, parents often overlook some benefits of games: "They're a tool. You can use games to improve your social connection, to practice feeling emotions we normally avoid, like guilt or grief or shame. A lot of games bring those feelings out in us, and they give us a space to play with those feelings."

Games that involve joint projects like a battle or a quest can help develop useful social skills, says Peter Etchells, a research psychologist at Bath Spa University in the U.K. "It requires very kind of precise team-building," he says. "It requires thinking about timings and placement and good communication skills to coordinate with people. It's doing that kind of coordinated work that's really useful for all sorts of things."

Teens say social media is stressing them out. Here's how to help them

Help kids prioritize offline activities so gaming doesn't subsume them.

Children need some limits on their gaming, especially if it begins to crowd out other essential or healthy activities, many experts warn, like schoolwork and sleep in particular.

"Screen time is a hard thing to quantify," says Michael Rich, a pediatrician and director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital. "What is easier to quantify — and probably more in line with what is developmentally optimal — is quantifying non-screen time."

He advises parents to watch that family meals, chores, and outdoor or in-person play do not get subsumed into game time.

Kids also benefit from having periods of lower stimulation, away from technology, Rich says. "I want to bring back boredom," Rich argues, because that can also lead to imaginative play.

You need to start gaming with your kids

Every expert I spoke with recommended playing video games with your child to figure out what might specifically be motivating them to play — the needs the game might fill for them.

Online chess, for example, is a different experience than a multiplayer game with friends. Shy children might find it easier to socialize in games. Another child might regard it as stress relief. Some children may use games as a place to escape or process a difficult situation.

Boston Children's Rich says most things parents worry about with games — stranger danger, violence, sexuality — can be addressed by simply exploring the game through their eyes.

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"What's happening is that you are saying, 'I love you, I respect you, I want to understand what is engaging you here,'" says Rich. "You're entering that space with a very different stance, that of essentially the student. You will get a sense for what the game is."

If you've noticed your kids yell, scream or cry about something that happened in a game, don't be disturbed, experts say. A child's reactions to emotions and interpersonal dynamics are real, even if the play itself takes place virtually, or on a device. Experts say outbursts during game play do not mean your child is more likely to act violently in real life.

Video games are like other spaces where your kids spend time. Ask yourself: Is it safe? Who else is there?

Games are social spaces — good or bad things can happen there — just as in real life. Think about the games your kids play as just another kind of space where you're letting them hang out, several experts suggested.

For example: If you have a 5-year-old, you wouldn't drop your child off alone at a mall, where strangers might approach. Now you might drop off your teen at the mall, but not before discussing who they're hanging out with, what they plan to do, and perhaps an agreement about when to come home for dinner. The same general principles can apply to teens who game.

Parents should ask themselves: Does the game culture itself seem conducive to age-appropriate behavior? Games with female characters with exaggerated sexual features, for example, might subject a child to sexual harassment.

If you don't like what you're seeing in a game, remember that outright bans and restrictions tend to backfire with adolescents. It's more vital to keep communication lines open, says Dunlap and other experts, so if something bad happens within the game, you can help them process or deal with it.

Watch for "dark designs" or designs that fuel nonstop playing

Be on the watch for certain "dark patterns" or "dark designs" in games, say several gaming experts. These terms refer to software or algorithms written to elicit certain negative behaviors in their users.

One of the most common is in-game purchases that can border on extortion, says Max Birk, an industrial-design researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. "It's important because it changes what the emphasis of the game designers is," he says.

Games fueled by in-game purchases (as opposed to games you buy up front, like NBA2K or Dance Dance Revolution) tend to have a financial stake in keeping children engaged for long periods of time. These games make it very easy to start a new game, or create steep incentives to keep players coming back.

Birk suggests talking to your kids about the game structure and directing them toward games that are more about story lines, or that have natural ending points that can allow the kid to wind down game play on their own.

Monitor games for toxic culture and harassment

Toxic culture and comments can thrive in certain games because parents are not monitoring those spaces. That often takes the form of harassment of female gamers. The onus is on parents of boys, especially, to make sure that they treat people equitably online, and to stand up against any sexist or misogynistic talk, says Jesse Fox, a communications professor at Ohio State University.

