Picture of the video game MLB 12 The Show. Source: terminalgamer.com
Video games today are so life-like, you’d think they were real. My younger brother has been playing video games for many years now. We had a Nintendo, a GameCube, and now a PS3. Over the years, I have played along side him and watched him play his video games, like Super Smash Bros., NCAA Football, and NBA Live. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized how realistic these games could be. One afternoon, I walked into the living room and saw that my brother was watching a baseball game. It was the Giants versus the Cardinals. Curious about how the game was going, I asked him what the score was. Without looking away from the screen, he told me that he was winning. I was a little confused, until I realized that the player up to bat had our last name on his jersey. And that the announcer was announcing that Joey Pecoraro was up to bat next, giving statistics about his recent games. This was not the real baseball game that I thought it was; it was a game called MLB 12 The Show.
From the movement and personalization of the characters, the digital scenery in the background, and the hundreds of different ways a player controls the game, recent technology has allowed video games to be so complex and so realistic. Ian Bogost of the Georgia Institute of Technology discusses that video games can teach us various things about life through their rhetorical elements in his publication, The Rhetoric of Video Games. As he states,
Video games have the power to make arguments, to persuade, to express ideas. But they do not do so inevitably. As we evolve our relationship with video games. one of the most important steps we can take is to learn to play the critically, to suss out the meaning they carry, both on and under the surface.
Bogost implies that yes, video games do represent real life – he uses an example of his son’s video game that teaches him how to budget his money, creating awareness of how the real world works. Video games can give us examples of what the real life is like, as they take inspiration from real life as well. However, it is up to us to determine how to interpret these lessons from video games. We have to take the content and see for ourselves how it relates to the real world
This is an important distinction: video games are not just stages that facilitate cultural, scial, or political pratices; they are also media where cultural values themselves can be represented – for critique, satire, education, or commentary. When understood in this way, we can learn to read games as deliberate expressions of particular perspectives. In other words, video games make claims about the world, which players can understand, evaluate, and deliberate.
Kids playing video games. Source: Evidencebasedliving.com
This circles back to my previous example. While this baseball game is not exactly educational, it does present some perspectives about real life. It gives every young athlete out there an opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a baseball player – further instilling the ideas of teamwork and decision-making. This game is relatively harmless. However, there are other games available for adolescents to play that promote violence and destruction. These games, like Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, Halo, and more, are also very realistic, portraying what the players might believe to be real life, warping the ideas and minds of the young players. Some people think that these games are linked to so many of the school shootings and violence that has recently occurred in our country. The players of these video games take the content in these games for reality and cannot distinguish between the two, then thinking that this behavior is acceptable. On the other hand, some people believe that these games are just a release of aggression and anger in kids, and it is better to have them take out that frustration on the screen rather than in real life.
I think that the real question here is whether or not we should have video games with content that is so graphic and realistic available to young players. If we apply what Bogost says to this situation, we could see that video games do have the rhetorical ability to influence us, including these violent and harmful games. If a player cannot distinguish between reality and content specific to video games, should they be playing these persuasive games at all?
Growing up with an older brother, your introduction paragraph hit home for me. I wasn’t much of a “gamer” myself but I completely relate to you in watching my brother play these life-like video games. The way that technology has advanced over the years has made video games incredibly realistic. I like your perspective on how video games give kids a taste of real life experiences. I especially liked your sports example of how it gives kids the opportunity to feel like a real athlete. Your view on the article was opposite of mine but I see your points and I think they are very valid. Bogost took an example from his own family so I thought it was a good idea that you did the same in your own blog. I really liked your post because it gave me a different perspective on Bogost’s words.
The example you picked about MLB’s realistic graphics in their new games was a chord that rang true in my heart. I always played MLB games when I was a kid and it truly WAS amazing to see the graphics change from year to year. Coaches of the sports teams I’ve participated on tell the team to visualize the action that they are trying to learn. When I watch highlights of basketball games, I’m not physically carrying out the moves I’m seeing on TV, but I am learning what passes to make at what time and what shots to take. After not playing basketball for around 6 months, I was able to pull off entirely new moves I’d never tried before because my mind was remembering what I’d seen on the highlights. When playing MLB games, kids don’t have to visualize some of the moves they are attempting because they can work them out on the screen.