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Essays About Video Games: Top 12 Examples and Prompts

Video games have revolutionized the way we have fun today. If you are writing essays about video games, check out our guide to inspire your writing.  

Few can contest the fact that video games have taken over the world. From the basic, almost “primitive” games of the 1970s like Pong to the mind-bending virtual reality games of the 2020s, they have been a source of entertainment for all. Moreover, they have proven quite profitable; countries like Japan and the United States have made tens of billions of dollars solely from the video game market.

Despite their popularity, much has been debated over the potentially harmful side effects that video games may have, particularly on children. One side argues that playing certain video games can lead to people exhibiting violence in the future, while others believe that video games teach players essential life skills. Regardless, they will continue to be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. 

For engaging essays about video games, read the essay examples featured below for inspiration.

1. What electronic games can teach us by Kendall Powell

2. designers are imagining video games without guns by keith stuart, 3. playing video games all summer won’t make you feel worse by nicole wetsman, 4.  violent video games bad by andrea newman.

  • 5. ​​The health effects of too much gaming by Peter Grinspoon

Writing Prompts For Essays About Video Games

1. video games: good or bad, 2. the benefits of video games, 3. what is your favorite video game, 4. do video games cause people to become violent, 5. video games in your life, 6. video games vs. traditional games, 7. is the video game rating system enough.

“In other studies, researchers found that gamers who trained on Tetris were better at mentally rotating two-dimensional shapes than those who played a control game. Students who played two hours of All You Can E.T., an educational game designed to enhance the executive function of switching between tasks, improved their focus-shifting skills compared with students who played a word search game.”

Powell explains a few possibilities of applying video games to education. As it turns out, certain video games can improve players’ skills, depending on the mechanics. Researchers are inspired by this and hope to take advantage of the competitive, motivational nature of gaming to encourage children to learn. New games are designed to help kids improve their focus, coordination, and resilience, and game designers hope they will succeed. 

“Imagine a game where you’re a war reporter seeking to capture the most iconic, representative images in a battle environment: You’d still get the sense of peril that audiences expect from action adventures, but your relationship with the environment would be more profound. It would be Call of Duty from the perspective of a creative participant rather than a violent interloper.”

The graphic nature of some video games is said to make kids violent, so it is only natural that some creators try to change this. Stuart writes that it is possible to maintain the fun that shooter-type games induce without using guns. He gives examples of games where you do not kill your enemy, simply stunning or capturing them instead. He also suggests photography as an alternative to killing in a “shooting” game. Finally, he suggests basing video games around helping others, making friends, and doing more peaceful, creative tasks.

“Any role video games play in skewing well-being that did pop up in the study was too small to have a real-world impact on how people feel, the authors said. People would have to play games for 10 more hours per day than their baseline to notice changes in their well-being, the study found.”

Wetsman counters the widespread belief that video games “destroy your brain.” Research done with a sample of 39,000 players over six weeks has shown that whether one plays video games for long or short periods, their mental health is not impacted much. There are some exceptions; however, there are not enough to conclude that video games are, in fact, harmful.

“Some people believe that the connection between violent games, and real violence is also fairly intuitive. In playing the games kids are likely to become desensitized to gory images;which could make them less disturbing, and perhaps easier to deal with in real life. While video games aren’t about violence their capacity to teach can be a good thing.”

In her essay, Newman writes about the supposed promotion of violence in some video games. However, she believes this violence does not cause people to be more aggressive later. Instead, she believes these games expose children to certain atrocities so they will not be traumatized if they see them in real life. In addition, these games supposedly promote connections and friendships. Finally, Newman believes that these “harmful” can make you a better person.

5. ​​ The health effects of too much gaming by Peter Grinspoon

“Gamers need to be educated on how to protect their thumbs, wrists, and elbows, their waistlines, their emotional state, their sleep, and their eyes. Simple education around taking breaks, stretching, eating healthy snacks, and resting and icing your thumb, wrist, or elbow when it starts hurting can address injuries early, before they become significant. For the eyes, gamers can try the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, try to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.”

Grinspoon discusses both the benefits and the health risks of gaming. Video games allow people to interact with each other remotely and bond over specific missions or tasks, and some research shows that they have cognitive benefits. However, some gamers may develop vision problems and hand and wrist injuries. Gaming and “staring in front of a screen the whole day” is also associated with obesity. Overall, Grinspoon believes that gaming is best done in moderation.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about hobbies .

Many parents believe that their children’s “bad behavior” is because of video games. Based on your experience and others, decide: are video games good or bad for you? Make sure to read viewpoints from both sides and write an essay based on your position. Would you encourage others to play video games? Discuss these pros and cons for an interesting argumentative essay.

Like anything else, video games have both positive and negative aspects. Explain the good that video games can do for you: the skills they can equip you with, the lessons they can teach, and anything else. Also, include whether you believe their benefits outweigh the disadvantages they may pose. 

For your essay, write about your favorite video game and why you chose it. What is its meaning to you, and how has it affected your life? Describe the gameplay mechanics, characters, storyline, and general impact on the gaming community or society. You can write about any game you want, even if you have not played it; just ensure the content is sufficient.

Many claim that playing violent video games can make you violent in the future. Research this phenomenon and conclude whether it is true or not. Is the evidence sufficient? There are many resources on this topic; support your argument by citing credible sources, such as news articles, statistics, and scientific research.

Video games have been a part of almost all our lives. Recall a treasured experience with video games and explain why it is significant. How old were you? Why do you remember it fondly? How did this experience make you feel? Answer these questions in your own words for an exciting essay.

Essays About Video Games: Video games vs. Traditional games

There are stark differences between video and traditional games, such as board games and card games. For an engaging essay, compare and contrast them and write about which is more entertaining, in your opinion. Be creative; this should be based on your own opinions and ideas.

The video game content rating system is used to classify video games based on their appropriateness for specific ages. However, parents complain that they are not strict enough and allow the display of violent content to children. Explore the criteria behind the rating system, decide whether it needs to be changed or not, and give examples to support your argument.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead.

essay about video game

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Persuasive Essay: Video Games

Teenagers today often spend a great deal of time playing video games. These games are fun and engaging and young people often feel like playing games is a great thing to do in their spare time. However, you shouldn’t spend too much time gaming and there are a number of reasons for this: it’s unhealthy, you should spend more time studying, and you need to socialize more.

The primary reason to cut down on gaming time has to be that youths that spend a long time on computers and games consoles are often not getting enough exercise. With high obesity rates, it’s very important for young people to spend as much time being active as possible, especially since studies show that people who are overweight during childhood and adolescence are far more likely to become overweight adults than those of a healthy weight when they’re young. There is just as much, if not more, fun to be had in getting out and about and being active. This doesn’t have to mean going for long runs if that’s not your thing; team sports are both fun and great exercise. Dance or fitness classes are also a good option for those not into sports.

Secondly, getting a good education is that best thing that you can do for your future. If every teenager cut down on their gaming time by 30 minutes per day and used this time to study, the whole of that generation would achieve better results and be more likely to have the career that they want. With education, you get out what you put in, so it’s really up to you to put in the additional effort. If you want to go to a good college, extra study in your own time will be completely vital, but gaming can reduce your concentration span and make this more difficult.

The third main reason that playing video games too often is that it’s no good for your social skills. Some teenagers may argue that because they can now play their games online with friends, they are socializing in their own way. However, you can’t beat face-to-face contact, and if you want to succeed in interviews and build good relationships in later life, you need to develop some proper communication skills. This shouldn’t be a chore, or difficult, because hanging out with friends is far more fun than sitting indoors playing on games all day anyway!

In conclusion, there can be no doubt that spending too much time gaming isn’t good for you. You don’t have to stop all together, but it’s all about moderation. Cut down and allocate your additional free time to doing things that are good for you, and you definitely won’t regret it in later life.

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Essay on Video Games

Students are often asked to write an essay on Video Games in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look


100 Words Essay on Video Games

Introduction.

Video games are interactive digital entertainment platforms. They are played on devices like computers, consoles, or mobiles.

Types of Video Games

There are many types of video games. Some are educational, others are adventure-based or sports-themed.

Benefits of Video Games

Video games can improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and strategic thinking. They can also be a fun way to relax.

Drawbacks of Video Games

Excessive gaming can lead to health issues like eye strain and lack of physical activity. It can also impact social skills if not balanced with real-world interactions.

Video games can be both beneficial and harmful. It’s important to play responsibly and maintain a healthy balance.

Also check:

  • 10 Lines on Video Games

250 Words Essay on Video Games

Video games, a form of interactive entertainment, have evolved dramatically from their rudimentary origins in the 1970s. They have penetrated almost every aspect of modern society, becoming a significant part of our culture and a powerful force in the entertainment industry.

The Evolution of Video Games

In their inception, video games were straightforward, consisting of basic graphics and gameplay. However, as technology advanced, so did the complexity and visual appeal of these games. Today, video games are immersive experiences, boasting high-definition graphics, complex narratives, and intricate gameplay mechanics.

The Impact on Society

Video games have a profound impact on society. They have transformed how we spend our leisure time, and have even created new professions, such as professional e-sports players and game developers. In addition, video games have educational potential, as they can develop problem-solving and strategic thinking skills.

Controversies and Criticisms

Despite their popularity, video games have attracted controversy. Critics argue that they promote violence, addiction, and social isolation. However, research on these issues remains inconclusive, and many argue that the benefits of video games outweigh potential negatives.

In conclusion, video games are a multifaceted phenomenon that has significantly influenced our culture and society. Despite criticisms, their popularity continues to rise, indicating their enduring appeal and potential for future growth. As technology continues to evolve, so too will video games, promising exciting developments for this dynamic medium.

500 Words Essay on Video Games

Video games, a form of digital entertainment that has dramatically evolved over the past few decades, have become a significant part of contemporary culture. They offer a unique blend of interactive storytelling, art, and technology, engaging players in a way that no other medium can. Video games are more than just a pastime; they are a platform for expression, learning, and innovation.

The history of video games is a testament to the incredible technological advancements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From the rudimentary pixel graphics of the 1970s to today’s immersive virtual reality experiences, video games have continuously pushed the boundaries of what is technologically possible. They have transformed from simple, solitary experiences into complex, social phenomena, connecting people from all walks of life.

