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“…Violence in games such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Postal 2,
harms children to a greater extent than tobacco-and the law must protect
these children” (Duffy 2). “Exposure to simulated violence and death
desensitizes people, lowering inhibitions and making it easier to commit
violence in the real world” (Herzfeld 13). Numerous claims such as these
are made by legislators and concerned politicians who are trying to get
bills passed so that parents are able to sue the distributors of video
games that “harm children” (Duffy 4). But are the legislators correct
when they say that video games in general cause violence or are video
games actually beneficial to society or even one’s health? Arguments
have been made alongside studies that prove Role-playing video games to
be helpful rather than harmful. Role-playing games are a benefit to
people’s health and social skills rather than causing violent behavior
and can be used to help improve decision making skills, to help cure
ADHD, and can even be used to create art.
However, there is a large difference when looking at the types of video
games and it is important to be able to discern one from another. A
Role-playing game (RPG) is completely different than a Puzzle game, just
as a First-person shooter is different than a Sports game. A
Role-playing game has certain characteristics which cause the video game
to be put in that genre. A standard RPG is a video game which centers on
telling the story of a Hero on his epic quest and focuses on character
development throughout the game. Another aspect of every RPG is
experience points which allow your character to gain levels and become
stronger. RPGs delve into character histories and plot twists much like
a book would do; whereas, a first-person shooter focuses on battling so
the gamer can have fun shooting and killing simulated people. A
first-person shooter has a very small amount of storyline and usually no
character development. RPGs are extremely good at creating complex
stories which require a thought process for understanding it. There is
an extremely big difference between the two genres of video games just
like there are different genres in movies; yet, many people do not
differentiate between the two.
Even though there is a clear difference between an RPG and a
first-person shooter, many think of RPGs as any other video game. When
legislators focus on the effect of video games on today’s society, they
look at certain games and then generalize to the entire medium of video
games. Mike Snider from USA Today claims that “today’s ultrarealistic
games…can mislead players into viewing war as fun, particularly among the
target audience of young men” (Snider 4). However, he later lists the
games that his citations used and not one of them was an RPG. In fact,
he found out that all of the video games that are blamed for violent
behavior were the top-selling war games. He didn’t use any other type of
video game as support for his statement so he cannot generalize to all
ultrarealistic games. Since the creation of video games, researchers
have focused on the violence in war games and then generalized the effect
to all video games.
Ultrarealistic RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Everquest are actually
very unrealistic when it comes to their violence. The very controversial
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) Everquest is
perfect example of how wrong the aforementioned generalizations are.
When a character gets into a battle in Everquest, there is really only
one thing that the person can do: “Hit the ‘attack’ key” and watch the
battle (Armstrong 13). One online gamer whose character is a healer says
“There’s no blood, nothing graphic or anything… When things die they just
fall over” (14). Many studies have been done that tell how violent of a
game Everquest is; however, in reality, the game has very fake violence
and was created for other purposes. Everquest was actually made so that
a massive amount of people can all interact with each other and learn
from one another in a fantasy world.
Many people will say that when people play a video game, they are
isolating themselves away from society; however, Role-Playing games such
as Ultima Online and Everquest do just the opposite. These games and
even single-player RPGs are focusing on the social environments and moral
development for the gamers by giving them an entirely new world for them
to interact in with new and diverse people. “‘An advantage to
Everquest…is the social development, and increase in intellect, exposure
to new people and opinions…’” says sophomore Brandon Davis (23). Inside
the game’s giant world, one gamer from North America can meet and talk
with someone in Europe, Asia, Canada, etc. By talking, playing, and
interacting with these different people, one can experience different
culture’s beliefs, backgrounds, and even lifestyles. Many gamers use
MMORPGs as a method of hanging out with their friends. One gamer in
particular plays Ultima Online where he found his real-life girlfriend
whom he has been dating for almost a full year (Schelzig 1). Ultima
Online and Everquest (MMORPGs) have been trying to keep their adventures
and battles interesting “while simultaneously seeking to stamp out
excessive anti-social behavior” such as killing other players (7). The
main purpose of these RPGs is to have social interaction and have fun
while doing so; therefore, to prevent anti-social behavior such as PKing
(Player Killing) other characters in the game, the creators of the game
have created consequences. If someone attacks another character, their
name turns “Grey,” meaning that other characters can see that you have
attempted to kill someone and choose not to socialize with you. Also, if
someone kills another character, their name turns “Red,” meaning that
others can put a bounty on your head and kill your character with the
consent of the guards in the game. If you walk into town, your character
will be killed by the guards for your criminal actions. This in itself
is an act of violence, but it shows the gamer that it is wrong to commit
such actions and also gives the gamer a consequence that is extremely
undesirable so the gamer will cease such behavior.
