The Gaming Revolution: How Video Games Have Redefined Social Norms, Inclusivity and Community
Playing video games causes violent tendencies, lapses in cognition, and ultimately results in the development of an exclusive and socially awkward individual. Bullshit. Recently, video games have become a hot topic. The rise in popularity of online multiplayer games such as Fortnite, Rocket League, and Call of Duty, has grabbed the attention of the media, scholars, and every other dynamic/profession in between. Video games are the next frontier regarding increases in cognitive function, physical activity, social development, and inclusivity for all abilities.
Let’s attack the most common stereotype. Video game players are lazy, unintelligent, and socially awkward. The premise alone is laughable. The online community promotes so much more than mindless activity in front of a screen, and boasts even greater potential.
“Contrary to conventional beliefs that playing video games is intellectually lazy and sedating, it turns out that playing these games promotes a wide range of cognitive skills.” — Radboud University Research
Increased Cognitive Function
In layman’s terms, cognition simply refers to the process of thinking. In more complex language cognition deals with the processes involved with knowledge, reaction, and comprehension. You could imagine why researchers may be concerned with the effect of video games on these abilities. You might think based on stereotypes, that due to the sloth and lack of social activity promoted by gaming that a gamer’s cognitive functions may be slower or lacking. Incorrect.
For years video games have been used in testing reaction times for athletes in the racing community. Mechanical devices are used to test the relationship between sight and quick action. The red light goes green, how quickly do you push the pedal? Common sense. Now consider the reaction times of those individuals who have immersed themselves into worlds that require the highest level of spatial awareness and reaction times.
In Call of Duty the player needs to be able quickly assess a large area and make quick, tactical decisions to advance. As they say, practice makes perfect.
Gamers have incredible practice in quick cognition, decision making, and visual processing. Video games enhance neural cognition, attention to detail and creativity just to name a few. The Radboud University researchers continue,
“Preliminary research has also demonstrated that these cognitive advantages manifest in measurable changes in neural processing and efficiency.” Plain and simple, video games do not hurt cognition, in fact they bolster and improve it. Practice makes perfect.
The Gamification of Life
Gamification exists in all things. Think back to your elementary school when your teacher would create a version of Jeopardy! to help you and your classmates learn, while inspiring healthy competition. This is a real-life example of “video games” in education. In terms of physical activity this works even more so.
Let’s get physical!
Gaming and Virtual reality have created an environment in which physical activity limits disappear. The user is burning calories while forgetting they are in the real world. This is not a new concept either.
The Nintendo Wii created several iterations of this. Wii Sports and Wii fit aimed to simulate the motions and physical activity required in the real-life events portrayed. Wii fit went as far as to provide a digital platform that kept track of the user’s weight, balance, and output. However, these technologies were childlike, and even glitchy at times. The user could see and sense the disconnect. Modern technology has eliminated this lapse.
Oculus is the current industry leader in virtual reality. Their current research goal is:
“Creating the future of personal and shared reality. Our goal is to make the consumer virtual, augmented, and mixed reality experiences that ship in five to ten years great.” (Oculus website).
The disconnect between the game, the activity and the benefits is gone. Users are fully connected. There are fantasy games where users swing light sabers to a specific beat, athletic games where gamers face real-time and realistic opponents, and more.
There are even treadmills in beta testing that link up to the virtual reality headset in order to truly give the user physical symbiosis in the virtual environment.
Social Development
eSports teams are increasing number in Universities around the world. As you may have guessed these are University sponsored video game teams. They compete against other Universities in team-based games. What you may not know is that professional eSports teams also compete in the world’s largest arenas such as Madison Square Garden. They sell out the venue.
There may be some who scoff at the idea of calling these activities “sports”, however they require a large amount of practice, technical skill, and teamwork. This alone is grounds to eliminate the concern for social skills however what about the unaffiliated causal gamer?
Fostering Connections through Connectivity
Most current games have an online component. They also create worlds for teamplay and social interaction. Games that have these components then create a whole world of interaction between players. This carries over outside of the game.
“These online social games might thus be a possible alternative social outlet serving a similar function to in-person contact for players. This is potentially positive, as this video game social interaction might promote enjoyable social contact for those with remote locations, psychological difficulties, or other factors that can inhibit in-person interaction” - When and How Video Games Can Be Good: a Review of the Positive Effects of Video Games on Well-being
These social benefits span all people, and abilities. Especially since the barrier of access for most of the world is a thing of the past. Cognition, Activity and Social Skills conquered.
Inclusivity for All Abilities
Founder and CEO of Dash City Gaming, Jefferson Nicholson, chose to get into the video game industry, and community because it is one of the most imaginative, open, and inclusive entertainment Industries one can be a part of. There are so many different worlds you can explore through games, both tabletop and video games, that he thoroughly enjoys exploring with his community members.