Remind your kids that rules about respectful behavior apply online as they do in life. "Gaming culture and gaming norms are going to imprint on their idea of normal behavior, what's acceptable behavior," Fox says. That's why it is critical for parents to monitor that play space — listen to conversations, keep the screen within public view.

Find the spaces that are safer and more inclusive by design. Fortnite, Fox notes, is an example of a game that has a huge diversity of characters in game, because it's trying to appeal to a very broad audience. That diversity makes it harder to distinguish players by race or gender.

Watch for these gaming red flags

For many children, gaming can be positive, but it's a good idea to keep an eye out for these signs of problematic game use.

Excessive spending in games: The game's financial incentives might be to keep your child engaged and encourage — even try to coerce — their characters into spending money to advance. Teach your child to recognize these kinds of tactics and redirect them to games where the game itself is the primary focus.

Negative reactions or anxiety over gaming friends: If your kid is repeatedly having big emotional reactions to the game, check in and figure out what elements of the game are so upsetting. Then redirect them to games and spaces that don't have these elements. Find single-player games to take a break from social dynamics.

Too little sleep: If your child is playing late into the night or turning up groggy in the morning, their game use might be out of hand. Make sure the child cannot access games all night long. Often, it's not the desire to play the game itself, but the social pressure to not miss out on experiences with friends that will keep them online, U.K. researcher Peter Etchells says. So shut down other technology as well, preferably well before bedtime.

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Banning Violent Video Games Argumentative Essay

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Introduction: Banning Violent Video Games

Violent video games should not be banned, violent video games should be banned, conclusion: why video games should not be banned.

The essay is an argumentative one; violent games should not be banned. Recently there has been an endless and fierce debate on whether or not to banned violent video games. For instance, the countries that constitute the European Union are planning to ban some of the European games. However, it is the view of the majority of video games, just like any other games, are there to educate and entertain.

Although there are strong reasons brought forth by those who want violent video games to be banned, here are reasons why we should not; increases self-esteem, reduction of pain, encourages teamwork, sharpening players’ wit, among others (Sterngold, 2006).

With regards to those in support of banning the game, they hold the view that the games continuously poison the minds of the viewers, especially young individuals.

It is worth noting that there are indeed strong points that need to be given a second thought before we rush in banning violent video games. It has been argued and even proved that when kids play such games, especially when the multiplayer type of game is available, then the children get to learn at a very early age to work as a teammate, which requires teamwork. Arguably, this is advantageous as it helps in keeping children together in times of need (Lebrilla, 2010).

For this matter, when they grow up, such individuals will be in a better position to be good team players. This concept has been currently deemed very vital in ensuring the success of an organization. Throughout the game, it is indeed tough to beat the opponent.

However, through concentration, acquisition of skills, and knowledge on how to win, which has been learned from each other, children are capable of the emerging winner. With this, they grow, knowing that to win, there is a need to have a team behind them.

As suggested by Bissell, 2008 violent video games have been thought to help, especially those with very high tempers, to release their anger by not hurting anybody. When very angry and one feels like inflicting pain on another human being or even killing others, it has been thought appropriate to transfer such anger to violent video games. When one engages in a shoot-out with an enemy in a video game, he/she might feel that the mission is accomplished.

Aside from assisting young individuals in sharpening their wits and problem-solving skills, violent video game plays a significant role in helping young individuals, even a few older members of society, to learn how to persevere. On the same line of thought, these games have made it possible for people to have well-coordinated hand and eye movements (Craig et al. 2007).

This has helped in making sure that reflex action/response is normal. The advantage of this is that it will play a significant role in keeping progressive illnesses at bay.

Another major point that is in support of violent video games is that it helps in sustaining the country’s economy. It is apparent that the industry of violent video games has played a significant role in the economic growth of the country. The export of the same product to other nations generates foreign income for the country.

Additionally, a good number of Americans derive their daily bread from the same industry(Konijn et al., 2007). For this reason, banning of violent video games will mean that the unemployment rate will go up, and the money generated from the industry will be lost. The industry generates close to 21 billion dollars annually (Jones & Ponton, 2003).

Additionally, doctors have proved that despite violent games being useful; in releasing anger, it is also helpful in helping a patient reduce pain. The current efforts hospitals show this making to install such games. More importantly, the games help entertain the plays as well as the viewers.