The Impact of Video Games

Video games have a significant impact on society, influencing various aspects of our lives. They have revolutionized the entertainment industry, becoming a multi-billion dollar sector that rivals and often surpasses traditional media like film and music. Beyond entertainment, video games have found applications in education, healthcare, and even military training, demonstrating their versatility and potential.

The Benefits and Concerns

Despite the criticisms often associated with video gaming, such as addiction and violence, numerous studies have highlighted the potential benefits. Video games can improve cognitive skills, such as problem-solving and spatial awareness, and can also foster social interaction and cooperation when played in groups. They can serve as therapeutic tools, helping to manage conditions like anxiety and depression. However, it is essential to maintain a balanced perspective, acknowledging the potential risks and promoting responsible gaming.

The Future of Video Games

The future of video games is as exciting as it is unpredictable. With emerging technologies like virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and cloud gaming, the possibilities for innovation are limitless. Video games are poised to become even more immersive, interactive, and personalized, offering experiences that were once the stuff of science fiction.

In conclusion, video games are a dynamic and influential part of modern society, reflecting our culture, advancing technology, and impacting various aspects of our lives. They are a testament to human creativity and innovation, offering unique experiences that entertain, educate, and inspire. As we move forward, it is crucial to continue exploring the potential of video games, addressing the challenges they present, and harnessing their power for positive change.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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How to Write an Essay about Video Games: Presenting Effective Arguments in Papers

essay about video game

Gaming on video consoles is becoming more and more common. In actuality, the typical gamer plays for roughly six hours each week. There are many who claim that video games are harmful to one’s health since they promote inactive lifestyles like prolonged sitting and isolation from the outside world. On the other hand, some people say that playing video games is a good way to unwind and relax, and they are not wrong. So, what is the real story of video games? Are they good or bad? The controversy of playing video games presents an opportunity for students to either be proponents or antagonists of the issue through essays. Accordingly, this article discusses how a learner can write an essay about video games.

It would be best to do thorough research before writing an essay about video games

Research is often the most challenging aspect of preparing an essay. While writing your video games essay, you’ll have to employ the information you get from research to define video games, describe different genres, and give relevant examples to support your claims. Students must recognize that the amount of research they conduct totally affects how good their essays turn out. Your video game essay will benefit greatly from your careful attention to detail and thorough investigation. Just keep in mind that you are trying to convince your audience to see things from your point of view. This is why having a great deal of background information is essential. Researching your favorite video game would give you an added advantage. Additionally, to support your claims, you must include relevant examples and research-based data.

You should develop an introduction that captures your reader’s interest

The whole point of the opening paragraph is to capture the interest of the audience. To achieve this, it should pose an intriguing topic or provide a contradiction or paradox. You ought to add a good hook to grab the reader’s attention so they can’t help but keep reading your paper. Given that there are numerous motivations for why individuals engage in video games, the introduction is where you have to specify the reasons. Moreover, it would be best to incorporate your thesis statement in the introduction. A thesis statement is basically the writer’s primary concept, summed up in one or a few sentences. A well-formulated thesis statement expresses the work’s central argument in a way that makes sense in light of the inquiry or issue at hand. It would be the correct response to the question, “What is the primary theme of this essay?” from the instructor. Nonetheless, you should perceive your thesis as an opinion that may be debated at any time, rather than an established fact or objective reality. In other words, now is the time to speak your mind regarding the impact of video games on today’s youth.

You must present your arguments in the body paragraphs

The arguments are what learners utilize to support their thesis. A single contention and one or two examples must each have their own paragraph. It would be best to provide your reasoning for your video game position and be sure to explain why you firmly disagree with the opposing viewpoint. Examples include your own experiences and, where appropriate, references to data from studies, forecasts, and statistics. Students should provide answers to contentious topics like “Do video games promote addiction and violence among players?” The arguments you employ ought to back your main point rather than contradict it.

You may offer vivid illustrations as you write an argumentative essay about video games

Learners should offer evocative examples of the genres and video games under consideration. Instead of stressing about whether the material you discover online or the game’s publishers are legit, dedicate yourself to writing a fun and vibrant paper for the person who reads it. This approach piques the audience’s attention and facilitates their comprehension of the argumentative essay about video games. Additionally, these vivid examples assist you in conveying your ideas in a manner that words can’t. Even if you aren’t convinced that your assignment requires an example, using one might perk up your reader and provide your arguments additional weight.

You should write a conclusion for your essay

The last section is meant to sum up the college essay. You may accomplish this by restating the thesis statement and briefly mentioning the arguments you presented in your body paragraphs. This approach will help the audience understand how you systematically addressed the issue and made conclusions. For instance, suppose you had to respond to the question, “Do games negatively affect us?” A topic like that can’t be satisfactorily answered by psychology, particularly when it involves something as novel as video games. Consequently, it is actually way easier to just pick a side and support your position with some research. In the end, your readers don’t expect the argument to be elaborated upon but rather summarized. No new material should be introduced in the last paragraph.

Identifying the sources you employed would be best

When you are writing an essay about video games, it is essential to cite your sources. That means you got to make a list of every resource you used in your paper. References to diverse books, scientific studies, statistical data, and remarks made by well-known experts are acceptable. It would help to make sure your research is from the past five years.

Proofreading is vital for developing a top-notch paper

Students must make sure that their essays about video games have been edited and proofread prior to submission. So basically, you are going to check your assignment for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes. Completing an essay that is free of errors increases a learner’s likelihood of academic success. Here are some tips to help you proofread your work:

  • Read the text aloud. This will enable you to detect any mistakes.
  • Take your time proofreading and revising your work. Spend sufficient time on it to ensure you catch any possible oversights.
  • Concentrate on correcting a single mistake at a time. Avoid the hassle of searching for spelling and grammar mistakes at the same time. Prior to checking for punctuation and spelling problems, you may concentrate on grammatical issues.
  • You may also create a list of the most typical errors that students make while writing essays, then review your work for each one.

Using these suggestions will guarantee that your essay is devoid of all types of mistakes that might undermine how persuasive your argument is. Alternatively, you can delegate your “ write my essay ” request to online essay writing services like CustomWritings which may allow you to complete a high-quality paper about video games.

Extra tips for presenting better arguments in essays about video games

Today’s youth often engage in video gaming, and this trend will only spread in the coming years. Composing a paper about video games can help you learn more about the subject while also providing readers with information they can utilize in their lives. Just consider the potential for them to be inspired by and gain new knowledge from your essay about video games. Following this article’s recommendations should take you a step closer to achieving your academic goals.

Nick Sinclair

Nick Sinclair, a gaming aficionado since the Commodore 64 era, studied Creative Computer Games Design in university before founding his own gaming company. Discovering a passion for content creation, Nick now helps gamers squeeze every drop of fun out of their favorite gaming hardware

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The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games

essay about video game

Tony Tulathimutte on the future of video game criticism

essay about video game

Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,” Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative.

I hoped to have a conversation with a writer about games that went a little deeper. There were two main reasons I turned to the Whiting Award-winning writer Tony Tulathimutte. The first was because of his response in an interview with Playboy , in which he said that his interest in gaming probably “had something to do with my desire to bend or break formal conventions in fiction.” The second was his three thousand word essay about Clash of Clans , “Clash Rules Everything Around Me,” which was exactly the type of essay about gaming I wanted to see more of. Tulathimutte is the author of Private Citizens , which we listed as one of the 25 best novels of 2016 .

What I want is long-form literary criticism. But writers should just write what they want to read. The body of work will be there and the audience will follow it. The ‘ Field of Dreams’ approach.

Graham Oliver: Can we have this conversation without getting stuck trying to legitimize video games as a medium?

Tony Tulathimutte: “Are video games art?” “Have we had the video game Citizen Kane  yet?”

GO: That’s such a boring and overdone conversation. I think it’s more interesting to look at the ways in which video games actually do interact with literature, and not to hold the conversation just as a demonstration of our respect.

TT: Take the respect for granted and go from there. I thought about starting a literary magazine about video games a while back, but the discourse had by then become so toxic that, even with the most anodyne academic essay you could write, the best you could hope for was that it would be ignored. There needs to be more space for this kind of writing, but I just didn’t want to wade into it then. I feel a little better about it now, which is why I did the Clash of Clans  essay.

GO: What is the difference between video game-related essays showing up on a literary site, versus a site where the primary purpose is the intersection of video games and literature? What could that site do that can’t be done (or isn’t being done) otherwise?

TT: Part of it is just volume. You can’t have a general interest magazine like the New Yorker covering video games to the same depth or degree as it does film or music or even theater. Every big magazine at this point covers video games occasionally — I know the New Yorker has written about Minecraft and No Man’s Sky , for instance. New York Magazine just did a big essay on gaming more broadly.

essay about video game

But for some reason, there’s no video game editor at the New Yorker , no dedicated departments or verticals, except at newer places like VICE, Vox , The Verge . Unlike music or movies, video games aren’t equally distributed through the culture; it’s more compartmentalized. This owes in part to a marketing apparatus around games that caters to and fosters a specific audience, and because the audience for certain genres — responding to these pressures — became self-selecting, especially with respect to gender. Video games may be art, but they are also a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] industry, which makes them no different from any other STEM field in that regard.

GO: It’s a question of access. I was thinking about your Clash essay; you have this entire paragraph that has to explain this massively popular and mechanically fairly simple game. Does that automatically turn off an audience who are already proficient in those basics? In which case, are you only writing for people who don’t game? I suppose that’s another conundrum of coverage in a general interest publication


TT: If you read an essay by Susan Sontag or Martin Amis about the great books, or by AndrĂ© Bazin about film, they can assume a certain level of knowledge about the text or film from their audience. I can write that way about games on my own time and my own dime, but there’s no presumed canon or general readership for games, because they’re not taught in schools and not regularly discussed in big publications. So you either write for the diehards — the equivalent of film buffs or bookworms — or for novices.

GO: Is that why we haven’t had novels which interact with video games the way David Foster Wallace did with tennis, or Ann Patchett with opera? Neither of their books included explanatory paragraphs; it’s so ingrained in our culture that it seems almost impossible to have grown up without some idea of what tennis or opera are.

TT: Most people have played a game, and the average gamer spends six hours a week playing them. I think it has less to do with the medium inherently than just the failure of writers who have approached the subject. I haven’t read everything on games, but so far, the fledgling efforts have been too literal or kind of corny. Some writers seem to think that you’re supposed to transpose the form of games into fiction — to provide this very lightly remediated experience of reading a book so that it feels like you’re playing a game.

