Introduction

First of all, I want to welcome everyone to my blog. It is dedicated to the thriving and exciting field of the Computer Games and the role it plays in the modern society. Electronic Entertainment has long become an important part of the media, as well as the target of various controversies and discussions over the course of its existence. We cannot ignore its importance as one of the defining fields of the new digital media, even though there are probably still some people who view computer and videogames as mere entertainment for children and just a new type of a digital toy. This blog will serve to demonstrate that the computer games are much more than that and not only they can deliver supreme enjoyment and be a cultural influence, but also can be considered as a certain form of art. Why did I choose the topic? First of all, because I was into this for years and it brought lots of enjoyment to me and I also think it is a vastly interesting and creative sphere with promising future. I really hope the articles and posts published on this blog will create a better understanding of the subject.

The Positive Value of the Games

There have been several prejudices and controversies in existence for years concerning the negative effects of the computer games. Among the accusations of igniting the violence and spreading the sedative lifestyle among the young, the games have also been accused of shifting their overwhelmingly to the gameworlds, forcing them to pursue isolationist lifestyles of game-addiction. Of course, nothing is good if it is too much, but spending balanced time playing certain and appropriate games should not have negative effects on the youth and in fact some of these games can be used to develop certain skills, knowledge and positive values among them.
The strategy games are a good example. “Europa Universalis” is a game praised for its complexity of the gameplay, as well as the accuracy of the historical detail. The players is taking the role of an European Monarch in the Age of Discovery, regulating the taxation, corruption, various lords, diplomacy, army maintenance and various aspects of the medieval “kingdom management”, as well as knowing more about the real historical background of Europe. Of course this is just a simulation and a game that is by no means completely realistic, but by playing it players will become acknowledged about various historical aspects, as well as the way the states have worked in the past. The game has got a glowing review on the Gamespot and was praised for the qualities mentioned above..
There are also plenty of educational games that teach children read and write, as well as develop essential skills and knowledge. Unlike television, the very essence of Computer and Videogames is highly interactive and interesting for young children, so it can be used as a powerful tool to teach them positive values that are acceptable in the society live in. The suggestions of the scholarly value of the computer games are widely expressed and there are already programs in some of the developed countries that install the games in the schools for educational purposes. Considering the rapid growth of the game market and the technological development of the field, we may even speculate that the games will play even more prominent role in bringing the positive values to the younger generation.

We cannot ignore the negative sides as well, of course (Everything has positive and negative sides). Games can be highly addictive for both adults and children, so there should be certain self-control from the parents side, as well as the adults who play the games themselves. Indeed, young children might respond too emotionally to certain aspects of the violent games and some games are definitely not supposed to be played by children, so once again - parent control is crucial here. But according to Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a psychologist in the University of Virginia - "We overestimate the malleability and fragility of children. We think that any or every bad event will leave some trace or scar. It doesn't. What does matter is longstanding conditions of childhood, activities that go on for hundreds of hours, that encourage or discourage certain virtues and values". I think there is a point here - Games can have good or bad effect and the balance of lifestyle in general is probably more important here - the development of personality is certainly a very complex issue that is influenced by many factors.
So once again – if the young people will devote moderate amounts of time playing the games that are educational and entertaining at the same time, there is little chance that it will somehow force them to become more violent. Good balance of healthy lifestyle and involvement in their children's gaming activities is probably one of those things good parents must control and after that it is highly possible that the stereotype of a videogame that is making killing sprees out of children will be broken in favor of games being mediums of education, entrainment and good values at the same time.








Works Cited:

“Europa Universalist III for PC Review”. Gamespot PC. Gamespot. Jan 23. 2007. Jan 6. 2008
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/europauniversalisiii/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review

Brown James. “Schools to test the scholarly values of the Computer Games” Computing. Computing.co.uk . Aug 17. 2005. Jan 7. 2008. http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2141251/schools-test-scholarly-value-pc

Linnea Sharon. "What Violent Video Games Teach Children About Morality". Beliefnet. Jan. 7. 2008. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/130/story_13096_4.html

Links and Resources

Recommended Websites


BBC Technology

BBC Technology covers the vast area of modern Digital Technologies, including the development of wireless connections, gadgets and communications, but as the time passes, more and more news and articles concerning Computer and Videogames and their development are being published on. I really recommend the site, as it is BBC and thus is trustworthy, objective and interesting and it also well up to date.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/default.stm

Gamespot

One of the most critically acclaimed and oldest gaming websites. Its ratings of the games are widely considered as one of the most critical and demanding i.e. very few games are deserving high scores and they are evaluated in all fields. The resource is also highly interesting for tracking down the games of all genres and times, as its catalogue includes almost all officially released games of the last twenty years.

