The Video Game Debate: Unravelling The Physical, Social, And Psychological Effects Of Video Games PDF
Preview The Video Game Debate: Unravelling The Physical, Social, And Psychological Effects Of Video Games
The Video Game debaTe Do video games cause violent, aggressive behavior? Can online games help us learn? When it comes to video games, these are often the types of questions raised by popular media, policy makers, scholars, and the general public. In this collection, international experts review the latest research findings in the field of digital game studies and weigh in on the actual physical, social, and psycho- logical effects of video games. Taking a broad view of the industry from the moral panic of its early days up to recent controversies surrounding games like Grand Theft Auto, contributors explore the effects of games through a range of topics including health hazards/benefits, education, violence and aggression, addiction, cognitive performance, and gaming communities. Interdisciplinary and accessibly written, The Video Game Debate reveals that the arguments surrounding the game industry are far from black and white, and opens the door to richer conversation and debate amongst students, policy makers, and scholars alike. Rachel Kowert received her PhD in Psychology from the University of York (UK), where her research focused on the relationships between social competence and online video game involvement. Thorsten Quandt holds the chair of Online Communication at the University of Münster (Germany) and is a distinguished scientist with extensive experience in digital games research. This page intentionally left blank The Video Game debaTe Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Digital Games Edited by Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt First published 2016 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The video game debate : unravelling the physical, social, and psychological effects of digital games / edited by Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Video games—History. 2. Video games—Social aspects. 3. Video games—Psychological aspects. I. Kowert, Rachel. II. Quandt, Thorsten. GV1469.3.V5225 2015 794.809—dc23 2015013347 ISBN: 978-1-138-83160-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-83163-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-73649-5 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton CoNTeNTS Acknowledgments vii 1 A Brief History of Video Games 1 James D. Ivory 2 The Rise (and Refinement) of Moral Panic 22 Nicholas D. Bowman 3 Are Electronic Games Health Hazards or Health Promoters? 39 Cheryl K. Olson 4 The Influence of Digital Games on Aggression and Violent Crime 54 Mark Coulson and Christopher J. Ferguson 5 Gaming Addiction and Internet Gaming Disorder 74 Mark D. Griffiths 6 Social Outcomes: Online Game Play, Social Currency, and Social Ability 94 Rachel Kowert 7 Debating How to Learn From Video Games 116 John L. Sherry vi Contents 8 Video Games and Cognitive Performance 131 Gillian Dale and C. Shawn Green 9 Exploring Gaming Communities 153 Frans Mäyrä 10 No Black and White in Video Game Land! Why We Need to Move Beyond Simple Explanations in the Video Game Debate 176 Thorsten Quandt and Rachel Kowert Contributors 190 Index 193 aCKNoWLedGmeNTS The editors would like to give special thanks to all of the authors who contributed to this volume. For almost a decade, we have wanted to create a volume that collates the latest research in game studies. Our primary aim was to produce a book that could be used to inform parents, policy makers, clinicians, and other scholars about the state of research within the field. The Video Game Debate has achieved that goal. We thank you for your hard work in helping bring this dream to reality. This page intentionally left blank 1 a bRieF hiSToRY oF Video GameS James D. Ivory Evolutionary biologists use a term called “convergent evolution” to explain the existence of similar traits in living organisms that are otherwise markedly different and only distantly related.1 For example, similarities between the body types of fish, marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, and the extinct ichthyosaur may give the impression that these animals share a similar biological class even though other less superficial characteristics of these animals clearly identify them as members of separate animal classes. Similarly, bats may seem more closely related to birds than to other mammals because of their shared wings and ability to fly even though bats have little else in common with birds, including the anatomical location of their wings (bats’ wings are essentially long webbed fingers, while the feathers of birds’ wings are attached to the equivalent of the forearm and wrist). In these and other examples, it is all too easy to misperceive beasts that have little in common as part of one family. So it is with video games. The social, cultural, and economic presence of video games is so overwhelming in the electronic media milieu, and the term “video game” is so often used as a talismanic catch-all for nearly any form of interactive digital entertainment, that it is easy to assume that the technological and social developments leading to what we now call “video games” are not composed of a single evolutionary pathway. Instead, the video games of today represent a convergence of substantially different trajectories of technological developments providing discrepant forms of entertainment to audiences with different needs. The result is a medium that is very diverse in its functions, content, and audiences – so diverse, in fact, that like birds and bats or dolphins and fish, many shared characteristics among some video games may be only superficial. Just as organisms described as examples of convergent evolution are very different creatures who seem more similar than they are because of a shared
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