Is gaming taking over the world?

Is gaming taking over the world?

The question in today’s society comes down to gaming. Is gaming taking over our society? McGonigal believes that gaming can be useful in saving the world.  She states in her TED talks video that the goal is to save the real world in real life and for this to happen people need to game.  The problem she states is that gamers don’t believe that they are as good at real life as they are in the gaming world. 

I believe that there is a major problem with video games and I do not agree with McGonigal to say the least.  I think that there are two major problems with her theory that video games can help us save the world.  Yes, they can be educational, but there are two major issues that lie here.  First, in video games you can’t die! You can always start over, use cheats to have unlimited life, and complete tasks that never could be accomplished in the “real world”.  Second, video games have cheats and walk-through’s.  If you don’t know where to go or what to do you can use an assisting guide to get you to the next point.  Yes a lot of times people have created these gaming guides but often times they come from the developers of the game.  My suggestion is that if these people are so great at creating realistic games on how to save the world, why can’t they start a revolution and save the world themselves? 

As a person studying psychology I view this new gaming addiction as a disorder.  Oftentimes people use it as a mask to hide from life problems.  In 2013 there will be a new DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) which will actually include gaming addictions.  People tend to neglect the world around them when they enter the tunnel vision of the gaming world.  There have been several cases of mothers that become engrossed in the online gaming industry and neglecting their young children, many of which have died. 

On June 26, 2012 a 29-year-old, Japanese mother, Yumiko Takahashi, found her child dead in his crib.  He apparently had been running a fever since June 24 and she neglected to feed, water, and even pay attention to the child  (LaCapria, 2012).  The mother became depressed and used the online world to reconnect with peers outside of her home.  She told police, “I have sought solace in chatting on the Internet to get connected to other people for three years since I got depressed for losing my son in an accident… Child raising is too much hassle (LaCapria, 2012).”  Alexandria Tobias, a mother in Jacksonville, Fl, shook her baby to death because he interrupted her while playing Farmville on a social networking site—Facebook.  “She told authorities she was so frustrated with her son's crying that she shook him, lit up a butt to "compose herself," and then proceeded to shake him again. She called for help after the baby stopped breathing, first telling cops that he'd hit his head after a dog knocked him off the couch. Her son's cause of death was later determined to be "abusive head trauma." (Schaffel, 2010).”

As we can plainly see video games engross people, people neglect the outside world around them, and therefore will never be useful in saving the world.  It only destroys it.  As I have also stated in my two reasons why I disagree with McGonigal, we do not have unlimited lives in the “real world” and we do not always have the answers or know how to accomplish the tasks.  There is also the thing of money.  It becomes much easier and cheaper to pretend to save the world by purchasing a video game for around $50 rather than worrying about trying to find millions to complete the tasks in real life. 

Sources

LaCapria, Kim. "Mom Ignores Dead Baby For Full Day While Chatting on Web, Says Raising Kids Is Too Much Hassle." Review. Web log post. The Inquisitr. N.p., 30 June 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.inquisitr.com/266909/mom-ignores-dead-baby-for-full-day-while-chatting-on-web-says-raising-kids-is-too-much-hassle/>.

Schaffel, Vivian M. "SAD! Mom Kills Baby over 'FarmVille'! | Momlogic.com." Momlogic.com. N.p., 1 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.momlogic.com/2010/11/sad_mom_kills_baby_over_farmville.php>.