www.gamespot.com


PC IGN

Yet Another online publication, but this time solely dedicated to the Computer Games (no console or handheld games). It is regularly being updated with an information about the newest sorts of graphics cards, sound cars, special desktops engineered for games, as well as the game reviews, interviews with the developers and critical articles. It is a highly recommended web source for the PC-gamers who want to be updated in all fronts.

http://pc.ign.com

Myths and Controversies

http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

The violent rampages and the school shootings that plagued the 1990s and 2000s have led to various questions and speculations whether these examples of violence are connected with the rise of digital media and the spread of violent computer games among youth in particular. Blaming computer games for making the kids more aggressive has even become some sort of trend in the recent years. I found this article quite interesting, as it tries to actually look at the problem more objective. While it does not and cannot prove that the computer game violence has no connection with certain incidents, it also shows that the reports of these games massively plaguing the psychology youth nowadays and transforming them into violent, bloodthirsty killers are an exaggeration. This article also tries to evaluate several other prejudices about the computer games and look at them from the more objective point of view.

BBC "Word of the Year 2007" - W00t!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7142257.stm - Games Jargon Becomes word of the year

BBC is known for its habit of evaluating the importance of various people, events and objects during the course of the year and in the end crediting them as influential and important in their respective fields. One of such “awards” BBC has is the “Word of the Year” – the word that has risen in prominence during the year and even entered various respected Dictionaries. It is certainly not irrelevant to mention in our blog that the Word of the Year for 2007, according to BBC is a gamer-jargon “w00t!”,which is an expression of joy and victory, often used by the gamers during the online games. Now, according to the very same BBC, it is slowly entering the everyday slang in North American youth. This “award” is certainly not something huge or official, but it once again demonstrates the rising cultural impact of the Computer games in the society.

MMORPGs

Does the word “MMORPG” tell you anything? Most probably not, but the abbreviation is actually has the meaning that has become a phenomenon over last few years and is truly is an influence on the mainstream culture. Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games it stands for and it is a genre of a game, where a player takes a role of a character with certain feats and skills, traveling the magnificent and majestic fantasy worlds full of mythical creatures, gaining experience and better skills(thus making his/her character stronger) and solving the quests. “Okay” some will say “What is so special about it? It is just like any other Role-Playing Game”. The difference is that it has the word “Online” in the abbreviation and it is for reason. The average server of the most popular MMORPG nowadays “World of Warcraft” is serving up to 10 000 players each moment and that means that in that huge world it is not the computer controlled-monsters we are fighting against, but actually against thousands of other real-life players too. Huge clans and massive guilds are formed by hundreds of players, each with their own fortresses and places of dominance. So, for example, if a player of one “kingdom” wonders into the deserts that are controlled by the opposing faction, he may get killed not only by the monsters that inhabit the place, but also by other “humans” or “orcs” that are played by other real-life players. The rise of the MMORPG gave also rise to the new kind of market of “virtual armory”. Since there are certain powerful and rare items in these games that are hard or impossible to find, some experienced gamers (and sometimes even dozens of players playing together) spend nights “slaying dragons and goblins” to get these swords and shields and then sell them on the EBay on real money. There has already been a “South Park” episode spoofing “World of Warcraft” and the number of its players is growing constantly, reaching up to 15 million players worldwide (on the official servers) – and it is speculated that on the pirate servers up to 50 million might be playing.

Advancing Technologies and Modern Graphics Engines

All of us are aware about the Digital Revolution of the last twenty-five years and the rapidness of the development of various fields of digital technology. The computer games are doubtlessly one of the fields that have been experiencing constant development in various directions. The most demanding aspect of the technological advancement of the game is the graphics engine it is running on and the video-image. The speed of this advance is pleasing and good at one point, as we are given more and more realistic and beautiful games each year, but on the other hand it is very demanding from the hardware point of view, forcing the game enthusiasts to update their graphics cards on the yearly basis, as the cards are becoming outdated in a matter of months. In other words, as time passes the graphical aspect of the game is becoming more and more complex and developed, respectively they need stronger “iron”, i.e. graphics hardware. The action games have been a vanguard of the advanced most graphic engines for years and certainly if we are searching for the most innovative and powerful visual image among modern and upcoming games, the Action-genre is the where we should search for such examples. If we want to see the power of on of the most powerful engines that are already available nowadays, we should take a look at the engine of the newly released Action-game “Unreal Tournament 3”. Even stronger engines are coming up though. The legend of Game Design – John Carmack of the ID Software has announced the development of the new graphics engine “id Tech 4” on the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo. ID Software has been known for its revolutionary Action Games like “Quake” and “Doom” and these games were revolutionary not only the way they were played, but from the graphical point of view also. Now, the very same studio announced the new engine that is one of the most powerful engines to be known in existence. The first game to carry this engine will be “Heat” and it is expected to be released during the Summer of 2008. We don’t have the screenshots nor the system requirements yet, but it must be speculated that they are indeed heartbreaking.