Blog Post #6
Jane McGonigal, Author of the article titled How Video Games Can Teach Your Brain to Fight Depression takes an interesting approach to showing the benefits of video games by giving her reasoning behind why she believes developing a “gameful” mindset, can cause us to be more motivated and resilient in the face of everyday challenges. (Para 1)
In the beginning of the article Mcgonical, waste knows time by stating “Video game play is literally the neurological opposite of depression.” and it doesn’t stop there. She backs her statement with hard evidence that stems from various studies conducted at Stanford University revealing that after observing closely the brains of gamers they found out that when we play video games, two regions of the brain are continually hyperstimulated: the region most associated with motivation and goal-orientation (often referred to as “the reward pathways”) and the region most associated with learning and memory (the hippocampus). (Para 4)
When I read this, it made perfect sense, I cannot recall the countless times that I have completed a difficult level or mission in a game and I was filled with a sensation of accomplishment and self-praise. Yeah, a person can argue that we gain nothing in the real-world for accomplishments earned in a video game. That’s where they’re wrong, Happiness? is that not one of the most appealing feelings a human being can feel? Yeah, I rest my case.
I can go on with how much I agree with Mcgonical on the benefits received from video games but then I would go over my professor’s word count limit. That being said, let’s move on to another interesting article about mental illness and gaming.
In an opinion piece published by Patrick Lindsey titled Gaming’s favorite villain is mental illness, and this needs to stop Patrick gives his take on why mental illness in games is wrongfully portrayed. This results in people being influenced by negative thoughts of people with mental illness.
Lindsey expresses that anytime mental illness is encountered in a video game, chances are it’s a horror game. The genre loves to play around with mental illness; specifically, the vague, generalized Saturday Morning Cartoon-style “insanity” that doesn’t match any real definition of the term.(Para 5)
This thought is shattering in nature because I don’t know how I was blind to a theme so persistent in today’s video games. For example, I play grand theft auto 5 and a character that is really off-putting in nature is one that goes by the name of Trevor I am not fond of Trevor because of his aggressive and over the top attitude but one thing I have taken into account is the characters potential mental illness.
It’s strange to find out that video games have personally affected my perception of people with mental illness without my awareness. Revelations like these can be turned into a positive. In my case, I will be more aware of the characters in the video games I play and their state of mental health. By doing this I can formulate my own organic feelings about a character instead of being influenced by the game developer to feel a certain way about a certain character.
