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Timothy Jester
Mr. Cretacci
English IV- Comp.
24 November 2015
Video Games and Its Relations to People and Society
The topic of the I-Search I decided to present about is video games and its relations to
people and society because I am a person who enjoys video games in general and I wanted to
figure out if video games really have a positive influence on the people who play them and the
society it is currently viewing. As it has already been known, video games are defined as
electronic games that involve basic human interaction with a user interface to generate visual
feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or a computer monitor. These devices have been
entertaining many people around the world from the early days of the 1980s to the present time
in the 2010s. Throughout the years, there has been a continuous controversy on whether video
games either have positive aspects that make people lean toward them or negative aspects that
make people move away from them.
I have found a maximum of ten sources to look through to see what professionals think
video games should be when it comes to interacting with people and society. I have looked
through seven articles that list many reasons why video games are a good thing to deal with
while it also contains the reasons why video games are a bad thing to deal with. The reason I
wanted to look at the other side of the argument is because I wanted to see what I think should be
fixed and changed in order to turn them into better reasons for why video games should be more
positive in peoples everyday cycle. I also had time to do two different interviews about this
topic: Psychologist Christopher Ferguson in an e-mail interview and Mr. Stephen Rose, a teacher

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in my high school, ACHS, who also runs CIV Club after school. Along with that, instead of
another interview, I was told to make a survey to find out how other people feel about video
games, but then I was told not to do so I had to find survey online which talks about video games
and its effects on people.
When it comes to looking for my ten resources, it was both easy and tough to find the
ones that I needed to use for my topic. It was easy to look for my topic inside of the articles since
I only had to search for the topic on Google and I found multiple articles that are about the topic
that have many reasons for why video games are good for everyday life. It was much tougher
looking for the people who I had to interview about my topic since I had to have the right time to
interview them, I had to think of at least ten questions I had to ask him for my topic, and I had to
find a way to contact both of them, via email or face-to-face, in order to have the right
opportunity to interview them for my research. It was easy to find a survey based on video games
since even though I originally had a survey that was tough to think of, it was much easier to find
a survey by someone else than making one up for everyone to answer the questions.
Since I really wanted to do video games as the focus of my research, I really wanted to
figure out if I could try to grab the audiences attention so they can follow along with what I
think of video games and how I think I should believe that video games would do much more
positive things to help people instead of doing more negative things to hinder people. After this, I
want to see if most people would agree with me and my opinion on this topic because it would
make more people interested with the many ways video games bring more good things than bad
things in the world. As I would like to follow along with my own opinion, video games most
definitely have the ability to be a positive influence in many peoples lives and to society itself.

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The first article I looked through was Playing For Real by Tom Baranowski of the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and his article is talking about how video games
could give player involvement for younger and older audiences. He is providing a channel for
bringing health-related behavior change experiences and messages for a much more engaging
and entertaining format. Baranowski and three other researchers, Richard Buday, Debbe
Thompson, and Janice Baranowski, had identified 27 articles about 25 different video games that
would promote health-related behavior change experience and they demonstrated the many types
of changes that can be shown in them. Todays children and young adults are extensive users of
digital devices, and video games are a big part of their digital experience and video games reach
a large and diverse audience who expect extended contact, suggesting games can attract and
maintain attention, a key component for very effective behavior change.
Theory provides the foundation for promoting behavior change and the comprehensive
model of learning for behavior change in video games is based on social cognitive theory and the
elaboration likelihood model, and includes the following steps: attention, retention, production,
and motivation. Variability in the games and measures employed precluded characteristics that
are systematically related to the outcomes of the games since many of these games have
attention-getting properties of stories and fantasy, engaging properties of interactivity and
behavior change technology. The second generation of research requires models of pathways of
effects, and testing theory-based propositions as this should include how to use story to affect
variables on the pathways to change. Video game stories involve modeling identifying
experiences and the moral of the story, among other requirements and knowing how to catch the
power of media-based video game interventions offers great promise to help promote healthrelated behavior changes.

