Michael De Guzman - Videogames

Michael De Guzman - Videogames

Background

Videogames are one of the many activities that people enjoy doing because it brings positivity in their lives.  Not only are videogames are fun, but they also satisfy the three core needs of human life (Rigby, Ryan).  Those three core needs are competence, autonomy, and relatedness (C.A.R.).  Competence is the feeling of mastery through something challenging.  Autonomy is having the freedom to control the player's own actions and decisions; the player makes an impact in the virtual world for every action and decision made.  Lastly is relatedness.  Games with this core need makes us feel as if we, the heroes, are needed.  For whatever action done, we feel as if we are contributing to real gamers from around the world, thus bringing the social aspect.

Figure 1.  Super Mario Bros.  This game is an example of competence, where players learn to play the game and as we advance through it, the game gets challenging.  

Figure 2.  Animal Crossing: New Horizons.  This game is an example of autonomy, where the player has all the freedom to play the game however they want to play it.  This includes fishing, catching bugs, villager interaction, world building, etc.

Figure 3.  Minecraft.  This game is an example of relatedness, where we interact with friends in the virtual world and help each other out to get the most out of Minecraft's social experience.

Issues

Social Issue #1: "Videogames cause violence" Stereotype
For the past couple of years, ever since the whole blowout in school shootings, many news media outlets blame videogames for the violent tendencies that shooting suspects developed.  Of course, there are videogames that do have violent elements in it, but there should be more research to prove that poor assumption.  Violent videogames were developed years ago, and the popularity of videogames overall started in the 90s.  One example of a popular violent videogame in the 90s was Mortal Kombat.

Figure 4.  The evolution of videogame sales.  It can be seen that gaming was popularized in the 90s. (ioana)

Figure 5.  Mortal Kombat.  One of the the most popular violent videogames.

If we are to study the relationship between violent videogames and gamers, then there will be an increase in violence.  As previously mentioned, gaming began its rise to popularity in the 90s.  Therefore, if the surge of videogames occurred then to today, then there should be a similar trend in statistics.  This hypothesis was proven to be wrong.  According to figure 6, the murder rate peaked in 1980, and at videogame's rise to fame, the murder rate was low.  In addition, from that time to the mid 2010s, US murder rates decreased by 45.5 % (Asher).  Another hypothesis was that if young people play videogames, then youth crimes are impacted by violent videogames.  This was also proven wrong according figure 7; a similar trend can be observed.

Figure 6.  The murder rate is still up but is still below historical highs (Asher)

Figure 7.  Number of serious violent crimes committed by youth aged between 12 and 17 years in the US from 1980 to 2016 (“U.S. - Number of Serious Violent Crimes by Youth 2017”)

According to the US Secret Service study Safe School Initiative, 12% of school shooters expressed interest in violent videogames (Vossekuil et al.).  It should also be noted that many other countries also have a videogame consumerism, but that does not cause violence on those those countries.  The US itself has a lot of gun violence, whereas countries have almost none, so it is not just videogames that could be the major impact to violent tendencies.  In addition, the supreme court made a ruling in the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that declares that a Californian law forbidding the sale of videogames to kids is unconstitutional.  They stated that "psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively.  Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by media (Brown, Governor of California, et al. v. Entertainment Merchants Association et Al)."

Overall, it is important for others to do research before creating the "videogames cause violence" stereotype. Parents who want to minimize the exposure of violence for their developing kids should learn to be responsible consumers on whatever videogames they decide to purchase for them.  Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings are required for all videogames to determine which age demographic is the game best suited as well as the content the game exudes.

Figure 8.  ESRB Ratings.

Social Issue #2: Lootboxes and "Free to Play" Mobile Games.
When gaming is tied to gambling, does the game become fun?  While some games do have some gambling elements that does not require in-game currency, there are some that do in the form of lootboxes and "Free to Play" (F2P).  "'Loot box' is a catch-all term for a digital container of randomized rewards" (Drummond and Sauer).  In other words, these mystery boxes hold random digital content that gives the game (sometimes) a better experience.  The rewarding content is either for aesthetic or game performance purposes.  This encourages players (especially adolescents) to spend their money to buy them in order to get the utmost experience in the game.  Loot boxes are similar to real-life gambling because it involves money and luck.  Players may sometimes get a high-valuable item for every X times they purchase a box.  "For example, a game with a 10% chance of a high-value item in a loot box may result in success, on average, once for every ten boxes purchased" (Drummond and Sauer).  A popular game adolescents play that involves lootbox is Fortnite, an online battle royal videogame where players play against each other for survival.  One of the loot boxes provided the "Save the World" package, was sold for $39.99 USD.  The box is disguised as a llama, which makes them all the more enticing to adolescents.  It contains boosts, characters, and items that are ranked from common to legendary.

Figure 9.  Fortnite loot boxes.

