According to McGonigal (based on mostly 2008/2009 data so assume the numbers are larger now), hundreds of millions of people worldwide, including 183 million active gamers in the US -- as well as "4 million in the Middle East, 10 million in Russia, 104 million in India, 10 million in Vietnam, 10 million in Mexico, 13 million in Central and South America, 15 million in Australia, 17 million in South Korea, 100 million in Europe, and 200 million in China" play video and computer games.
The questions to consider are many:
- McGonigal thinks we should "use everything we know about game design to fix what's wrong with reality" by solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists (p.7).
- According to James Paul Gee, "Lots of young people pay lots of money to engage in an activity that is hard, long, and complex. As an educator, I realized that this was just the problem our schools face — how do you get someone to learn something long, hard, and complex, and yet still enjoy it?"
- Alternatively, are gamers missing out on reality by spending too much time in digital games?
- Are games too violent and lead gamers to become violent themselves?
- Are games designed for boys, leaving girls behind? Are only the affluent gamers?
- And what about job prospects? Are avid gamers more likely to get better jobs because of their problem-solving skill game mentality? That is, what are the educational benefits to video game playing?
I do believe video games are increasingly being designed to administer to the desires and interests of boys rather than girls. Although many female gamers currently play on both the online and console formats, most games were clearly not developed with them in mind. Part of this is simply related to inherent disinterests by many female individuals. A good number of games focus on sports. While many girls love sports, the collective percentage of females who enjoy sports is most likely smaller than the overall percentage of men who like sports. Therefore, it can be reasonably concluded that game designers often focus more heavily on male interests during game development. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThough I agree that sports games are designed mostly for boys, what about other game formats? Do you think games like GTA, Portal, WOW, Sims City are gender-biased? I think in early days of game design, it was clear games were designed for boys. But today, the game world is so diverse, international and involving both genders, that I think game designers don't want to leave anyone out of the mix. It's the most lucrative industry for a reason, right? It also suggests that girls like games as much as boys, like challenges as much, too.
ReplyDeleteNot sure the same is true for income equity though.
After reading Reality is Broken I think some of the gamers are missing out on reality. Even though most gamers only play an hour or so a day there are people who play almost constantly and these people are sucked into their games. I believe it is alright for people to play video games for an hour or two out of their day because this is like people who watch TV. I do not agree with McGonigal that we might be "disappearing into game worlds." We may play more games when we have free time on our phone or at home, but not everyone plays games all day long.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I do not believe video games leave girls behind because according to McGonigal 40 percent of gamers are women. I think there may be more games that in more interest to boys, but some girls enjoy playing them too.
I do not agree that video games are being increasingly designed for boys over girls. If anything, I would think that games are being increasingly designed with both sexes in mind. I won't speak for sports video games because I don't play them. I don't think there is a gender-bias in strategy or simulation games before these types of games don't involve the development of a single character. I do think that most RPGs were originally created for a male audience but most developers have made great progress in the inclusion of both sexes. I've recently been playing Diablo 3 and you may now select your gender for any character. In Diablo 1 & 2, certain character classes were assigned a gender. For example, a warrior was always a male and a healer was always a female. The most successful RPGs, though, have included both genders or gender neutrality from the beginning. WoW and Mass Effect have always allowed male and female avatars. Mass Effect 3 even introduced same-sex relationships into the gameplay which is perhaps the first occurrence of such in a triple A title. Link, the main character from the Zelda franchise, is even thought by some to be sufficiently androgynous as to not deter female players. And let's not forget simpler games like Plants vs. Zombies or Candy Crush Saga which have no basis for gender at all. Certainly the headlining games like Halo and Black Ops leave the impression that all gamers are boys, but I don't think that's true anymore especially now that there are so many genres of games and so many ways to play them.
ReplyDeleteLong post, tl;dr at bottom.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably not the only person who grew up in a household that restricted video game usage. I always bitterly resented my parents' "video-games-rot-your-brain-and-make-you-fat" policy and took any opportunity I could to play games at my friends' houses when I would visit. As I got older and the reigns loosened, and as they did I also realized I was no good at the video games my friends were able to play day and night and I lost interest. Constantly being the worst is no fun.
I filled my time instead with sports, schoolwork, and drama while my other friends continued to try and boost their scores at any given opportunity, choosing to hang out in a dark room facing a screen for the majority of weekends. This continued for most of high school.
I think that my lack of video game indulgence contrasted with my friends' constant immersion yielded a drastic difference in our understanding of reality and left our two groups vastly mismatched in terms of dealing with life after high school. We have immensely different lives now. After graduation, I entered college immediately, was able to land jobs and internships, and was able to transition pretty smoothly into new social circles post-high school. I thought that was the natural course for most of my friend groups, and it was, except for my "gamer" friends. None of them entered college immediately following graduation (despite their siblings, parents, and friends all attending) and some of them are still bouncing from minimum wage job to minimum wage job today. I try to understand why our lives went so differently on that front, and when I see them today it makes immediate sense: they have a very skewed vision of reality and of themselves. Maybe you know people like this, but these guys still act like they're in middle school: they have a childish sense of humor and little-to-no sense of emotional intelligence and a baffling sense of arrogance/ entitlement. They're ideas of themselves and their accomplishments are mind-blowing. I don't want to say video games are the cause, but I would imagine that such constant usage is a symptom among people with few abilities to cope with reality. These guys are so proud of their video game accomplishments and scores and have no idea how to talk to an actual person or interview for a job. I struggle to see the "problem-solving" abilities they should have mastered in games correlate to solving any of their real-world problems. It seems that video games are much more of a way for them to escape reality and not deal with life because they are constantly rewarded and affirmed through games and the real-world isn't as easy. In any case, I probably won't let my children start playing video games at their own discretion until I feel like they have a more disciplined work ethic and ability to distinguish between the real world and the consequences of spending all day with an xbox.
tl;dr
I'm very biased in my view on "the benefits of gaming", not because I don't like them or don't approve of them (I yearned constantly to play them when I was little), but because I saw how playing them constantly made my friends severely under-prepared to deal with the real world and left them with a weird sense of entitlement.
I appreciate the point of view, Clayton, but keep in mind that your perspective is "anchored" by the choices of a few friends. And there could be a myriad of factors that affected their choices, with game-playing being one of them. Certainly addicted to games (or addicted to anything unhealthy) has its consequences, but to put the whole video game views on a few peoples' behaviors also seems extreme (and admittedly biased).
ReplyDeleteAs for whether games are designed for men or women, here's a provocative article that suggests men who play don't see the problem.
Gaming While Male a Privilege Few Men Recognize
Did I say Clayton? What? Colton. I meant Colton. :)
ReplyDeleteI found this blog that I forgot about from Elizabeth Sampat, game designer. It's kind of her manifesto. http://elizabethsampat.com/im-a-woman-in-games/
ReplyDeleteAlso did you see the Amy Schumer episode where she is playing a video game as a woman? (Turn off cc) http://rhrealitycheck.org/video/2014/04/24/amy-schumer-plays-realistic-military-game-trigger-warning/