Just like when people feel entertained by watching a football match, violent game provide the same to the affected party. Considering the fact that slightly over 70.0% of American teens play these games, if it is banned, then they will indulge in even more risky activities in their quest to be entertained, for instance, drug abuse (Goldstein, 1998).

It would not be rational if the argument that supports the banning of violent games were not brought to light. It has been brought into the violent limelight game that pollutes the minds of American children.

When young individual engages too much in these games, they are addicted. The result is that they will grow up and may put into practice what they saw. A recent incident where a student walked into an institution of learning and started shooting at others, killing them on the spot, has been linked to violent video games (Anderson & Dill, 2000).

Similarly, just like any other thing that can bring addiction, violent video games, when making a young individual addicted, can be detrimental to their quest to learn. This is because most of the time, whenever they are free will, they spend time playing such games (Ferguson, 2008).

Although it has been argued that the game fosters socialization skills, it is evident that when one plays in non-multiplayer support, they grow up being persons with poor skills to socialize.

From the review of the issue of violent games, even though the game is intense, banning it will bring more harm than good. For those who advocate for the banning, it would be rational to critically analyze the benefits of the game to individuals and even society at large. For instance, it enhances teamwork, helps reduce pain, aids in releasing anger, and improves wit and hand-eye coordination, among others.

However, the disadvantages include polluting or poisoning young individuals, and addiction eats their time hence cannot engage actively in other vital activities. This thus warrants careful consideration from relevant stakeholders such as parents and the government.

Anderson, C. & Dill, K. (2000). “Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings and Behavior in the Laboratory and In Life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 78(4):722.

Ferguson, C. (2008). “Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games Be a Force for Good?”, Review of General Psychology, 14(1): 68-81.

Konijn, E. et al. (2007). “I Wish I Were a Warrior: The Role of Wishful Identification in the Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Adolescent Boys.” Developmental Psychology, 43(1): 1-12.

Craig, A. et al. (2007). Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy . Oxford University: Oxford University Press.

Bissell, T. (2008). Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter . New York: Macmillan Publishers.

Sterngold, A. (2006). “Violent video games.” Web.

Jones, G. & Ponton, L. (2003). Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence . New York: Basic Books. P. 172.

Goldstein, J. (1998). Why We Watch; The Attraction of Violent Entertainment . Oxford University Oxford University Press. P. 188.

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How to Write an Effective Essay on Video Games

Writing an effective essay on video games requires a good understanding of the topic, strong writing skills, and the ability to analyze and present your ideas clearly. Whether you're a passionate gamer exploring your favorite titles or a cultural critic examining the industry's impact, a well-crafted essay can offer valuable insights and engage readers. If you need assistance with essay writing services at Ukwritings , they can help. Ukwritings is an essay writing service that provides professional writing assistance to students on various topics, including video games. Their team of experienced writers can help you craft a compelling and well-researched essay. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling essay on video games. 

Choosing a Focused Topic

The video game industry is vast, covering a wide range of genres, platforms, and themes. Rather than attempting to write about video games in general, narrow your focus to a specific aspect or angle. This will allow you to delve deeper into the topic and provide more meaningful analysis.

For example, you could explore the impact of a particular game or franchise, analyze the representation of certain groups in video games, or examine the evolution of game mechanics over time. A focused topic will help you develop a clear thesis statement and maintain a cohesive structure throughout your essay.

Conducting Thorough Research

Gather information from reliable sources, including books, academic journals, industry reports, and reputable online publications. Look for sources that provide in-depth analysis, historical context, and expert opinions. Avoid relying solely on user reviews or fan sites, as they may lack objectivity or present biased perspectives.

Consult a variety of sources to gain a well-rounded understanding of your topic. Take notes, highlight key points, and organize your research in a way that will help you support your arguments and provide strong evidence.

Developing a Clear Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement should be a concise and focused statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will explore in your essay. It should be specific, debatable, and supported by evidence from your research. A strong thesis statement will guide the development of your essay and help you maintain focus throughout the writing process. For example, instead of a broad statement like "Video games are influential," you could propose a more specific thesis, such as "The open-world design of the Grand Theft Auto series has significantly influenced the gaming industry's approach to storytelling and player agency." Crafting a clear and compelling thesis is crucial, especially if you're writing the essay for college admissions or scholarship applications, where college essay services can provide valuable guidance to help you stand out. 

