Games: Good or Evil?
I want to look at some of the things that set games apart as a positive force in the world. Addiction is too often some kind of evidence that games are amoral and degenerative in some sense, when it’s possible that the exact opposite is the case. For those of you ready to behold game technology as a simple and single-minded malicious force, consider just a few areas where they are being used to help people.
Research advances happen because of game-related technologies.
The technologies that are being developed for games are currently being tested in order to help patients in a number of settings. In particular, they show promising preliminary results for stress reduction, lessening acrophobia, giving autistic children engaging and safe spaces for interaction, and lessening phobias and situational stress in general. They’re being applied in order to learn more about eating disorders and schizophrenia.
They’re considered by many to already be established in some areas. For instance, aiding stroke victims to recover limb use, a problem occurring in around 30-60% of all stroke survivors. They’ve been used with more success than traditional methods in treating victims of post traumatic stress disorder, in both NYC fireman involved in the Sept 11th attacks, and victims of Israeli bus bombings. They’ve also been successfully used to treat phantom limb pain in amputees.
What’s the bottom line?
Games are therapeutic on some deep level that we do not yet fully understand. I might humbly suggest media experience and experience lite as major contributors to this. The fact that we can enter a world – performing complex, dangerous and strenuous tasks with little to no physical exertion gives us many of the benefits of stimulation and experience, without the body having to make the energy expenditure that it would normally expect. It’s experience… lite, one part of our overall experience within the media form. There are other elements.
On a deep level we may interpret a game world as perceptually real. On another level, we know that it’s a façade, and that gives us a level of control that we may not have in the real. At the same time, real people often interact with us in these environments, perhaps making these worlds real in some other sense.
Good or Evil?
Judging games as amoral comes after a long line of public suspicion of the new. What’s critical to realize is that these games aren’t just good or evil. They are both. At the same time, there will be both positive and negative impacts on society and individuals as a result of playing in these worlds. Just as Socrates was critical of the letter, the Catholic church was critical of the printing press, and pundits are critical of Internet and gaming technologies, so we find elements of benefit and detriment in each new technology.
And these technologies are ever-growing. Definitely check out Dr. Aaron Delwiche’s article, “You Can and Must Understand Technology Now,†if you haven’t already. You can and must understand what he has to say, right now. Do it.
We’re developing technologies at a breakneck pace, and each brings its own unique considerations to the table. The difference, of course, is that philosophers have had thousands of years to discuss letters, hundreds to discuss print technology, and but a handful of years to discuss the impacts of blogs, MMO games, or even simple web browsing.
These technologies mix together creating amalgamations, combinations of technology that are truly unique. If we want to sift out what is moral and amoral about games (as per our individual tastes at any rate), then we need to understand the critiques of past technologies, creating unique critiques for the present ones. Pundits and politicians can generate a great deal of buzz by tapping into the public’s fear (see Bill O’Reeaaally on game addiction) , but that’s doing the world (not just America, mr orly), a disservice. Games have a great deal to offer, as well as a great deal to be wary of. They’re something to keep an eye on, not something to forced down the garbage disposal.
Neils Clark :: Jan.04.2007 :: Games ::
