To me Dogfight is not only a foreboding of the
not-so-distant future, but a reflection of today’s heavy gamers. There may be
many Dekes out there today whose sole purposes in life are games. They find
peace nowhere except in the virtual world. One Deke which we find in Alone
Together is Adam. While reading the story, I increasingly came to associate
Deke with Adam and other addicted gamers. It is addiction that reduces Deke to
lonely sadist. Similarly, it is the addiction to games that forces people like Adam
to lock themselves in a cocoon and isolate themselves from the world. Nance, to me, is an embodiment of real-world
social interactions. Deke’s murder of Nance for a small dosage of “hype” can be
compared with heavy gamers’ slaughter of their real world social connections
for a few more hours of online gaming.
Although heavy gamers might constitute only a small fraction
of the overall gaming community, the tides are turning. If Singer’s exponential
growth theory is correct, we can anticipate the arrival revolutionary gaming
consoles. This, coupled with an increased variety of games, will induce a rise
in gamer population. Therefore, number of heavy gamers is expected to increase
exponentially as well. This puts us in a precarious situation. We face the same
problem that Singer predicted in the book. As sophistication of weapons
increases at an alarming rate, we continue to fall behind in the race to
introduce rules that govern their use. Similarly, due to the augmentation of
the gaming experience with every new console and game, we are lagging in our
attempts to put into effect gaming laws or ethics (Although considerable efforts
have been made to introduce laws for the gaming world, they have been limited
to the prevention piracy). Deke, Adam or other heavy gamers did not emerge due to
some genetic mutation but due to their failure to realize when enough is
enough. They live in a world which does not have any norms to govern online
gaming. We must questions the gaming ethics of today and develop them for
tomorrow. We must know when to pull the plug!
I think that the issue to proposing ethics when it comes to gaming would be extremely difficult if not impossible. If we look at other addictive substances such as drugs and alcohol, even if we set down a complete ban on games (which would be ridiculous and probably never pass through as law) people would still find ways to feed their addictions. That being said, in the case of addiction I do not necessarily find it to be the government’s responsibility to deal with the problem. I feel that the only way to stop gaming from becoming a widespread addiction is to aim for a more widespread knowledge of the dangers of gaming addiction. Programs such as AA have been helping recovering alcoholics for decades and the simple knowledge that these programs exist is helpful enough to many. People will not change unless they decide to make the change themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhile games can be addictive and dangerous, we must realize that anything at all can be addictive. If you've ever seen "My Strange Addiction" that's easy to realize. It just depends on how someone uses something. But I don't really see us being able to regulate gaming. Especially now when we don't really know what the expansion on gaming will lead to; I can't imagine many preventatitive regulations being made. We all know that the American public is not all too fond of regulation. Other countries, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteAlso, games not be that much of an issue, as many new and popular games are party games, designed to be played with many people. We've had a lot of inventions of the past that have had the ability to, and do, ruin lives of people like Deke and Adam. If you think about it, the TV, the internet, and many other things can have these affects on people. But the majority of the population is fine. So maybe it's just that addictive personalities will find something to be addicted to, and that it doesn't really matter what it is.
I don't think it would be possible to place a ban or restriction on video games. People will go to extreme measures in order to feed their addictions whether that might be building their own video games or buying the games on the black market. Like Carly suggested, I believe we'd see a similar reaction to the ban of video games that we see with the laws pertaining to drugs.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, if the an organization attempted to push censorship on video games, I believe it would follow the same cycle as the film industry did. While censorship worked for quite some time because of the christian organizations, the restrictions did not last. The codes that film makers had to follow ultimately fell by the wayside, and they were given more freedom. The same would most likely occur for video game designers.
One of my best friends was a constantly online gamer, and a morbidly obese hoarder who only left his falling-apart house to go to work or, often reluctantly, to play face-to-face games with some old friends once per week.