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The next article I looked up was Are Video Games Good or Bad ... or Both? by Mike
Ferlazzo of Iowa State University and he talks about how can video games be good or bad for
society, and he also talks about if video games are supposed to be both good and bad for society.
Ferlazzo looks up articles from the journal Nature Reviews/Neuroscience with Douglas Gentile
to find 6 articles from 6 experts in order to know the positive and negative perspectives on video
game benefits and video game problems. The parts of the article tell about the good news, bad
news and addictions that are shown with video games in general found by the 6 experts. The
good news shows how the people are positively affected by video games for advantages in
everyday life while, the bad news shows how people are negatively affected for disadvantages in
everyday life, and addressing addictions can show that people can play video games for very
good things, but they do it for the completely wrong reasons.
Also for the good news, in one study Ferlazzo looked at, University of Rochester
researchers Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green found out that playing the first-person shooter
game Unreal Tournament improved perceptual and attention skills. In another study he found,
experimental studies in the countries of the U.S., Japan, and Singapore found that playing
prosocial games led to more subsequent helping behavior in users. For the bad news, in a
different study Ferlazzo looked at, ISU Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson
found out that violent gameplay led to significant increases in desensitization, physiological
arousal, aggressive cognition, and aggressive behavior while it also decreased pro-social
behavior. Ferlazzo found scores of studies that show the pattern of problems pathological gamers
face are very similar to the problems people with substance abuse or gambling addictions have.
In the end, Ferlazzo finds out that this topic about is neither good nor bad and current researching
needs to be at its full potential in order find out if the topic is on one side or not.

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Another article I began to look through was Nic Flemings "Why Video Games May Be
Good For You" from BBC Future, and it explains why he is trying to debunk the negative things
about video games and he is trying to explain why video games are good and how do they have
positive effects on peoples lives and society. Games have long been accused of making players
violent, but evidence has been building over the years that they can have positive effects.
Fleming starts of with talking about the recent mass shootings around the world and results show
that all of this started because the killers behavior came from experiences with playing video
games. Then, Fleming explains that video games have much more positive things for health
components than they have negative things for unhealthy components. Some of those
components include identifying distraction, better and faster reactions, improve non-gamers
vision, ability to read small letters and be more likely to help others in real life or simulated
tasks. Taken as a whole, the research poses a problem for those hoping that video games can
provide a path to smarter, kinder young people, but since action games are high among the bestsellers, they involve a lot more fighting and killing than caring and sharing.
One of the good things about this is that Daphne Bavelier, a neuroscientist at the
University of Rochester, New York, recently received a US National Science Foundation grant to
create an action game for 8-to-12 year olds that improves their ability to rapidly estimate
numbers, which is a skill that correlates with improved mathematics performance. Another good
thing is that, Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is
leading a project to develop two games to help 11-to-14 year olds develop greater empathy, cooperation, mental focus, and self control. Fleming finishes off the article with explaining that this
important decision will all go down to the consumers to find out whether they play the video
games scientists say are good for them.

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This next article, "Impact On Computer Games On Society" from Content Writer, is used
to make a basic knowledge of how video games of the last 20 years had affected society in many
positive and negative ways. It also tells that the impact of video games on society keeps on
growing into much more areas as video games are getting higher in quality. In general, video
game industries need to constantly improve and make changes to their games in order to make
technology more useful and available for the target audiences. The article points out some
reasons why video games are positively impacting society, including hand-eye coordination,
brain training, thinking and strategy skills, future impact and impact on mainstream app
development.
It also points out some reasons why video games are negatively impacting society
including excess play time, social isolation, costs, reality separations and education. Near the end
of the article, it asks about how video games would impact society in the near future and how
everyone will be associated with them at some point. The article ends up explaining about more
of the positive attributes rather than the negative attributes, but it still shows the other side to tell
the differences between each other. It could be said that many of the negative effects of gaming
are extreme cases and that games are a good way to relax and become part of a wider gaming
community as long as they are not played excessively.
The next article on my list was Sherilynn Macales "The Future Is Gaming: How New
Gamers Are Affecting Society" from The Next Web, and her article is talking about video games
and how it was a previously overlooked activity that is eventually going to be unavoidable thing
to do in the future. It also shows how demands in gaming are managing developers to make
games that can help people interact with the environment and it is trying to bring more

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technology into everyday lives. In a study from Latitude Research, Natilie Stehfest believes that
in the future, everyone is about to be more involved into video games.

She also said that the gamers of the future will not be limited by any platforms or
locations, and the world around us will become the ultimate playing field for every age to be
involved in. People would already think that this topic is shallow since video games are now a
source of entertainment that is popping up in daily lives. Older groups are trying to get used to
the new technology to be like the casual gamers, and much younger groups are starting to adapt

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to the new technology so they can become the new casual gamers. This comes to show that
people need to adapt to the newer things in order to have it become a part of their life they would

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get used to it.

