Games are an organized form of play, normally undertaken for fun or entertainment, and occasionally used as an instructional tool. Games are different from work, which typically are carried out for pay, and from literature, which tend to be more of an expressive or aesthetic component of human thought. A game is an interactive device, whereby the participants cooperate to perform some kind of action, or solve a problem, in order to achieve some goal. This goal may be to beat the computer, to escape from the game world, or even just to complete the level on time.
As researchers look for more ways to help people enjoy their lives, especially in the work place where repetitive tasks have been found to reduce productivity and raise stress levels, they have turned their attention to entertainment. This has lead to the development of computer games, video games, virtual reality video games and many other types of games. As researchers explore ways to facilitate play, learning and enjoyment in education and society, they are increasingly coming across that the gaming experience has a powerful effect on the way people learn. In fact, recent studies by the Entertainment Software Association have shown that playing video games can help children learn new things. These include concepts such as spatial awareness, time management, problem solving and even computer programming. The games also help to increase children’s self-esteem, which may be an important factor in helping them cope with learning problems.
It is not yet fully understood why video games can have this effect on children, although several theories have been put forward. One school of thought is that, since most of the activities in video games require advanced thinking skills such as logic and problem solving, they help to develop these skills. Another school of thought is that because the virtual world requires a great deal of planning and strategizing, children become attracted to the challenge and become far better at managing their time.
In order to understand what effect video games may have on learning and socialization, researchers have been trying to find out how people respond to them. To this end, researchers have been trying to determine whether mobile game players are more social or less social than traditional game players. In addition, researchers have also been looking at how kids in mobile games compare to kids in traditional classroom games. The results of all these studies have been mixed, but some research has found a positive link between mobile games and better socialization skills among gamers.
In particular, one study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing evidence that female mobile gamers tend to use more foul words when playing multiplayer online games. Likewise, a later study by Ohio University demonstrated that male gamers are more likely to physically abuse other players in the game than are female players. On the one hand, it is difficult to argue that foul language would improve a person’s ability to interact with others in real life; however, it does show that people playing games can be hostile to each other in virtual play. Also, it is difficult to argue that abusive behavior in a multiplayer video game would improve a person’s likelihood of becoming abusive in real life, as the same group of people would not likely be prone to physically abusing each other in real life.
In addition, another research project which was conducted at the time of publication linked mobile game players to violence in the gaming world. The participants were asked to play various shooting or action games on their mobile phones for several hours a day. What the researchers found was that those who played a lot of multiplayer games tended to shoot more times, shoot more targets, shoot the same number of times, had more nightmares, and had greater difficulty dealing with anger. What’s important to remember is that this is only an emerging field, and more research will need to be done in this area before we can draw any firm conclusions.