Do video games harm society?

· Does the violent and sexual content of video games desensitize us?
· Can video games help us develop useful skills and cognitive abilities?
· Do social interactions in online video games devalue human company?
· What are the implications of the ethical systems of multiplayer games?

What is it that makes video games so much fun? This question of Joe Carlsmith’s seemed an obvious way to start the evening, and the group proposed several possibilities. They are in some ways in stark contrast with other parts of life; they allow one to “lose oneself” in the game environment. They provide a forum for friendly competition—who can make the best score?—and hence a possible avenue for gaining respect from others. The narrative structure of some games can also be appealing. Perhaps, though, their appeal is also related to the cognitive challenges they present.

None of these factors seems particularly unsavory, yet there may be reasons to criticize the role of video games in our culture. For instance, they make entertainment a more passive experience. The player is spoon-fed rules and environments, rather than needing to engage in a creative process. This fact led Joe C to suggest that video games are dangerous insofar as they can establish a mindless routine—in other words, they’re the “frozen food” equivalent of fun. The same concern is applicable to athletics. Participants run the risk of becoming receptacles rather than creators. There is always a point at which the learning curve stagnates. Society is undoubtedly harmed by such monotony. Or is it the case that at least some video games contain such depth that, like a game of chess, they may still promote creative engagement?

Our discussion next moved to the implication of video games for social interaction, beginning with the case of friends together in a room sharing a game experience as they might share a movie. Are social groups oriented around video games different from those based on other activities? Perhaps some of these games have unfortunate moral implications—teaching a black-and-white concept of morality, endorsing violence, and fostering impatience. And we can’t neglect the possible effects of their violent content: Although there is currently no measured statistical link between playing violent video games and committing violent acts, they may nonetheless affect our psyche in subtle ways. We discussed the potential normalization of violence, stripping away of moral content, and desensitization to real-world problems. Furthermore, the competitive aspect of these games can lead to implicit social approval, so their popularity may be self-perpetuating.

So do video games have any redeeming features? They allow us to develop various skills, including teamwork and analytical abilities. But perhaps their virtue runs deeper than that, particularly in the case of new “massively multiplayer online role-playing games” (say that five times fast!). Ben’s personal theory is that these games, through their complexity, may allow players to explore new ethical worlds and consider the ramifications of their actions outside the inflexible strictures of real-world society. They provide new avenues for self-examination, partly because they exist virtually (where the consequences of actions are transformed) and partly because they remove the distracting fuzziness of the real world. In a complex virtual world, a player is able to learn about himself (or, increasingly, herself) with more freedom and rationality than may be possible in reality. How the player chooses to put this new opportunity and information to use in real life is a question only he or she can answer.