Do Games Count, too?

After midterms, our class began diving into the world of video games, exploring what they are as well as various types of video games. But before we began looking at and playing video games, our class had to discover more about the study of video games, or game studies. As explained by Wikipedia, game studies “is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them.” However, even though video games are widely studied, there is still a misconception held by our society that video games are useless and have no meaning whatsoever. They are only seen as distraction or outlet that leads players to act violently in the real world.

Aaron A. Reed

When we first began studying games, our tribe was unsure if they had any real value. While we didn’t see video games as only a distraction or outlet that leads players to violence, we were still unsure if we could consider video games as having the same artistic, narrative, or meaningful value and attention that audiences could easily discover and gain from traditional works of the humanities such as art, music, literature, and film.

Almost Goodbye

However, once we started to indulge in and discover the world of video games, our tribe began to think differently, beginning to see how video games can be useful and actually be good to play. For instance, one of the first video games our tribe looked at was the game “Almost Goodbye” by Aaron A. Reed. In this game, the story of Doctor Muriel Ross, a woman who is about to leave Earth forever is played out before audiences. However, unlike traditions works of literature, “Almost Goodbye” actively seeks user participation, leading users to help write Ross’s story of who she will say goodbye to, where she will say goodbye to them, and ultimately how she will say goodbye to them before leaving Earth. As our group ventured throughout the piece, we began to realize “Almost Goodbye” was unlike any game we had come to previous know before. This wasn’t a shooter game or a game with a specific mission. What we saw was that “Almost Goodbye” was an unlikely adventure game, having users control a story, rather than being transported to an alternate world like traditional adventure video, letting them create their own path for Dr. Muriel Ross before leaving Earth.

Along with “Almost Goodbye” our class looked at two different articles, “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You" and "How Computer Games Helped Me Recover from My Heroin Addiction,” that explore some of the reasons why games are truly valuable and attention worthy. For instance in “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You,” Huffington Post writer, Drew Guarini, explores 9 different and distinct ways video games are exquisite. One of the reasons he explains why video games are good for people, is that video games actually slow down a person’s aging process. According to a study conducted by the University of Iowa, “A study of 681 healthy individuals ages 50 or older revealed that playing 10 hours of a specifically designed video game was able to stall the natural decline of different cognitive skills by up to seven years.” This means that playing video games actually lead seniors to live longer and live happier. Another one of the reasons Guarini gives that suggests video games are good, is that games, specifically shooting games can improve a person’s eyesight. As depicted by a study from the University of Rochester, players participating in “shoot-’em-up games saw a boost in their ‘contrast sensitivity function,’ or the ability to discern subtle changes in the brightness of an image.” These results have led “the study’s authors (to) believe that the process of locating and aiming at enemies exercised gamers’ eyes,” which “serve as an aid we correct bad vision.” Like Guarini’s article, Michael W. Clune additionally writes that video games helped him overcome his long addiction with heroin. For instance, in his article, “How Video Games Helped Me Recover from My Heroin Addiction,” Clune expresses that computer games have always “enhanced and enriched my life while drugs and alcohol turned me into a walking corpse.” What he means by this was that computer games was his escape from the

Michael W. Clune

original high he once knew and kept looking for when he turned to alcohol and heroin. Video games were his safe place, where he suffered no negative consequences and where his mind and body are able to both be joined together to create an ultimate experience within himself, as he familiarizes himself with the game.

After discovering more about the world of video games and the studies that surround them, our tribe believes that video games should be considered as valuable and as meaningful as traditional humanities studies. While these games contrast traditional works of the humanities, video games present users with an experience that they can participate in and actively be apart of. Moreover, even though these outlets are visually and auditorily different from traditional literary outlets, users can always be able to take away lessons from them, such as the cooperation of working with other players, creativity that the game encases within its art and sound, and the perseverance one can gain by battling through trial and error to complete a specific task. Because of these lessons along with the countless other lessons users can take away from video games, our tribe believes that video game are good for humanity, helping us discover and learn more about our people in new interactive ways.