Dash City gaming is a video game and Esports organization located in Winston-Salem North Carolina. Their purpose is to bridge the gap between average Gamers and content creators, and the Esports multimedia production industry. Their mission is to reduce the barriers of entry by lowering the cost of access to equipment all. Dash City builds a supportive community of staff and ambassadors whose objective is to create, play, and compete together.
When asked about the inclusivity of the gaming community, Jefferson replied, “The video game and Esports industry is larger than all of Hollywood and television combined. There are so many opportunities within this industry either as a gamer, a content creator, technical producer and designer, a salesperson, an executive director, an artist; you name it. All walks of creative life can be a part of the industry in an almost unlimited number of paths.”
The gaming and eSports industries have taken great strides at opening their doors to all. There are no men’s and women’s teams or exclusive content, there are only teams and a shared objective.
Addressing the Stereotype
There has long been the misconstrued association between gaming content and violence and aggression. However, most of these misconceptions are due to a lack of understanding. Past studies have incorrectly cited information.
“However, because past studies have failed to equate the violent and nonviolent video games on competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action simultaneously, researchers may have attributed too much of the variability in aggression to the violent content.” — Mervyn Jackson RMIT Dept. of Psychology
Social science is an art and as such, must evolve with the needs of the society. Competitiveness and aggression are typically momentary and do not necessarily carry over into the longer scheme of life. These are also healthy emotions that in a video game can be expressed without directly harming anyone.
Jefferson offered another take on this situation: “I would approach that discussion with an open mind knowing that they might not know much about the games or the platforms that people can play. There are plenty of restrictions put in place by the industry and retailers to prevent violent video games from getting into younger hands as an effort to prevent influencing or desensitizing violence. But apart from the few though popular video games that include violence, there are thousands of video game titles that are non-violent that people also enjoy way more than violent video games.”
The Future of Gaming
Jefferson sees a future where more major studios own and manage several games and entities with metaverse intellectual property. This would also create game production where they have multiple games that cross over until an inner weaving story as well as open-ended stories or sandbox style games where users can create their own worlds. The previous discussions also created an opportunity for collegiate support around gamers. Specifically, this will actualize into benefits like scholarships, majors, and career pathing.
Advances in video game technology and virtual reality have the possibility to penetrate and enhance all levels of society. It is not too far fetched to imagine a world where in some shape or form gaming becomes a marketable and coveted skill for future employees. The medical field has begun to understand the correlation between hand eye coordination benefits and the direct correlation into surgical robotics. The future is endless. The science fiction world painted by author Ernest Klein in Ready Player One, is becoming a vivid reality.
Conclusion
“To some gamers, videogames may thus provide the empowerment that they are either lacking or rarely find in the real world” -Journal of Affective Disorders
This is because of the negatively painted stereotypes of such individuals. Or perhaps it is because these gamers lack the ability to full exist in the real world. Gaming provides so much more than just fantasy and competition. The inclusivity alone provides meaning to the lives of so many.
Consider the individual told their entire life that they will never have a real conversation, but now because of technology they are leading it. The person ridiculed because of their appearance and lifestyle but now are revered because of their designs and creativity. Now imagine the shame lifted, the opportunity created, and worlds opened.
Video games improve cognition, social skills, and create worlds and potential that have never existed before.
“eSport has the potential to offer an inclusive environment that is open to all (regardless of gender, race, geographical location and, to some degree, disability and socio-economic status).” — Emily Hayday, Lecturer Loughborough University
Video games are the next frontier regarding inclusivity, community, learning and learning potential. The greatest part about this world is that the possibilities remain infinite. One simply needs to shed preconceived notions and open to it. Be careful though, once the door opens, you may never look back.
James Wier | Wierontheweb.com | 4.22.2021
References
Deleuze, J., Maurage, P., Schimmenti, A., Nuyens, F., Melzer, A., & Billieux, J. (2019). Escaping reality through videogames is linked to an implicit preference for virtual over real-life stimuli. Journal of affective disorders, 245, 1024–1031.
Dowsett, A., & Jackson, M. (2019). The effect of violence and competition within video games on aggression. Computers in Human Behavior, 99, 22–27.
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American psychologist, 69(1), 66.
Halbrook, Y. J., O’Donnell, A. T., & Msetfi, R. M. (2019). When and how video games can be good: A review of the positive effects of video games on well-being. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(6), 1096–1104.
Hayday, E. J., & Collison, H. (2020). Exploring the contested notion of social inclusion and gender inclusivity within esport spaces. Social Inclusion, 8(3), 197–208.
J. Nicholson, online interview, March 20, 2021
