Summary of an article - Essay Example

Section/# Article Summary: “In-Game, In-Room, In-World: Reconnecting Video Game Play to the Rest of Kids’ Lives” The article works to analyze the level and extent to which “transference” takes place among young people playing video games. Transference, as defined by the article is centric upon the level of “take-away” that the video game experience provides to the player. What is meant by this is the level to which the video game player synthesizes their experience and attempts to classify within the broader realm of reality that they experience once they have disconnected from the computer and/or the console and begin interacting outside the virtual world again.

This transfer mechanism is important to the researchers due to the fact that understanding transfer will help to answer several pertinent questions. The first of these relate to whether violent video games have the implied drawback of encouraging violence. Similarly, by studying transference models, the researcher can determine if flight simulation helps develop cockpit skills in pilots. In essence, the level of transference of specific skill sets that are supposedly “taught” in various video games will be helpful understanding the net positive or net negative relationships that may or may not exist.

The analysis found, not surprisingly, that the same concepts of collaboration, interaction, tactile learning, exploratory interest, and individuality as they relate to the game playing experience. Whereas many individuals are prone to view the video game as a total escape mechanism, the researchers were able to convincingly prove that it is and has been used as a means to foster intra human communication via linked players or via those that interact with the process while in the room yet not playing the game themselves.

Furthermore, the level of bonding and exploration that occurred while the researchers were conducting their study helped them to make a direct link between the children that were involved in the process and the traditional understanding of the word “play”. Likewise, there was not the clear break between in game and in world realities as the researchers at first expected; rather, both realities incorporated unique elements of one another to create a combined effect that could neither be turned on or turned off once the game was complete.

As one might expect, the levels of meaning and interaction levels of transference that exist are therefore dependent upon the individual player.