Expressing and justifying opinions about 2D games. 2D, 3D games.

Expressing and justifying opinions about 2D games.

2D, 3D games.

1. Lexical materials. Read the topic (do not write translation)

Video and Computer Games

Video and computer games are extremely popular nowadays. A lot of people play computer games in order to escape dull reality and to fight with horrible monsters or to save the world from hostile aliens. Video and computer games give one the opportunity to plunge into exciting adventures: to explore complicated mazes, to combat frightful dragons, to overcome obstacles, to operate various vehicles, to fly an aircraft or to pilot a spacecraft, to solve different puzzles, to look after a virtual pet, to build cities, to play sport games and even to control the lives of people. Video games are constantly becoming more life-like and complex. New styles and genres appear. The development of a computer game demands the work and skills of quite a large group of people including programmers, graphic designers, sound designers, musicians, and other technicians. Modern video games contain a unique synthesis of 3D art, sound effects, real-life environment, people-like characters, architecture, artificial intelligence, dramatic performances, music, storytelling, and interactivity (the ability to communicate directly with a computer programme which does things in reaction to your actions). Video game developers have been accused of the depiction of graphic violence, advergaming (a form of advertising in games), consumption of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, bad language, propaganda, or profanity in some games. Many games encourage violent behavior, blur the difference between right and wrong and cause addiction. Some people say that video and computer games make children unsociable and passive. They are absorbed in games without speaking to each other for a long time. Children and teenagers who are fond of computer games are not interested in reading. Some researchers proclaim that playing computer games stunts brain growth. Children can play for hours without eating, sleeping or learning. They sit in front of the computer screen exercising their fingers instead of playing outside or training themselves physically. That's why the levels of obesity among children and teenagers are rising. The vast majority of computer games are made for male game players, but nowadays more and more games are produced for girls and women. Small amount of young females play aggressive games and it has a negative influence on their psyche. But video and computer games have advantages as well. Most games require a great deal of patience and focus from the player so video games may even increase players' attention capacities. They may also improve a child's visual skills and develop coordination. Certain types of video games can improve gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to solve problems. Video games are meant not only for entertainment. Some video games are made for other reasons. Educational games attempt to teach players using the game as a vehicle. They help children develop maths, reading skills and spelling through play. Computer games can promote the development of strategic thinking and planning skills. It has been noticed that gamers don't realize they are learning. So if educational games could be used at school, education would enjoy significant benefits. All we should do is to control the playing, distribution, purchase, or sale of video and computer games. Violent games must be banned and the time of playing games should be strictly limited. Instead of killing and injuring people the aim of the game can be to save somebody or to make peace.

2. Read the following sentences and circle TRUE or FALSE:

1) Video and computer games are not so popular nowadays as they used to be 10 years ago.

FALSE

2) Some people say that video and computer games make children sociable and hyperactive. –

FALSE

3) The levels of obesity among children and teenagers are rising.

TRUE

4) The vast majority of computer games are made for female game players.

FALSE

5) Most games require a great deal of patience and focus from the player.

TRUE

6) Video games are meant only for entertainment.

FALSE

7) It has been noticed that gamers don't realize they are learning.

TRUE

3. Answer the questions:

1) Why are many people fond of playing computer games?

The same reason that people read fiction, watch sports, movies and TV shows or listen to music. Video games provide the best from each of these mediums and then allow interaction.The experience, even though sometimes exciting, sometimes stress inducing can also be very meditative. The same parts of the brain that are stimulated whilst gaming are the same areas that light up whist in REM sleep, where we go to dream.Video games are enormous virtual environments that you can explore, conquer, build and destroy. You can be a psychotic menace, or the saviour of the galaxy. You can be a King, or a begger, a prisoner or a slave. You can play as an animal, or as someone of an opposite sex, or sexuality. You can suffer from diseases, have super powers, throw bolts of magic that turn someone else into a sheep. You can be a car mechanic, a bus driver, a baby trying desperately to crawl into an oven.

