Come you already know well, I find
it stimulating to keep myself updated on the existing relationship between video games and society,
in relation to the latest frontiers of entertainment. Recently,
some
studies have examined the connection that exists between Video Games and Cognitive Enhancement, especially in children and preadolescents.
I appreciated the article’s initial premise: “violent” video games are not evil, but we need to work on the educational tools to provide young people so they can distinguish reality from fiction.
La history of Video Games, understood
not only as a mere pastime, but a sociocultural tool useful for relating better with others as well as with ourselves,
has often been the object of fierce criticism. Respectable people and keyboard warriors have always existed, today as then, but at the dawn
of home video game entertainment, the witch hunt (against Resident Evil, Grand
Theft Auto and even the good old Super Mario) flared up with an unspecified, but high, number
of outbreaks across every medium.
Uno degli scudi che da sempre è
stato innalzato per difendere i nostri amati videogiochi consiste nella tesi che
giocare permette un sostanziale e netto miglioramento della coordinazione mano-occhio, in soldoni il
rapporto esistente tra la nostra capacità visiva e gli arti superiori. Chiunque
di voi abbia mai giocato a Tapper o Bomb Jack o un qualsiasi roguelike
moderno, Dead Cell su tutti, sa di
cosa stiamo parlando.
But that is not enough. The role of
video games within our society has changed greatly over the last
three decades: the days when they were harshly demonized are long gone, of course,
yet there are pockets of resistance, to use a term dear to fans of the Fallout series, that
refuse to accept this and continue to associate video games with something
negative, a lure that distracts teenagers
and draws them away from much more
important things.
Yet, online communities, born
with the advent of forums and the iconic but unbearable screech of the modem,
bring together huge groups of people of different genders, nationalities, and social backgrounds
in the name of their favorite video games and the many branches of pop culture. Moreover, it has been widely
demonstrated that cognitive, problem
solving, and cooperation skills improve in those who play
video games regularly: just think of the many co-op titles where
mutual support is vital in order to achieve the set goal, such as Among Us or the
beautiful It Takes Two.
Qui non si tratta di virtual simulacra
that aspire to replace the walls of reality, let that be clear: when
we turn off the console, our brain must immediately recalibrate to
what surrounds us, activating all five senses (seven if you are Knights
of the Zodiac, but the concept is the same).
Si parlava di social empowerment, initially,
with a view to improving young people’s ability to build relationships and,
as a result, to have a more aware understanding of their own emotional spectrum: playing The Last of Us,
for example, teaches the value of redemption and redemption in a fascinating and terrible dystopian world,
while Final
Fantasy IX explores the ancestral connection between the question “does
an soul exist?” and the possible answers, dug deep within us.
Last year, I happened to see a video on social media in which a professor
was explaining to students some historical episodes related to the famous battle
of Thermopylae: to do so, he used some gameplay clips taken from a
video game from the Assassin’s Creed series: in this way, attention was
focused much more effectively on the topic being discussed. A perfect
blend of media tool and educational program, don’t you think?
The video games can do a lot
of good, but we adults first and foremost must understand their value: only then will we be able to
pass it on to our children.
Diverting ourselves and growing, together with them.
