Wail’s blog post 10

In today’s blog post we will be exploring two interesting articles regarding the United Nations and another article discussing how activism in video games has the ability to change our behavior.

In an article published by Polygon and written by Colin Campbell gives a new approach on the benefit of gaming by bringing to light that the United Nation sees important in video games because it can help build understanding.

My understanding from reading this article is that the United Nations seems to think this “better understanding” comes from the gamer having the opportunity to put themselves in someone else shoes, therefore, giving them the opportunity to witness life from a different perspective.

This could include things like making difficult decisions that they would otherwise never have to make in their actual life. I think the United Nations may be on to something. For example, Say someone who grew up with a relatively easy “silver spoon” type upbringing played a game that exposes the harsher realities that come with poverty such drugs violence and family problems.

This can give the gamer a better understanding of different experiences outside of the ones that they were raised in.
Next, we will be looking at an article published NPR news and written by Rachel Ament titled Screen Saviors: Can Activism-Focused Games Change Our Behavior? This article sheds light on the people who may be too busy with their day to day lives to call their local government in order to make changes in their community but still have time to play ethical games on their phone that involves saving animals from their death.

I thought it was an amazing concept of being a do-gooder in a game could possibly make you a do-gooder in real life. I don’t think this is always the case. Because in my case. Video Games are the only outlet I have to do bad. I don’t think ethical behaviors changed based on what you do in a video game. If that was the case people who play games like Grand theft auto will cause the players to act on ethical in the real world. This is rarely the case.