Video Games
The increased use of computers, cell phone and internet, have overturned most of the traditional approaches in life.
One of these new moves is the use of video games. The new technology has brought about great changes in the society in terms of style, relationships, leisure, and communication among other aspects. There is the increased use of internet, DVDs, television and video games. There have been concurs about the impact of video games use and application especially among children. These have raised both local and international concerns.
These games have affected work life, family time and leisure among other things in the society. It is also a means and a source of income to some people. Video games are electronic games where the player uses a given interface to generate feedback on the game. The games use additional means to interact and inform the player about as the game proceed. The player will only need a mouse, keyboard and desk top to play any given game. Video games just like other games have several categories.
They differ in terms of game type, goals, art style among other factors. These factors led to the different genres in any video game. There are three categories of games commonly used in our society. These include serious games, education and casual games (Ryan, Terri, and Richard 315-321). The casual games are the easiest to access, simple to understand and quick to follow the set rules.
Under this classification, the player has the option to terminate and re start the game even before the game is over. These games were there before their incorporation in the electric media, for example, the Solitaire game. They test the player’s skills in the find a hidden object, timing, matching, and defense among other skills. Another category of video games provides a learning experience to the player. This type of the game is the serous game.
Games in this category are sometimes more than just a video game. Student who take a lot of time watching violent games perform poorly in school (Ryan, Terri, and Richard 315- 321). They most include a student who has had disorders in life. Boys in this case dominate the number of youth and teenagers with preference in watching video games. This is because these games change their mental and cognitive capacity. They develop the habit of violence and some times they turn to be rebellious to their teachers.
Those watching education games have indicated very positive outcomes. Video games can contribute to some children and teenagers to be overweight. This is because they always stay in a door when they are not at school to play the game all day long. They do not take time for physical exercise to reduce the amount of cholesterol in their body (Penko & Barkley 164). Some will result into eating a lot as they play the game. Children from rich families are the most affected in this case.
They do not participate in even the most basic home duties, and they cannot go to play with the neighboring children. Their parents have enough amounts money to purchase or install as many games as possible. It is advisable for the parent to advocate for more of traditional physical games than video games to reduce this health issue in our modern world. If not impossible for them, the parent should ensure that the games played by their children give them a chance to realize their energy. There are active video games recently programmed in order to reduce the problem of overweight in young and teens.
These games also hep in the improvement of the rate of heart beat. A good example is the step-power game. Parents should change these active games from time to time. The young people (teens and children) get used to these games faster and replace it with other seductive games. This is because they get bored by the monotony of the active game.
Producer and manufacturers have resolved to incorporate video games when advertising for their products. This is as a result of the number of people who are using video games every day. Those who produce goods related to the young generation have successfully used this means to market their products. The young have access to the computer, DVD, television, phones among other electric devices where advertisement can be carried. There are two types of video game advertisement; the violent and nonviolent advertisement. These two types have their own implications and effectiveness.
The use of violent video game is very effective as far as increasing the bland exposure. This may be as a result of the fact that young male are prone to this games. They dominate over the young girls in the use of these games (Seung-Chul, Yoo and Jorge Pen?a 439-445). The young girls are prone to the use of non violent video games. These games are more effective in the memory retention than the violent games.
Those who use the violent games pay less attention to the visual features than the non violence games.The environmental back ground of game advertisement may contribute to the bland and purchase intentions. The use of violent game, for example, exposes negative feature such as blood, death and violation of human right. The back ground should be attractive enough to reduce this negative view. The use of this background may not at all reduce the effect to some targeted. This makes violent advertisement to make more negative brand attitude than the use of nonviolence advertisement and the products.
Choosing of violence or nonviolent method of may not be the final consideration for effectiveness of the use of game advertisement. Some participants in a game may be appearing than others. The choice of these participants is immensely significant. Some games are more popular than other (Seung-Chul, Yoo and Jorge Pen?a 444). The type in this case may not be the best ground to decide on which game to play. For example, nonviolence games are more appearing for advertisement than the violent ones.
If a violent game is far much popular than a nonviolent game, it will be significantly effective than the nonviolent one. Video games have the two sides of a coin in education. These games results into positive and negative implication in education. In the modern education practices, the games are very effectively used to enhance teaching and learning (Leonard, Meng-Tzu and Shawn 102). The teachers and student get excited and encourage the using the new method of teaching and learning. These games can be manipulated, applied, analyzed, and evaluated on their effectiveness.
They can have very attracting, and appearing sounds, with varying tune to make learning more interesting. They can also apply the use of different environmental back grounds. This gives the learners the chance to explore on the new environment than the one they know. This kind of teaching methods is open ended. It gives the learners a chance to synthesis what they have learnt and apply it the best way possible than the traditional. Though these games can be very effective tool in teaching and learning, care must be taken during planning andd implementation and evaluation.
When developing the games the teaching objective and content in the game must correlate. If this misses, the whole purpose of the video game will drain onto the oceans. The implementation is at the heart of learning and teaching using the video game. Preparation of learners is very critical. They must be present when presentation starts till the end of the learning period. Before presenting the game, the teacher needs to rehearse on functionality.
The teacher can evaluate the success of the lesson by asking some fundamental questions and directing learners to write a report about the video game. Some government including the United States of America has passed legislation that recognizes the use of video game in education (Leonard, Meng-Tzu and Shawn 105) This is a very good move and an indication that the government is not reluctant in embracing the new technology in education. This should not be the final point of involvement by the governments. The government through the education agencies can come up with video games recommended for certain concepts and fields. These reduce the effect of subjectivity and uniform concepts. Despite its numerous and effective use of video games, they have negative implication in education.
They mostly affect learners’ behavior and conduct in education. The main challenge to this effect is the addiction of learners to these games. Such learner is not able to concentrate on the learning process. Quit a good number of addicted learners use a lot of their time playing this games. In this case, they lack the time to do their homework and assignments. This contributes to poor performance in schools, colleges and universities.
The responsibility for this trouble is not wholly to learners. The parent is these cases do not play their part well. The child or the learner comes home from school they do not follow up whether the child has attendee to his or her home work. They need to limit the time their children can access the games in order to have them do their home work.Video games have useful clinical application in the modern world. They have the entertainment characteristics and attractive to watch.
Therapists have recognized the positive contribution of video game in the rehabilitation of client with mental and psychological problems (Lange, Flynn, and Rizzo 360). These games are very effective only when perfectly selected, applied and matched with right patient. It is not all of the video games can be used for this purpose. Most of these games are off- the- self and hence they must be well analyzed by a qualified personnel, who can match the problem the patient is facing and content in the game. The patient must be guided well to play his part in the video game by concentrating and listening to the therapists or the clinical officer assisting him (Lange, Flynn, and Rizzo 362). The games have contributed greatly to the participation of the patient especially when they are away at home in the absence of the therapist.
The new move by experts in different medical field to research and develop reliable video for these patients is a noble move. In conclusion, the use of video games is immensely significant in various sectors of life. This new move is unstoppable as it has become very popular among the youth and various professions are using it to perform their duty. Video games are useful in education, and clinical services among other fields. Their use in each of the field must be well planned, implemented, and evaluated.
The use of this technology must be controlled especially among teens and the young people.
