Summary on of Steven Johnson - Article Example

Article Summary Steven Johnson’s article on Games is a unique attempt at analyzing the effects of video games in the contemporary world. Johnson’s arguments tend to veer from the conventional attitudes to video games that either berate them in contrast to the many good aspects of reading, or overglorify them with reference to the practical benefits of developing skills that suit the need of the hour. The article starts with a reference to the classic book on parenting, Dr.Spock’s Baby and Childcare, which perceives video games as having only the limited benefit of promoting eye-hand coordination in children. The criticism towards them is the accusation that they sanction and promote aggression and violent responses to conflict, and that video games are a colossal waste of time. He goes on to refer to the study the National Endowment in 2004 which furnishes evidence that those who read for pleasure have more interest in aesthetic and humanitarian activities and exhibit better inter-personal skills, when compared to those who do not have the habit of reading. However, Johnson acknowledges the fact that such reductive arguments may mislead one from the real situation. He makes use of the cultural critic Marshall McLuhan’s precept that such arguments are inevitably biased because our views are colored by the presence of recent past when we try to analyze emerging trends and advancements. If one inverts the situation to suggest that video games were part of the recent past and books have emerged recently, there would still be arguments, though they may sound ridiculous in today’s world, that try to berate the emerging trend in contrast to the existing system. Johnson thus refers to the tragically isolating aspect of reading, and the interactive nature of video games, that are not quite often mentioned. Another dilapidating effect that books can have is that they do not promote the ability of problem solving, since the readers are restricted to linear narration in which the active part they take is only through an imaginative participation. And it may not be fair to use the same parameters that we use to judge the quality of books when it comes to games, since they are made of entirely different material and logic. Reading is an active entertainment that involves the gathering of information with the aid of a mind that is imaginatively and intellectually agile. However, we need to acknowledge the fact that the nonliterary popular culture had been growing steadily in recent years, despite the argument that reading abounds in cognitive benefits like attention, memory, following the thread and so on. Another significant factor is that nonliterary popular culture is increasingly honing different mental skills that are just as important as the ones exercised by reading books. Johnson asserts that these trends have increasingly displaced the warnings of Dr.Spock. However, the appearance of articles in newspapers, which fail to go beyond the superficial argument that video games are not a waste altogether because they promote manual dexterity or visual memory, can be quite misleading. It is observed that the benefits of video games go much beyond these positive side effects. There is an experiential gap between those who have not had a firsthand experience of video games and the ones who have played them. Johnson counters the general misconceptions regarding video games that they are easy and entertaining as he states that they are fiendishly, sometimes maddeningly, hard. He observes that people spend an incredible amount of time not having fun, when they play a video game. Referring to Troy Stolle, a carpenter building wooden molds, he makes clear how those with a hectic work schedule are further drawn to a mentally taxing fantasy-themed game like Ultima Online. Stolle had to spend hours after the grueling schedule of a day’s labour to guide his virtual ‘avatar’ to survive in the highly competitive cyber world that simulates the real world in an exaggerated manner. Tasks like buying a new house and working hard for it over months were replicated in the game, where Stoll spent a considerable amount of time fretting as in real life situations of trouble. Thus it cannot be assumed that the immense popularity of video games rely on the enjoyment it provides to the players. On the contrary the reward points that the games provide in the virtual world is the enticing incentive that makes them addictive to it. The author recounts how he introduced the game SimCity 2000 to his seven year old nephew. He was astounded by the fact that his nephew learnt the game quickly, successfully comprehending the complex economic and urban development issues. A seven year old child would never be able to focus on such issues in an urban studies class room, but the game is capable of teaching relevant issues on industrial economics incidentally. The author points out that while body’s natural painkillers, the opioids, are the brain’s pure pleasure drugs, the reward system of video games revolves around the neurotransmitter dopamine. The dopamine system is a kind of accountant: keeping track of expected rewards and sending out an alert – in the form of dopamine levels – when those rewards don’t arrive as promised. When people are disheartened by the lack of rewards in their day-to-day existence, the dopamine levels prompt them to seek the reward elsewhere, and this explains the affixation to games that offer rewards in some forms. Referring to the deep impact geometric games like Tetris have on our visual circuitry, Johnson maintains that most of the video games have a similar impact on the reward circuitry of the brain. Despite the fact that real life in the consumerist world abounds in rewards in all forms, the lack of rewards in the mental sphere needs to be compensated in some way, and it is here that video games gain significance. Johnson concludes the article with some pertinent observations that are attendant to the major issues mentioned so far. Video games are open ended when compared to other forms of narratives where those at the receiving end are not left with many choices. Video games offer larger set of options, like in SimCity where the player can choose the kind of community that s/he may own. The consequences of each decision would lead to innumerable possibilities. ‘Seeking’ is the word that can be used in the quest to discover more and reach the end of the narrative in such games. Rewards enable the players to ‘explore’ a game, whereas in other forms of entertainment – like reading, music or movies – don’t provide rewards or opportunities to explore them on one’s own. Johnson winds up the arguments by referring the rapid editing techniques typified by MTV which are often compared to the flashy graphics, the layered mix of image, music and text, and the occasional burst of during the pre-rendered opening sequences in video games. While the former deals with tolerating or aestheticizing chaos, the similar sensory chaos in video games are rather about finding order and meaning in the world, and making decisions that help create that order. Read More