Defending video games

[SwarlesBarkley]

Help me escapist, you're my only hope!
I'm writing an essay defending videogames; my template is basically "People think X is bad. These are the arguments for X being bad. Studies show nothing that suggests X is bad. Some show X can be good. X is awesome!" Where X is videogames.

My problem is, games haven't really been actively attacked in a few months, and scholarly articles/studies in support of my argument are harder to find than they ordinarily would be. Does anyone here have any good ones bookmarked?

 

[rutcommapat]

You could just look up Jack Thompson on Wikipedia.

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

Help me escapist, you're my only hope!
I'm writing an essay defending videogames; my template is basically "People think X is bad. These are the arguments for X being bad. Studies show nothing that suggests X is bad. Some show X can be good. X is awesome!" Where X is videogames.

My problem is, games haven't really been actively attacked in a few months, and scholarly articles/studies in support of my argument are harder to find than they ordinarily would be. Does anyone here have any good ones bookmarked?

I wrote a 10000 word dissertation entitled "My hobby isn't a waste of time: the academic relevance of videogames". I dunno if the kinds of sources I used would be helpful though because my argument went down a literary route, using various academic theory to showcase how videogames can be academically significant. Reckon anything like that would be of use?

 

[Henkie36]

You could just look up Jack Thompson on Wikipedia.

Problem is that Jack Thompson never really found rock solid evidence to back his theories up. It rather depends on how reliable the information needs to be. If you won't be asked about it: Jack Thompson is the way to go. If you are, I wouldn't know.
If you are thinking, yes I am a really big fan of ''The value of the information is determined by the reliability of the source'' - Angles and Demons.

 

[ResonanceGames]

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr

There are a lot of ways to approach this, but I would start by taking the FBI's crime statistics which show that violent crime has been steadily declining in the U.S. for 20 years, then correlate them to the increase in U.S. video game sales over the same period (not sure where to find those, but they're out there).

That way you can show that anyone who blames video games for the increase in violence in the U.S. is empirically wrong, because that increase doesn't exist.

But be careful not to make the argument that the increase in video games sales has lead to a decrease in violence, though. The correlation is strong, but you'd need more to make that argument, since correlation doesn't always equal causation.

I wouldn't base the whole essay on that argument, but it's a good starting point.

 

[hopeneverdies]

I'd recommend looking up scholarly articles that support your thesis in all kinds of media (movies, music, TV, etc.) and draw from their arguments. Don't limit yourself to just games when looking for evidence.

 

[SwarlesBarkley]

Holy crap guys, this is all great. Tips_of_fingers, a look at your bibliography would probably be a huge help, yeah. Resonancegames, those crime statistics are gold. I think I'll probably use some Jack Thompson quotes, and maybe the whole ME/Sexbox 360 ridiculousness. It's for an advanced composition class, so I really just need something that can be thoroughly researched. I want it to have more statistical and scholarly sources for the sake of strengthening my argument, but it's not wholly necessary. Thanks guys!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

If you're looking for scholarly peer reviewed articles I suggest using "google scholar."

Here's a couple of articles I found with just a quick look that took 5 minutes (all of them are peer reviewed):

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/12/66

The first one talks about how violent video games (specifically first person shooters) affect the brain and say that it's not the violence that gamers find pleasing, but rather the reward the comes from their expectations and decisions being correct. When a person engages another person in online combat they feel rewarded by their victory because they made the correct decisions that led to the victory, and not because they viciously murdered their opponent.

http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001135

This one described how playing video games can improve vision (fairly technical article, lots of data) and how video games can be used as a tool to train visual skills.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/66217176984x7477/

Basic arguments about the psychological positives and negatives of playing violent video games. This would be a good article to start with and look up other journal articles mentioned to further your own arguments.

You're welcome.

 

[SwarlesBarkley]

Dirty Hipsters, you are awesome. Those were exactly what I needed.

 

[Vault101]

TBH I dont feel liek games need as much defending thease days..anyone who usually has "anit-games" attitudes gets shot down pretty quickly with logic and comon sense

anyway I dont need to justify myself to others

 

[SwarlesBarkley]

I agree, but I go to Uni in a small town where that news hasn't really dropped yet, so I figure a paper would be my little fight. The fact that video games don't really come under as much/the same kind of fire of late is why I asked for help: everything I could find online was in support of games, so finding opposing arguments to shoot down was getting tough. Bad for my paper, but I'm glad that's the direction things are taking!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I agree, but I go to Uni in a small town where that news hasn't really dropped yet, so I figure a paper would be my little fight. The fact that video games don't really come under as much/the same kind of fire of late is why I asked for help: everything I could find online was in support of games, so finding opposing arguments to shoot down was getting tough. Bad for my paper, but I'm glad that's the direction things are taking!

If you go to a university then I would have to guess that the university should have some kind of system set up to allow students to access article databases (probably through the library or something). If that's the case I would recommend checking out the PsychInfo database, it should be pretty easy to find some articles about what you're looking for. Just make sure that the articles are peer reviewed, cited, and are linked to the article's full text.

 

[faefrost]

Another good source of links to research materials and discussions on the same, http://www.gamepolitics.com/

It deals more with law and government/politics, but it has some nice info on all.

 

[kyogen]

For a broader justification of play as such, have a look at "Homo Ludens" (man the player, if your Latin is as bad as mine) by Johan Huizinga, a Dutch historian who did a sort of comparative study of play across cultures. His thesis is that play is THE fundamental element of human culture. Roger Callois and others have critiqued and deepened his work since it first appeared in the late 1930s, but start with Huizinga.