The Video Game Industry

Social Factors

Video games have an enormous place in society – most kids are exposed to video games in some sort of capacity growing up. Just like other technological mediums, there are both positive and negative social issues related to video gaming.

Some Positive Effects of Playing Video Games

Video games have proven to be effective tools for children’s learning when used appropriately as they impart specific attitudes, skills and behaviors on the player. For example, some video games have helped to teach children how to effectively deal with their asthma and diabetes. Further, in a study with college students, playing a golf video game improved students’ actual control of force when putting, even though the video game gave no bodily feedback on actual putting movement or force. Video games have also been shown to increase surgical skills for doctors, and research has more broadly proven that people can learn iconic, spatial, and visual attention skills from video games.[1]

Some Negative Effects of Playing Video Games

Research has shown that video games can lead to negative effects on children’s physical health, including obesity, video-induced seizures, and postural, muscular and skeletal disorders, such as tendonitis, nerve compression, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Additionally, the amount of time spent playing video games has been shown to have a negative correlation with academic performance.[2]

But even more prevalent, is that playing video games has been shown to have a positive correlation with antisocial and aggressive behavior. Violent video games are most commonly defined as games where the player can intentionally harm the other characters. Not only do a majority of video games today fall under this definition, but a recent study established that the majority of 4^th to 8^th grade students prefer violent games.[3]

Environmental Factors

E-Waste

Almost 50 million tons of electronic products are discarded every year, and the figure continues to grow as the lifespan of new devices continues to shrink. According to the environmental organization Greenpeace, that estimated amount of e-waste generated every year put into containers on a train would be enough to circle the globe!

In fact, up to five percent of all municipal solid waste worldwide is this electronic waste (e-waste). Such is the magnitude of this e-waste that it now ties with plastic packaging in number, yet electronic waste is much more hazardous. While mobile phones and computers are the main causes of this ever-increasing waste as they are replaced on average more frequently, video games and video game consoles contribute significantly to e-waste.

To further explore some of the themes we have discussed above please review our following case studies.

[2] http://www.buzzle.com/articles/effects-of-video-games-on-children.html

[3] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0816/is_6_21/ai_n9772319/