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Myth Buster: Are Video Games Really That Bad?
By Shachar Oz and Liron Levi
May 2017
Abstract
Video games are not only the youngest media, but they broke any record regarding user consumption compared to other media, such as: books and films (Entertainment Sports Association, 2015). Its success and the unique experience it offers has brought many myths around it, such as:
game violence creates violent people, games don’t teach anything, games are socially isolating the
player, and a few more. This article surveys some common myths, and brings proof of a different truth, quoting academic game research. Games can be a very effective tool, if we use it right. Tags: video games, digital games, game violence, games and psychology, games based learning, 21 century skills Cite: Levi L. & Oz S. (2017).
Myth Buster: Are Video Games Really That Bad?
. Retrieved [date], from http://www.flux-experiences.com/videogame-myths.html
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Table of Contents
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Myths
Video games were born in the early 50s. The first publicly known video game is Pong, which was released by 1972. This probably makes video games as the youngest media. Since then it broke user consumption records of any other media, such as: books and films (Entertainment Sports Association, 2015). Its success and the unique experience it offers has brought many myths around it. The people who really understand games are the gamers. When they grew up and became academic scholars, they turn to research the influence of games on various aspects of our life. Game research is becoming a serious field of study, and this article brings results from not a few sources. I hope you could learn to see games in a different light after reading these proof. Games can be a very effective tool, if you only use it right. It is better if we learn how to use it instead of trying to push it away.
1. Video games mainly target young boys
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Average gamer’s age
Video games are thought to be aimed mainly at young boys at the age group of 3 to 16 years old. Where actually the average player age is around 35 years old (Entertainment Sports Association, 2015). This shift happened mostly because the people who played video games when they were
“born” in the 1970’
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1980’, are now older. These players can now afford to make purchases for
themselves or for their children. Apparently the average years that gamers are playing for is 13.
Age diversity among gamer population
1.2 Average gamer’s gender
Another interesting variable is the average gamer’s gender. The myth considers male being the lead
target audience, whereas nowadays audience is almost 50-50. The averag
e female gamer’s age is 43 and the average male gamer’s is 35
(Entertainment Sports Association, 2015).
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Gender diversity among gamer population
Games are truly diverse in the content and gameplay they offer, and it addresses all audiences. Take a look at these examples and you should find a few that you are either playing yourself or you know someone close that is.
From top-left: MineCraft, AngryBirds, CandyCrush, ClashOfClans, PokemonGo, ClashRoyale, Solitaire, Sudoku, MineSweeper
2. Video games socially isolate the gamer
Media separates us, causing us to be socially isolated with our device in our private virtual world. When we look at the two pictures below, most of us consider the card game as a socially connecting activity and the video game as a socially isolating one. Especially because of the direction of the faces and its expression.