Effect of Video Games on People's Moods

65 percent. According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), that is the percentage of how many households in the United States contain someone who plays video games on a daily basis. Video games are affecting people every single day that they are being played. Video games put things and ideas in people’s minds. Ideas that can either be good for you or bad for you. You have to know the difference and turn the bad ones into good ones. Whether it's good or bad, video games affect everybody that play them in some kind of way.

I, personally, love playing video games. It’s a great way to occupy your time and keep you busy. Video games play an important role in my life and have for a very long time.. I actually think they have a positive affect on me rather than a negative affect. Matter of fact I think it’s all positive. I feel like video games affect the way I am as a person. If it wasn’t for video games, honestly, I would probably be in the streets more because I would be bored and wouldn’t have anything to do to occupy my time when im not playing sports. I feel like video games also allow me to be more aware of my surroundings. In video games, you have to be aware of everything that’s going on to be good at them. Whether is visually or by sound. I think that applies to life and helps you become a better person because you become more awre of what going on around you. I also feel like video games have also helped me in sports and the way I play them and do certain things. I think that when I play sports games and things like that they teach me new stuff that I incorporate in my sports. Whether it’s a new move or a different way in doing something. I am pretty sure that I will probably play video games my whole life and be good at them. No matter the age or anything and I think that’s going to help me every step of the way. Video games for me are a huge stress reliever and just are an amazing thing to me. I feel like everybody should try video games at least once.I think video games have the platform to do good things and help other do the same. I also feel like I express my feelings when I play video games. They bring out your inner self and all your emotion. From mad, to sad, to happy, to shocked. Video games can control your feelings and bring them out of you at any second you are playing a game. They change the whole way you view things.

Students are affected by video games on a day to day basis. In the article “Video game playing and academic performance in college students” by Stephen Burgess, Steven Stermer, and Melinda Burgess, they found out that video game usage by students, especially in older students that are in college, tend to have a lower GPA. Also that video game players tend to play video games to avoid doing their homework and block out the fact that they should be doing other things than playing video games. Video games become bigger and bigger each year. They are getting so big and so much attention that they are surpassing television in entertainment. In the article it states that approximately 81% of 18-29 year olds play video games. I think that this is a bigger case in teens younger than 18. Video games is one of the leading causes in academic performance decrease for students who play them.

Video games don’t just affect older students. They affect younger students in their pre teens also, probably more than older students. Video games affect the way they interact and communicate with other people, especially in their household. In the article “Domesticating online games for preteens” by Rebekah Willett, she talks about the social process through which online games are brought into home environments and incorporated into families’ daily routines. Basically saying how video games are affecting their households on a daily basis by them being played on a daily basis by whoever is playing them in the household.. Video game companies have backed up their claims that videogames are good and help kids in this age range, saying that these games serve as learning opportunities to help kids who play these games do better in the classroom and be more social, but then again they are going to say whatever they have to so that business stays booming. So rather it’s true or not, they are always going to do what’s best for them in every circumstance to keep money going into their pockets. Video games also challenge kids to get out of their comfort zone and try new things. Maybe things they have never even thought about. Helps them to discover new things and let loose a little. That’s always good. Nobody wants their kid to be boxed in a shell. People want their kids to be adventurous and willing to learn and experience new things, and I think video games help with that.

Trying new things comes with new opportunities. In the article “Gaming History” by Dawn Spring, she talks about how video games offer many opportunities for students. She explains how videogames can lead to scholarships and other learning and career opportunities that can help you not only now, but also in the future. Certain games play different roles in this process. You have mobile games, and console games. Mobile games consist of your phone, Gameboy, Nintendo and things of that nature. While console games consist of Playstation, Xbox, Wii, and things like that. Personally, I think that console games are way better. They allow you to do more things that mobile games cant. They have way more games than mobile games and provide much better graphics and ways of doing things that mobile devices can’t do. I think that students can see how games have evolved in the past few years. Better graphics, better games, more competition, and just way more fun than they have ever been in the past years. It’s the developers that make this happen. Students straight out of college coming out with new and better ideas to do things for video games and put them in games to make them better and more exciting. Making them more interesting and fun to play, but yet more complicated to challenge it’s players that are playing their game. This helps all students learn how to get through tough situations and teaches them how to learn from their mistakes and fix them. Most developers, themselves, have played video games as a kid, so they have a clear understanding as to what players want and how they want it. They turned their love for video games into a career where they create what they loved to do as a kid. This is all from experiencing new things and going out of your comfort zone and taking the opportunities that are giving to you and doing the right and positive things with them.

So after all this, I guess there isn’t a yes or no answer to this question. Video games affect you however you let them affect you and your life. It can be in a good way or it can be a bad way. Nobody decides how video games affect you, but you. All these authors have explained how they feel about the situation. They all had very different answers, but they each had different topics which in the end led to still the one question of how video games affect students. Not just any age group either. They ranged from 7 all the way to 49 years old, but the main focus was students that were pree teens and teens. Based on my research I believe that there are more positive effects than negative based on what I have read and seen throughout my research.

Works Cited

1. Stephen, Burgess, Stermer, Steven Paul, Burgess, Melinda. “Video game playing and academic
2. performance in college students” College Student Journal. Jun2012, Vol. 46 Issue 2,
3. p376-387. 12p
4. Dawn, Spring. “Gaming history” Rethinking History. Jun2015, Vol 19 Issue 2, p207-221. 15p.
5. Willett, Rebekah. “Domesticating online games for preteens”Children's Geographies, Apr2017 ,
6. Vol. 15 Issue 2, p146-159. 14p.

· What helped you the most in writing this piece? I think that the my own personal experiences helped me a lot

· What was easiest and hardest about writing this piece? I think the hardest was the word count and the easiest was the topic

· How well did you incorporate your own personal experiences, observations, or reflections into this piece? I put all of my personal experiences in this essay

· What did you learn from writing this paper and working on this unit of the course?