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Are Computer Games Rebooting Our Minds?

The hot debate moves to a big conference in Vancouver.

By David Secko, 16 Jun 2005, TheTyee.ca

Contagion

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For kids and the rest of us, are computer games a boon, or our ruin?

The debate over the effects of digital games is running hot in academic circles and beyond at the moment. A recent Maclean's cover headline blared: "How computers make our kids stupid". Meanwhile Steven Johnson, author of a new book called Everything Bad Is Good for You, argues that games and other interactive media sharpen our brains.

The debate arrives with full force in Vancouver today, as several hundred digital game creators and theorists assemble for the second annual Digital Games Research Association (DIGRA) conference.

"Digital games are not really taken seriously or well understood," says Suzanne de Castell, a professor of Education at Simon Fraser University and one the organizers of the DIGRA conference. "But digital games are a powerful cultural force right now."

How powerful? Well, computer and video games sales topped $10 billion in the U.S. in 2004. Children spend more and more time working and playing with them. And some social theorists say society is gripped by a 'moral panic' over the effects of computer games, a backlash amplified by media reports like the Maclean's cover story.

Fueling the concern is the recent publication of a study by Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann of Munich University. In it, they suggest that "holding the other family-background characteristics constant, students perform significantly worse if they have computers at home."

"These games can be fun, but they can also be all consuming," says David Forsey, who recently finished designing a Hulk video game to be released in a few months. "So you have to sit on one side of the fence or the other," he says, "either games have no effect and we should rip them out of schools, or they have an effect and we really should think about it."

Forsey, who works for Radical Entertainment in Vancouver, has a 16 year-old boy and 10 year-old girl. And he believes parents should place firm boundaries around computer game use by children and teens. "I restrict my kids from playing them [games] too much, and lucky for me, my kids are quite athletic," Forsey told The Tyee.

"They do have an influence and you have to strike a balance with them," he adds.

Started with 'Spacewar'

Computers weren't always fun. They used to be room sized machines that could do math. Then in the early 1960s, Steve Russell of MIT invented the video game Spacewar and the field blasted off.

"Back in the seventies when I started making games, I could spend all my day drawing a line," says Forsey. "Now a line is done in a split second, things really have advanced by orders of magnitude."

And ever more complex games like Warcraft and Everquest boast virtual worlds where thousands of people can play together simultaneously. These games come with their own set of cultural rules and are quickly becoming one of the most popular activities among adolescents, according to the DIGRA website.

"For people under 30, they [digital games] are almost an indigenous cultural form," says Jim Gee, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin and a leading researcher on the role video games can play in learning.

"We are just beginning to understand that digital mediums are bringing us expressive forms comparable to the movies and the novel," says Janet Murray, a Professor of Digital Media at Georgia Tech and author of Hamlet on the Holodeck.

Rich and dumb?

So the medium can be rich, and mesmerizing. But do digital games sap intelligence, or promote it?

It depends, says David Kaufman, director of SFU's Simulations and Advanced Gaming Environments (SAGE), which landed a $3 million grant to study digital games in 2004.

"Well, if you look at the nature of media, movie and video games today, you realize that 90 percent is definitely going to dumb down people," says Kaufman, who is a professor of education at SFU. "But if you look at complex games…like Rise of Nations and SimCity, research is showing that these have educational value and lead to learning."

Gamers get falsely stereotyped as glazed-eyed zombies says T.L. Taylor, an Associate Professor of Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen and a keynote speaker at the DIGRA conference.

"Gamers are not passive consumers, simply buying something off a shelf, taking it home, and playing it as given," says Taylor, "If you look at massive multi-player games like Everquest, players are creating a rich culture, including third party websites and fan fiction."

Gee, Murray and de Castell all agree, digital games can be beneficial. "But it is important to say, that if you're a sane researcher you're not arguing that a game is good or bad, it depends on how it is used," says Gee.

"It is therefore important that we don't leave it to the commercial game developers to define the content and form of such an important culture expression," adds Murray, on why the debate over digital games needs active research.

Smart play

de Castell hopes questions over the impact of digital games will flourish at the DIGRA conference, which is bringing around 400 academics, students, game developers, and players together for four days of talks. On the agenda are sessions about the future of electronic games, digital game culture, and a "League of Nations" session that hopes to highlight games research from around the world.

de Castell's particular interest falls on the educational potential of digital games. "There is a big move in learning to use computers and games in particular to support learning," says de Castell. In fact, she and her colleagues recently developed a game called 'Contagion', which allows kids from age 9 to 13 to learn about contagious diseases. It is set to freely available online next year.

With digital games being so popular, the potential for them to enhance learning is enticing. As a result, the future impact of digital games on society, for better or for worse, could lay in the young efforts to better understand digital game theory being manifested at DIGRA and SAGE.

It's a spark that comes from looking out for what engages people, says de Castell.

"Because I think, as an educator, that where people pay attention is where their intelligence is at work, and at play," adds de Castell with a chuckle.

