Response to lecture 6

Todays lecture looked at video games from an academic standpoint. What intrigued me most about this lecture or even about this concept of studying video games was how they were studied and what different disciplines took away from the study of video games. As discussed in the lecture, while social scientists may be interested in the effect of the games on the individual, a humanities perspective is concerned by what meanings are made through games, while this is contrasted still by the industry and engineering approach focuses on the technology in context.
As my academic perspective rests in the social science genre, i lean towards the impact of video games on the individual (although to state the obvious, i doubt anyone genre of study set out to say 'this is what i will study of video games, this and nothing else', I would deduce that looking retrospectively this is how the genres study naturally alined themselves based on the needs and interests of the particular genre…but I digress)
How the video games impact people, physically, psychologically and emotionally is an interesting topic, and often hyped by the media. Often it is the evils of video games that is portrayed; how they are makes kids anti-social, non relateable in the real world, giving us carpal tunnel, deformed thumbs, making kids blood thirsty or desensitised to violence…  etc etc
My own research into the topic, aware from the stories under the media glare, revealed there is a host of literature out their boosting the positive effects of video games on the individual, such as development of hand eye cooridnation (e.g. Ballard, Hayhoe, Li & Whitehead, 1992; Averch, Landsittel & Rosenberg, 2005) and opportunities to facilitate learning (E.g. Gee, 2005; Graziano, Peterson & Shaw1999).



*** essay research update! I have decided on the topic of creative commons and copyright. Trawling through countless journal articles, websites & books to try to get a grips on the concept and reach of copy right. This does highlight why creative commons is a useful tool though because copyright is near impossible to understand!