The last thing you want to do is create a watered-down experience of gaming in a text. A book should still work as a book. It’s the usual difficulty of writing about other mediums; there’s that old chestnut that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. But there are special considerations for how to write about any form in a way that conveys deep presence and vividness comparable to the experience itself.

GO: When you’re writing about games in one form or another, do you find you prefer to write for someone who is like you — very interested in both writing and video games — or is your preference for someone in that liminal space somewhere between them?

TT: I approach it as I do with all my creative writing, which is to write for the audience of Tony. That frees to me to write things irrespective of their publishability. Right now I’m working on a long essay about Metal Gear Solid  — the whole series. That’s between ten and twenty games, depending on which ones you call canon. The dialogue alone stacks up to something like sixty thousand words each. And the companion synopsis is almost three thousand words. I’m just trying to make points about the series that haven’t been made before. Would Kill Screen or The New York Review of Books ever run that? Hell to the fuck no.

essay about video game

If writers keep doing this, eventually there will be a readership equipped to deal with it. For the longest time there have been really smart people playing video games and wondering where all the good criticism was. It’s a discoverability issue, to a certain extent. There’s so much good writing out there about games, but most games-writing outlets cater to fairly niche perspectives. Action Button is extremely good, irreverent creative criticism, probably my favorite. Five Out of Ten is academically oriented, Kill Screen is mainstream journalism. What I want is long-form literary criticism. But writers should just write what they want to read. The body of work will be there and the audience will follow it. The Field of Dreams approach.

GO: You said earlier (and you’ve also mentioned it in your Playboy interview) that the discourse around games is toxic and partisan. Are you talking about within or outside of the gaming community?

TT: All of it. Partisan lines have been drawn within it for purposes far beyond aesthetic disagreement. In part because so much of this discourse occurs in a medium where people are not held accountable for their words, i.e. on the internet.

GO: How does that compare to conversations within the literary community? You’ve written before, for instance, about the MFA vs. NYC debate .

TT: I want to do my part to de-estrange gaming discourse. Not de-stigmatize or demystify, but de-estrange. This cancerous shit happens everywhere — it just happens in a spectacularly aggressive and organized way in gaming.

GO: When you’re not actually writing about video games, what place do they hold in your life? Are they the stress relief at the end of the day, the reward after two hours of writing? Or something you try to avoid when you’re in the middle of a big project?

TT: I’ve played video games since I was three years old. I have loved video games a lot longer than I’ve loved literature — which is not to say more. Actually
 yeah, probably more. It just so happens that I’m a writer. I don’t feel the guilt that some people do who, even if they enjoy gaming, approach it feeling as if it’s a waste of time, or a form of entertainment which takes them away from their “real life.” You wouldn’t condemn a cineaste or a lover of literature. But a fug of non-respectability still attends video games.

That said, the reward mechanisms in most games are designed to get you hooked in cognitive motivational ways that don’t apply to most literature. So it’s absolutely possible for games to displace other things that you would want to do just as much. I don’t struggle to fit them into my life, but I probably would, if my life consisted of much more than just teaching and writing.

GO: I suppose I was thinking more about the effect on your mental state. For instance, I have to save video games for the end of the day, because I have a hard time going from the almost meditative state of game-playing into writing. How does it fit in, not in the sense of time but in how it interacts with your ability to produce writing afterwards?

TT: If a visual narrative enters my head before I start writing, it’s enormously difficult to pull myself back into writing. A huge amount of psychic inertia has to be overcome to transition from consuming a narrative to assembling one. I have a lot of wacko bird theories as to why. Perhaps language is such an information-poor medium that it demands a sparseness of input, so that you can have room to envision or create new stuff in your head. Maybe the act of viewing, which puts you in the posture of evaluation and judgment, beefs up the inner critic that makes it hard to write. That’s all pure superstition, I have nothing to base that on.

GO: What about when it comes to the type of video game? You’ve mentioned playing DotA 2 in other interviews, which is very different from more narrative-heavy single player games. In the middle of a big writing project, do you find yourself drawn more to one type of game over another?

TT: With the caveat that writers are the worst self-appraisers, I’ll say that I have not noticed any influence from the type of games I’m playing on what I write. I think games engage an entirely different part of my brain, which might also account for the difficulty I have toggling between those two modes. That said, I think longer games can work like long books — immersively — where you have to pinch your nose and take a deep breath before plunging into the Neapolitan books and it just becomes the medium you swim in for months. Some games demand a higher or more frequent degree of engagement to get any kind of nuance at all. You can play a thousand hours of DotA 2 , without coming anywhere near understanding it.

essay about video game

GO: How does that compare to the relationship between reading and your own work? Do you avoid other people’s writing when working, or do you keep books on your desk for the sake of referencing them?

TT: I do. I try to keep a messy puddle of books around my work area, in case I want to steal something from somebody else. But I Google as much as I refer to other books. I don’t disconnect from the internet when I’m writing, like some writers who have this almost mystical anathema against technology. I generally find I benefit from my procrastination.

You can have a rom-com game, a campus game, an adultery game, or a boring-but-important game that will get taught in high schools circa 2110.

GO: You referred to language as being information-poor a minute ago, which reminds me of the AGNI essay you wrote on boredom. The thesis of that essay was basically that boredom in literature is okay. Can you also apply that idea to video games? Can there be meaningful or productive boredom while playing, through the act of repetition, for instance? I just played Her Story, which I know you enjoyed, and while it has a super interesting story you have to slog through a certain amount of repetition to get to it.

TT: The democratization of game creation is producing a wider range of games, like the Super 8 camera did with film. You can have vignette-style games like Nina Freeman’s —  Cibele , how do you Do It? , Freshman Year , etc. You can have “walking simulators” that are almost purely meditative, like Gone Home , Firewatch , or Dear Esther . I just saw a piece on a game based on Thoreau’s Walden .

essay about video game

The impulses and tendencies that make people want to create literature are present. It will happen more as people are able to do what they want to do, without enormous corporate financial support or even crowdfunding, which, to an extent, just moves the bottom line to having to be crowd-pleasing. Games can be plenty boring in spite of themselves, even if that’s not what they’re trying to do. It’s a clichĂ© by now to point out that the most time investment-heavy games like World of Warcraft consist largely of “grinding.” Or, if you play something like DotA 2 , queuing for a game.

GO: For DotA 2 you also have to spend a lot of time reading up on viable builds. Work that’s not in actually playing the game.

TT: Yes, although I will say that that intellectual work doesn’t feel like tedious labor to me. I have fun looking up builds. The deep strategy and understanding are coextensive with the pleasure of playing the game.

Moments of boredom are built into games for reasons that range from comedy to suspense. I think a lot about the moment in Final Fantasy VI where you’re directed to just wait at the edge of a floating continent for a character to come along. On the one hand you’re sitting watching a clock tick down. On the other hand, it’s extremely tense.

Contrasting aesthetic effects in games to those in other media is not always productive, because it’s like playing Twenty Questions. Can games do X like books? Can games do Y like films? In the same way we should assume games are art, and that there’s an audience out there hungry to make something of them, we should assume that games can do anything. You can have a rom-com game, a campus game, an adultery game, or a boring-but-important game that will get taught in high schools circa 2110.

GO: I go to these academic conferences where a similar conversation is happening among professors who write in the field of gaming studies. Some bring in literary and film theory, and try to lay that on top of video games, while others reject that. The tools and the language are already there from other fields, so it seems easy. On the other hand, it can be kind of reductive, and perhaps prevents you from having the more meaningful conversation.

TT: Right, or even just the conversation you’re trying to have. There are also those efforts to create a language around game studies, partly I think try to legitimatize it in the eyes of the academy. You get people going on about the Ludologists versus the Narratologists, about ludonarrative dissonance, copping these quasi-academic terms. I can see the point of systematizing things, but my favorite criticism helps you not to just describe and understand, but to enjoy stuff more.

GO: How much do you worry about the effect that being an “out” gamer will have on your literary career?

TT: If I were bashful or coy about my love of video games I wouldn’t do this interview. The same goes for pornography or television. Even the language of being “out” implies a political and social pressure or an importance that just doesn’t exist. I’d hate to believe that being a writer means living in a constant state of deposition, publicizing everything you do, think, or feel. The fact that I like video games isn’t interesting. Video games are interesting. I love talking about them with smart people, both within and outside of gaming culture. But I’m also perfectly happy to be left alone with them.

GO: Do you hope there’s a day around the corner where a game developer decides to make a narrative-heavy game like Life is Strange , Her Story , or Kentucky Route Zero , and they look at a list of literary authors to figure out who should write it?

TT: Not at all. I believe that I can do a lot of things in writing, but I haven’t felt an urge to create a video game since the third grade. It’s always good to have some kind of interest that is totally pure, where you’re going to be an eternal fan, because sausage-making can disillusion you fast. If part of the charge of art comes from mystique or sheer baffled admiration, that’s something I want to preserve in at least a few departments of my life.

GO: As a writer, you’re expected to be both a creator and a thoughtful critic as well. It seems like once you publish a book, there is an expectation that you’ll be reviewing or blurbing for other books for the rest of your life. How does your approach to writing about literature differ from your essays on games?

TT: I review books as a practitioner; I know what goes into putting one together, so I can pan one that isn’t well-made. I write about games as an appreciator, in that I want to take something I like and enlarge people’s sense of pleasure or wonder at it. This doesn’t mean that I can’t be critical of a game. I have negative things to say about everything. But because I’m not highly qualified to trivialize or disparage a game on the level of craft — for instance, a sunbeam in a video game might look shitty and aliased because of technological or budgetary constraints that I’m not aware of — my main task is to study its narrative and to add value.

GO: You’ve been thinking about games critically for a long time. I read that you wrote your theses — both in undergrad and for your first master’s degree — on video game interaction. What were you looking at in those?

TT: I majored in something called Symbolic Systems, which would be called cognitive sciences anywhere else. They add linguistics and philosophy to the standard curriculum of formal logic, computer science, and cognitive psychology. I applied the extremely specific language of human-computer interaction studies to video games. So I wrote pretty dry literature surveys of game-writing and interaction theory, and how the latter could be applied to the former.