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Next, in Scott Steinbergs article, "The Benefits of Video Games from ABC News, his
opinion in the article says that in addition to knowing the real concerns that todays parents have
about video games, and it is also worth considering the benefits that interactive entertainment
choices provide. Steinberg also mentions that some M-rated games, are the most popular video
game titles in the industry and they are given to the average age of todays gaming audience.
ESRBs Patricia Vance, however, thinks that parents feel that video games are not for the family
because video games in the media promote violence and things that are hardcore. E-rated games

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are the most family-centered out of all games and they are the biggest group in the ESRB with
60% of all games being that rating so it is still okay to play video games with the entire family.
According to a recent study from the Education Development Center and the Ready To
Learn Initiative found that a curriculum that involved digital media such as video games could
improve early literacy skills when coupled with strong parental and teacher involvement.
According to the Office of Naval Research they indicated that video games can help adults
process information much faster and improve their fundamental abilities to reason and solve
problems in novel contexts. Other known studies have also shown that action video games can
improve several aspects of brain activity, including multitasking. Steinberg believes that every
video game, no matter what rating it is, can and do have redeeming qualities for players and it is
shown in a number of different and surprising ways.
The final article I have managed to find was Ted Thornhills "Video Games Are Good For
You from Mail Online, and it states that even though it is very counter-intuitive, researchers
found that video games, including violent shooter titles, may raise learning, health and social
skills. Authors say findings have critical implications for education along with other benefits that
include improved reasoning, a sharper memory and lower anxiety levels. Many professional
psychologists do not exactly agree with this statement and they say that video games can
definitely lead to health risks including addiction, depression and aggression.
Psychologists say that the research that had been conducted for decades about the bad
effects of video games should not be completely ignored. The article wanted to look at the good
effects including improved navigation, decision-making and reasoning, sharpened memory,
enhanced perception, make problem-solving skills and emotional resilience, promote relaxation,
remove anxiety and lead to better careers. Thornhill personally recommends that psychologists

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and game developers should work together to make approaches to mental health care that could
put video game playing with traditional therapy together to make video games that will increase
helpful skills.
The only survey I have decided to look through was Game Addiction Survey from the
website Survey Monkey, and it asks about what types of video games do people play currently
and it asks if video games would be a more mandatory and mundane part of life instead of doing
it every once in awhile for leisure and entertainment. It also asks people if playing video games
everyday can either help or hinder health, social and emotional components with friends and
family. Certain questions of this survey will ask the person some of the most important questions
that involve their personal life, including questions that would involve the person to play video
games while drinking alcohol, doing drugs or neither one.

This survey also asks the person about how much money is spent on buying video games
every year and about how much money is spent on playing video games every week. It shows
that there are a lot of people that are doing the exact same things as the person taking the survey
and This survey is supposed to show if other people have more similar or differing answers as

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the person who is taking the survey and it will show how this will possibly affect them and other
people in the future.This particular survey is supposed to find out if the person who is taking the
survey is being completely honest with their answer to every single question and seeing if they
are agreeing or disagreeing with other people's opinion about video games.

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The first interview I decided that I wanted to run through was with Christopher Ferguson
Ph.D., Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Psychology at Stetson University, because I wanted
to ask him about how video games affect people positively and negatively to people's lives and to
society since one of Christopher Fergusons main studies is involved with violence in video
games. It was an email interview, so I had to think of questions that to be related to the topic I
was asking Ferguson and he would have to answer the questions by sending me the well-detailed
answers. Some of the questions involved included the motivation for starting research on video
game violence, what kind of violence is violent in video games and how is age a factor in a
persons experience with violent video games. He also says that people today are making a false
assumption that video games can lead to violence it is the reason why all of these murders and
tragic events are have happened.
Video games are not supposed to make people cause violence in real life and the only
violence that should be noticeable at all is the violence inside of the video games. Other
questions were answered including what certain age should kids be at in order to play violent

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video games, what if aggression encourages people to play violent video games and what was
noticed video games and the behavior it gave to kids. This interview also explains why the
impact of violent games on children in limited, what were the restrictions on how, what and
when children should play video games and what is lacking in the studies claiming that video
games do cause violence.