Mobile games are accessible and a popular form of media in the market.  Several of them are F2P gacha (capsule-toy vending machine) games and require in-app purchases.  These predatory "pay-to-win" methods gives these players the upper hand in gaming at the cost of using real currency.  An example of a F2P mobile game is Mario Kart Tour.  Its in-game currency is rubies, which can be used to purchase characters and kart parts at random.  These can be purchased at prices ranging from $1.99 - $69.99.  In addition, the game also features a monthly subscription (known as gold pass) for $5.00 a month, which includes better "freemium" content for the gamer's experience.

Figure 10.  Mario Kart Tour rubies and gold pass subscription.

It is important for consumers to be aware of whatever they purchase in these free to play games because it could possibly develop a gambling habit, especially for children, teenagers, and young adults.  Also, these games could be outdated and therefore can no longer be played unlike a purchased game without add-on content.  I personally think that consumers should actually focus on purchasing a full game as opposed to a half-baked game that requires microtransactions.  That way, the consumer gets the most gameplay experience for every penny spent.  It is okay to spend on these types of games, however, it should be controlled to prevent losing money to these enticing/premium offers.

Solution
In a bigger picture, Jane McGonigal's Gaming can make a better world TED-talk shows that, despite the controversy on videogames, playing them can show potential to save the world (McGonigal).  Sure it sounds like a stretch, but she argues that the ultimate purpose of videogames is to solve certain situations to change the world's future.  Her hypothesis is that if players game together (for hours on end), then their collaborative/social selves can develop optimism (self-motivation), social fabric (trust and cooperation), blissful productivity, and epic meaning.  These can help gamers become super-empowered hopeful individuals in the virtual world, which they can apply to the real world. 

Figure 11.  Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.  This series has players entrusted to save the world whilst becoming a Pokemon master.  Players can interact online or locally through trade, battle, and communication.  Overall, a mission is assigned to us, therefore capable enough for players to earn positivity through accomplishments.

Reflection

Why should this situation be addressed?
Videogames is one of the tangible objects and activities that many of us have encountered.  Like me, others enjoy the creativity and freedom provided when immersing ourselves in videogames.  However, the negative stereotypes we encounter gives the impression upon others that we are violent, socially isolated, and poor consumers.  This can be seen as the minority of the people that do play videogames, because many use them for one simple explanation: we enjoy playing videogames as the virtual world is more under our control.  Also, people seem to forget that videogames today are being used to teach children certain skills, such as coding/programming in Minecraft.

Why did I choose this?
I am an avid videogame player; I love playing them.  I play videogames all the time and consider gaming as a fun, full-time job.  Videogames are the tangible things that always make me genuinely happy.  They are my cloud 9 - my escape from reality.  Videogames serve their purpose in satisfying the three core needs of human life.  In this virtual canvas, I can set the best version of myself and create my own unique persona.  If I happen to fail, I am okay, because I know I can try again (reality can't do that).  Videogames overall make me feel happy, motivated, successful, collaborative, and cooperative.

References

Asher, Jeff. “The U.S. Murder Rate Is Up But Still Far Below Its 1980 Peak.” FiveThirtyEight, 25 Sept. 2017. fivethirtyeight.com, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-u-s-murder-rate-is-up-but-still-far-below-its-1980-peak/.
Brown, Governor of California, et al. v. Entertainment Merchants Association et al: (548122013-001). American Psychological Association, 2010. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1037/e548122013-001.

Drummond, Aaron, and James D. Sauer. “Video Game Loot Boxes Are Psychologically Akin to Gambling.” Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 2, no. 8, Aug. 2018, pp. 530–32. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0360-1.
Game Theory: Do Video Games Cause Violence? It’s Complicated. - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkVIqB8tw2A&t=39s. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.
Game Theory: Why You Play Video Games (1 Million Subscriber Special!). YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyUC_28HIvA. Accessed 15 Mar. 2020.
Ioana, Alex. “The Incomplete History of Video Game Sales.” Medium, 15 May 2018. medium.com, https://medium.com/the-peruser/a-brief-history-of-video-game-sales-49edbf831dc.

McGonigal, Jane. Gaming Can Make a Better World. www.ted.com, https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world. Accessed 15 Mar. 2020.
“Problems Users Experience in Free-to-Play Games.” MobileAppAaily, https://www.mobileappdaily.com/problems-users-face-in-free-to-play-games. Accessed 19 Mar. 2020.
Rigby, Scott, and Richard M. Ryan. Glued to Games: How Video Games Draw Us in and Hold Us Spellbound. ABC-CLIO, 2011.
“U.S. - Number of Serious Violent Crimes by Youth 2017.” Statista. www.statista.com, https://www.statista.com/statistics/477466/number-of-serious-violent-crimes-by-youth-in-the-us/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2020.
Vossekuil, Bryan, et al. UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE AND UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. p. 39.