2) What are the opportunities of computer and video games?

In 2019, the gaming industry generated $120 billion in revenue, and experts predict it could reach $200 billion within two years; 100 million viewers tuned in to watch players compete in the World Championship of the game League of Legends — a larger haul than the telecast of the Super Bowl; and, by 2021, it’s projected that 2.7 billion people — about one-third of the global population — will be gamers.Mobile gaming raked in more than half of all gaming dollars spent last year. Virtual reality and augmented reality games, while comparatively niche, continue to climb in revenue too.The gaming industry is one that constantly keeps evolving in order to satisfy the ever-growing needs of the consumers. So far, the industry is thriving, and the foreseeable future of video games is as bright as it has ever been. However, change is imminent, and the gaming world is bound to continue changing in order to keep up with the expectation of brilliance that many people have in relation to the upcoming games.

3) What have game developers been accused of?

Video game developers have been accused of the depiction of graphic violence, sexual themes, advergaming (a form of advertising in games), consumption of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, bad language, propaganda, or profanity in some games.

4) Why can we say that the influence of computer games on children and teenagers is mostly negative?

The disadvantages of playing video games on children and teenagers are also pronounced. Some of them include:

1. Health Issues

Spending a lot of time playing video games instead of indulging in physical activities can be detrimental to a child’s health in several ways. A child’s cognitive development may get affected if he doesn’t get out and socialise in the real world. Constantly sitting in one place and playing video games at length can increase the chances of obesity, weaken the muscles and joints, make hands and fingers numb due to over-exertion, and multiple studies suggest that it can even weaken the eyesight.

1. Academic Issues

The fun that video games provide is in stark contrast to a typical day in school. This can cause kids to prefer video games over anything else, thus pushing them to not pay attention to school work. Even outside school, they may skip homework or studying for tests and choose video games instead. This can result in poor performance and affect their emotional intelligence.

1. Exposure to Wrong Values

Many video games in the market contain excessive violence, over-the-top sexuality, profanity, racism, and many other things that cannot be perceived by kids in the right manner. They may fail to take these depictions with a pinch of salt and may end up trying to emulate the same behaviour as portrayed in the games. Their brain architecture is still developing and they won’t be able to differentiate right from wrong, until being exposed in the real world.

1. Makes Them Socially Disconnected

Even though multiplayer games exist, most kids end up playing them by themselves in their own rooms. This severely limits their interpersonal skills in real life, and they may prefer being by themselves and interact digitally. Such kids fail to strike up conversations and feel bored and out of place at social gatherings. And as a result, chances of adjustment disorder, depression, anxiety, stress gets high in their working as well as personal life.

1. Aggressive Behaviour

The violent content in video games and the instant gratification that they provide can cause the kids to be impatient and aggressive in their behaviour. When things fail to go as planned or any restrictions are laid on them, they may lash out or start harbouring aggressive thoughts that can manifest in troublesome behaviour.

5) What skills can computer games develop?

Video games have been shown to improve and develop, some real-life beneficial skills for players. Some of them are obvious, but others are quite surprising:

1. Patience

Old arcade games forced you to suffer through tons of repetitive gameplay to see how far you could go. Role-playing games with a level-up mechanic often encouraged repetitive monster fights to grow stronger. MMORPGs cemented the grinding concept while the free-to-play craze perfected it.The ability to endure routine and repetition is one that will come in handy no matter what you pursue: grinding through homework, work projects, or money for a vacation.

2. Strategic Planning

Puzzle games and strategy games will never go out of style and reach an even wider audience now thanks to mobile gaming. There are even puzzle games to play in your browser. Both casual and hardcore gamers love and appreciate the kind of gameplay that stimulates planning and strategy.

It doesn't take much imagination to see why this is such a valuable life skill. Can anyone argue against the practicality of planning income vs. expenditure? Of laying out a realistic five-year plan? Of navigating a fulfilling career path? As long as these aren't taken to the extreme, they can be very helpful.

