Comment on Gamer Revolution

According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing video games for individuals and societies?

Advantages:

Learning about life

According to the Sims creator Will Wright, for games like Sims, young people can learn things about life, especially about complex things, rather than from books. Computer games can be a playful aspect for education.

Self-confidence building

Young people have a sense of accomplishment through computer games. In the virtual digital world, they can be or a soldier or a superhero to complete a certain mission. The games provide a new form of expression and communication in which people express their emotions and feelings by engaging into the game. 

New Career Path

Computer games can change people lives. People are hired as professional computer gamers in South Korea. They become national heroes who are admired by millions of fans and earn lots of money. 

Promoting

In the US Army, they use computer games as a mean to attract young people to join the army due to the recruitment problem. Through the game produced by the army, the army can recruit potential ones to work for its country.

Therapy

Patients with cancer can understand more about their illness through the cell-killing game. It’s not about shooting lives but saving lives by killing bad cells in patients body.

Disadvantages:

Racism

Some computer games has bias against a certain race, for example, a western first person shooter game whose player’s mission is to shoot down Arabs. This type of game conveys the message of racism which gives young people wrong message and values. 

Aggressiveness

The content of some computer games is full of offensiveness and violence, such as a Syria’s first person shooter game in which gamers who act as a crazy Arab killer are invited to slaughter Muslims. It’s way too violent and disgusting to kill their own people.

Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

Some statistics show that the behavior of the teenagers who always play computer games is more offensive and aggressive. It’s all about "monkeys-see-monkeys-do" that they may react the same way as what they see. However, there’s no direct connection between aggressive feelings and aggressive behavior. The problem is not about the game, but the player. One’s pleasure on shooting people in a game has nothing to do with reality. Maybe it does only if one gets the wrong message about the game and cannot understand the distinction between fiction and reality. I think it’s unnecessary to ban violent computer games. However, there should be laws to set PG on violent games or to forbid young people who’re not mature enough from buying or downloading such games.