But, Forsey warns not to get caught up in computers and digital games as the sole answer.

"Computers and games can be used in education, but we have to watch out that they don't become more important than the things we are trying to teach kids," says Forsey.

"Remember they are just a tool," he says.

David Secko is on staff at The Tyee with a focus on science. [Tyee]

David Secko is a student at the University of British Columbia School of Journalism with a focus on science reporting.

16 Comments:

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  • Peter Dimitrov

    6 years ago

    Comments on "Are Computer Games Rebooting Our Minds?"

    indeed folks, nutrition is not just the food and non-food substances we ingest, but also, in my view, what enters into our mind-stream/every-day consciousness. Furthermore, I offer this as an hypothesis, it is not just the message that we receive, but the random light impulses that enter the eye and thereby 'trespass' the entire organism. Recent news from the science of biophysics seems to indicate that there are photonic (light) pathways throughout the body ..that approximate the Chinese meridian acupuncture system. ..our organism, is knit together not just by nerves, blood vessels, by light -pathways

    Gargage in, garbage out...what else can we expect from much of the mind-nutrition available out there for young & old alike.

  • freebear

    6 years ago

    Honestly I could care less about video games!

    I would assume they are quite addicting and I am glad they did not come out when I was a teenager. Back then we chose to play soccer, football, bike tag, whatever outdoors!

    I would never by a nephew/niece a vidoe game as a gift. For many parents I suppose its like the TV babysitter! Not to mention how grisly/nasty some of the games can be-killing people, driving over pedestrians, debasing women, etc.

    I can see some use/pleaseure in the simulator games such as flying or car racing.

    Of course the video game will be meaningless when the coming energy shock arrives-when we will have to seriously consider what we decide to power up in terms of appliances.

    Who cares if the industry is bigger than Hollywood; except the shareholders of course! I am sure at some point people will look aback and think what a waste of energy and resources-video games!

  • Fii

    6 years ago

    Pretty clear to me- I spend an hour on the computer reading e-mail or browsing the Tyee and I need to clear my head- go for a nice walk, get outside.

    I'm aghast these guys got a three million dollar grant to study this... c'mon!! What a pathetic waste of money.

  • skeptikool

    6 years ago

    To the question: Yes.

  • Bailey

    6 years ago

    This isn't just a matter of wasting time. Or even substituted morals and values. It's about behavioural conditioning.

    It's about messing with the hard wiring of our brains.

    In 1968 a commercial for Salem cigarettes was floated that had a two-phrase jingle. They sang the first phrase, and as part of the music they rang a bell, then sang the second phrase.

    The jingle was played at low volume beneath the message. Thirty-two repetitions. Then at the end, they raised the volume, sang the first phrase and rang the bell. And that was the end of the commercial.

    Except that, given the nature of our brains that wasn't the end of the commercial. We were conditioned to finish the jingle ourselves.

    In effect, the last part of the commercial was played inside the structure of our brains. Nobody could resist. Most people never knew. You didn't even have to understand the language the commercial was in. It was incredibly effective as conditioning, and also very effective as a means of selling cigarettes.

    That was nearly fifty years ago. Since then to all appearances, more money has been spent on information manipulation and technology than any other single thing, except maybe weapons development.

    A few million dollars to expose this stuff to public awareness is not nearly enough.

  • skeptikool

    6 years ago

    At 9:30am, after scanning several recent and current Tyee topics one could well believe that
    video games trump message boards. I hasten to add that this is a retired person's view.

    Perhaps, as great a concern should be the impact of excessive computer use, whether gaming or Googling, on future health costs - resulting from blood-clotting and related diseases.

  • Camgra

    6 years ago

    The people who breezily say that gaming has developed a rich culture need to learn more about culture. It might be a sub-culture but these, by definition do not define a larger culture and actually rely for their'coolness' on being outside of the larger culture.
    I would like to know about the state of gamers' health. And not just physically, but mental health as well. No long term study has been conducted.

  • Yammer

    6 years ago

    The people who breezily say that gaming has no culture need to learn more about gaming. It might be a subculture, and those who by definition look to them to define a larger culture are actually relying for their 'coolness" on being outside of the smaller culture.

    I would like to know about the state of readers' health. And not just mentally, but physical health as well. No long term study has been demanded.

  • arrr_matey

    6 years ago

    It's interesting to read the comments that this story has inspired. Videogames seem to be a really divisive topic. People really love them or hate them. Although, a lot of the problems come from a lack of familiarity with the medium.

    Yes, Grand Theft Auto has some disturbing aspects to it. But did you know that it has a very strong and developed political message with a lot of satirical content that readers of The Tyee would probably agree with. Videogames are subject to a lot of sensational press coverage and a lot of political opportunism when it comes to trying to censor them. But like any art form - and many games are works of art - gaming deserves to be experienced before you pass judgment on it.

