How+Online+Gaming+can+Affect+Social+Skills+of+teenagers

How Online Gaming Can Affect Social Skills Of Teenagers **__ Area of Impact: __** **Arts, Entertainment and Leisure ** **__ Article Title: __** “ **Computer Games Drive Social Ties” ** **__ Article URL: __** "Computer Games Drive Social Ties." __BBC NEWS__. 16 Sept. 2008. 14 Nov. 2008 . **__ Name: __** Yohei Wakita 11E 15/11/08 **__ ITGS Portfolio HL __** **__ Pages __** 1-4 pages **__ Word Count __** 952 (Without section E)
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 Teenagers’ playing online gaming for a couple of hours a day in 21st century is usual. The survey from the article mentioned that  99% of boys and 94% of girls out of 1102 socio-economic teenagers age of 12 to 17 in US play some kind of computer or video game [1]. In fact, there are lots of adolescents who prefer to stay at home and play computer or video games instead of kicking soccer ball outside with friends. Unfortunately, there are many people who have stereotypic images of teenage gamers as a person who lives in their parents’ basement, sits in front of the screen alone clicking the mouse for hours and hours and mainly lacking on social skills [2]. Unlike the stereotypic image of gamers, the article mentioned that video games help gamers to interact with friends and community because most of them join up with their friends in the game [3]. Moreover, playing game will allow gamers to develop “Game Language” that is only understood in the game. Those languages are usually confusing or not recognizable in the real world. An example of this could be “dc” which refers to “he/she got disconnected. So therefore, the act of playing online game affects teenagers socially, educationally, ethically and psychologically on teenagers.   Firstly, what is online gaming? Online gaming is playing of computer games across a network connection, usually in competition with other players. Between 1950s and 1960s, the first computer games were invented, for example NIMROD (Mathematical strategy game invented in 1951), OXO (Known as Tic-Tac-Toe invented in 1952) and Spacewar! (Space shooting game invented in1961). These games were played by one or two people sharing a computer that can only function as a gaming machine. In the 1960s, time-sharing which is a method of computer operation that allows several interactive terminals to use one computer [4], allowed multiple users to use a computer simultaneously. Therefore, gamers did not have to be in the same building anymore which removes gamers from society. Followed by the invention of the modem, it allowed users to access other games from different building by connecting to the host computer via dial-up or leased telephone lines. This resulted into the creation of ‘Host based’ games, in which remote system users to connect to a central computer to play single player and eventually multiplayer games. Development of packet-based computer networking [5] (A network communication method of splitting data traffic into chunks or packets) in 1970s, allowed the creation of both Local Area Network based on ethernet by Xerox PARC in 1973 -1975. Wide Area Networks developed by ARPANET led to the creation of Internet in January 1st 1983 [6]. Development towards internet seems to be a significant factor of gaming because fast Internet connection allowed gamers to play with each other by peer to peer or client-server basis and access from all over the world. The playing of online games impacts teenage gamers socially, educationally, ethically and psychologically on teenagers. This issue involves numerous stake holders. They are mainly teenagers, parents, friends, policeman, and the game company. The advantage of playing online game is that it allows people to communicate to numerous numbers of others from different cultural backgrounds and countries. In the game, a gamer may want to exchange his item with someone. Therefore, he /she has to negotiate with others. Repetition of this negotiation can develop a gamer’s social skills. [7] The disadvantage of online gaming is that spending most of free time in front of a monitor wills remove teenagers from their friends and society. O nline games are not for entertainment purpose only. Majority of games are not designed for educational purposes. However, t here are some games that are made for educational to teach ethical/political issues to teenagers [8] through a familiar medium. Teenagers also have to know when to play game and when to stop. It is a wrong time to play games if a teenager hasn’t done his/her homework. And this will result in parents asking their son/daughter to study. There’s no problem of talking about the game with friends. However, there are some people who cannot come out from the “game world” because they are not attached to the real world and ending up killing two policeman in the real world like the incident in Alabama, US [9] in 2003. In order to solve the problem of anti-social teenagers, the government should force game companies to ban the system for a certain time. For example, there are some games that have regulation of not allowing gamers to play game after 11 o’clock in the night to 6 o’clock in the morning. The act of doing this will allow teenagers from not becoming game addict. This will allow teenagers to sleep early, spend more time on homework, hang out with friends or talk with their parents. However, banning the system has negative effects. The biggest impact of doing this will be reduction in profit for the game company. For example, World of Warcraft (WoW) developed by [|Blizzard Entertainment]. In WoW, who is earning about $54 million every month by 3.6 million players paying nearly $15 every month just for subscription fees [10]. The consequences of government banning the system will result in reduction of WoW gamers. This is because the average age of WoW gamers is 28 which suggest that most of them are adults and they prefer to play the game in the night because they work during the day or because of their job ends late. Therefore, applying this system will lead for reduction in players which will result in game company’s profit. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Computer Games Drive Social Ties." __BBC NEWS__. 16 Sept. 2008. 14 Nov. 2008 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7619372.stm>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Definitions of TIME-SHARING." __Google__. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.google.com.vn/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:time-sharing&sa=x&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Gamer Stereotypes." __The 20' By 20' Room__. 12 Feb. 2004. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.20by20room.com/2004/02/gamer_stereotyp.html>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "History of online games." __Wikipedia__. <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;"> 1 Dec. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/history_of_online_games>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "In defence of computer games." __BBC NEWS__. 26 Sept. 2007. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7013855.stm>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Lawsuit: 'Grand Theft Auto' Led Teen to Kill." __FOX NEWS__. <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">16 <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Feb. 200 <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">5. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147722,00.html>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Melting pot of online gaming." __BBC NEWS__. 19 Mar. 2003. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2857061.stm>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Packet switching." __Wikipedia__. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/packet_switching>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Real profit in a virtual world." __3i__. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.3i.com/publicationsandevents/reral-profit-in-a-virtual-world.html>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "Time-Sharing." __Wikipedia__. 20 Nov. 2008. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/time-sharing>. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;"> ²  <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;">Unknown. "'World of Warcraft' Gets Kids Interested in School." __FOX NEWS__. 06 Oct. 2008. 1 Dec. 2008.
 * A-  **** Presentation of the Issue **
 * B-  ****<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: JA;">The IT Background **
 * C-  **** Impact of the issue **
 * D-  **** Solutions to problems arising from the issue **
 * E-  **** Selection and use of sources **

[1] Paraphrased from  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7619372.stm <span style="color: #262a2c; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: JA;"> [2]  http://www.20by20room.com/2004/02/gamer_stereotyp.html [3] Paraphrased from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7619372.stm [4] <span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: JA;">http://www.google.com.vn/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:TIME-SHARING&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet [7]  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432383,00.html. [8] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7619372.stm [9]  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147722,00.html. [10]  http://www.3i.com/publicationsandevents/reral-profit-in-a-virtual-world.html.