Coming From a Gamers Girlfriend

I'll readily admit that I am not myself a "gamer". If you hand me an Xbox controller there's a good chance that I'll hold it upside down. But despite my inexperience, reading about the 2010 Supreme Court case over the affects of gaming got me more interested than ever. Although there are many negative behaviors that people assume are caused by gaming, like decreased fitness levels, I wanted to know: What good comes from video games?

Ryan in the zone

 So I turned to my number one technology expert, my boyfriend Ryan. Now this guy doesn't mess around. For him, gaming is a way of life. You can always catch him reading CNET.com, watching gameplays on youtube, pulling all night binges, and treating the next game release like Christmas. As someone who started playing N64 at the age of 4 or 5, he is fully immersed in gaming culture.

We started off talking about the morals systems in games, specifically in a post-apocalyptic zombie game entitled DayZ. This mod to the game Arma2 was created by Dean Hall, a New Zealander who originally came up with the idea to help him to emotionally prepare for serving in the army. In the first four months of its release it attracted 1 millions players, all who were in for a challenge different from many games out there today. The world of DayZ puts the player in incredibly realistic situations, in which they must scavenge for supplies while being constrained by basic needs such as food and water. Most importantly, there are moral consequences of your actions. If the you make the choice to kill as many people as you can, then your character turns into a bandit, so that other players will be able to recognize your murderous nature. Instead of a flesh-eating zombie being your worst nightmare, you actually have to worry more about what other humans will do to you. Also, there is the possibility to have to deal with broken limbs or bullets, in which case you must search for materials to stop the bleeding. I think that the most amazing realistic aspect of this game is that once you are killed in the game, you must restart as a new character, without any of the supplies that you had previously collected.

            As I’ve sat and watched Ryan play this game, it blows my mind how much of a difficult situation it is. Even walking too loudly can attract a horde of zombies to your presence. Because the stakes are so high in this game, the player has no choice but to become emotionally invested.  I would say that if there was ever a zombie pandemic, it wouldn’t be much different from DayZ. Although the game is very complex, its popularity speaks volumes. The world of gamers isn’t opposed to the idea of moral consequences. But how else can we learn from games?

            My favorite example that Ryan mentioned is a game for the Nintendo DS called Brain Age. What I love about this game is its universality. On their website, the company discusses how it can be played by anyone, even senior citizens. I guess it’s time to bring Nana to Gamestop! But in all seriousness, this game is a fantastic example of how we can use gaming to our advantage. It’s centered around puzzles, math problems, word scrambles, and drawing, just to name a few of the options. The scores in the game are reported in terms of age; for example, a middle-aged person who plays regularly could develop brain cognition levels of a 20 year old. And the appeal of the game seems to be working. In Japan alone, there are 5 million players. It seems that Nintendo has developed a great way to not only expand their market to non-traditional gaming age groups, but also to provide an educational experience within a fun context.

            The world of gaming holds an important power in our world today. In this country alone, 63% of households play videogames. They are a widespread platform for people to practice valuable skills like morality, memory, and even hand-eye coordination. With the likes of DayZ and Brain Age already well-established in the gaming scene, who knows how many game developers will follow suit and create more realistic and practical applications of games. As an outsider looking in, it has always been difficult for me to understand the merits of gaming. But now, by putting them into this context of a valuable learning tool, I think I can finally understand their importance.

(Me pretending to play The Elder Scrolls V:Skyrim)