A strong thesis statement will guide the development of your essay and help you maintain focus throughout the writing process. For example, instead of a broad statement like "Video games are influential," you could propose a more specific thesis, such as "The open-world design of the Grand Theft Auto series has significantly influenced the gaming industry's approach to storytelling and player agency."

Organizing Your Ideas Effectively

Structure your essay in a logical and coherent manner. Begin with an engaging introduction that captures the reader's attention and provides context for your topic. Use body paragraphs to present your main points, supporting each one with relevant examples, facts, and analysis. Finally, conclude your essay with a strong summary that reinforces your thesis and leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Consider using subheadings to organize your essay into distinct sections, making it easier for readers to follow your line of thought and navigate the content.

Analyzing and Critiquing

An effective essay should go beyond simply describing or summarizing information. Analyze and critique various aspects of your topic, such as game design, narrative elements, societal impact, or cultural representation. Offer your own insights and opinions, but support them with evidence from your research and careful analysis.

Encourage critical thinking by examining different perspectives, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and exploring the broader implications or consequences of the subject you're discussing.

Considering Multiple Perspectives

Video games can be viewed from various angles, including artistic, cultural, technological, and psychological perspectives. Acknowledging and exploring different viewpoints will add depth and complexity to your essay, demonstrating your understanding of the topic's nuances.

For example, when discussing the representation of women in video games, you could examine the issue from a feminist perspective, exploring how certain games perpetuate harmful stereotypes or objectification. However, you could also consider the perspective of game developers, who may face challenges in creating diverse and authentic female characters while appealing to a broad audience.

Using Examples and Evidence

Strengthen your arguments by providing specific examples and evidence from video games themselves. Describe key scenes, gameplay mechanics, or design choices that support your points. You can also use quotes from developers, critics, or industry experts to bolster your analysis.

Concrete examples and evidence make your essay more engaging and help readers better understand the points you're making. They also lend credibility to your arguments and demonstrate your familiarity with the subject matter.

Maintaining Objectivity

While it's important to express your opinions and insights, aim to maintain objectivity and avoid biased or overly subjective language. Present different viewpoints fairly, and acknowledge potential counter-arguments or limitations to your arguments.

By maintaining a balanced perspective, you demonstrate your ability to think critically and consider multiple sides of an issue. This approach also makes your essay more persuasive and credible, as readers are more likely to trust an objective analysis.

Editing and Proofreading

After completing your initial draft, take the time to review and revise your essay. Check for clarity, coherence, and logical flow. Ensure that your arguments are well-supported and that your writing is free from grammatical errors, typos, and inconsistencies.

Consider having someone else read your essay and provide feedback. A fresh pair of eyes can help identify areas that need improvement or clarification.

By following these tips, you can craft an effective and engaging essay on video games that showcases your knowledge, analytical skills, and writing abilities. Remember, the key is to provide insightful analysis, use concrete examples, and present your ideas in a clear and organized manner. With dedication and attention to detail, you can create a compelling essay that contributes to the ongoing discussion around this influential medium.

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Benefit of Playing Video Games

This essay will discuss the benefits of playing video games, challenging the common negative perceptions. It will cover cognitive, social, and emotional advantages, such as improved problem-solving skills, enhanced hand-eye coordination, and opportunities for social interaction. The piece will also consider the educational potential of video games and their role in skill development. Moreover, at PapersOwl, there are additional free essay samples connected to Video Game.

How it works

Video games are seen as a useless entertainment to many parents and even some educators believe that they damage a child’s brain. Over the years, violent video games have been blamed for leading people to a life of crime because they believe that games are the cause of kids becoming violent or develop an antisocial behavior. In reality many psychologists and scientists have found that playing video games can actually have benefits towards a person’s brain. Video games can eventually teach kids skills that they will need and use in their lives.

Today everyone has played video games for fun, but some have put it to the test to use video games for research purposes. In a study done in New York, one set of surgeons played video games for 3 hours a week, while the other set played none. The set who played the video games made 37 percent fewer mistakes during laparoscopic (Medical bag). In another study, those who play action video games on a regular basis can process visual information faster and can track 30 percent more objects than non gamers. Action video games are shown to increase one’s contrast sensitivity, or the ability to notice minute changes in color against a uniform background. One group of gamers played action games, like Call of Duty, while the others played The Sims. The Call of Duty group showed a 38 percent increase in aforementioned sensitivity, whereas the Sims group showed none whatsoever. Video games can also slim you down. Wii Fit, for example, has players doing yoga, stretches and other exercise in order to unlock fun and exercise. Dance Dance Revolution requires players to dance by placing their feet on the corresponding arrows. After a while, players work up a sweat due to the required rapid movement. Gaming can also make you smarter. People who play video games display fluid intelligence and problem solving. Managing multiple objectives and multiple resources is one of the goals that helps you become smarter. Learning the rules of the game and what strategy works best for you also helps you.

