Video Games: Harmful Or Useful?
November 30, 2009
Imagine a video game on a battlefield with soldiers of proportionate size with gear that looks too good to be true. This is what video game makers are putting out on the shelves nowadays to satisfy the hunger for real life situation. Night Vision Goggles with realistic features are being sold as well as virtual Flight Helmets and cordless weapons. Could this be a scary outbreak, or could it be the very start of a more sophisticated society? Children of young ages to adults with busy lives are purchasing these video games because they are fun, but how do they portray the real military world and how does that influence your child’s mind?
The military is a frightening world and the shooting and killing and tough situations that they go through every day are not false. Video games seem to put off the assumption that everything will be okay and that there is always a restart button. In real life, there is no start over button and once the game is finished, it is officially over. The military has even started to use video games as a tactic to grab younger people and get them to think about the joining the military. The lifelike virtual games are great until people start to trust that they are real and the illusion of a never ending military is set.
People need to understand the military is a serious place, and it’s not a video game. Therefore the video games need to be expressed as realistic but completely virtual. Video games can be a must for some, and there are addicts in real life. The video game companies are taking a real thing and turning it into an illusion that people may think is the real thing. The video game provides an impractical view of a certain lifestyle, just like the movies. People take it seriously and then they experience the real thing and they are unhappy and disappointed.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing a virtual video game with cool, lifelike gear; look at games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band for instance. Those games are harmless but one realizes that they cannot play the real guitar. The issue is when one starts experimenting with the tactics of war. Once it turns into something other than a game, it can be hard to change a person’s point of view. War is a serious subject, and to think of it as a joke, can be very dangerous.
Video games are meant to be games and the serious take on certain subjects has, frankly, gone overboard. The best thing a person can do is to keep in mind that it is a game and that even though you may use real gear and cool looking weapons, that it is not a real life circumstance. The virtual aspect of a game is meant to immerse you in the situation, but when it is over realize that it is over, no one is invincible in real life and bad things can still happen to you.
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