Console games such as Fable for the Xbox also demonstrate to gamers what
consequences their moral decisions in the game can create. In the game
Fable, the main character whom is controlled by the gamer is a young “boy
as he becomes a hero” (Totilo 4). Even though there is still a main
object that must be completed, the gamer makes every decision on his
quest throughout the game. He can accomplish the goal by blackmail,
killing merchants for equipment, etc.; however, the consequences of this
are that the character “will grow horns and attract flies…” (8). Every
good action has a good consequence that will help the gamer; however,
every bad action has a negative consequence which makes it harder for the
gamer to achieve the goal. Mr. Molyneux, the creator of Fable, wants
“players to be themselves…to play who and how they want, as opposed to
who [he thinks] they should play” (5). So he gave the gamer not only a
world in which they can be themselves in, but also a world which will
guide them to the path of good by giving them negative consequences for
doing evil actions. This shows that the game not only is giving the
gamer a social experience with the characters in the game, but it also is
teaching the gamer right and wrong through consequences. Other
characters in the game will either want to help or have nothing to do
with the gamer. The gamer will then have to socially deal with these
characters in the game. But not only do Role-Playing Games improve
social interaction skills, moral decision making, and help in self
realization, they have also been found to help one’s IQ as well.
Role-playing games, especially because of their numerous plot twists and
different points of view shown throughout each game, are very complex and
require quick thinking and deductive reasoning. A study by Patricia
Greenfield, a psychology professor at UCLA, shows a positive correlation
between video games and intelligence (Quittner 3). Her research shows
“an increase in worldwide ‘nonverbal IQ’ (spatial skills, the use of
icons for problem solving and the ability to understand things from
multiple viewpoints) to the spread of video games” (3). Since RPGs
contain complex puzzles and ideas in them, RPGs require a great amount of
use of the nonverbal IQ. Greenfield, however, also stated that this
increase in IQ comes by making social skills suffer. However, Joshua
Quittner has three daughters under 11 years old who have grown up
surrounded by video games and computer games. All three of his daughters
are extremely social and have not been negatively affected by growing up
with video games. They still interact with other girls at their school
and have not once acted violently towards another child. There are even
schools that teach their students with video games in an extremely social
environment.
In Seattle’s Clearwater Private School, the students are being taught
problem solving and critical thinking through video games such as the
MMORPG City of Heroes. The school was founded by Stephanie Sarantos who
has a Ph.D. in educational psychology and says that “…video games are an
intellectual activity” (Westneat 4). She believes that this works
because a new book titled “Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is
Reshaping Business Forever” found that “…regular gamers [are] more
creative, optimistic and even socially active than nongamers,” after
sociologist John Beck interviewed 2,500 young professionals with the
majority having grown up with video games (7). The book explains that
video games are a perfect simulator for teaching children because the
gamer takes part in numerous crucial activities for learning children:
“experimentation, risk-taking, strategizing, play-acting,…” and even
meeting new people from around the world (8). “If you fail, you just try
again. In that sense it’s really a dream learning environment” says Beck
(9). If someone were to fail in real life, the result would be permanent
and irreversible; however, in an RPG, one can start over again with no
permanent end result. This philosophy is also extremely important in the
army because if a leg gets chopped off in real life, there is permanent
damage. This is why the use of simulators is important.
Video games are acting as simulators for children in schools as well as
simulators to help train the military. Soldiers in the army are using
video games to fine tune their visual sense and sharpen their minds. In
a study performed at the University of Rochester, young adults were found
to be able to keep “better track of objects appearing simultaneously and
processed fast-changing visual information more efficiently” (Chang 2).
Children in schools across the country would benefit from this because of
the fast-changing society we live in. If a class is teaching a new
concept, being able to keep track of and processing what is written on
the board is extremely important in the learning process. In order to
destroy any confounding variables associated with the study, they
performed a second study which showed that “people who do not normally
play video games but were trained to play them developed enhanced visual
perception” rather than naturally visually adept people being “drawn to
video games” (3). Role-Playing Games are usually filled with many visual
puzzles and visual clues that one needs to pay attention to in order to
further the plot. These skills can be used in real life in almost every
situation because our society is constantly being showed visual images
that we need to process. Soldiers can use these types of visually active
games in order to improve on their tests and perform more efficiently
during training in their schools. According to the Rochester study of a
group of soldiers, that is exactly what they do (11).
Many people have taken video games and turned them into an art form.
Many create art based on the Role-Playing Games while others find art
within the games themselves. RPGs delve far into telling a story and
character development just as many art pieces tell a story through their
visual images. The Yerba Buena Center along with Stanford University is
hosting an art exhibit with Video Games as the topic. The curator for
the Yerba Buena Center argues that video games “are a form of interactive
storytelling…and they obviously have powerful visual elements” (Pham 5).
One can create art with the existing images as well. In a RPG such as
Final Fantasy VI, one can walk their character to the edge of a cliff and
look over it into the ravine below and take a screenshot of the image.
The creator of the game “The Sims” stated that “his game is no more art
than is Adobe Systems Inc.’s Photoshop…” because “People create really
amazing things with the game, but the game itself is just a tool” that
enables one to create art (35). RPGs have given so much to our society,
whether through art or by giving us a learning experience; still, video
games have also been found to help mental and physical health.
