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Noah Neel

Mrs. Cramer

English Comp 1 pd.8

Nov. 2 2018

Video Games and It’s Surprising Connections

Surprisingly, people are considering video games to have uses other than entertainment.

Throughout the years, video games have changed from something simple like pong to something

difficult like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Also, the production of games has changed by

the increasing cost, production time, and number of employees. Add this with increasing

deadlines and more pressure is put on the developers, which would lead to stress with the

workload. This will cause some to work overtime, holidays, and with some risking their health to

make sure they can reach those deadlines, so they can reach customers’ expectations. Video

games are becoming more complicated on how they tell the story, and portraying and developing

the characters. Video games have become a contemporary and complicated medium that society

must consider to an artform, others see it as an educational tool, and with both positive and

negative effects on someone’s mental health.

To begin, some people consider video games as a form of art. In an article published

explaining why video games are art. The author explains that video games are art for their

historical, aesthetic, and the motives of the developers. (Aaron Smuts) What he’s saying is that

how video games look, the historic events they are trying to portray, and the motivation of the

developers should be taken in to consideration.

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This should be considered art because of how it’s unique to that game or series. The art

styles of video games are very diverse from each other. An example would be the Legend of

Zelda: Breath of the Wild, because of its cartoony characters and realistic scenery while,

Twilight Princess, a game in the same series went with a more realistic and darker aesthetic.

Another game series that has extremely realistic graphics is the FIFA series, due to it trying to be

a simulation. Video games can be considered art for portraying historic events. Battlefield 1 is a

good example of portraying World War 1 considering the technology, vehicles, and weapons that

were used in the game. Another game series that portray different parts in history is Assassin

Creed. They portray different time periods and countries such as ancient Egypt, colonial

America, and England during the Industrial Revolution. Also, they include multiple of historical

figures. One example is Charles Dickens, who is a famous author. He made a cameo in Assassin

Creed Syndicate. To conclude, people consider video games to be a form of art, with the points

and examples I listed.

Second, other people consider video games to be a good tool for education. In the Article,

“Video Game Education”, the author points out that video games can influence critical thinking

and decision-making skills. (Brian Flanner) According to the article, video games can help

improve decision-making by making better choices. They also could help students with solving

math equations and analyzing text in English. Some games that could help influence thinking are

Brain Age and Lumosity. Another example of games that can improve thinking are RPGs,

because they require well thought out strategies. Some games that demonstrate that is Final

Fantasy series, with the combat system and items you use. This is due to how some items affect

your stats in the game and if know how the combat system works, then you’ll usually do well.

Third, one game series that shows off critical and quick thinking is Pokémon, when you

play against someone else at a high level, because it requires a lot more thinking. Also, video
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games can help people with certain learning disabilities like dyslexia, because a study showed

that kids that played as little as twelve hours helped improve their reading scores (Eugenio,

Sheila). The reason that this could have helped is that, they could have been reading the dialog

and the text on the screen of story driven games. To wrap up, video games can be used to help in

the classroom and help people with disabilities with the articles and examples I provided.

Finally, Video games have positive and negative effects on someone’s mental health. In a

study that shows that action video games improve divided attention but lowers reaction time.

(Patricia M. Greenfield) the study shows that that video games can be good to improve

multitasking which can help students with working on projects. Conversely, they are bad for

lowering reaction time. Example of games that could help benefit improving divided attention is

games like Fortnite because you must pay attention to the sound and surrounding as well. A

positive affect video games has is that they can be motivational, especially sport game. There

was a study among eleven to twelve-year-old boys and sixty three percent of them want to be

professional athletes. (Willis, Laurie) The reason sport games can be a great motivator is from

the opportunities they provide the kids to play as their favorite sports team and or favorite

athlete, which could motivate them to try they can play that sport professional and play for their

favorite team like in the games. Another negative effect video game have is that they can make

players more aggressive (Casey, Michael.) This could be caused by multiple factors like bad

controls, other players, and poorly designed levels. To end, video games have positive and

negative effects on someone’s mental health.

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In conclusion, people consider video games to be art, a good tool for education and has

both negative and positive effects on someone’s mental health. People consider video games to

be art on how it looks and what they portray. Others say it’s a good educational tool they help

improve thinking. They have positive and negative effects on someone’s mental health because

they lower reaction time but help with multi-tasking. Before wrapping up, gaming is becoming a

new place for people to meet new people and can make a career off playing them. Another thing,

is some professional gamers are starting to get mainstream attention like Ninja who was on

CNBC, played with artist Drake, and on the cover of ESPN magazine.
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Casey, Michael. "Do Violent Video Games Lead to Criminal Behavior?" CBS News, 17

Aug. 2015, www.cbsnews.com/news/

do-violent-video-games-lead-to-criminal-behavior/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2018.

Eugenio, Sheila. "8 Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games for Kids."

Engadget, 9 Feb. 2017, www.engadget.com/2017/02/09/

8-cognitive-benefits-of-playing-video-games-for-kids/. Accessed 19 Feb.

2018.

Flannery, Brian. "Video Game Education." Computer Science and Information

Systems, citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/

download?doi=10.1.1.466.4079&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 21 Sept. 2018.

Greenfield, Patricia M., et al. "Action video games and informal education:

Effects on strategies for dividing visual attention." Science Direct, 12

Aug. 2002, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0193397394900086.

Accessed 21 Sept. 2018.

Smuts, Aaron. "Are Video Games Art?" Contemporary Aesthetics, 20 Sept. 2016,

digitalcommons.risd.edu/liberalarts_contempaesthetics/vol3/iss1/6/.

Accessed 21 Sept. 2018.

Video Games. Greenhaven Press, 2010.