The only other interview I wanted to run through was with my former Global Studies and
Geography Teacher, Mr. Stephen Rose, because he seems to know some things about video
games since he leads an after school club named CIV Club. This interview was a face-to-face
interview, so I had to ask him via email when and where I could meet up with him in the school

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in order to do the interview. The video game experiences Mr. Rose is currently involved in his
CIV Club, where students can play the PC game, Civilization, a strategic game that involves his
students making plans to keep their fictional empires safe while trying their best to take over
other empires. I asked Mr. Rose 11 questions involving his past experiences with video games,
his thoughts on whether video games are a positive influence to peoples lives and society and
what kinds of games does he think will help those positive experiences.
He had been answering more positively with my questions when he told me that he had
first associated with video games since he was a young child and they had helped him positively
throughout his life. I also asked Mr. Rose about what traits in video games makes them so
popular, is there anything about these video games that are useful in real life and would these
factors be more positive or negative. He said that certain types of games, like violent video
games, are the most popular games out there because it lets you do anything you want in the
game, but not in real life, and it is a good thing that those factors are not supposed to go into real
life situations. The last couple questions I had asked Mr. Rose were about when should children
be exposed to video games, how much time should you normally play video games, what would
be the future of video games and how will it affect society. Mr. Rose specifically said that all
children should start playing video games once they have known more about learning brand new
concepts in the real world and see if they try to bring those recently learned tactics into the
imaginary video game world.
After all of this very long research about positivity of video games in peoples lives and
society, I have already discovered that it was very difficult to do this I-Search since it took so
much time to do any of the work. It was a little tough when I was trying to find at least seven
articles that would help relate to my topic in hand. Also, I had to find a survey that was based on

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the topic instead of trying to make my own survey, and it took a long time for me to get the
people I had to interview with when one of them has to be a face-to-face interview and the other
one has to be an email interview. It was tough to find people to talk to about this topic since it is
so rare to find psychologists that can do video games as well as having other subtopics of it. It
feels like I have certainly met the objective of this project since I have explained the most
important parts of each article, and I have gotten much more information from the interviews I
have taken with the people I have talked to.
For the most part, I pretty much liked the results that I have gotten for my research paper
because it had made me learn more things about video games that I did not even know about, and
it had given me so much more time to work on it so I could put in more information if I really
needed to. What I have really learned from the process of a research assignment is that doing a
research project takes a lot of time to do and usually I want to get everything done by the due
date or earlier. This is because I do not want to take way too much time on a project that is
important to my grades and my academic progress. For this I-Search, I want to to do the best I
can do with a long and tedious project that is important to the rest of high school. For me, this ISearch is a make or break deal, meaning that it would make me be able to graduate or it would
make me do this class all over again. I definitely choose the side that will help me continue my
life and it will help me go for the things that I really want to do for the near future.
I have learned that most of the articles I have looked up on have a lot more positive
aspects about video games rather than negative aspects. Most of the articles based on video
games should be more toward the positive side of the spectrum in order to find out what video
games can do for people who just want to enjoy their lives. It also shows that people of all ages
can be able to play video games while learning about components that will make them smarter as

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time will go on. When I play video games myself, I feel like it should be more towards the
positive side because they would help me feel much more happier than I really am and it would
make me much smarter in my personal life and around other people. They have inspired me to be
a part in the video game community, and in the future, people of newer generations would be
more involved with video games if they had learned them from previous generations, like the one
I am currently involved in.
All I wanted to do in this project is to make a topic that was a good topic to talk about
that is appealing to the audience in any way possible. I wanted to talk about the positivity of
video games and how it relates to peoples lives and to society, and it is a topic I wanted to do
since the beginning of my journey of research. I wanted to see if people would agree with my
stance on this because of the articles I had to look up and the people that I had to talk to in order
to get all of the research on why video games are good things to deal with on a daily basis. Video
games is a topic I wanted to talk about for a long time, and now I had the chance to talk about it
in a positive way so everyone has the chance to look at this topic and see what they can do with
it. I just wanted to share what I think video games are related to peoples lives and society based
on the evidence I have found to go with my topic.

Works Cited
Baranowski, Tom. Playing For Real American Journal of Preventive Medicine. U.S. National
Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Ferguson, Christopher. I-Search: Psychologist Interview. Email Interview. 16 Oct. 2015.

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Ferlazzo, Mike. Are Video Games Good or Bad ... or Both? Futurity. Iowa State University, 30
Dec. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Fleming, Nic. Why Video Games May Be Good For You BBC. BBC Future, 26 Aug. 2013.
Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Game Addiction Survey Survey. Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey, 5 Oct. 2015. Web. 16 Oct.
2015.
Impact On Computer Games On Society Content Writer. Educational Content For IT People
10 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Macale, Sherilynn. The Future Is Gaming: How New Gamers Are Affecting Society The Next
Web. Insider, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Rose, Stephen. I-Search Teacher Interview. Personal Interview. 16 Oct. 2015.
Steinberg, Scott. The Benefits of Video Games ABC News. Good Morning America, 26 Dec.
2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Thornhill, Ted. Video Games Are Good For You Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 26
Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.