Research memo #3

A typical video gamer.

Analysis:

This video is a wordless video; it was a small skit about the supposedly amazing life of a video gamer. It focuses on mundane actions and puts them in a light of sarcastic amazingness and awe. It is unfortunately how many teens are spending their time these days.

Analysis:

This is by far the most informative piece of media I have found. It is a documentary from 2007 by Chris Green, and it interviews 3 people about their thoughts on video game addiction. The interview included asking what games they played, if they thought video games were addictive, and, most relevant to my topic, if video games had ever interfered with their real life.

The first question was answered with games like Guild Wars and Star Wars Galaxy (keep in mind this video is from 2007). They said they played these games mainly because of the human interaction and the social environment of the games; the players ruled the game in many ways and they found that exciting or interesting.

The second question was answered without much thought; they did not think they were addicted to video games. I find this interesting, because they are all avid gamers. I believe that they may be addicted, or at least partially addicted to video games and not realize it. Addiction often comes with rationalizing the addiction, or making the addiction seem like it is not a big deal, so they may be doing this. It is completely possible that they aren't, though. However, there are many people, mainly teens, that are.

The answer to the last question question varied; there were 2 respondents, and the first one said no. He claimed that it was a harmless hobby and did not affect his real life at all. The second respondent, the girl, answered that they had affected her, but not directly her. She claimed her boyfriend "sometimes played a little too much", and that it was "on and off". She said that for weeks at a time he would not be able to put the controller down, and sometimes he would be able to leave it like it was not a big deal. I suspect this is due to things going on in-game; if he is playing a shooter game, for instance, and he is in the middle of an important match or fight, he will not want to leave because it could affect his score. This can also happen in Role Playing games, where if you are with a team of people fighting a monster or creating a guild, you will not want to leave in the middle of what you are doing. The times that the girl's boyfriend would be able to stop playing the game I suspect to be because he was not doing anything "important" in-game at that time.

Overall the video gave me a great amount of insight on my topic, as well as a couple of different points of view.