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Gaming
Posted on March 29th, 2012 No commentsI myself have never understood the draw of online video games and the online video game community. Perhaps it’s because I have never tried one. Regardless, my younger brother is what he likes to call himself “a gamer”. Him and his friends have several online games that they play together and talk through. I always thought it was a little weird, but he absolutely loves it and can spend hour after hour playing these games. My family just moved and he loves that he can go on and play with all of his friends back home in their “virtual world”. So I guess that is a cool component of it, but it also worries me sometimes that he is too sucked in and this “virtual world” is too real to him. It worried me that my brother, along with other kids, can get sucked into these games are start substituting for real life. For example, if they are playing all day with their “friends” or random people, it may feel to them that they are get a normal social experience when in fact they are not. I feel like if people get too sucked in it is hard to draw the line between them. I think it is interesting though because even if it seems real, players are under a veil of anonymity. Players don’t have to act how they would in real life and I feel like that could be a dangerous thing to learn. I hear my brother talking about other players being annoying or unfair. I think that being in a cyberspace makes it easier to act without morals, but if the idea behind the game is too make it seem like real life, that acceptable human interactions should be constant. It is interesting how developers can make up this whole world and kind of mold it into whatever they want. I also found it interesting how the players can manipulate the game in ways the developers may not have even expected or thought up. For me this piece wasn’t quite as interesting as some of the others, but I want to share it with my brother when I go home because I know he will get something out of it. I am interested to talk further about this in class and spark my interest a little bit more.
2 responses to “Gaming”
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I agree completely with the whole argument on whether or not “gamers” learn social skills through virtual worlds. It does bother me that kids have no shame in killing or harming other characters on a game. A few blogs back, I wrote about social skills and the Internet and how children are set back by spending so much time on the computer or in front of the television when they should be outside playing with kids that are for sure their age and creating friendships that will last forever, not just until the next game comes out. I liked how you could relate this back to your brother and you understand what type of force overtakes the players.
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Jordan Jacobson March 30th, 2012 at 12:35
I think you touched on a couple of great things that we went over yesterday. First of all, this whole idea that you have 2 “selfs” and that they can be different based on whether you’re in “real” life or in a virtual world. I think this virtual world can be broadened to encompass many things-your brother may act differently around his parents and you compared to his friends in school. He also may act differently in school with his friends then if he is at the mall. So, this broad idea of having various “selfs” is kind of ambiguous. Does it mean only that we are fundamentally different in virtual vs. real world because of the lack of consequences? OR does it mean that we are different based on our situation, and whether or not it’s “virtual” in terms of being technological doesn’t matter. I think it is the first, but there are definitely varying degrees. Interesting food for thought-great post!
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Melissa Migliarese March 29th, 2012 at 13:46