One was about game controller design, which ended up anticipating the Nintendo Wii controller by a couple of years. I talked about the potential for modular design and gestural input. The second thesis was about menus. They’re the basis of turn-based RPGs, and in games their definitional boundaries are weird. Take the Warp Zone Pipes in Super Mario Brothers . You go over a ceiling and drop into a room where you’re invited to select one of three pipes to go through. It is very clearly a menu, where you’re selecting one of three options, but it’s also a part of the action.

God, I sound so stoned when I talk about this.

essay about video game

GO: I hate to keep mentioning Her Story , but I just started it today. In that game, the user interface also has this blurry boundary. You read a ReadMe file to learn how to use the system, but that’s all part of the in-game computer you interact with as part of the story.

TT: Yeah, it’s brilliant. Any computer interaction can be extrapolated into a game premise. Here it’s basically Database Search: The Game, but it’s fun and well written. To analogize with literature, there are plenty of stories whose premise comes from its formal conceit. My favorite is “ Going for a Beer ” by Robert Coover. He takes a simple sentence gimmick — where two things that happen at different times are written as though they’re simultaneous — and it becomes the conceit of the story. The story is, “what if your life was composed of moments with endings and beginnings but no middles?”

GO: Form matching content. That happens in all types of art, right? There was a piece on Hamilton which pointed out that, as the first half progresses, the Marquis de Lafayette’s rhymes get denser and faster, coinciding with him being in America and increasingly speaking English. The music reflects the plot.

TT: Form generating content, I would say. It’s a classical idea. Sometimes it’s done very explicitly, like with Oulipo. It can be super corny, but it’s a dependable source of inspiration.

It’s Tristram Shandy-levels of batshit.

GO: Going back to your idea for a game-writing website, were you imagining a place that just collected the kind of long-form writing you want to see, or were you also imagining a community that would be built around it?

TT: I am not too concerned with building community. The idea was simply to get critical essays on games­ — not fiction, poetry, reviews, or personal essays, but literary analysis. Like the essay I’m working on about the Metal Gear Solid series
 So many of the male characters lose their hands and are sterile and have daddy issues and misinterpret the will of one female character, The Boss. Aside from the glaring Freudian overtones, what’s that about? This is not stuff that figures into the plot as it plays out, but is something that I think screams out for conversation.

GO: I was a Nintendo kid and then jumped to PC gaming, so I never got into the Metal Gear  games.

TT: It’s like the Infinite Jest of games. As far as I know, it’s the longest continuous scripted narrative in games. You can make a strained case for things like Zelda or Metroid , but this is the most sustained vision from an auteurist figure, Hideo Kojima, and it’s just bonkers. It’s Tristram Shandy -levels of batshit.

GO: Well, that sells it. I now have to ask the big, speculative question, since you just called it the Infinite Jest of games. What do you think David Foster Wallace’s writing would have been like, had he been obsessed with video games rather than television?

TT: This question is so enormously counterfactual it might as well be a novel. The guy was hugely tech-avoidant. He typed with one finger on an old computer. But games seem very contiguous with his concerns in Infinite Jest . Though who’s to say Virginia Woolf wouldn’t have also gotten equally invested in games? Wallace is a gimme because of the technological overlap, but to me the more interesting speculative question is, What would a game written by P.G. Wodehouse be like? I want to see an essay on  that .

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Best Video Game Essay Topics for Students

Video Game Essay Topic Ideas

Choosing the right essay topic is crucial, and for students who love video games, it’s an opportunity to combine their passion with academics. In this article, we’ll explore a variety of exciting and various video game essay topic ideas for students of high school and college. This blog includes argumentative, analytical, persuasive and other types of essays related to video gaming.

Video Game Essay Topics for High School Students

  • How Video Games Improve Problem-Solving Skills.
  • Understanding the World of E-sports.
  • The Importance of Balanced Gaming Habits.
  • Exploring the History of Gaming Consoles.
  • Video Games: Entertainment and Cultural Influence.
  • Gender Representation in Video Games.
  • Gamification in Education: Learning through Play.
  • Game Design and the Art of Video Games.
  • Tracing the Growth of the Video Game Industry.
  • Social Connections in Online Gaming Communities.
  • Video Games and Mental Health Benefits.
  • Exploring Careers in Game Development.
  • Ethical Choices in Video Games.
  • The Impact of Music in Video Games.
  • Making Video Games Accessible to Everyone.

Video Game Essay Topics for College Students

  • The Educational Value of Video Games in College Curriculum.
  • The Growth and Impact of E-sports in the Sports Industry.
  • Gaming Habits and Academic Performance: A College Study.
  • Game Engine Comparison: Unity vs. Unreal Engine.
  • Gender Representation in Video Games: A College Perspective.
  • Analyzing Game Narrative Structures in Popular Titles.
  • Moral Choices in Video Games: Implications and Outcomes.
  • The Psychology of Player Motivation in Gaming.
  • Virtual Reality in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges.
  • Career Prospects in Game Development: Paths and Insights.
  • Ethical Dilemmas in Video Game Content Creation.
  • The Role of Music and Sound in Video Game Immersion.
  • Indie Game Development: Innovations and Success Stories.
  • Video Game Preservation: Saving Gaming History.
  • AI in Gaming: Enhancing NPC Behavior and Gameplay.

Common Essay Topics Related to Video Games

  • The Influence of Video Games on Academic Performance.
  • Video Game Violence: Separating Fact from Fiction.
  • The History and Evolution of Mobile Gaming.
  • The Role of Gaming in Building Teamwork and Collaboration.
  • The Psychology of In-Game Rewards and Achievements.
  • Virtual Reality (VR) Gaming: A Glimpse into the Future.
  • Gaming and STEM Education: Learning Science through Games.
  • The Representation of Diversity in Video Games.
  • The Impact of In-Game Advertising on Players.
  • The Benefits of Gaming for Stress Relief and Relaxation.
  • The Importance of Responsible Gaming.
  • The Art of Game Mods: Customizing and Enhancing Games.
  • E-sports Scholarships and Opportunities for Students.
  • The Environmental Impact of Video Game Consoles.
  • Gamers for Good: How Gaming Communities Contribute to Charity.

Argumentative Topics for Video Game Essays

  • Do Violent Video Games Promote Aggressive Behavior in Players?
  • Should There Be Age Restrictions on Purchasing Violent Video Games?
  • Are Video Games a Viable Educational Tool in Schools?
  • Is Video Game Addiction a Real Concern, and How Should It Be Addressed?
  • Do Video Games Enhance Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking Skills?
  • Should Parents Be More Involved in Monitoring Their Children’s Gaming Habits?
  • Is E-sports a Legitimate Sport and Worthy of Recognition?
  • Does Playing Video Games Improve Hand-Eye Coordination?
  • Are Video Games a Form of Art, and Should They Be Treated as Such?
  • Should the Video Game Industry Be Regulated More Strictly for Content?
  • Do Video Games Have a Positive or Negative Impact on Social Skills?
  • Is There a Link Between Video Games and Obesity in Children?
  • Should Professional Gamers Be Considered Athletes and Eligible for Sports Scholarships?
  • Does Gaming Culture Foster Toxic Behavior and Harassment?
  • Can Video Games Help Alleviate Stress and Anxiety in Players?

Didn’t find any topic of your interest? No worries! We have listed 100+ Argumentative Essay Topics for Students here, you can go through the article and choose the best one as per your needs. This blog has various niche topics and can assist to find the best one for you.

Informative Video Game Essay Topics

  • The History of Video Games: From Pong to Present.
  • A Deep Dive into the World of E-sports.
  • How Video Games are Made: Game Development Explained.
  • Exploring Different Genres of Video Games: Action, RPG, Simulation, etc.
  • The Evolution of Video Game Graphics and Technology.
  • Iconic Video Game Characters and Their Impact on Pop Culture.
  • The Science Behind Gaming: How Game Engines Work.
  • Video Game Consoles: Past, Present, and Future.
  • The Importance of Storytelling in Video Games.
  • The Role of Sound Design and Music in Gaming.
  • The Influence of Video Games on Architecture and Design.
  • Video Game Streaming and Content Creation: A New Career Frontier.
  • The Psychology of Gaming: Why We Love Video Games.
  • The Cultural Significance of Video Game Events and Conventions.
  • The Rise of Gamification in Education and Training.

Compare & Contrast Video Game Essay Topics

These compare and contrast essay topics are chosen by our experts and are specifically related to video gaming. These are general and easy to write on.

  • Console Gaming vs. PC Gaming: Which Is Better?
  • Single-Player vs. Multiplayer Games: Which Do You Prefer?
  • Mobile Games vs. Console Games: Pros and Cons.
  • Classic Games vs. Modern Games: What’s Changed?
  • First-Person vs. Third-Person Shooter Games: Which is More Immersive?
  • Xbox vs. PlayStation: Comparing Gaming Communities.
  • Video Games vs. Board Games: Which Provides More Fun?
  • Old Game Graphics vs. New Game Graphics: A Visual Evolution.
  • RPGs vs. Action Games: Gameplay Differences.
  • Retro Games vs. Modern Games: Nostalgia vs. Innovation.
  • Open-World Games vs. Linear Games: Freedom vs. Guided Storytelling.
  • Strategy Games vs. Puzzle Games: Challenges in Gaming.
  • Video Games vs. Movies: Storytelling Approaches.
  • Online Shooters vs. Battle Royale Games: Teamwork vs. Solo Play.
  • Exclusive vs. Cross-Platform Games: Your Gaming Options.

Analytical Topics for Video Game Essays

  • Strategies for Success in Online Multiplayer Games.
  • Analyzing Game Elements in Role-Playing Games (RPGs).
  • In-Game Purchases and Their Impact on Player Progress.
  • The Design of Levels in Platformer Games: A Critical Look.
  • Difficulty Levels in Video Games: Effects on Player Experience.
  • The In-Game Economy: How It Works and Influences Players.
  • The Significance of Tutorial Levels in Game Learning.
  • Character Development in Video Games: Evolution and Influence.
  • Linear vs. Non-Linear Storytelling in Video Games.
  • Morality Systems in Games: Player Choices and Consequences.
  • AI and Machine Learning in Video Games: Advancements and Applications.
  • User-Friendly Game Interfaces: Design Principles and Importance.
  • Game Analytics: Measuring Success in the Gaming Industry.
  • Visual Design and Its Impact on Player Immersion.
  • Cultural Adaptation in Video Game Localization.