ReplyDeleteHe died a year ago, and all of us who tried to help him still wonder what we could have done differently. The disorder that made him an introvert was there long before the Internet: he lost both parents, tragically, after a car accident that disabled them both when my friend was a high-school senior.
Gaming for him was a way to escape a world where he never got to go to college and was always one step ahead (if that) of the bill collectors. I won't deny that he could have have done more for himself, but he did well with the awful hand he was dealt. I wonder, as I watch the often casually affluent UR students, what they would do if they felt real and sustained privation? How many of them would become like my friend, or even Tiny? Would they have any emotional strength?
Some would turn to addictions, including obsessive gaming. Games should be a fun diversion, and there are many types: the "serious games" that require many hours of engagement, such as WoW. There are also casual games one can pick up and put down, too. I don't know that even WoW or Second Life are by nature evil; when one neglects one's friends and family to game, then the gamer is addicted.
I suspect that my friend additively read science-fiction novels and watched TV before the Internet enabled other ways to escape. So banning games won't work, nor, always, will reaching out to help the gamers like my friend. He refused us, often angrily, when we suggested ways for him to lose weight or find a more fulfilling career than the low-end I.T. jobs open to a guy with a G.E.D.
At least Tiny had a circle of admirers and a way to find some satisfaction, until Deke beat him. Today's addicted gamers, like my late friend, can sit in a room not unlike the one in the image Hadi chose. They don't even get to drink a beer with the boys while they win at Spads and Fokkers. This was a reason I kept "Nerd Night" going all through my years at UR, since 1991: I wanted to get my friend out of his hive at least once per week.
Gaming ethics has been an issue I have wrestled with for a while now. I'm a huge believer in personal rights, especially the freedom of press and the general freedom of creativity. Normally, I would never even think of limiting one's personal rights but the recent rise in mass shootings has caused me to question this absolute freedom. I personally believe that the rise in mass shootings is caused by the presence of gun violence is almost every type of media/entertainment form. The use of guns to solve ones problems can be seen in tv shows, movies, magazines, music, news outlets, and of course video games. The widespread presence of gun violence has made it seem acceptable in real life. I'm not saying that just video games and other forms of entertainment are the sole reason for the spike in mass shootings but I do believe that the shootings would not be as prevalent if there was some time of censor. If gun violence was out of sight it would be out of mind. If we weren't surrounded by gun violence in entertainment then we wouldn't even consider it to be a realistic option.
ReplyDeleteThe question of when enough is enough, applies to just about everything, and I agree that in this case, gaming may need some more work in that area, but the question that still remains is what is defined as gaming? If you are referring to todays games were you press buttons and there is a simulated response on the screen, then I'd say no need for regulation , but if you are referring to a game like the one described in dogfight then I'd definitely say yes. Though there was no warning sign on the label (or label at all for all I know) so much life energy was invested in that game; too much. once drugs and bodily enhancements get involved, I believe it is no longer a game, but a gamble. There were physical repercussions to deke's action that transcended the game, and much like steroidal enhancements that athletes take on, it gave him an unfair advantage. I would like to think that everyone should take advantage of anything they can to gain an advantage over an opponent, but in this case, when a life (Tiny's) is on the line, it is unacceptable. even if he had won fair and square, it is the fact that he knew he was taking a life that disgusts me. How can he knowingly take someone else’s life? He may have thought it was just a game, but that doesn’t make it ok.
ReplyDeleteWhen wagering enters any form of gaming, Leah is right. It's gambling then, and Las Vegas and Atlantic City are full of addicted gamblers. Casinos know how to lure them right in and it is perfectly legal.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Hadi, I just think this is totally sad it seems like "Deke" would only considered himself successful in the virtual world, and he is not the only one in Alone Together, we have several example of people who escape from their "real life" issues using these virtual worlds.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem lies on where we define "reality", because for some of these gamers sadly the game becomes their reality, the real world is just a dream and they wake up once they get wired to the net and start playing, they feel alive and they feel that they can be whoever they wanna be, they are "Limitless"
The question is how can we help them, if they want to be help?