3. Socialization

Starting with the earliest consoles, before broadband allowed online play to take off, gaming with friends involved a physical gathering in front of a single TV. Even in today's climate of online multiplayer gaming, gamers can communicate over voice and video chat.

It could be argued that gaming enables stereotypically introspective individuals to be more social, ultimately improving social skills.In the case of guilds and clans, socialization can evolve into leadership. It may sound silly, but there's a lot of overlap between managing a guild and, say, managing a project team. Synchronizing schedules, mobilizing people towards a goal, inspiring motivation, and resolving interpersonal conflicts are all skills that can be learned from gaming and applied to real life.

4. Mental Prowess

There are games specifically designed to train and improve brain functionality---Nintendo's Brain Age was one of the biggest mainstream hits. It offered plenty of activities that help with mental math, reading speed, and concentration.

But brain training isn't limited to games that explicitly train the brain. Sudoku is all about logical deduction. Tetris helps develop pattern recognition skills. In fact, there are plenty of mobile games that make you smarter by exercising memory, matching, and thinking outside the box.Like muscles, the brain will atrophy if you don't work it. The interactivity of games is one way to exercise your mind while having fun.

5. Empathy

Game designers are really starting to explore and incorporate the emotional elements that exist in other forms of media; the most important element being narrative. Some of the most groundbreaking and revolutionary titles ever are those emotionally weighty games that jerk at your heartstrings.

These types of games force you to relate to the characters and imagine yourself in their shoes, even if their experience isn't something you've personally lived through. Sometimes you are given a choice where there is seemingly no right or good outcome. These situations develop a player's sense of sympathy and empathy.

6. Literacy

Video games that have a heavy narrative focus can help people learn languages and improve their literacy, even introducing them to words they might not come across elsewhere.Classic point-and-click adventure games are the perfect example of this, where you had to read the dialog between characters in order to understand the story and often understand culture-specific phrases and jokes.

Games like Minecraft and The Sims also get people interested in telling their own stories. This can then leap off the screen onto the page, with many gamers inspired to write their own fan fiction based on their favorite series or even a new creation of their own.These text-based adventure games are great examples of titles that improve literacy.

7. Hand-Eye Coordination

To play even the most basic video game, you need good hand-eye coordination. Whether that's moving a character around or just clicking on something, the ability to synchronize your eye and hand movements is vital.

Of course, the better you are at this, the better you will be at some video games. Improve your hand-eye coordination and you won't have to look down to see what button to press. Your reaction times will improve too.Studies have shown that games help strengthen our hand-eye coordination. There's so much that this skill helps with outside of games, whether it's in sport, music, or just basic day-to-day tasks.

8. Observation

You need to be aware of your surroundings in a game. Perhaps you're on the battlefield and an enemy just landed in the distance or maybe you're a detective and notice a vital bit of evidence in the corner of the room.

4. Complete each sentence (A-H) with one of the endings (1-8):

A. Video games are constantly becoming-3

B. The development of a computer game demands the work and skills of quite a large group of people including-7

C. Modern video games contain a unique synthesis of-4

D. Many games encourage-1

E. Some researchers proclaim that-6

F. Educational games attempt to teach players-8

G. Computer games can promote the development of-2

H. All we should do is to control-5

1. violent behavior, blur the difference between right and wrong and cause addiction.

2. strategic thinking and planning skills.

3. more life-like and complex.

4. 3D art, sound effects, real-life environment, people-like characters, architecture, artificial intelligence, dramatic performances, music, storytelling, and interactivity.

5. the playing, distribution, purchase, or sale of video or computer games.

6. playing computer games stunts brain growth.

7. programmers, graphic designers, sound designers, musicians, and other technicians.

8. using the game as a vehicle.