NASA, through years of study and biofeedback research, has found that
video games can be used to actually cure mental health problems such as
ADHD. Certain brain waves or physiological functions are used when one
is playing video games and the research has found that humans change
their brain waves when playing video games to do better in the game.
NASA has developed a technique based off of “thirty years of biofeedback
research” that has shown “by training specific brainwave changes…people
can achieve a wide variety of health-enhancing outcomes” (NASA 4). By
playing different types of video games, one can train their brainwave
changes to gain the best positive effect. NASA has developed a certain
game where “as the player’s brainwaves come closer to an optimal,
stress-free pattern, the video game’s joystick becomes easier to control”
(5). Through this technique, which many off-the-shelf video games have,
video games can help develop better concentration and help relieve
stress. This technique is being used to help children between ages nine
and fourteen fight their ADHD by giving them a form of entertainment that
is fun to them that they want to play with. And while playing the video
games, they are being treated (10).
Still, many parents are still concerned with the issue of violence
appearing in video games. Ever since the violence in video games debate
arose in 1999 when the Columbine shooting occurred, parents have been
pushing to get some sort of ban on video games. Lawmakers have projected
bills “in at least seven states…that would restrict the sale of games”
(Wadhams 6). However, RPGs are not the type of game that supposedly
“caused” the Columbine shooting and other sorts of violent acts. As
stated much earlier, the games that have been blamed for such violence
are first-person shooters. However, everyone is blaming the video games
themselves rather than how the children got the shooting games.
There are different ratings on every video game that depict what type of
audience is meant for each game exactly as the MPAA movie ratings do for
the film industry. These ratings are called the ESRB ratings and are
meant for parents so that they can judge which games they want their
children to play. However, as the president of the Entertainment
Software Association said, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make him drink” (Duffy 9). In other words, parents are given these
ratings so that they can protect their children against violent games but
parents tend to ignore the ratings on the games, letting their children
play whatever they want. Even the president of the MPAA agrees that the
“entire rostrum of the rating program rests on the assumption of
responsibility by parents” (8). Parents can choose to protect their
children from violent first-person shooter games; however, many parents
allow their children to walk into the video game store and buy the games
without supervision. To solve this problem, “90 percent of the market
pledged…to implement carding policies for mature-rated games no later
than the end of 2004” (12). RPGs were not responsible for children
performing violent acts and neither were any type of video games. The
parents themselves are the ones responsible for allowing their children
to come into contact with violent games just as parents are responsible
for allowing their children to see R rated movies.
RPGs have been creating benefits for society since they were created in
the late 1980’s and have continued to help our mental and physical
health, help create culture, and even help our social skills, moral
development, and problem solving skills. RPGs discourage violent
behavior by creating negative consequences to it in the games and
actually encourage social behavior by giving gamers the opportunity to
talk, play, and interact with people from other cultures and societies.
Violent behavior arising from the first-person shooters is now being
prevented with ninety percent of the retailers enforcing carding towards
minors as well as causing the parents to become more involved in deciding
which games are best for their children. Role-playing games have become
an art form in our society and are helping people express themselves
through their imagery. Not only this, but the story-line, character
development, and gameplay of RPGs are helping us process information
faster and more efficiently as well as helping us think in a more complex
manner. With all of these positives, it’s hard to believe that society
hasn’t made the playing of Role-playing games a requirement in schools
like Seattle’s Clearwater Private School has done. Well, it’s never too
late to start, so let the gaming begin!
Works Cited
Armstrong, Elizabeth. “Fellowship of the Online Gamers.” The Christian
Science Monitor 15 July 2003: n.p.
Chang, Alicia. “Researchers Find Benefits to Video Games.” The Seattle
Times
29 May 2003: A6.
Duffy, Jill. “Lawmakers in a Tizzy Over Parents’ Responsibility.” Game
Developer Jun/Jul 2004: 8.
Herzfeld, Noreen. “Video Shootout.” The Christian Century 4 May 2004:
22.
Pham, Alex. “Action Morphs Into Art.” Los Angeles Times 26 March 2004:
n.p.
Quittner, Joshua. “Are Video Gamer Really So Bad?” Time 10 May 1999:
50-59.
Schelzig, Erik. “Identity and Ethics Are Just Another Part of the Game
Online.”
The Washington Post 30 June 2000: E.13.
Snider, Mike. “Big-selling War Games May Carry Bigger Cost.” USA Today
10 June 2004: D.08.
Totilo, Stephen. “Letting Gamers Play God, and Now Themselves.” New
York
Times 2 Sep. 2004: G.1.
“Video Games May Lead to Better Health Through New NASA Technology.”
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 Aug. 2000: n.p.
Wadhams, Nick. “Violent Games Under Attack.” Chicago Sun – Times 5
July
2005: 47.
Westneat, Danny. “The Latest in Learning.” The Seattle Times 12 Nov.
2004:
B.1.
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