Since computer games have been developed over the years it has certainly affected our society. There are
many advantages and disadvantages to ICT games which I am going to discuss in this
article.
Positive
There are many positive aspects of ICT games:
Hand to Eye Coordination
Many games now involve hand to eye
coordination ranging from virtual tennis to training real pilots to fly a plane
but not risking lives. Hand –eye
coordination is a useful key in life and by playing games, some reports say that
surgeons that play ICT games regally have become more skilled in their
practice. Also sports players can simulate a real game through ICT games. An
example of this is the Wii baseball game in which uses actual motion of
the remote to hit the ball. Games are now also being used to train pilots and
drivers in a simulation game as though it is real which reduces the risk of
endangering the life of the learner or instructor.
Brain Training
There are now a range of games which include brain training but in a fun game format, making it much more fun than
normal classroom learning. The brain training ranges from strategy, maths,
logic, spellings and many more, improving the brain all round. Because games have scores and a continuous
tracking of your progress it can get the player to want to improve their score
so improving their overall learning. Brain training does not just help children
at school but also adults in general life.
Decision Making and Thinking Skills
Games such as war games are very
helpful for thinking skills as you cannot just move the character, but it takes
thinking time and making quick decisions to decide where to go next. This can
link into real life as often you have to make quick hard decisions. Also games
such as football games in which you have to be a manager require good thinking
skills as it takes serious planning and thinking to make sure that you win
matches, all the team is injury free, you have the right players on the pitch
and so on. Again, these skills can come into real life as you may have to have
team management at school or work.
Negative
Not only are there positive points
for ICT games, but there are also lots of negative points that have bad impacts on
society:
Addiction
Some games can become very
addictive because the player begins to get obsessed with the game and wants to
improve their score constantly. This could be a good point in small doses
however it can become something that people do constantly. This could lead to people missing important
things such as school, work and meetings as they are playing ICT games. Also it can make people tired as they have
lost vital sleep through playing on them.
Social Isolation
Following from gamers playing ICT
games for too long, this can lead to social isolation as if gamers play for
hours and hours without communication with others humans they can become
isolated from the outside world. Gamers could suffer from bad communication
skills and social skills this could be bad on their life and people may not
want to talk to the gamer as they can’t hold a very good conversation. However, game makers say that there are online friends but this cannot overrun real life
humans as they can begin to believe that their life is actually in the virtual
life. Also online friends could not be who they say they
are, leading to trust issues.
Cost
As there is such a high demand in
ICT games the costs are constantly going up and not everyone can afford to purchase
the ‘latest’ games. There are new
releases all of the time and gamers could like all of the new games and game
consoles to keep up with other people so they don’t get bullied as they don’t
have the latest edition. It can put great pressure on the parents to buy all of
the games to keep their child happy.
ICT games have many different
effects on society, both good and bad, but overall ICT games have positive
impacts on society as long as they are not played excessively. There is a great potential for ICT games to
have even more positive in the future and technology is improving all of the
time such as the Xbox having a remote control free game which makes the games
even more realistic.
year 9
