Shoot at Reality? --- The Ethics of Digital Games

1.    According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies? (Some personal points are added)

Pros for individuals:

Video games can provide entertainment, for leisure and relaxation. One can use it to achieve something he/she cannot do in reality. For example, a shy boy without confidence can choose to be a character that loved by a lot of girls. If there is a practice mode, one can train herself/himself beforehand. This system helps to convey a message of "practice makes perfect" which encourage people to try more. Some video games can train different abilities of oneself. Like some intellectual games such as Tetris can help one to train one's brain, action games may strengthen one's sensibility or increase one's speed of reaction.

Pros for societies:

Video games can spread the culture of a country throughout the world, like the history of ancient three nations in China. For some governments (like US), they can use videogames as a mean to convey the message of nationalism. Video games can also create jobs. Some professional game players spend lots of hours to test the games and get a salary.

However, there are some disadvantages of the video games as well.

Cons for individuals:

Gamers may get addicted, spend all the time on videogames and do nothing productive. Video games may make people doing some crazy things in reality, such as bullying friends or even shooting person (especially in the foreign countries that owing guns is legalized). Some gamers may not get out the dreamy world, keep asking why the reality is so different from the game's world. Thus, the person may become a Hikikomori. Video games may also cause some health problems. For example, video games may be harmful to the players’ eyesight, shoulder or back pain. Gamer players may lose the skill and intention to talk or communicate with others.

Cons for societies:

Violent games affect player's behavior or manner: a kid mimic a game's killer to kill people after playing the violent videogames. These disturb the social orders and increase the crime rate. A society may become more solitary when more and more people attempt to close their doors to play videogames. The soft skills of communication may lose and this would damage the network and interactions between human beings.

2.    According the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

Some violent games like Counter-Strike (CS) which the mission of the game is use any way you think of to kill all the opponents. It is bloody and disgusting. Some gamers may mix up the game world with the real world. Players who play CS will indicted to it, what they do in the game become a habit to them, also a way to express their feelings. If they suddenly feel angry in their daily life, they may really kill others as they think that they still ‘living’ in the game world.

“Children who regularly play video games admit they can be addictive and lead to them acting out the violent scenes that are an intrinsic part of many games, according to a survey by researchers at Aston University. Many (children) described violent scenes 'with relish', they found. Almost 60 per cent had witnessed other children mimicking violent games.” (Daily Telegragh, 25 October 1993, cited in Craig and Petley 2001: 187)

It brings the players a wrong concept of victims: desensitization theory(無情論說)

“Desensitization theory, which is also a theory of media effects, proposes that consuming a constant diet of media violence can ‘undermine feelings of concern, empathy, or sympathy viewers {or readers} might have toward victims of actual violence’( Wilson et al. 1998a: 22) In important research conducted by Dietz et al.(1982), for example, it was concluded that men who watch slather films containing rape depictions show less sympathy toward actual rape victims.”- Media violence makes people more aggressive“Changes in behavior are quantified in terms of increases in violent or aggressive play, or propensity to administer pain to another person ( for two classic studies using this approach see Bandura et al. 1963: Berkowitz and Rawlings 1963). Studies of this kind found that what when media audiences are shown content in which the initiator of violence is rewarded, there is often an increased likelihood of audience members exhibiting aggressive behavior.”