NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Laoag City, 2900

VEDASTO J. SAMONTE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES1

MAED STUDENT: Joshua D. Valiente Student ID NO: 20-12525

PROFESSOR: Zenaida Franco Date:

TOPICS TO DISCUSS:
1. Effects of virtual gaming in the society.
a. Positive effect
i. Cognitive Development
ii. Problem Solving
iii. Physical Development
b. Negative effect
i. Dopamine addiction
ii. Reduce Motivation
iii. Constant suppression of negative emotions

INTRODUCTION

Video gamers have been a large and growing part of our culture for a long time. Whether you
are eagerly awaiting the next Call of Duty release or trying to beat the next level of Candy Crush on
your lunch break, you are part of the gaming world. Over the years this world has had to deal with a
lot of stereotypes and false claims. One of the most damaging of these claims is the media blaming
violence and other crimes on the influence of games. An organization, known as Qutee, is seeking to
do away with some of these stereotypes by giving a voice to a group a people that have been mostly
silent through the years. Qutee is a data-led discussion platform that is giving the gamers a voice and
asking them for their opinions on the influence that games have had on their lives and the answers
will most likely surprise you.First here is a little bit of information on the Qutee survey.

One of many topics that came up

during Qutee’s research was the benefit that
gaming can have on society as a whole. In
an online poll, gamers were asked what they
believed to be the main benefit of gaming.
Over 40% said that gaming improves
emotional well-being. That’s a serious
benefit if you consider that one in five
people in America experience mental health
issues each year. This is a large contrast to
the common view that playing video games
leads to violence and other antisocial
behavior. Which, according to Qutee, is a
view that 93% of gamers think is incorrect.

Another benefit that was talked about was forming

strong friendships. Around two-thirds of gamers claim

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VEDASTO J. SAMONTE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES2

that they have met up to five friends while playing games and another 37% say they have made even
more. As a 38-year-old gamer, I have made more than a few friendships through gaming. Playing a
game provides a good icebreaker, common ground, and a way to spend time together. It’s only
natural that it would lead to strong friendships. Below shows the representation of the benefits of
gaming.

1. EFFECTS OF GAMING IN THE SOCIETY

A. Positive Effects

Cognitive Development

playing video games has been shown to have cognitive benefits, such as increased
visuospatial cognition. Research studies on cognitive benefits by Chandrasekharan et. al. (2010)
revealed that video games help to improve attention, spatial cognition, and mental rotation. Positive
benefits like improved mental rotation abilities and improved attention can be of great help to
individuals. Improved mental rotation helps individuals to recognize objects more quickly and
accurately, while an improved attention span can be beneficial to adolescence that have trouble
focusing or paying attention in school. Also mentioned were video games abilities to help individuals

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overcome cognitive limitations, such as fear of flying, through simulations. This opens the window
for new forms of phobia treatments and therapy that may help individuals who have phobias that are
normally hard to replicate, like fear of flying on a plane. Although it isn’t understood why these
cognitive benefits occur as a result of playing video games, Chandrasekharan et. al. (2010) proposed
a theory that they call the ideomotor effect. They define this ideomotor effect as the brains common
coding ability which connects an organism’s movement, observation of movements, and imagination
of movement. They showed that the connections of the ideomotor effect do happen when individuals
play video games and may be one of the causes of the cognitive benefits that develop as the result of
playing video games. Further studies on this ideomotor effect may yield even more positive
cognitive benefits for those who play video games.

In a meta-analytic study by Ferguson (2007), it was found that playing violent video games
has a positive effect on an individual’s visuospatial cognition. It was also found that so far, only
violent video games have been shown to increase visuospatial cognition. All other non- violent
games have provided minimal effects of this positive benefit that seems to be thus far almost
exclusive to violent video games. These positive benefits raised the question of why no one has
heard of such benefits before. Ferguson showed that these positive effects have often been ignored
because of the stigma and bias against violent video games.

Ferguson (2007), found that publication bias was one of the main contributors to the bias
results being published about both violent and non-violent video games. He also discovered that
many studies used un-standardized measures of aggression when studying the effects of violent
video games on aggression. It is not to far off to assume that many of the studies done on video
games, specifically violent video games, contained experimenter or participant biases as well. The
most impacting discovery was made when Ferguson adjusted the studies for the publication bias. He
found that with the adjustment, visuospatial cognition still showed significant increases after
participants played violent video games, while the association between violent video games and
aggression no longer held true to the popular belief. He also pointed out that it is easy to find “proof”
of violent video games causing aggressive behavior when 98% of adolescence play video games.
This study shows the importance of carefully scrutinizing results and being aware of popular
influences that may cause biases to occur in an experiment.
Problem solving and logic
An example of games which promotes problem solving for kids are the Incredible machine,
Angry Birds or Cut the Rope wherein the player will finish simple tasks like cutting ropes in order
for the character to eat the candy. On the side of the teenagers or persons who has higher level of
analysis they can play Call of duty, Mobile legends, Valorant, and many more. A lot of the games for
adults are considered to be violent but in the positive side it promotes higher level of analyzation in
order to attain a certain or specific goals and objectives.
Physical Development
Video games have also been proven to have benefits for our physical health, especially with
the invention of the Wii, Playstation Eye Toy, and Xbox kinects, Nintendo Switch, Playstation VR.
These are few gaming technologies which require users to physically move, in order to control the
game. A recent study by Maddison et.al. (2012) showed that these physically active game systems
may hold the key to battling the recent epidemic of obese children. Their study found that by just
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VEDASTO J. SAMONTE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES4

playing one hour of the Playstation eye toy or Wii, children reduced their BMI (body mass index) by
8% and their body fat by as much as 50%. All the researchers did was have these normally sedentary
gamers replace one of their gaming hours with a physically active game for 24 weeks. This study
opens up a whole new window for the interventions of obesity in children and provides a treatment
that not only works, but that the child will actually use.