Read more: Best Analytical Essay Topics

Persuasive Essay Topics on Video Gaming

  • Why Schools Should Use Video Games for Learning.
  • The Importance of Age Ratings in Video Game Sales.
  • Video Games: Tools for Enhancing Problem-Solving Skills.
  • How Video Games Can Improve Mental Well-being.
  • Debunking the Myth: Video Games and Real-Life Violence.
  • Promoting Diversity in Video Game Characters.
  • Parents’ Role in Monitoring Kids’ Gaming Habits.
  • Gamification in Education: Making Learning Fun.
  • Addressing Video Game Addiction as a Health Issue.
  • Teamwork and Cooperation in Multiplayer Games.
  • Ethical Game Development: Fair Monetization Practices.
  • The Need for More Research on Video Game Violence.
  • Combatting Toxicity in Online Gaming Communities.
  • Exploring E-sports Career Opportunities.
  • Making Video Games Accessible for Everyone.

Read more: Best Persuasive Essay Topics

Best Video Game Essay Topics in 2023

  • The Impact of Video Games on Society Today.
  • Gaming and Sustainability: How Can Gamers Go Green?
  • NFTs in Gaming: What You Need to Know.
  • Virtual Reality Gaming: The Next Big Thing.
  • Making Games Accessible for Everyone.
  • AI’s Role in Video Game Development.
  • Gaming Habits Post-Pandemic: What’s Changed?
  • In-Game Advertising: Friend or Foe?
  • 5G Technology and Its Effect on Gaming.
  • Video Games and Mental Health: A Closer Look.
  • Augmented Reality Games in Learning and Fun.
  • Collectibles and In-Game Economies: Explained.
  • Gaming Across Cultures: Challenges and Solutions.
  • The Power of Online Gaming Communities.
  • E-sports: The Future of Competitive Gaming.

These gaming essay topics would surely help you select the best topic of your choice, all various topics are suggested by our qualified experts keeping in mind the capabilities of an average student. If you want to hire our assignment writer for your gaming topics, feel free to reach us and get your essay done by experts.

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Essay on Video Games

In the rapidly evolving digital age, video games have emerged as a dominant form of entertainment and a significant cultural phenomenon. Their influence extends beyond mere amusement, affecting cognitive development, social interactions, and even physical health. This essay aims to explore the multifaceted impact of video games, shedding light on their benefits and challenges while offering a balanced perspective for students participating in essay writing competitions.

Video Games

Video games have undergone a remarkable evolution since their inception in the 1950s. From simple pixelated games to immersive virtual realities, they have transformed into complex narratives that captivate players’ imaginations. This evolution reflects technological advancements and the growing sophistication of gamers’ tastes and demands.

Cognitive Benefits

Research has shown that video games can enhance various cognitive skills. They improve problem-solving abilities, spatial awareness, and multitasking skills. Games that require strategic thinking, such as puzzles or role-playing games, can significantly boost players’ decision-making processes and adaptability to changing situations.

Educational Potential

Educators have begun to recognize the potential of video games as learning tools. Educational games can make learning more engaging and interactive, providing a practical application of concepts in a controlled environment. This approach can cater to different learning styles and paces, potentially transforming traditional educational methodologies.

Social Interaction and Community Building

Online multiplayer games offer vast platforms for social interaction, allowing players to collaborate, compete, and communicate with others across the globe. This virtual socialization can foster teamwork, leadership skills, and a sense of community among players, challenging the stereotype of gaming as an isolating activity.

Physical and Mental Health Impacts

The impact of video games on physical and mental health is a subject of ongoing debate. While excessive gaming can lead to sedentary lifestyles and associated health issues, active games like those using motion sensors can promote physical activity. Moreover, video games can offer therapeutic benefits, such as stress relief and improved mood, and have been explored as treatment aids for anxiety and depression.

Positive Impacts

  • Cognitive Skills: Certain video games, especially those involving strategy and problem-solving, can improve cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and spatial reasoning.
  • Hand-Eye Coordination: Action and simulation games often require precise movements, enhancing hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
  • Social Interaction: Online multiplayer games can foster social connections and teamwork, providing opportunities for individuals to make friends and collaborate with others.
  • Stress Relief: Engaging in video games can serve as a stress reliever and a way to unwind from daily pressures.
  • Educational Value: Many educational games are designed to teach specific skills or subjects, making learning more engaging and interactive.
  • Pain Distraction: Some video games have been used in healthcare settings to distract patients from pain or discomfort during medical procedures.

Negative Impacts

  • Sedentary Lifestyle: Excessive gaming can lead to a sedentary lifestyle, contributing to physical health issues such as obesity, cardiovascular problems, and muscular weaknesses.
  • Sleep Disturbances: Late-night gaming sessions can disrupt sleep patterns, leading to sleep deprivation, which can negatively affect mental and physical health.
  • Addiction: Video game addiction can lead to social isolation, neglect of responsibilities, and adverse psychological effects, resembling addiction to substances.
  • Violence and Aggression: Some studies suggest a correlation between violent video games and increased aggressive behavior, although the causation remains debated.
  • Eye Strain and Physical Discomfort: Prolonged screen time can lead to eye strain, headaches, and physical discomfort, often referred to as “gamer’s thumb” or “text neck.”
  • Social Isolation: While some video games promote social interaction, excessive gaming can lead to isolation from real-life social activities, potentially impacting mental health negatively.
  • Escapism and Avoidance: Video games can become a form of escapism, allowing individuals to avoid dealing with real-life problems and responsibilities, which can lead to mental health issues.
  • Reduced Academic or Work Performance: Excessive gaming can interfere with academic or work-related responsibilities, leading to decreased performance and productivity.
  • Emotional Well-Being: While some games offer an enjoyable experience, others may be emotionally distressing or promote negative emotions, affecting mental health negatively.
  • Financial Consequences: In-game purchases and microtransactions can lead to financial strain when not managed responsibly.

Economic Impact

The video game industry has become a significant economic force, with revenues surpassing those of the movie and music industries combined. It has created millions of jobs worldwide in various sectors, including development, marketing, and esports. The industry’s growth has spurred technological innovation, driving advancements in software development, graphics, and artificial intelligence.

Cultural Influence

Video games have transcended entertainment to become influential cultural artifacts. They influence fashion, music, and movies and are a driving force behind major technological and social trends. Games like “Minecraft” and “Fortnite” have become cultural phenomena, influencing everything from playground activities to online communities.

Ethical Considerations and Responsibility

As video games become more lifelike and immersive, ethical considerations come to the forefront. Issues such as the portrayal of gender, race, and violence in games have sparked discussions about the social responsibilities of game developers. Promoting diversity and avoiding stereotypes in games can contribute to broader cultural understanding and sensitivity.

The Future of Gaming

The future of video gaming promises even more immersive experiences with advancements in virtual and augmented reality. The integration of artificial intelligence can lead to more personalized and adaptive gaming experiences, potentially revolutionizing how we interact with digital environments. As technology progresses, the ethical, social, and health-related implications of gaming will continue to be critical areas of research and discussion.

In conclusion, Video games are a complex and dynamic form of entertainment with far-reaching impacts on individuals and society. While they offer numerous benefits in terms of education, cognitive development, and social interaction, they also pose challenges related to health, addiction, and ethical concerns. As the industry continues to evolve, it is imperative for players, developers, and policymakers to balance the positive aspects of gaming with its potential drawbacks. Engaging with video games critically and responsibly can maximize their benefits while mitigating adverse effects, ensuring that gaming remains a positive force in the digital age.

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Video Games Essay | Negative & Positive Effects

A brief essays and paragraph about video games are given below. These paragraphs briefly answers the queries:  Are video games good or not?. Also read advantages and disadvantages.

There is no doubt that the video game industry is massive. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on video games, and the market is only growing. But what draws people to them? What is it about video games that entice people to keep playing them?

Table of Contents

Short Paragraph On Video Games

There are numerous theories, but one of the most widely accepted is the concept of escapism. People play video games to distract themselves from reality. They want to forget about their problems and simply have fun for a while. Video games provide a distinct form of entertainment that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Another reason people enjoy video games so much is that they are extremely immersive. When you’re playing a game, you completely immerse yourself in it. You lose track of time and become completely absorbed in the world on the screen. This is a sensation that is difficult to replicate through other forms of entertainment.

Essay about video games

I’ve been thinking a lot about video games lately, and how they’ve changed my perspective on the world. Since I began playing them at the age of 11, they have brought me joy that few other things can match. I was hooked from the moment I got Mario Kart 64 to play with friends or try out all those new tracks. I began to play more and more, learning every trick in the game and eventually beating it with all of my friends. This was only the beginning of my fascination with video games.

Soon after, I obtained the Pokemon Blue version and began collecting fakemon to add to a new team, battling with them online on Game boys or trying out all of the new games like Pokémon.

Does that appear to be something to be taken lightly? Are gamer simply lazy kids who spend too much time playing video games and don’t get enough exercise to burn off those calories? I’m sure some people use it. How could you live with yourself if you were one of them?

I believe that many of the negative stereotypes about gamer stem from the fact that adults are less likely to play video games. It’s something you do as a child, not after you graduate from high school. This is most likely why we don’t hear much about adult gamer and instead concentrate on children.

The truth is that people who play video games are not slackers. They’re just people who have a different hobby than the rest of us. And there are numerous advantages to playing video games. For starters, they can assist you in improving your problem-solving abilities. Games like Portal and Super Meat Boy necessitate quick thinking and precise movements, which can be applied in real life.

Games can also aid in the development of your hand-eye coordination. This is especially critical for athletes and surgeons. Sports like Street Fighter and Dance Dance Revolution have helped people improve their skills in sports and surgery.

Furthermore, video games can help you improve your social skills. Playing online games with people from all over the world can teach you how to communicate with strangers and make new friends through online chat. Also, because they will most likely be talking about something they enjoy rather than forcing conversation, playing video games is a great way for shy people to feel more comfortable around others.

While some gamer do not get out as much as they should, the majority of negative stereotypes about gamer are simply false. There are numerous advantages to playing video games that can help you improve your life in some way. Don’t pass judgment on someone who is playing a video game the next time you see them. Simply think to yourself, “that person must be having fun because there’s no way they’d be playing a game if they didn’t enjoy it.”