    All that said, I invite anyone interested to check out my website - game-brains.com - which is dedicated to discussing the cultural and social aspects of gaming. Read our review of Grand Theft Auto, for instance (http://www.game-brains.com/archive/jan17_2005/gta_sanandreas.htm), or some of the better games of the last year like Metal Gear Solid 3 (http://www.game-brains.com/archive/mar28_2005/mgs3.htm) and Beyond Good and Evil (http://www.game-brains.com/archive/nov15_2004/beyondgoodandevil.htm).

    I apologize if including these links is considered spamming. I offer them only as a means of further educating people about what videogames have become.

  • mewgull

    6 years ago

    I'd just like to point out a potentially interesting similarity:

    I took an ecological modeling class once as part of my undergrad, and we used a program that let you (graphically) build complex mathematical models from the ground up and then tinker with it.

    SimCity - one of the most popular computer games ever - essentially works the same way. It is really just a massively complex and graphically rich mathematical modeling package, as are most simulation-type games. Exactly the same concept, just more complex.

    The line to me is drawn not between whether something is a 'game' or not, but:
    1. How long you work/play with it at a time,
    2. Whether you do anything else,
    3. What you learn from it.

    I learned a lot in the ecologial modeling course, and I learned a whole lot more about the pitfalls of using mathematical modeling.
    Yet at the same time I'd shudder to think of a future urban planner using SimCity to work out ideas! Yipes.

  • aldreds

    6 years ago

    I'm fascinated by this article and the subsequent comments.   It would seem that most of the contributors are indeed polarised in their positions and views.

    The Fuchs and Woessmann research quoted in this article is in fact open to interpretation and a posting I read recently by Stephen Downes points to some questionable assumptions in terms of the study's methodology.   So I am reluctant to place too much faith on their broad findings.

    What particularly interests me, as an educator, is the degree of engagement that computer games generate.   Keirsley & Shneiderman (1999) developed what they called engagement theory which relates to ICT's in education/learning and assert that the key to learning engagement is to have the learners Relate to a complex real-world problem in small teams, Create a solution or artefact and then to Donate that to the real world.

    While this approach has much in common with modern computer games, it also introduces a human element with the teams and real-world feedback.

    Perhaps the key may lie in a seamless integration with both approaches.

    Cheers,

    Scot.

  • aldreds

    6 years ago

    Aplolgies for the previous post--thought the comments would accept html
    Here it is without the code.

    I'm fascinated by this article and the subsequent comments. It would seem that most of the contributors are indeed polarised in their positions and views.

    The Fuchs and Woessmann research quoted in this article is in fact open to interpretation and a posting (http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/view.cgi?dbs=Article&key=1101829692) I read recently by Stephen Downes points to some questionable assumptions in terms of the study's methodology. So I am reluctant to place too much faith on their broad findings.

    What particularly interests me, as an educator, is the degree of engagement that computer games generate. Keirsley & Shneiderman developed what they called engagement theory (http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm) which relates to ICT's in education/learning and assert that the key to learning engagement is to have the learners Relate to a complex real-world problem in small teams, Create a solution or artefact and then to Donate that to the real world.
    While this approach has much in common with modern computer games, it also introduces a human element with the teams and real-world feedback.
    Perhaps the key may lie in a seamless integration with both approaches.

    Cheers,

    Scot.

  • Colin

    6 years ago

    I enjoy playing videogames but agree that you can get to much of a good thing, what is really important in all aspects of life is balance. A person with addictive tendencies should be very careful about video games and treat them the same way as drugs or booze.

    I find the time I play videogames a wonderful distraction which allows me to escape the pressures of life for a brief time and that break then give me a chance to approach real life issues with a fresh perspective.

    I belong to one simulation gaming community which encourages and depends input from it’s members. I have been able to design and upload scenarios for other members to play. This allows me to start understanding some of the mechanics of the game and forces me to do a lot of planning and thinking as I have to anticipate the potential moves of many different players. Most of the players in this community are older and have real life experience in the material, so the feedback is good and interesting.

    Videogames are a fact of life now and a major force in our culture, you can’t stop it. But you can help your kids make choices about what they play. If people don’t play a game or reject it because of it’s message/genre then it will disappear. Most games have a short lifespan, approx 5 years at best.

    Gaming companies are also good paying employers, my friends brother does sound for games here in Vancouver and was able to buy a house at 30.

  • freebear

    6 years ago

    Perhaps video gaming will wane when the user/player will have to provide his own power to run the game-Peak Oil can't get here soon enough!

  • Fii

    6 years ago

    Arrr_ My brother makes video games for a living. He rarely plays them and when he feels like being truly artistic, he paints.

    I have better things to do, outside... then to read reviews of Grand Theft Auto, but thanks anyway.

  • Colin

    6 years ago

    It’s a shame that they only focus on certain games, some of the games require very complex thinking and the balancing of resources, waging war, building civilizations and even the making and breaking of diplomatic ties. Video games run the full breadth of human experience, both the negative and the positive.

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