When playing video games, the coordination and concentration can physically, socially, and mentally benefit the user. Research today shows that certain video games can reduce fat and therefore promote weight loss. Other sources state that doctors have instructed parents to let their children play video games to help control focus. Active video games are also being marketed for adults. New Gaming companies have been turning their gaming systems into exercise machines. The workout levels are increasing stamina causing weight loss and health awareness. The new video machines can drastically change an adults workout routine.

Video games can also improve visual skills and brain function. Action video games train the brain to better process certain visual information. When people play action video games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing. When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it, and we’ve seen the positive effect remains even two years after the training was over. By playing Action video games, vision improves up to 58 percent. Video games that involve high levels of action, such as first-person-shooter games, increase a player’s real-world vision, according to research in today’s Nature Neuroscience. The ability to discern slight differences in shades of gray has long been thought to be an attribute of the human visual system that cannot be improved. But Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, has discovered that very practiced action gamers become 58 percent better at perceiving fine differences in contrast. Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery. However, this will need further testing in people with this condition. As a treatment for poor eyesight generally though, gaming is unlikely to replace conventional approaches in the near future. Bavelier had previously found that game players had better vision when compared with non-game players. She says that these video games, and spending time in front of the computer, may not be harmful to our vision. The researchers suggest that this indicates that playing video games could have potential for improving some conditions such as amblyopia (Rochester.edu). Additionally, evidence has shown that gaming can help with psychological problems and games reduce symptoms of depression more than conventional treatment. Another research team at Oxford University found that playing Tetris shortly after exposure to something very upsetting in the experiment, a film of traumatic scenes of injury and death was used, can actually prevent people from having disturbing thoughts (oxford.edu). Therefore playing games can also help in releasing tension and help a person to have lighter thoughts.

The effects are not always so positive, however. Indiana University researchers carried out brain scans on young men and found evidence that violent games can alter brain function after as little as a week of play, affecting regions in the brain associated with emotional control and causing more aggressive behaviour (Indiana.edu). But Daphne Bavelier, one of the most experienced researchers in the field, says that the violent action games that often worry most parents may actually have the strongest beneficial effect on the brain (Bavelier). Games like Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, Doom and others, have taken the blame for various heinous crimes (Gross). Certain government officials have even gone as far as filing lawsuits against the developing companies in an attempt to outlaw video games in general. Not only that, but they have also been under inspection for supposedly causing a gaming “”addiction””.

Some of the other controversial video games are also the ones with the greatest potential benefits. Fast-paced, FPS like BioShock Infinite, Halo, Half-Life, Borderlands and third-person equivalents like God of War: Ascension, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Force Unleashed have all been accused of being too violent, but the benefits gamers gain from playing them are astounding. Researchers like Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green have been able to demonstrate in multiple laboratory tests that playing these fast-paced games increases a person’s ability to try multiple pieces of visual information and decrease reaction time. They also have worked with another researcher, Alexandre Pouget, and showed that fast-action games also decrease decision making time. Basically, these games have so much going on all the time that for someone not used to following and tracking so much information it can be overwhelming. Gamers have no trouble keeping up with this information overload. The players are able to assess, make decisions and react quickly because they have learned how to do so in order to play and advance. If they are playing by themselves they may have to give orders to their computer allies. If they are playing with other humans then they have to be able to communicate effectively with them while tracking all the other data. This shows how playing video games cna help a person be more confident in telling others what to do and helps their communication skills and interact with others better. The brains of gamers adapt so quickly, that they can keep track of all the information they need to. Bavelier and her team found that a video gamer’s brain physically changes so that the player can process all of this information, and, most importantly, use it. A video gamer is capable of making accurate, informed decisions faster than a non-gamer with the same percentage of right answers. Bavelier and Green demonstrated that this benefit from fast-action video games sticks around for at least six months after a test subject has played only 10 hours over the course of 2 weeks. This means that every person can gain this benefit without actually being a gamer, as long as he or she is willing to put in a few hours a week to train his or her brains. This is really exciting because many of these changes have immediate benefits other senacios such as driving because when driving, the increased awareness, ability to track the many things going on around us and to make correct, fast decisions about likely outcomes of movements is invaluable in the prevention of car accidents. Playing video games has a huge impact on an individual’s brain and as a result has a direct impact on how gamers interact with and navigate our world.