Finally, there are numerous reasons why people enjoy video games. Some enjoy the challenge, while others enjoy the escapism and immersion they provide. Whatever the reason, it is obvious that video games are here to stay.

Argumentative Essay On Video Games | Positive And Negative Effects

1. Introduction

Video games have become a ubiquitous part of modern society, with people of all ages and backgrounds engaging with them on a daily basis. From console games to mobile games, the video game industry has grown significantly in recent years, and shows no signs of slowing down.

2. Positive Effects Of Video Games

Video games can have a number of positive effects on players. For example, they can improve hand-eye coordination and reaction time, as well as cognitive skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking. Additionally, video games can serve as a form of stress relief, allowing players to relax and unwind after a long day.

3. Negative Effects Of Video Games

However, there can also be negative effects associated with playing video games. Excessive gaming can lead to addiction, and can also negatively impact social relationships and physical health. Furthermore, some video games can contain violent or inappropriate content that may not be suitable for all players.

4. Conclusion

Overall, while video games can have both positive and negative effects, it is important for players to be aware of these potential effects and to use moderation when playing. Parents should also monitor the games that their children are playing and ensure that they are appropriate.

Essay on Video Games and Violence

The relationship between video games and violence has been the subject of ongoing debate and research for many years. Some studies have suggested that playing violent video games can lead to an increase in aggressive behavior, while others have found no significant link between the two.

One argument for a link between video games and violence is that playing violent games can desensitize individuals to real-world violence and make them more likely to engage in aggressive behavior. This theory is based on the idea that repeated exposure to violent imagery can lead to a decrease in the emotional response to violence, making it easier for individuals to commit acts of aggression.

On the other hand, other studies have found no significant correlation between playing violent video games and increased aggression. Some researchers argue that other factors, such as a person’s overall level of aggression or their environment, may play a greater role in determining their behavior. Additionally, it has also been suggested that playing violent video games can actually serve as a outlet for aggression and help to reduce the likelihood of real-world violence.

It is important to note that the majority of research in this area has found that video games are not the sole or even primary cause of violence. Rather, a complex interplay of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors are typically at play in determining an individual’s likelihood of committing acts of aggression.

In conclusion, while some studies have suggested a link between video games and violence, the evidence is not conclusive. Further research is needed to fully understand the relationship between the two, and it is important not to jump to conclusions about the effects of video games on behavior without considering other potential factors.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Can video games be addictive?

A: Yes, excessive gaming can lead to addiction, and it is important for players to use moderation when playing.

Q: Are video games bad for children?

A: Not necessarily, but it is important for parents to monitor the games that their children are playing and ensure that they are appropriate.

Q: Can video games improve cognitive skills?

A: Yes, video games can improve cognitive skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

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Let’s Plays are out. The gaming video culture essay is in

Paige Lyman

Over the last decade, long-form video essays have grown in popularity — arguably entering into a boom all their own . Viewers can easily look up a video essay on just about any topic they’d like to, from deep dives into filmmaking, theme park history, fashion, and everything in between. With such a large offering of video essays out there, one sub-genre that has found its own footing is that of the video game culture essay.

The draw of the video game essay

Niche topics in a not-so-new format, coexistence with traditional game reviews.

These particular gaming videos are a style of visual essay that offers both the creators behind them and viewers the space to explore video games in new ways that extend beyond what we’ve come to expect in a video game review. That flavor of video tends to dig more into a niche topic that the creator is most interested in — be that a theme, specific character, or even how artistic choices impact the game.

These gaming essays have managed to find their own foothold within the wider world of video game commentary while maintaining a pretty even coexistence with the traditional game review format. Both offer up individual thoughts and insight on video games while actively not detracting from the other.

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To better understand that foothold and coexistence, I spoke with two creators who have been making culture gaming essays. They explained what exactly drives them to share their unique perspectives through this format and what serves as a draw to both gaming essays and reviews for viewers.

Understanding what initially drives a creator to get started on making video game culture essays can give us insight into why they’ve found such a strong foothold in the gaming space to begin with. There’s something to be said for knowing the passion behind something. For both Maria (also known as eurothug4000 ) and Daryl Talks Games , the initial interest to discuss more niche topics related to video games stemmed from outside influences.

Maria, who has been creating videos on YouTube since 2018, shared that her background in studying art during her A-Levels helped serve as inspiration for the discussions around art direction and aesthetics that she has in her video essays.

“I had a very good teacher throughout those years,” Maria tells Digital Trends. “There was one exercise, in particular, she would make the class do when analyzing the works of artists, which would basically just be a good old brainstorm diagram. We would have the painting or photograph in the center and write anything that comes to mind as we looked at it — texture, mood, content, etc. This is something I do in my mind when looking at games. It’s just a natural process so deeply ingrained into my brain — I can’t help it!”

“Essays give both players and creators a chance to find beauty in the mundane, clarity in the intricacy …” 

Daryl Talks Games initially started out on YouTube in 2009. But as a long-time gamer with an interest in psychology, he knew that he wanted to get back to making videos eventually. Nowadays, he makes “essays that center around the “interaction between psychology, video games, video game design, and life.” His inspiration came from Mark Brown’s Game Maker’s Toolkit , a channel that takes deep dives into every aspect of game design.

“I was captivated by his ability to explain things I had never noticed in games and how fascinating it was to learn why games work from a design standpoint,” he tells Digital Trends. “I came across his channel during my last year of undergrad and since I was studying psychology, I found myself making connections between a lot of the points he was making and the things I was learning in class. I pretty much just said ‘Let me try the whole essay thing, but my gimmick will be psychology.’ Since I was uninterested in grad school and a bachelor’s in psychology pretty much only qualifies you to be a YouTuber, I just kept on making videos!”

Both creators approach their gaming essays through a new lens that gives them the ability to explore games in ways that go beyond the limits of standard criticism.

With the broad range of possible topics that creators can explore in their gaming essays, it’s no surprise that creators choose to look at hyper-specific things that catch their interest — such as the space in games that players encounter between a respawn point and the boss.

Niche topics offer viewers the chance to see what creators are seeing in a game that extends beyond just a cursory playthrough or answering the question that many turn to reviews for: Is this a game that I’d like to play?

“They’re just documentaries, but smaller, with more personality, and sort of, dialed-in to one very niche topic. I have a whole essay on the mental health of this one particular side character in Deltarune . Jacob Geller has an entire video exploring games that specifically save their most interesting bits for last,” Daryl Talks Games says. “I think both myself and others that do this enjoy it so much because creatively, the sky’s the limit. Essays give both players and creators a chance to find beauty in the mundane, clarity in the intricacy, and generally just a chance to enjoy games on a deeper level than if we had just played them and moved on.”

That ability to explore and enjoy games a little deeper in gaming essays certainly offers viewers another way to look at and experience the games that they’re playing, almost peeling back certain layers in a sense. Some gaming essays tend to tread into lengthy territory as a result, often going over the 30-minute mark. Ladyknightthebrave has an hour and a half look at the Last of Us series , while some of Tim Rogers’ videos are about as long as an HBO miniseries.

Maria, who originally began producing game reviews, eventually figured out that she enjoyed making this style of gaming deep-dive more.

“A lot of the time I focus on the inspirations behind certain games that contribute to their art style,” Maria says. “For example, Demon’s Souls ‘ background in dark fantasy and its similarities to Frank Frazetta’s works, or the cultural aspects behind Resident Evil Village that I rarely see in games. In Kuon (PS2), even the saving mechanic is contextualized by having a small ritual involved instead of just a menu with a save button. While I love just how game worlds look, it’s really impressive to me when they can fit their mechanics into it as it makes me feel even more engaged.”

Gaming essays and game reviews have come to a rather unique coexistence. And while viewers and creators alike might prefer one form of gaming commentary over the other, both Maria and Daryl Talks Games honed in on the fact that both serve slightly different purposes at the end of the day — even as they both work to answer questions.

“They’re just documentaries, but smaller”

“A review, in my mind, is to inform someone whether they would want to purchase the game for themselves, or to simply see what other people generally thought about it,” Maria says. “A video essay can offer the same, but ultimately they’re about learning something new, whether that’s about the game, someone’s personal experience, or even something seemingly unrelated. A lot of my videos have got me researching all kinds of random topics. I’ve learned about Italian horror cinema, camp fashion, and even the origin of CPR dolls to name a few!”

“There are plenty of reviews for the game Omori out there, but I am definitely the only one offering a detailed analysis on how it illustrates dissociative amnesia.” Daryl Talks Game says.

That slight difference in overall purpose sets gaming essays and reviews apart from each other but also ties them together. Creators and viewers can easily pick and choose which of the two they’d like to create and watch respectively.

“We all see and play games differently which means that everyone gets their own experience,” Daryl says about the coexistence of gaming essays and reviews. “For some, the mechanics are more interesting, for others, it’s the music, for some it’s all of it! Just about any genre of gaming video will be important to someone out there and it will never be impossible for a person to only watch one type of gaming video.”

In a space that could easily have been dominated by one or the other, gaming essays have managed to find a unique coexistence alongside game reviews while maintaining their own individual draw. Creators like Maria and Daryl Talks Games find a lot of joy in the varied ways that they can discuss games in their essays, sharing special insight and discussions around topics that are important to them — all while deepening the collective toolkit we use to understand games.

Interview responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

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Paige Lyman

If there’s one video game presentation happening over the next week that has the most to prove, it’s the Xbox Games Showcase. Despite a strong start to the year with Hi-Fi Rush and a solid Developer Direct showcase, Microsoft’s gaming branch has floundered in recent months because of struggles with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the rocky launch of Redfall. With the Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct Double Feature, Microsoft must reconfirm its commitment to gaming and to releasing high-quality first-party exclusives.

That said, Xbox is in an excellent position to do just that because of Sony’s underwhelming May showcase. As the first major gaming presentation of the summer, Sony had the chance to “win” the whole game reveal season early with its PlayStation Showcase. Ultimately, that live stream proved disappointing because of its focus on CGI reveal trailers and live service games.

Trying to pick the best video games of all time is a task defined by one word: hubris.

How could anyone possibly create a definitive list of gaming's greatest accomplishments when there’s such a wildly large variety of games to choose from? That’s a question we asked ourselves over and over when deciding to put together our own top 50 list. It was the kind of task we could slice up hundreds of ways, coming out with completely different lists every single time based on our preferred methodology. That’s a testament to the rich history of games, which offer countless diverse experiences worthy of praise.

