Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Shooting Games
You wake up and you’re lying down in a war zone. Your aircraft has just crashed on a remote planet. Shots are being fired in your direction from people approximately 100 feet away from you. Next to you lie a shotgun, a pistol and a sniper rifle. You pick up the sniper rifle, but you have no ammunition. You quickly maneuver your way around the battlefield and find a box full of bullets. You load up your gun and take aim at your enemies. You decide which enemies are the biggest threat and kill them first. All this happens in the comfort of your home! Very engaging and thought provoking, don’t you think? This is a small scale example of many modern shooting games that involve using critical thinking skills and important cognitive functions. These games involve you at a level that is almost reality. Choosing what cover to take, which path to maneuver through to find bullets, and choosing which gun best fit’s the situation that you’re in, all involve important critical thinking skills. It puts in a sense of priority in the person, teaching them to make choices in life that are according to priority. The cognitive skills are involved when the game requires you to press a series of buttons in order to perform specific actions and navigate your way around the battlefield. Just imagine moving one joystick in an up-and-down movement to move forward and backwards, then another joystick to turn right and left. On top of that, imagine pressing the right joystick to fire your gun and pressing the “a” button to jump and pressing the “b” button to throw a grenade, then activating your shield with the left second trigger button. If we engage our kids in playing these games, I think we can rest assure that our future generations will think in much a much faster pace.
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Hi Ahmed, this is Faith and I sit behind you. Although your blog was very descriptive as to how our children minds would be exercised it was also very complitcated. What helps in a situation like this is your reader has experience both, with video games and children. I like how you gave information and pointed out some good skills as a result, but it seemed like if the blog were longer you would have stayed objective without the lack of infomation.
ReplyDeleteI did an my argumentative essay on the effects of video games on children. There are a number of factors to consider actually when letting our kids play video games. Factors as what type of game it is (educational vs. a shooting game), how long does the child play, is the game played solo or with other players like a MMO (massively mutliplayer online game), and what type of parental supervision is given. With my essay I found that too much exposure to the type of game you described can have negative behavioral results on children. It can cause them to become unruly, causing fights, and small crimes at school and home. Playing the game too much can also lead to bad health and obiesty. While I will agree that the critical thinking and cognitive skills of the game have postive effects on the child, there are still the other factors that worry me. I think it would really depend on the age of child to play the type of game you are describing. Perhaps a bit more information in your blog as to stated facts to support your claim are needed.
ReplyDeleteHi Faith, This is Ahmed. I agree I do need a bit more to support my argument. I think I was trying to go more towards the route of a logical one, rather than a factual one. But for sure, it's just my opinion on the matter and my opinion is not enough to persuade other readers. Thanks for the advice!
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ReplyDeleteAs I type this my 13 year old son is playing modern war ware 2 Yes this is a very detailed game of killing and war. I allow my child to play but with supervision. Ibelieve my son realizes this game is just a game, however I do see some children using these war games getting the wrong ideas. I think video game creators should go back to games like mario brothers, or pac man The only reason why children want to play these games is because its the new game and peer pressure im sure they want to have wht theree friends have. I dont like the games and yes I know I said i allow my child to play. all I have to say its's tough growing up in this society kids can be cruel
Hey Christina. I definitely agree with you that we should go back to making games like super mario and pacman. I mean with the technology that we have now, we should easily be able to make a much better and more entertaining version of mario. It may very well be that violent video games instill an unconscious negative thinking.
ReplyDeleteAbout ten years ago someone did a study at a video game competition and concluded that for one to win a fighting game tournament one would have to think in par with that of a chess tournament. Video games can help stimulate the brains problem solving abilities. Video games have always gotten a bad rap and perhaps always will. There will always be some that feel and game is a waste of time when there is work to be done.
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