5. Homework

Write 2 reasons why we should ban the video games

Video games are a ubiquitous form of entertainment in today’s children and youth, and while fun and exciting, have a darker side that parents, teachers and health professionals can no longer ignore. While many adults struggle with gaming addiction, parents don’t seem to consider gaming’s addictive nature when allowing young children to game. When evaluating impact of video games on children, 3 parameters are important to consider: duration, content, and age of first exposure. Children who start gaming later in childhood, and who stay under the expert guidelines for duration and content, will likely demonstrate less negative effects from gaming. Whereas children who start gaming young in life, play video games for long periods, and who play predominantly Mature content with sexual and physical violence, will likely exhibit a greater number of below noted negative effects. Children who experience 3 or more of the following conditions have significant negative effects from playing video games, and should work with their parents, physician and/or therapist to improve access to healthy activities and stop using video games if under the age of 12 years. Teens who are older than 12 years of age and demonstrate more than 3 of the following conditions, would benefit from increasing access to healthy activities and subsequently reduce game duration, change to non-violent game content, and possibly consider quitting gaming altogether until 18 years of age.

Physical impairments: high blood pressure, sedentary effects (obesity, overweight, developmental delay, myopia, musculature disuse/overuse).

When children are gaming their bodies are sedentary and their brains overstimulated. Developing bodies crave movement, yet video games entrance and hypnotize the brain into sitting still, often for very long periods. Sedentary bodies delay physical development while also overstimulating the heart, causing serious and often irreversible physical impairments. Psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Dunckley author of “Reset your child’s brain” reports that when children play video games, their sympathetic nervous system goes into a hyper aroused state of “flight or fight” characterized by adrenalin release from adrenal glands and dopamine production in the brain. Sustained high blood pressure and increased heart rate from prolonged gaming, increases risk for heart attack and stroke in later years. A child taking stimulant medication for adhd who also plays video games, increases the load on their hearts. Causal factors for video game induced hyperarousal are fast paced and violent content, bright lights, rewards, multitasking, and interactivity. Long term high adrenalin states can result in chronic adrenal fatigue, causally implicated in physical illnesses including cancer and autoimmune disorders.

Brain damage (from frontal love pruning): attention deficit, impulsivity, learning disorders.

To achieve functional efficiency during brain development, the brain prunes or cuts away neuronal tracks to areas of the brain that are not being used. The frontal lobes of the brain are known for executive functions such as attention, memory, and impulse control which are critical for academic success. Because brains develop in conjunction with stimuli in the surrounding environment, media content in high screen users is key regarding brain pruning. Exposure to mindful or educational content results in active or constructive learning, which maintains and strengthens neuronal tracks to frontal lobes. Whereas exposure to mindless or entertainment content such as fast paced and violent video games, constitutes passive or destructive learning which rarely requires use of frontal lobes, resulting in frontal lobe pruning. Numerous research studies have documented frontal lobe atrophy in children who game over 4-5 hours per day. While brain development has a degree of plasticity or ability to repair damage, over half of the brain is hard wired at age 12 years and the brain is effectively hard wired at age 25 years.

Sleep Deprivation

In classroom-based Tech Talks, 75% of students report they are allowed screens in their bedrooms and 50% report they use screens when they should be sleeping. The Canadian Sleep Foundation reports that over 60% of children and youth are chronically sleep deprived increasing their risk for obesity, diabetes, poor academic performance, risk taking, depression, anxiety, heart problems, and even cancer. Children who come to school tired from being up at night gaming and/or using social media are moody, volatile, and completely unable to pay attention, memorize facts, or assimilate information to promote learning.

Aggression and/or Violence

The American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement Virtual Violence in July 2016 advising pediatricians, parents, industry and policy makers regarding current video game research and recommendations. Regarding research findings, Virtual Violence states: “Summarizing the results of 400 studies including violent media of all types, researchers found there was a significant association between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physiologic arousal. Another study performed a similar analysis focusing only on video games. The results, based on 140 such studies, found slightly larger negative effect sizes. Some contend, rightly, that these correlations are in the small to moderate range, but they are stronger than the associations between passive smoking and lung cancer, and many municipalities have banned smoking because of that risk”. APA goes on to recommend that children under the age of 6 years have no exposure to media violence, and first-person shooter games should be restricted from children under the age of 12 years.