It’s safe to say that the cozy game genre has come into its own in the last few years. Also known as wholesome games, the emerging genre typically offers a slower story pace and a more relaxed style of gameplay, dropping the fast action found in other genres. More low-key and self-guided games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Harvest Moon, and Spiritfarer have always existed, but they’ve only really established themselves as a separate genre recently. There’s an entire cozy tag on Steam and even an entire industry event, Wholesome Direct, dedicated to showcasing new games annually.  A quick search on Google will reveal a number of game developers who have happily taken up the mantle of creating these chill games for players.

But cozy gaming has blossomed beyond just the games themselves, much as the larger video game space has over the last 15 years. Players have begun to take their love for gaming and channel it into other forms, making use of platforms like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram to create a variety of unique content. Content creators have taken to streaming, video making, and other forms of content such as sharing photos on Instagram to discuss, play, and share their love for the genre.

Video Games as a Legitimate Sport Essay

Memory training, cognitive and emotional development, counterargument.

The technological breakthrough that has been taking place over the past few decades has led to massive changes in people’s lives, including the areas such as leisure, sport, and hobbies. Video games have become part and parcel of many people’s pastime; furthermore, modern video games have evolved to the point where they demand to be recognized as a legitimate sport. Since video games include the elements that allow promoting social, emotional, and cognitive development, as well as provide opportunities for sensor development and a better control of one’s sensory experiences, it will be reasonable to claim that video games should become a sport.

The opportunities for memory development and the further enhancement of the relevant skills acquisition must be regarded as the key characteristic that makes video games a legitimate sport. According to the research produced by Basak, Boot, Voss, and Kramer (2008), executive control processes, which are linked directly to memory, deteriorate approximately after 60 years. The use of video games as the means of training the specified ability, in turn, has proven very efficient, which means that the identified activity should be recognized as a legitimate sport. For instance, the outcomes of the research point to the fact that the use of video games allows enhancing participants’ flexibility levels (Basak et al., 2008). As a result, the opportunities for helping them train their analytical skills are created. Indeed, it is essential for a sportsperson to be able to adjust to the ever-changing environment of a competition and be able to perform the tasks of varying difficulty. The application of video games, in turn, will build the foundation for training the habit of using analytical skills in order to assess a sudden change in the environment, define the available opportunities, assess possible risks, and identify the most appropriate solution. The skills listed above align with the criteria set for sportspersons taking part in competitions and other sport-related activities.

The opportunities for training one’s sensory abilities and engaging in the process of active cognitive development should also be considered as a piece of evidence in favor of making video games a sport. According to a recent study, video games create vast opportunities for extensive training of attention and memory, as well as the ability to control one’s actions. Particularly, the authors of the study announce that video games help improve not only visual and attentional skills but also a broader range of abilities, including the ones associated with carrying out “memory, reasoning, and executive control tasks” (Boot, Kramer, Simons, Fabiani, & Gratton, 2008, p. 388). Therefore, the use of video games allows training the skills that can be used for improving the performance of the members of the air force, as the authors explain (Boot et al., 2008). In other words, video games not only provide participants with exciting pastime but also contribute massively to their further development, including emotional, cognitive, and physical domains. The opportunities for training skills and excelling in the further performance can be regarded as a profound basis for listing video games among other kinds of sport. Furthermore, the study revealed that playing video games with the level of complexity increasing gradually, one will be able to improve steadily (Boot et al., 2008). Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that the active use of video games allows for a seamless transfer from the simulated tasks to actual experiences:

All game groups improved significantly. For MOH, firing accuracy improved significantly (45% and 52% pre- and post-practice, respectively, t(18) = 3.36, p <.01) as did the ratio of hits taken to enemies killed (.72 and 1.01 pre-and post-practice, respectively, t(18) = 2.43, p <.05). (Boot et al., 2008, p. 391)

In other words, video game players do not require additional training to deploy the newly acquired skills to resolve a real-life problem. Instead, they engage in the process of task management directly and use the skills that they have recently developed in a very efficient manner (Boot et al., 2008). The specified observation can be viewed as a direct argument in favor of including video games in the list of official sports. Furthermore, it can be linked to the idea of helping participants experience a wide range of emotions and, thus, enhance their emotional skills successfully. Specifically, the chance to “experiment with social experiences and simulate alternative emotional consequences” (Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2014, p. 67), which video games give to people playing them, must be recognized as an essential argument in favor of listing video games among the existing kinds of sports. Indeed, with the recent technological breakthrough and the introduction of extensive opportunities for interactions between players, which can be observed in modern video games, the latter are no longer viewed as the activity that isolates one socially and emotionally from the rest of the community. Quite on the contrary, modern video games create premises for a successful interaction between players and, therefore, the basis for their further professional and personal development, which makes video games indistinguishable from other types of sport.

It should be noted, though, that there are several legitimate arguments that do not allow recognizing video games as a sport immediately. While the identified statements do not have enough validity to prove that video games do not belong to the said category, they point to some of the evident problems with defining the subject matter as a sport. The assumption that any video game involves a certain element of luck tops the list of the arguments against defining video games as a kind of sport. Indeed, due to the specifics of programming, the possibility of a random combination of events that will ultimately lead to the success of a particular player exists in the realm of video games. Therefore, the possibility of one player having an unfair advantage over the rest of the participants makes the idea of turning video games into an actual sport rather questionable.

Despite the fact that the element of luck cannot be controlled in video games, the latter still qualify as a sport since other kinds of sports activities also incorporate the factors that cannot be regulated by referees and other members of the sports jury. For example, personal issues such as the well-being of a player, their health status, and other factors linked to the individual characteristics of the participants imply that modern types of sport also incorporate the element of luck as one of the factors that lead to the ultimate victory of a player. Furthermore, there are other extraneous factors that are linked directly to the possibility of victory, ranging from weather conditions to diet to personal issues. Excluding each of them from sports competitions is impossible, which means that traditional kinds of sport may also be deemed as the activities carried out in the environment that does not necessarily provide equal conditions for each participant. Therefore, the phenomenon of randomness that can be observed in modern video games and that may imply that some of the participants may be provided with more chances to win than others must not be viewed as legitimate. The low probability rates of the specified phenomenon occurring should also be regarded as an argument in favor of making video games a legitimate sport.

Providing ample opportunities for socioemotional and cognitive development of a player, offering a chance to enhance one’s sensory skills, and introducing options for several players to participate, video games must be recognized as a form of sport. Although the process of engaging in a video game does not involve establishing a physical contact with an opponent, it requires the ability to concentrate and use one’s analytical, cognitive, and other types of skills to the same extent as any other kind of sport does. Furthermore, video games create opportunities for the further development of a player. They build the foundation for training successfully; furthermore, with the recent technological breakthrough, the simulated experiences that players have when engaging in certain video games is very close to the actual ones. In other words, due to the effort and creativity out in their development, modern video games help blur the line between reality and the virtual world. The range of emotions that both the participants of other types of sports and the players of video games experience runs a full gamut. Consequently, video games must be recognized as a legitimate sport. Video games provide a solid basis for successful training, engage both participants and viewers emotionally, and allow maintaining the consistent communication with the opponent, therefore, qualifying for a sport like any other activity that is currently defined as such.

Basak, C., Boot, W. R., Voss, M. W., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?. Psychology and Aging, 23 (4), 765-777. doi:10.1037/a0013494

Boot, W. R., Kramer, A. F., Simons, D. J., Fabiani, M., & Gratton, G. (2008). The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica, 129 (3), 387-398. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.09.005

Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69 (1), 66-78. doi:10.1037/a0034857

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IvyPanda. (2020, September 2). Video Games as a Legitimate Sport. https://ivypanda.com/essays/video-games-as-a-legitimate-sport/

"Video Games as a Legitimate Sport." IvyPanda , 2 Sept. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/video-games-as-a-legitimate-sport/.

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IvyPanda . 2020. "Video Games as a Legitimate Sport." September 2, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/video-games-as-a-legitimate-sport/.

1. IvyPanda . "Video Games as a Legitimate Sport." September 2, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/video-games-as-a-legitimate-sport/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Video Games as a Legitimate Sport." September 2, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/video-games-as-a-legitimate-sport/.

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Could a video game developer win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

essay about video game

Profesor de Humanidades, IE University

Disclosure statement

Andrés Porras Chaves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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In October 2016, the Swedish Academy announced that it was awarding the Nobel prize for Literature to the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. The decision sent out shockwaves: for the first time, a musician had received the most prestigious literary award on the planet. It sparked debate , with many questioning the decision and even sarcastic suggestions that novelists could aspire to winning a Grammy.

The controversy fed into much needed debates on the boundary between poetry and song, but the question of what constitutes literature is much broader. Does it mean the same as it did in 1901, when the first Nobel prize for literature was awarded?

High and low culture

These questions date back far beyond 2016. In the late 1950s, a group of professors from the University of Birmingham founded a new interdisciplinary area of study, called cultural studies , in order to ask new questions: What was the role of TV and other mass media in cultural development? Is there a justification for distinguishing high and low culture? What is the relationship between culture and power?

These questions are all still relevant to current debates around literature. Often, the word “literary” is a status symbol, a seal of approval to distinguish “high” culture from more vulgar or less valuable “low” forms of culture. Comics, for example, were not invited to join the club until recently, thanks in part to a rebranding under the more respectable guise of “graphic novels”.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, literature displays “excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest”. It seems that an artist like Bob Dylan can take home the Nobel prize thanks to literature’s defining feature of “excellence of form or expression”, which is not strictly limited to the written word.

But how do we account for other language-based forms of expression? If performed works such as theatre or songwriting can be considered literature, where is the limit?

Word play: text-based video games

According to data from video game data consultancy Newzoo , more than 3 billion people play video games worldwide – almost half of the world’s population. In Spain alone, 77% of young people play videogames , making them a massively relevant form of culture. But what does this have to do with “excellence of form or expression”? To answer this question we have to look back several decades.

When the first video games were developed in the 1950s, two distinct genres emerged: one was action oriented (such as the pioneering 1958 game Tennis for Two ), and the other more text based. The original written games, known as “ interactive fiction ”, were made up exclusively of text, and the player’s job was to read and make decisions that would determine the game’s outcome using a keyboard.

Screenshot of the game _Mystery House_ on Apple II. The colour white was created by combining green and purple, producing white in the centre, but into the other two colours at the edges.