Many gamers are told over and over that they have trouble focusing, but they do so well in focusing when there is so much happening on their screens all the time. Exciting new research, again from Daphne Bavelier and her team, is showing that gamers’ attention and focus is actually better than that of non-gamers. They are capable of resolving visual conflicts faster, which is frequently used in the lab to determine attention and focus capabilities. However, video game detractors point to information released by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) regarding increased Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis rates since 1997 with growth rates as high as 22% between 2003 and 2007. They argue that more and more children are being exposed to video games and more and more educators and parents are complaining that their children are unable to focus on things like classroom instruction the female orgasm and homework (Sucutti). What has been found, though, is that these child gamers’ brains, as well as the brains of their already adult counterparts, are very capable of focusing and they can maintain the same level of performance in what we find in many video games like World of Warcraft, much of the Final Fantasy series, and the previously mentioned first person shooters for hours. However, Gabe Zicherman, a leader in the development and application of “”gamification””, disagrees with such views. He suggests that it is adults that need to catch up and keep up with kids, not slow down kids to their slower pace.

Today’s kids play games in which they’re expected to chat in text and voice, operate a character, follow long and short term objectives, and deal with their parents interrupting them all the time to talk to them. Kids have to have an extraordinary multi-tasking skill to be able to achieve things today. It should then not be a surprise to discover that children who have become excellent learners in high-stimulus virtual environments may have trouble settling down into a sedate classroom with other children who are also conditioned to learning through video games. Tom Chatfield has written multiple articles and a book on how video games are the perfect education and motivation tools. He points out that children are constantly learning in a virtual environment where there are consequences to not accomplishing a task, losing a life, a tool, or not meeting a time requirement. There are also clearly stated rewards to completing the task as well as possible unexpected rewards that are doled out at calculated increments. Video game designers have been fine tweaking the ratio of difficulty, rewards and consequences to being a dumbass so that they know exactly how much to throw at a gamer at what level in each game in order to keep that person engaged and coming back for more. Educators could learn a lot from what these designers already know; children who are engaged and rewarded in an interactive learning process can and do give their entire attention and focus.

The fact that video games are a tool that can be used for education, and therefore do have an impact on the human brain, means we do need to be aware of what the potential negative impacts of those changes could be. What most every person has heard as an argument against video games is that they encourage violence and aggression in the people who play them. Multiple studies have been published on the topic, but when those studies have been reviewed and compared, it was found that they contradicted each other, and in many cases, used flawed methods to reach their conclusion regardless of the results. Christopher J. Ferguson with Texas A&M University used meta-analysis to review 12 studies available to him at the time of his publishing and found that researchers often used flawed methodology, drew conclusions that were not supported by their evidence, or in general could find no link between video games and violence. Holly Bowen and Julia Spaniol of the Dept. of Psychology with Ryerson University found that there is no indication that people who play violent video games have any long-term emotional desensitization to violence in their immediate surroundings. They do acknowledge that there may be a period immediately after playing these violent games that a gamer may be desensitized, but it is not an effect that could be attributed to an increase violence and aggressive behavior in those test subjects. Essentially, the evidence so far is showing that video games have a short-term impact on how people respond to violence and are likely desensitized to violence and possibly even reading for a short period after they play violent video games, but there is little evidence that there is a long-term impact. The heart of the argument against violent video games is based on the idea of a long-term, negative impact on gamers. Research just does not support that position.

