The Negative Effects Of Video Games On Young People

Video games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment for younger people. In Singapore, nearly 9% of young people are gaming addicts. These “pathological gamers are also more likely to have poorer social skills, suffer from hand and wrist pain, sleep too little and face problems in school” . Many games also get negative critique in the press, often linked to violent behaviour . Does this mean that video games do more harm than good to a person? In many games these days, players directly benefit in violent acts; killing an innocent passer-by in the Grand Theft Auto series allows you to loot his dropped objects such as money and various equipment. This is also seen in many RPGs and games across other genres, where harming someone else, for example, racing dirty in Need for Speed, allows the player to benefit and move further in the game without penalty. However, this paper seeks to show that video games can have far-reaching positive effects on a person, besides the commonly used benefits such as enhanced dexterity or memory. With a specific interest in RPGs, these benefits can be found in common game elements such as character creation, the enticing narrative, and also the freedom to explore the virtual world.

Among the 7 billion people on the planet, no two persons are alike; we are each born under different circumstances and with different inherent traits. In a publication by the International Journal of Computer Game Research, it is written that “the character creation and development system in D&D reproduces a classic binary between physis and nomos, body and mind”. As we grow older, these two change over time, sometimes within our control and sometimes without. Whichever the case, we learn that when life deals us a set of cards, we play them as best as we can. RPGs also employ a levelling system where a player gains experience by completing missions and winning battles. The result of levelling up is that with each level we are assigned more points to improve our attributes to become more adept at certain skills. Just as how we acquire more skill points when we level up, we acquire more skills when we improve ourselves, go for classes, and take the world as our learning space. Restricted by time and ability, we can only define our life experiences by our choices, giving up on other experiences while pursuing others. This is reflected in-game, having to improve attributes carefully so as to maximise the potential of our persona. We can further improve our character using in-game items such as weapons or armour; these are material goods that can be purchased with hard-earned in-game currency. This parallels our daily living in that we

They however provide a fully immersive experience that expands the game since it is not just limited by one sole objective. The nature of these side quests also vary. Some are impossible to complete at low levels, some have certain requirements that ensure a player can only do a quest under very specific circumstances; such as if he has chosen the path of a wizard, or is level 13. This means that choices made earlier in the game may result in missing these side quests that we cannot revisit unless we play the game again using different parameters. Some also require a lengthy amount of time to complete and may span over a large duration of