The inclusion of images in adventure games would not arrive until 1980, when Mystery House became the first “graphic adventure” game. These would reach their heyday in the 1990s: famous examples include the first two Monkey Island games (1990, 1991), Day of the Tentacle (1993), Full Throttle (1995), and Grim Fandango (1998), though there were many others. Despite technological advances, these games inherited several features from interactive fiction, including the predominant role of text.

The experience of playing one of these titles is not so different from that of a book: reading, pauses, the possibility of backtracking, and so on. The player spends most of their time in dialogue with various characters in search of information, stories, or even banter and jokes that are irrelevant to the game’s progress, much like footnotes or subplots.

Several classic adventure games even have direct links to literature: The Abbey of Crime (1987) is a Spanish adaptation of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose , while the legendary insult sword fighting of The Secret of Monkey Island was written by science fiction author Orson Scott Card . In Myst (1993), the gameplay itself revolves around two books.

Literature on the screen: “story-rich” games

In more recent years, a new sub-genre of adventure games – known as “story-rich” games – has become popular thanks to independent creators and producers. In Papers, Please (2013), a border policeman in a fictional dictatorial regime deals with terrible moral dilemmas on a daily basis. In Firewatch (2016), players take the role of a forest ranger who investigates a conspiracy by walkie-talkie. In Return of the Obra Dinn (2018), the player must reconstruct a tragedy on the high seas with the help of an incomplete book and a peculiar compass. In all these cases, gameplay and visuals take a back seat to strong narratives.

Screenshot from the video game _Papers, Please_.

A quintessential example is The Stanley Parable (2011), where the player takes the role of a worker in a strangely deserted office. They have to explore several corridors while trying unsuccessfully to interact with their surroundings, accompanied by the voice of an enigmatic narrator. Upon reaching a room with two open doors, the voiceover states that Stanley “entered the door on his left”.

The player can choose to follow the instructions or disobey, provoking the wrath of the narrator much like in the denouement of Miguel de Unamuno’s 1914 novel Fog , where the main character speaks directly to the author.

Each decision then opens up new paths leading to dozens of possible endings, similar to a “choose your own adventure” book. Its fragmentary and disordered story – as well as its playful spirit – is reminiscent of Julio Cortázar’s 1963 novel Hopscotch . The experience of playing the game is marked by postmodern literary features – as described by critics like Mikhail Bakhtin or Linda Hutcheon – including metafiction, intertextuality and parody.

One of its creators – Davey Wreden, a critical studies graduate – also created The Beginner’s Guide (2015), a game in which the player moves through levels of failed video games to learn more about their mysterious creator. In one, the player’s task consists solely of wandering through a virtual cave reading the countless comments left there by other frustrated players.

Screenshot from the videogame _The Beginner's Guide_.

In recent years, the genre of digital or electronic literature has emerged, including books with QR codes, works that can only be read with virtual reality headsets, poetry collections published as apps, and so on. These works are fundamentally based on language, begging the question of why video games cannot also fit into this category.

This debate takes on added relevance today, as digital formats are having an undeniable impact on our reading habits. Just as today we accept oral cultures or popular music as literature, perhaps one day we will do the same with interactive stories like The Stanley Parable . Writing has always tried to break away from established ideas, and we know that literature is not limited to words on paper. Sometimes it pays to disobey the voice in our heads and walk through the door on the right, the one that leads to new, unexplored possibilities.

This article was originally published in Spanish

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Video Games — Video Games: A Sport or Not

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Video Games: a Sport Or not

  • Categories: Video Games

About this sample

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Words: 689 |

Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 689 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, definition and criteria for a sport, video games and their competitive elements, factors that distinguish video games from traditional sports, arguments against video games being considered a sport, counterarguments and rebuttals.

  • Physical exertion
  • Competitive nature
  • Organized structure and rules
  • Skill requirement
  • Blomberg, R. (2019). Video Games Can Never Be Sport. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/video-games-sport-no_n_5bec5f35e4b0a043787eceeb
  • Bromberg, M. (2020). What IS a Sport? And Why Does It Matter? ABC News. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/sport-matter/story?id=67409964
  • WHO (2019). WHO | Physical Activity. WHO. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
  • Norris, E. (2021). Esports’ global revenue will break $1 billion in 2020. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@blakepanzinoesports/esports-global-revenue-will-break-1-billion-in-2020-c8c2f608b368

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Taylor Swift’s ‘Poets’ Arrives With a Promotional Blitz (and a Second LP)

The pop superstar’s latest album was preceded by a satellite radio channel, a word game, a return to TikTok and an actual library. For her fans, more is always welcome.

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The album cover for Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” which depicts the star lying on pillows in sleepwear, draping her arms over her body.

By Ben Sisario

Taylor Swift was already the most ubiquitous pop star in the galaxy, her presence dominating the music charts, the concert calendar, the Super Bowl, the Grammys.

Then it came time for her to promote a new album.

In the days leading up to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, Swift became all but inescapable, online and seemingly everywhere else. Her lyrics were the basis for an Apple Music word game . A Spotify-sponsored, Swift-branded “ library installation ,” in muted pink and gray, popped up in a shopping complex in Los Angeles. In Chicago, a QR code painted on a brick wall directed fans to another Easter egg on YouTube. Videos on Swift’s social media accounts, showing antique typewriters and globes with pins, were dissected for clues about her music. SiriusXM added a Swift radio station; of course it’s called Channel 13 (Taylor’s Version).

About the only thing Swift didn’t do was an interview with a journalist.

At this stage in Swift’s career, an album release is more than just a moment to sell music; it’s all but a given that “The Tortured Poets Department” will open with gigantic sales numbers, many of them for “ghost white,” “phantom clear” and other collector-ready vinyl variants . More than that, the album’s arrival is a test of the celebrity-industrial complex overall, with tech platforms and media outlets racing to capture whatever piece of the fan frenzy they can get.

Threads, the newish social media platform from Meta, primed Swifties for their idol’s arrival there, and offered fans who shared Swift’s first Threads post a custom badge. Swift stunned the music industry last week by breaking ranks with her record label, Universal, and returning her music to TikTok, which Universal and other industry groups have said pays far too little in royalties. Overnight, TikTok unveiled “The Ultimate Taylor Swift In-App Experience,” offering fans digital goodies like a “Tortured Poets-inspired animation” on their feed.

Before the album’s release on Friday, Swift revealed that a music video — for “Fortnight,” the first single, featuring Post Malone — would arrive on Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. At 2 a.m., she had another surprise: 15 more songs. “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you,” she wrote in a social media post , bringing “The Anthology” edition of the album to 31 tracks.

“The Tortured Poets Department,” which Swift, 34, announced in a Grammy acceptance speech in February — she had the Instagram post ready to go — lands as Swift’s profile continues to rise to ever-higher levels of cultural saturation.

Her Eras Tour , begun last year, has been a global phenomenon, crashing Ticketmaster and lifting local economies ; by some estimates, it might bring in as much as $2 billion in ticket sales — by far a new record — before it ends later this year. Swift’s romance with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been breathlessly tracked from its first flirtations last summer to their smooch on the Super Bowl field in February. The mere thought that Swift might endorse a presidential candidate this year sent conspiracy-minded politicos reeling .

“The Tortured Poets Department” — don’t even ask about the missing apostrophe — arrived accompanied by a poem written by Stevie Nicks that begins, “He was in love with her/Or at least she thought so.” That establishes what many fans correctly anticipated as the album’s theme of heartbreak and relationship rot, Swift’s signature topic. “I love you/It’s ruining my life,” she sings on “Fortnight.”

Fans were especially primed for the fifth track, “So Long, London,” given that (1) Swift has said she often sequences her most vulnerable and emotionally intense songs fifth on an LP, and (2) the title suggested it may be about Joe Alwyn, the English actor who was Swift’s boyfriend for about six years, reportedly until early 2023 . Indeed, “So Long” is an epic breakup tune, with lines like “You left me at the house by the heath” and “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.” Tracks from the album leaked on Wednesday, and fans have also interpreted some songs as being about Matty Healy , the frontman of the band the 1975, whom Swift was briefly linked to last year.

The album’s title song starts with a classic Swift detail of a memento from a lost love: “You left your typewriter at my apartment/Straight from the tortured poets department.” It also name-drops Dylan Thomas, Patti Smith and, somewhat surprisingly given that company, Charlie Puth, the singer-songwriter who crooned the hook on Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again,” a No. 1 hit in 2015. (Swift has praised Wiz Khalifa and that song in the past.)

Other big moments include “Florida!!!,” featuring Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, in which Swift declares — after seven big percussive bangs — that the state “is one hell of a drug.” Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, the producers and songwriters who have been Swift’s primary collaborators in recent years, both worked on “Tortured Poets,” bringing their signature mix of moody, pulsating electronic tracks and delicate acoustic moments, like a bare piano on “Loml” (as in “love of my life”).

As the ninth LP Swift has released in five years, “Tortured Poets” is the latest entry in a remarkable creative streak. That includes five new studio albums and four rerecordings of her old music — each of which sailed to No. 1. When Swift played SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles in August, she spoke from the stage about her recording spurt, saying that the forced break from touring during the Covid-19 pandemic had spurred her to connect with fans by releasing more music.

“And so I decided, in order to keep that connection going,” she said , “if I couldn’t play live shows with you, I was going to make and release as many albums as humanly possible.”

That was two albums ago.

Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has been writing for The Times since 1998. More about Ben Sisario

Inside the World of Taylor Swift

A Triumph at the Grammys: Taylor Swift made history  by winning her fourth album of the year at the 2024 edition of the awards, an event that saw women take many of the top awards .

‘The T ortured Poets Department’: Poets reacted to Swift’s new album name , weighing in on the pertinent question: What do the tortured poets think ?  

In the Public Eye: The budding romance between Swift and the football player Travis Kelce created a monocultural vortex that reached its apex  at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Ahead of kickoff, we revisited some key moments in their relationship .

Politics (Taylor’s Version): After months of anticipation, Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election for Super Tuesday with a bipartisan message on Instagram . The singer, who some believe has enough influence  to affect the result of the election , has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.

Conspiracy Theories: In recent months, conspiracy theories about Swift and her relationship with Kelce have proliferated , largely driven by supporters of former President Donald Trump . The pop star's fans are shaking them off .

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