Video games have become a part of our culture and a part of our lives in many ways. As a society we need to focus our energy and attention on is how to use them to make our lives better. We’ve already seen research that shows how video games can be used to help with several tasks with real world applications. We can use video games to increase our ability to track multiple objects and thus be able to monitor more of our surroundings while driving. They teach people how to be able to focus and maintain attention in situations where there is a lot of information to absorb in very short period of time. Video games can help us to better analyze what is going on around us and make quick decisions about the best action to take in a variety of situations. New research about the benefits of video games is coming out every year. It is time for us all to step forward and embrace the technology around us that has so many benefits and work together to mitigate the deficits that are present. Our society will not be ruined by this action, but will instead be enhanced further. There is one further thing we need to do. We need to sit down and pick up a controller. We leave ourselves at a disadvantage if we refuse to play out of false concerns regarding violence and aggression. Video games are a form of media that is often believed to be associated with negative health consequences. However, they are a great source of stress relief and improvement and development of mental health for social skills. They are engaging and immersive on a level different from traditional board games and other forms of entertainment. The player actively contributes to the level of satisfaction they attain because of the willingness to engage in the elements of the video game. The amount of play time can also be an important factor to the effects of playing certain games. In other words, excessive screen time can have its negative consequence, but if used correctly, video games possess advantages not present in other learning environments and can be a powerful tool to help children improve and develop life skills. Playing video games has become a normal part of childhood for many children and gaming in its proper manner can be healthy, fun, and educational to all ages.

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Defending the morality of violent video games

• Published: 20 March 2010
• Volume 12 , pages 127–138, ( 2010 )

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• Marcus Schulzke 1  

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The effect of violent video games is among the most widely discussed topics in media studies, and for good reason. These games are immensely popular, but many seem morally objectionable. Critics attack them for a number of reasons ranging from their capacity to teach players weapons skills to their ability to directly cause violent actions. This essay shows that many of these criticisms are misguided. Theoretical and empirical arguments against violent video games often suffer from a number of significant shortcomings that make them ineffective. This essay argues that video games are defensible from the perspective of Kantian, Aristotelian, and utilitarian moral theories.

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Violent video games: content, attitudes, and norms

Violent video games and morality: a meta-ethical approach, crossing the fictional line: moral graveness, the gamer’s dilemma, and the paradox of fictionally going too far, explore related subjects.

• Artificial Intelligence
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A demarcation line would likewise be difficult because the standards of what is considered violent change over time. “Using today’s standards, “Pac-Man”, and other early videogames like “Space Invaders”, “Defender”, and “Asteroids” appear relatively non-threatening, however, in the early 1980s these games were characterized as violent.” Newman ( 2004 ) p. 66. Standards would have to be revisable and arbitrary, and these are not characteristics of deontological moral rules.

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Here “good” and “evil” only refer to the quality of the actions within the virtual world. Virtual murder is not evil, but it is in the context of the game, as judged by the other players or non-player characters. The good and evil actions in the game do not have any real moral meaning, but from an Aristotelian perspective they can still be meaningful forms of practice in cultivating a virtuous character.

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Singer’s claim draws attention to an important oversight in the studies critical of violent games: the cases that are relied on as examples of game-induced aggression are always given different explanations by law enforcement officials. This is true for Singer’s use of the Columbine Shooting, Grossman’s discussion of Michael Carneal, and Chalmers’ example, Lee Boyd Malvo. In each of these cases video games were not found to be significant. Where there is disagreement, we should favor the explanations of investigators who have the training and access to information to form sound judgments. .

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Schulzke, M. Defending the morality of violent video games. Ethics Inf Technol 12 , 127–138 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-010-9222-x

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Published : 20 March 2010

Issue Date : June 2010

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-010-9222-x

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Video Games — Video Games Have Benefits

Video Games Have Benefits

• Categories: Video Games Violence in Video Games

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Words: 625 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 625 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Cognitive benefits, social benefits, emotional benefits, counterarguments and refutations.

• Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2006). Effect of action video games on the spatial distribution of visuospatial attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32(6), 1465–1478.
• Bavelier, D., Green, C. S., & Dye, M. W. G. (2010). Children, wired: For better and for worse. Neuron, 67(5), 692-701.
• Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66-78.
• Baldwin, T. (2013). The impact of adolescent online gaming and social networking. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(8), 1185-1198.
• Chapin, L. A., & Shah, M. (2017). Video game playing and stress reduction:Gaming preference, favorite games, and symptoms of stress. Journal of Counseling and Development, 95(3), 226-235.
• Ferguson, C. J., & Kilburn, J. (2010). Much ado about nothing: The misestimation and overinterpretation of violent video game effects in Eastern and Western nations. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43(1), 58-76.

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