The health care industry is another area which has shown a positive benefit for playing video
games. Various video games have been used in the health industry to treat burn victims, asthma
patients, physical therapy, diabetes, bowel dysfunction, cancer, and even improve doctor’s surgical
skills. Specialized games have been developed tailored to a particular medical condition and have
proven to raise children’s understanding of their disease. These tailored games also play an important
role in motivating children and increasing their self-efficacy when dealing with their ailments. The
case of the specialized game for burn victims, called Snow World, has been especially effective in
reducing pain by tricking the brain into thinking it is cold and drawing attention away from the
burning sensation. With these studies, video games have shown themselves to have positive benefits
for physical health and the health care industry.
Here is one article that shows evidence wherein a certain gamer transformed from being fat to fit;

While everyone was on their way to the gym to get rid of the holiday weight gain, Migui
Gabriel was already seeing the results of his unique fitness journey.

The 27-year-old visual artist went viral recently after sharing how he went "from overweight
(78 kilograms at 5'6") to normal weight (69 kilos)" in the span of 30 days, with the help of a 25-
minute daily session on — wait for it — the 2019 Nintendo Switch game Ring Fit Adventure:

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VEDASTO J. SAMONTE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES5

According to its official game info, the exercising action-RPG lets you "explore a fantasy adventure
world to defeat a bodybuilding dragon and his minions using real-life exercises." The player has 100
levels in more than 20 worlds to jog, sprint, and high-knee as part of Ring Fit Adventure's Adventure
Mode.

Read the full article at;https://www.spin.ph/life/active-lifestyle/ring-fit-adventure-nintendo-switch-

weight-loss-story-a547-20200120

B. NEGATIVE EFFECTS

Dopamine Addiction

The reward circuitry in your brain is one of the reasons video games are fun. Your
brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which regulates the feeling of pleasure
from video games. When dopamine activity happens in the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure
center of your brains, you feel joy.

When you play video games, your brain releases a constant dopamine supply, with occasional
random bursts. Over time, your brain gets used to this steady supply of dopamine, and the
nucleus accumbens requires even more dopamine release for gaming to feel fun. That
prevents you from enjoying anything that is not as stimulating as a video game.

Even if you try to give up gaming, your mind will attract you to other forms of stimulation,
such as browsing YouTube or scrolling through social media. Simple activities will seem
completely unappealing, and you will not be motivated to do anything that isn’t exciting.
That is the height of dopamine addiction, or in other words the feeling of achievement.

Reduction in Motivation
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In real life situations it is far more different than the virtual world wherein the
motivations come in different forms. In the gaming world accomplishing every single task
will give the player a reward mostly like skins, items, or skills depends on the game being
played. In real life motivations are used in long terms. One example is when you want to buy
a car which looking on your position you are only a high schooler which dreams to have one,
the motivation you have is to study hard in order for you to buy your dream car someday
which will take years in order to attain. in the generations today some of them if they want
something they want to have it now because as time goes by their motivations are fading
which causes them to do different things that contradicts their parents ideals for their lives.

Constant suppression of negative emotions

If a person is alexithymic, then that means that they have trouble determining their
internal emotional state. Alexithymic people find it hard to pinpoint the emotions that they
are feeling. However, that does not mean that those emotions do not affect their behavior.

The amygdala is a core part of our learning circuitry. Painful experiences get
imprinted onto our memory, and we learn from them. However, people find it hard to quit
playing video games because their amygdala does not make connections with their
hippocampus as smoothly. They don’t learn from the painful experiences of not doing well in
school or at work. Their learning circuitry gets sabotaged, and it becomes difficult for them to
quit gaming.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion virtual gaming does not only provide negative effects wherein some people
think of it so. On the part of parents, they think of it as waste of time for the children where in
parents, do not know that on the other side of the coin it does provide positive effects. One of the
problems why some people think so is because of the generation gap which games from before are
different from the games that are released today are the same. A lot of games nowadays are based on
real life scenarios and places, others simulatereal physics wherein a simple flick or click of the stone
is well simulated. To end this topic, we should not think games on the negative side because some
people use it to as a scapegoat to prevent themselves from depression, overthinking and to provide
themselves enjoyment for them to bail out their personal problems.

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VEDASTO J. SAMONTE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES7

References:

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2018/06/25/the-impact-of-gaming-a-benefit-to-
society-infographic/#7cb0ee9a269d

 https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjn6P6KyIjsAhWQ7GEKHb64C
y0QFjABegQIDBAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.csulb.edu%2F~kmartine
%2Fthe_positive_effects_of_playing_video_games.docx%23%3A~%3Atext%3DOverall
%2520these%2520studies%2520have%2520shown%2Chelp%2520individuals
%2520overcome%2520cognitive
%2520limitations.&usg=AOvVaw26gFVO3ba57u9V35qf2_a7

 https://www.spin.ph/life/active-lifestyle/ring-fit-adventure-nintendo-switch-weight-loss-
story-a547-20200120

 https://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-
video-games

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