The media has affected us in many ways, the main one being the influence it holds. There are several outlets which media can affect us being tv, internet and gaming. This has recently come together to form a 3d web. Second Life has a great part to play in the development of education and gaming, sloodle was introduced and inticed gamers to learn through gaming. The benefits of this is the realisation of how video gaming can transform the social effects of a gamer into anti social and violent. one game in particular that has recent debate is black ops which is a shoot to kill platform. Black ops has an ideal opportunity to immerse gamers beyond the normal realms of enjoyment and bring forward a new depth of addiction. The military also use this game to train new soldiers to get them used to the element of surprise and killing. So with all this in hand, lets take a look at what Black ops is like first hand. This contains explicit gore.
Sid meier describes game play as “a series of interesting choices” I propose every choice in life is heavily reliant on the personal involvement within the mass media. Along with tv and internet the other biggest helper in this field is the Gaming industry. These influences are all very different, instead of the usual celebrities affecting the way we think about ourselves by dressing differently or copying the latest trends we see the other scale where these stars are replaced by action hero’s. Gamers begin depicting levels on an addictive level by shoot to kill methods. This can easily be dissected in relation to propp and todorovs theory of narrative. If we look further into video games, there are 3 main features which defines the analysis for Social Effects.these are Education Obesity and Psychological. Although obesity is a growing concern and can affect the future at a consistent rate, The main focus I’ve looked at which has a potential to inflict personal harm on the future is the psychological side. This is an interesting one as it automatically screams a higher warning than others as it builds a bridge for violence and moral panics.
Jo Frost as an experienced nanny conducted an experiment on violent video games to see the potential future. Helped by Dr Doug Gentile they selected 40 boys and split them into two teams, half played a football game and the other half played a slightly more intense war game which was in the shoot to kill method as mentioned before, their heart rate was monitored. Both parties played for 20 mins and at the end of this Jo frost presented the boys with violent news footage. The alarming fact was the boys who played the violent video games had a slower heart rate than those who played football, this is a big concern for the future, is it right to be too used to violence at such a young age? Will constant play mould the children of the future? The other fact to look at this is playign another game like theme park, will this make any youngster the future rollercoaster tycoon? Or are this shoot to kill games more manipulative than we think?
As the table shows, an increase in playing violent video games can change the social mechanics of gamers. The main question being, if video games are able to create an anti-social, obese society, what effects will be present in years to come. My thoughts to negative effects from such video games will only increase as newer games are released and levels become much easier through static game play. The social aspect of younger children increasing in online gaming will slowly decrease the levels of outdoor leisure and participation in group activities. Multiplayer gaming can bring two people closer through a fight to death scene where as a single player can kill with an added thrist to do so more often in the reality world, It also adds the question of addiction. (Gentile) argues that “Students who play violent video games are more likely to develop aggressive cognitions and behaviours then students who play less regularly even if they play for equal amounts of time.”
This table shows the future metaverse and its allowance to change the generation of violent video gaming. Metaverse immersion can increase social skills. The idea of gaming and education brought together can combine previous gaming skills and use them as a proactive educational benefit. Jacquie Bennett (2007) quotes: “ With all video games there is a defined ‘objective’ and for video games as opposed to multi-user online games a narrative as well. A user must ‘do’ within this environment and has specific goals to achieve at all stages (kill this dragon and find this treasure) and receives feedback and rewards when each goal is achieved. (Bennett, 2007: 6)” The growing metaverse can decrease the violent game play which has been evident in the past. Second life being introduced to more students will be a positive increase on violent behaviour. Another example of how education is changing for the better is a quote by Stapleton: “ They [STUDENTS] are being confronted with challenges requiring them to make interesting decisions, unlike school, which is seemingly filled with, often pointless, boring exercises and where the hardest decision is choosing one answer from five.” ( Stapleton. A, Taylor. P, 2003: P4)
Has the media really cursed all previous gamers? I don’t think it has at all, there is a potential in every game player to adapt to a 3d web. The strongest argument a metverse holds is the education theme which can no doubt provide an interesting way of learning along with solving problems, the objective of violent gaming can be changed, the goal posts can be moved into a more pro-active form. With the future of metaverse rising, its clear it can provide more educational benefits through a number of quizzes, games and challenges which immerse the player in different levels. The interactive basis which can transform the single player anti social mode can be drawn upon and used an a positive into changing the gaming culture. Violent gamers are being influenced by the surrounding media, this will be dramatically chaged if guns and weopans turns into quizzes and puzzles.
Evidence provided in the conceptual model, there is a strong possibility a decrease will be evident as time progresses regarding violent video gaming. Metaverses can be seen as a basis to progress through every aspect of life including hobbies and education. Education is a fundamental basis for the gaming community which will be extremely benificial to interlink and become a much stronger generation. Violent video games featuring a single player mode and the usual ‘hero kills enemy’ will decrease in popularity and make room for the up and coming virtual world platform. Sloodle for instance can allow students the independence to achieve goals through learning, as lecturers provide the content, each student can put all creative input into solving mysteries, puzzles and quizzes instead of shoot to kill. Several years ago, the future once held all gamers dreams for the idea of new consoles, latest game updates and bigger enemies to destroy, however, now is the possibility of virtual worlds taking over and becoming a new era in itself is definatley on the cards, the upcoming immersive technologies are shaping the future along with the attitude being on the cusp of a more positive social increase.
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