Mental illness: addiction, depression, anxiety, suicide risk.

Video games are highly immersive and are persuasively and immorally designed by psychologists for the sole purpose of making users addicted. Use of intermittent rewards are common and team aspect of gaming both contribute to long periods of continuous play. Anxiety and depression are consistent with gaming, and suicide risk and attempts when gaming becomes addictive. Following 24 hour “Survivor Unplugged” challenge where students are tasked with a mission, to go 24 hours without use of any screens. The next morning in follow up “Tech Talk” classroom sessions, gamers who stopped using video games for 24 hours reported that they felt “happier”, slept better, and fought less with their parents and siblings. Reports of going outside to play were frequent, as were acting out video games outside with props such as tree branches (swords) and garbage can lids (shields).

Poor academic performance, school absenteeism, truancy, drop out.

North American academic performance is declining as evidenced by 2015 and 2018 PISA scores. Ontario reports half of grade eight students are below the 70th percentile in math. Children who are not meeting grade requirements are advanced to the next grade regardless of their performance, creating a ‘bar’ that is progressively too high for student achievement. The result? Children who continually fail are refusing to do school work, come late from gaming into the night, or don’t come to school at all, preferring to stay at home in their virtual worlds where they don’t fail playing video games or watching Netflix. Children who tell their parents they don’t want to go to school is a sign of pending trouble, and all efforts should be made to support the student at school with provision of ‘bar just right’ work, and prohibit gaming if child stays at home (lock all devices up in car trunks or filing cabinets, create passwords for all computers).

Poor social relationships; autism, social phobia.

Co-regulation from human connection leads to eventual self-regulation and ability to attain and maintain complex social relationships. As with any developmental domain, social skills follow the “use it or loose it” rule e.g. to develop social prowess, children must engage socially with others. Early studies are showing that early exposure to screens between 9-18 months of age, coupled with reduced social interaction and limited social play, increase incidence of autism. As children age into teens and adulthood, self-regulation and social skills are salient determinants of job attainment. Social skills develop consistent with social modelling theory where children pattern social interactions through observation of surrounding parents and siblings. When parents are on their phones, children feel neglected and yearn for social interaction. In the absence of the parent’s attention, children are bonding and attaching to screens at an alarming rate.

Unemployable

Chronic video game immersion does nothing to prepare children and teens for the rigours of work and social performance demanded by employers. Poor achievement of literacy, inability to problem solve, and inability to think critically and reason are huge detriments to sustainable employment. More young adults are living with their parents than at any other time in history and what is surprising is that this situation appears acceptable and even preferable to many parents who state “At least I know where they are”. Forced dependence is a parental trait frequently observed today as evidenced by use of safety restraints well beyond developmental age e.g. strollers or carrying of 5-year-olds, fear of the outdoors keeping children inside after school and on weekends and declined enrollment in organized sports and after school activities. These attempts to not let children grow up are resulting in ‘stay at home kids’ who may never gain the skills necessary to leave the nest.

Game Transfer Phenomena.

We’ve all seen children acting like characters recently viewed in cartoons, movies or video games. While these actions could be considered “normal” and part of pretend play in early years, what is abnormal is when the child dissociates and becomes non-responsive to interactions with parents, teachers or other children. Early immersion in violent virtual content can create a condition termed “gamer brain” when it appears as if the child has been consumed by gaming content. Another term adopted by researchers is “Game Transfer Phenomena” where the child exhibits visual, auditory or body perceptions where they “see”, “hear” and/or “feel” the imagery of the video game. When asked if they are “in the game” now, children will respond with stating what they are seeing and experiencing endemic in the game. These children are more likely to act out aggressively or violently as they mimic the characters in the video game.