Summation #6 - Game On: the History and Culture of Videogames

The book Game On: the History and Culture of Video games is a wide collection of thoughts and concepts on understanding the phenomenon of video games and how it has become as big as it is today. While reading through the chapters the one that caught my attention the most was the chapter entitled violence and the political Life of video games. In doing research for my thesis I really wanted to more fully understand the idea behind action oriented game play being the top seller for games and why the typical education game either does not have any sales or is just generally boring.
In this chapter I really feel like Clive Thompson, the writer really hit the nail on the head. He explains how at one point in American history the TV was the newest form of technology and at that point your parents would usually say something along the lines of “TV will rot your brain”. Interestingly enough video games have taken the place of television because now that group of teenagers using those TVs has grown up and TVs are now common place. This all goes along with the western fear or change through technology and understanding its role within society. Hundreds of tests and studies have been done on television and how it affects the human mind. Strangely enough with all the controversy games portray there has only been a handful of inconclusive studies about gaming and even a smaller amount on its effects on youth and if it can instate violence.
A further look into violent gaming can show statistically that guns misfiring in homes or businesses actually has a higher death rate than “video game” caused violence. Also added to that how many of these deaths blamed on video games actually occurred because of the violent games the shooters were playing. Video games have become the violence scapegoat and the idea is that all children who play games will become psychotic killers. A close look at the current trend in games actually puts the player more often in control of a police officer or of military personnel more times than in control of a psychotic killer. This should actually make the public look more into the mentality that police officers are running around instating justice by killing hundreds of thugs rather than the idea that just shooting a gun in a virtual world makes your son or daughter a trained killer.
Overall much more conclusive evidence is needed to prove or disprove that game cause violent tendencies and unless we can remove the violent stigmatism behind gaming then educational games will be that much harder to get into our school systems that can actually educated and provide a wealth of knowledge to our current generation of upcoming students.

Works Cited
King, Lucien. Game On: the History and Culture of Videogames. New York, NY: Universe Pub., 2002. Print.