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Computer and video games are defined as any type of activity performed on screen that follows a game structure, consisting of specific rules, boundaries and rewards ( Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Report 2003, Kampmann Walther 2003). Computer and video games include games on XBox, PlayStation, GameCube, Nintendo, hand-held games such as GameBoy, on-line games and arcade games. Computer games range in genre including rapid action arcade style games, simulation games such as the ‘Sim' series, adventure/role-play games such as ‘Dungeons and Dragons’, to educational games such as the ‘Reading Blaster’ series ( Chandler 1994, Douglas & Hargadon 2001, Kampmann Walther 2003, Taylor 2002). For ease, this article uses the term ‘computer games’ to describe all the above games.
The proliferation of computer games in the lives of young children raises the notion of a distinct culture of a ‘game generation’ ( Hoestetter 2002). The suggested impact of this phenomenon is wide and varied, but is mostly based on the premise of computer games as being either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for children. As access and exposure to computer games increases infiltrating young children’s education and entertainment, so to do societal concerns of possible negative effects on young children ( Wartella & Jennings 2000). The prevalence of computer games, which fall into the wide category of visual electronic media (VEM) such as television, movies and the internet, together with the increased media coverage of violent acts carried out by young children and adolescents, has fuelled heated debates and extreme ‘cause and effect’ conclusions blaming content for promoting aggressive, violent behaviour, sexism, racism, and other socially frowned upon attitudes and behaviours. Causal relationships are claimed to exist between high exposure to VEM (visual electronic media) and behavioural deterioration and disorders, such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and other cognitive and development problems in children ( Burke 2003). As a response to such negative stigma society has seen a rise of media research institutes and journals monitoring the habits and preferences of children and computer games (Henry Kaiser Foundation, International Journal of Computer Game Research, Future of Children, Centre for Research on the Influence of Interactive Technology and Television on Children ‘CRITIC’, Children’s Digital Media Centre ‘CDMC’).
However, many discussions of social and cultural effects fail to recognise children as already engendered and cultural beings rendering them “empty vessels� vulnerable to any and every influence, rather than accepting computer game culture as a sub-culture existing within a broader complex culture of contemporary childhood ( Beavis 1998).
In contradiction to the negative attention computer games have received in the past, their formal use in public and private education continues to increase. Government and educators remain focused on the benefits of technological literacy, capitalising on the shift of young children’s learning preferences towards ‘edutainment’ that creates motivation to participate and learn from the limitless experiential learning opportunities that educational computer games offer, and also utilize computer games as yet another method of catering to different cognitive learning strategies and the new learner ( Blumberg & Sokol 2004, Dorman 1997, Education Queensland Report 2002, Frommes 2003, Hoestetter 2002). Supported by Government policy and initiatives, schools continue to allocate substantial portions of their, sometimes limited, annual budgets to maintain and purchase relatively current technology and software to ensure children’s access to technology which is of paramount importance to today’s society. This movement is fuelled by concerns of the digital divide and its contribution to societal inequity (Victoria Government, ABC Radio National, ABC TV Lateline, The Australian Newspaper). This contributes to the rise of computers and computer games in education and also in public places, such as libraries and independent internet cafes and gaming centres.
As access increases, concerns of negative effects of over-exposure to computer games and VEM also increase ( Dorman 1997, Burke 2003, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Report 2003). Technological advances allowing for more lifelike graphical 3D representations on screen, fuel further concerns of the ability, or lack there of, for young children to be able to distinguish between such simulated environments and reality and the danger of addictive behaviour and associated withdrawal symptoms ( Chandler 1994, Hoestetter 2002, Beavis 1998). ‘First-person’ games (Taylor 2002), in particular ‘first-person-shooters’ (FPS’s), (Provenzo 2001, Squire 2000) designed for the adolescent and adult market, attract much discussion and controversy, especially when used by adolescents and younger children. ‘God-games’ (Squire 2000) or ‘God-view’ games (Taylor 2002) aimed at the broader market of young children, adolescents and adults have raised somewhat less extreme concerns due to the absence of violent concepts. Most games designed for young children, however, are non-controversial, such as the popular Putt-putt range (eg. ‘Putt-put goes to the zoo’ and Putt-putt goes to the moon’), the Lego range (eg. Island, Island 2 and Loco) and Scholastic’s range of ‘I SPY Junior’ games even though, they too, subject the young child to an experience in a virtual space, a hyperreality, that is just as removed from the reality of their everyday life as the hyperreal space of FPS’s or God games. With attention on most debates centred on concerns of violence, gender depiction/stereotypes and racism, little discussion is contributed to the effects of computer games on young children and their construction of reality.
