Video Games: Good or Bad for Society?

Video Games are becoming quite the complex "art form." Many users may describe gaming as 1) a leisure activity, or as something that simply produces interactive entertainment. 2) Jane McGonigal essentially says it’s the future of humanity -- she wants it to be “as easy to save the world in real life as it is in online games,” and that “if we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, obesity,” (watch McGonical TEDtalk) etc, we need to play more, and better games. Lastly, 3) there are others among us that believe video games are actually hurting society. That they’re making us lazy, ignorant, and unproductive; subjecting us to stereotypes, gender codes, violence, sex, and inappropriate behavior. All of these sides can be argued, and there are valid points all around. But where do I stand?

I would like to begin with where I stand on the second argument; the McGonigal perspective. I do believe that games could bring forth a real change throughout the world. I believe this is a possibility. Am I as optimistic as McGonigal? No. However, I do believe change can be accomplished. Imagine a bright young man or woman somewhere in the world who has no way of becoming anything other than what they were born into (or so they think). They were raised believing they would simply follow in their family’s footsteps. But imagine a game comes out that forces these people to work through certain situations relevant, and parallel, to other world problems. What if this bright young man or woman is the person who could cure aids, cancer, world hunger, etc etc. Maybe games could lead them to that “calling,” if you will. I believe that is a possibility. When the world works together, united, great things can happen.

However, I tend to agree with those under the third argument that will from here on be referred to (myself included) as the “haters.” And I’m usually a very optimistic individual, seeing the good in most things. I believe games as a whole are currently affecting society negatively. Here are two examples. 1) The PC game The Witcher and its sequel perpetuate the objectification of women, the hyper-masculine ideology regarding men, the idea that aggressive violence solves conflict (attack first, ask later), etc. In the game, after saving a dying woman’s life, within seconds of becoming conscious she offers to repay the protagonist with sex. Ladies, is that realistic? Even as a man I can answer that for you, NO! Why are all the men iron-clad from head to toe, but the woman has a deep v-cut in her armor that stretches down to her naval, as well as thin leg wrappings and little to nothing over her thin, frail arms. And we’re to believe that her armor has the same amount of defense points as the men? *scoffs* There are so many games that embody these elements; those elements mentioned and those unmentioned that generally accompany them. Games like Grand Theft Auto, Dragon Age, World of Warcraft, Gears of War, Mass Effect, etc, deliver to its audience a certain portrayal of gender, race, sexuality, and violence, to name a few. On almost all counts the execution of the aforementioned elements provides a negative outlook on which society bases its most basic, but fundamental views.

2) Games like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield 3, etc – the first-person, and in some cases third-person, shooters of this generation – have become unbearably mindless and offensive, void of any meaningful story or plot, and what makes that even worse is its popularity in the US. Call of Duty: Black Ops became the best-selling game in U.S. history (source). That should say something. The game reaches a massive amount of people, but what is it telling them? What is its message? It is also backed by the US Military, and is probably the military's best recruitment tool. My own 17-year-old brother, Thomas, has an interest in joining the military. His favorite game? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Black Ops, followed closely by Medal of Honor, which is followed by Battlefield 3, which is followed by Grand Theft Auto IV (in which he rarely plays the game but beats up “hookers” and steals cars). He acts like he could simply pick up an M4 rifle and know how to execute “head shots” with flawless precision. When asked if he sees a problem with this behavior, he simply shrugs it off and responds with “it’s just a game.” To add insult to injury, games like this tend to exploit current situations. For example, Medal of Honor (MoH) was banned from The Exchange – a company that “operates 181 retail stores on military bases worldwide” – and US Military Bases around the world for allowing the player to play as al-Qaeda terrorists killing American soldiers in online multiplayer mode (source). MoH: Warfighter hopes to make up for its mistake by adding a DLC (downloadable content) mission where the player is a part of the Navy Seal team that kills Osama Bin Laden (source). This is deeply disturbing to me, in part because people will take far too much joy in killing someone, a human being mind you, that we’ve painted as a villain and a monster for so long.

We must be better than this. The ideologies being portrayed in video games are harmful to the progression of tolerance, acceptance, and international unity. But it's not just games; movies, music, television, literature, etc, do it too. And that leads me to the first argument up top: Games are just entertainment. They're no better or worse than any other form of media, right? I criticize the games above, but I love most of them (take out the first-person shooters and then I can say all of them) and own over half of them. Grand Theft Auto, Dragon Age, The Witcher, I love these games, and yet they do things that are so backward thinking. I know it's there, so it doesn't affect me, right? This is not necessarily true. This mindset can be dangerous, in my opinion. The whole point of cumulative messaging (which is basically a message we hear over and over again from various sources within one or multiple forms of media) is that it seeps into our subconscious and often assimilates into our way of thinking. Although I play these games like a large portion of society, I wish these things weren't there, or at least as often as they are, no matter how much I like the game as it is. I believe sex and violence are overused, but I do think they can be used tastefully and appropriately within the context of a story. I believe stereotypes can be used effectively, but rarely are they used to build up one's type; normally it's to pull that type of person down, or simplify them beyond the point of individuality.

In sum, let's look at how games truly affect the world we live in. Why are woman objectified so much in games? Why do men have to have chiseled physiques and deep voices, and know how to wield a gun? Games, like Byron Hurt says about hip hop, put men, and arguably women, into a box. Genders must stay within their boxes to be accepted. And if they break free of those boundaries, they are then outcasts. If we could get over this major hump and move forward, I believe McGonigal when she says we could do great things through gaming.