My Reasons for doing this

Just lately I have read two books ‘The Cult of the Amateur’ by Andrew Keen and ‘The Dumbest Generation’ by Mark Bauerlein, both of these books look at the impact of the new media age upon society in general and our youngest members in particular. These books are more about the democratization of knowledge and the issues related to the actual time spent on social networking rather than just Video Games but gaming is part and parcel of our digitized entertainment industry and a whole new generation of kids are waiting in the wings ready to take part.

I am particularly interested in the long term effects of video games playing on society as a whole. Is there any problem, is it changing us and does it matter?

Two reasons, no three, why I’m keen to do this.

1. I’m a parent of an 11 year old avid gamer boy.

2. My daughter has recently graduated with a Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment (major Games programming) and is about to embark on a career in the industry. Watching her work through this has been a fascinating journey and really opened my eyes to the vast amount of creative work that goes into one game. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that video games are the high art form of the 21st Century.

3. A few years ago I watched the movie ‘The Children of Men’ with Clive Owens, great movie, anyway it was about a dystopian future where society is effectively in decay and women can no longer have children. There was one particular scene that sent shivers down my spine.
The son of an affluent business man was sitting in scene not communicating at all but lost in some brain controlled virtual reality game, his eyes never moving from the hypnotic visual display and his only movement was slight twitches of his fingers.

Brain controlled gaming and certainly eye movement controls are already a reality, and movies like Avatar and its associated game provide alluring inner virtual worlds that are so much more compelling than real life.

As a parent watching my kids play their video games I can see that they are having fun in a safe and controlled environment, engaging with the media and certainly using their brains, it’s the rest of their bodies I worry about.

I want to use this blog to post information about new research and news related to the impacts of gaming and I hope that gamers, parents, teachers and academics will post ideas and thoughts on their own personal experiences related to video gaming.

References

Bauerlein, M. (2008). The Dumbest Generation. New York: Penguin Group.

Keane, A. (2007). The Cult of the Amateur . New York: Double Day.

Hawkins, K. (2007, March 7). Emotiv Ushers New Era of Gaming; Enables Players to Control Games with Their Brains. Retrieved Jan 15, 2010, from gamedev.net: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=438376