Theorist and post modernist Baudrillard presents the concept of hyperreality and emotive concerns over a lack of ability to distinguish between it and the real world ( Baudrillard 1988, 1991), a premise, on which other theorists and researchers have developed ( Chandler 1994, Hoestetter 2002, Beavis 1998, Provenzo 2001). Baudrillard also devises a culture of simulation culminating in “pure simulacra� (1991, p.170). The phenomenon of simulacra is akin to the virtual space of computer games, described as consisting of an entirely simulated environment that then creates its own hyperreality, completely devoid of relation to reality (Baudrillard 1991). Provenzo (2001) builds on Baudrillards’ notion of hyerreality to preliminarily discuss the “loss of the real in contemporary childhood and adolescence� suggesting that the real is replaced by the experiences in the hyperreal realms of television, movies, internet and computer games. However, Wartella & Jennings (2000) argue that current concerns over the introduction and impact of new technologies, such as computer games raise the same issues of exposure to inappropriate commercial, sexual and violent content, as previous new technologies such as films in the early 1900’s, radio in the 1920’s and television in the 1940’s. Therefore, suggesting that we use past experiences of the introduction of new technologies as a predictive framework of expectations to better understand and deal with new technologies such as computer games presuming that computers and computer games are no different than previously introduced technologies.
However, benefits of children’s ability to become immersed in hyperreality lay in the limitless opportunities for experiential learning that computer games can provide to the educational field ( Hoestetter 2002). Purpose designed computer games allow children and adolescents to experience the psychological aspects of encountering potentially challenging scenarios, such as drug taking decisions and consequences, or administering emergency first aid, providing the student with such learning opportunities while in the relatively safe hyperreal environment with minimal risk or danger.
Parents and adults observing the intense immersion of a child playing a computer game are often the catalyst for concerns over possible negative impacts, fearing that computer games have the power to psychologically and physiologically hijack a child away from reality. However, studies of immersion in computer games argue that children use existing schemas of reality to understand and read meaning into the hypertexts of computer games (Taylor 2002, Douglas & Hargadon 2001). Also, arguing that aesthetic pleasure of immersion and engagement relies on the participant acknowledging and understanding the differences between reality and the illusions of hyperreality (Douglas & Hargadon 2001, Aarseth 1998, Kampmann Walther 2003). The notion of “gameplay� requires a balance of immersion in “play� (fantasy) and acceptance of “game� (its structure and organization in space and time) (Kampmann Walther 2003, Douglas & Hargadon 2001). It is only at this stage when a participant experiences a state of “flow� where “self-consciousness disappears, perceptions of time become distorted�, and one is completely absorbed in concentration (Douglas & Hargadon 2001). However, even when in such a state of flow where participants report a sensation of exiting real time and reality, they must also retain full awareness of the game and its structure, rules, and constraints, or the game will end (Kampmann Walther 2003, Douglas & Hargadon 2001).
Majority of theorists advocating the benefits of computer games for children accept that computer game culture exists as a subculture within an already elaborate culture of childhood, and focus on potential benefits rather than fearing technological determinism. In summary, such theorists suggest the following:
For annotations of most references and a bibliography list go to my Annotated Bibliography
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ABC Radio National
ABC TV Lateline
The Australian Newspaper
Centre for Research on the Influence of Interactive Technology and Television on Children ‘CRITIC’
Children’s Digital Media Centre ‘CDMC’
Education Queensland
Future of Children
Henry Kaiser Foundation
International Journal of Computer Game Research
Victoria Government
