Video games have become one of the most consumed types of media. They vary just as much as other forms of media. Consumers can choose between a slow paced strategy game or a fast paced skating game, or an adrenaline-boosting horror game. How can video games affect the player; what could be their benefits or negative effects?

Video games as a concept are like the absolute end of the spectrum when consuming media food immersion. Why watch a movie or TV show when instead one can be the main character in that movie/TV show? Adding to this video games don’t just have to be story-based many are more gameplay oriented in fact most games are.

With the incredible variety of games available, they each can affect one’s mental health in different ways. Some games are useful to help relieve stress  some might induce a feeling of joy when one finally clears a level or beats a difficult boss. Video games could also just be something one plays just to pass the time when bored or waiting for something and video games are more entertaining than simply sitting there waiting or watching a show to pass the time. 

Cost:

Video games do have their purpose and are fairly loved but they do have their issues between getting them and how they can affect one’s health. Simply getting most video games is a small challenge since first a consumer needs the device to play the games on and most of the good games are locked onto consoles or a computer which both can be very pricey. Most devices are several hundred dollars and the video games themselves can be up to $70 and recently some video game developers have thought about making triple on the average same cost. A game being $100, with severe pushback by most consumers, can show how playing video games can be expensive.

Competition:

Among the numerous issues with playing video games one of the only ones that can affect the physical world is some people have severe anger issues. Video games can cause some players to express that anger in an unhealthy and destructive way. As many popular videos online are simply competitive and various examples of players losing their emotional control has gone viral. Some people destroying their controllers or throwing their controllers at their screens or one example someone tearing off their door due to a bug in a video game has gone viral. This creates a negative environment for the fun in which games are supposed to provide.

Control:

Aggravating people and the high prices are two more well documented issues with video games. One however that has been said for decades: do video games actually cause people who play them to become more violent? Short answer: no, playing a first person shooter game will not make the players become violent or participate in violent activity.

The claim of people becoming violent because of what they see or do in a game is just superstition likely caused by video games getting some people incredibly angry. But this mostly happens to people who just have severe anger management or poor emotional regulation issues. Video games have also been shown to cause severe epileptic shocks which can be extremely dangerous for the person however the games that do cause epileptic shock always have warnings of this upon starting the game.

Coordination: 

Video games have been proven to actually improve reaction time as in many of the most popular video games reaction time is one of the main reasons players can beat other players or beat a boss by dodging its attack. Video games also can improve one’s hand-eye coordination because of the fact that they need to focus on the screen they are playing on while doing inputs on a keyboard or controller, this same effect can also happen if they type a lot.

Video games, in mediation, tend to be a net positive for people who play them. Excessively playing though, can cause many of these issues due to addiction. Many video games, make it their goal to provide constant entertainment. Some examples of these are, Call of Duty or Battlefield, both are first person shooter games about fighting other players. Other games are more calming and are much slower paced, the games that come to mind are games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing as they focus on building your world with furniture and developing relationships with non-player characters (NPC).

Video games can also cause blue light sickness an ailment that is caused by heavy exposure to blue light. Most screens produce blue light so if overexposed to one’s phone can cause consumers to lose sleep or blue light can cause one’s body to feel like it needs to stay awake which is why numerous doctors share to not play or use one’s phone for an hour before bed and this can also be applied to playing video games. 

Overall video games provide negatives and positives to society. However if video games are over consumed they can cause existing consequences to become more severe and new complications may arise. Video games can provide a lot in the terms of entertainment and can vary between fun game play to an interesting world, and can help calm people down. They can give them closure in difficult times.