201002623 Lee Jaehwan / cause and effect essay 1 / Thur. 1300-1500

Games in a Good Light

In 2011, the Korean government enforced the game shutdown law, which forbids teenagers under the age of 16 from playing computer games from midnight to 6 A.M. for fear of game addiction and related problems. To the Korean students who usually stay up until 10-11 P.M. studying, the restriction equals a sentence to a game-less world. While the enactment of the law is based on the consensus among anxious school parents, however, playing computer games might not necessarily have negative influences on students. Thus, I would like to discuss several benefits of students` playing games.

The drive to play computer games cannot be described without consideration for stress. Most will agree that computer games are rapidly substituting for existing leisure activities. Computer games are actually a very effective treatment for stress because they can easily isolate the gamer from his or her tiring routine. While literature and comic books performed such a function in the past, games are a successor of that role but in far more graphical and engaging forms. Even though some may argue that a series of problems derive from the sense of escapism in computer games, one cannot be bound to one`s reality all day long. Students are most desperate for escape from stress, and computer games serve it very effectively and efficiently.

There is another ground that literature and computer games share: storytelling. Today, narratology in games has been becoming so significant that it could be safe to say that it is considered as a new form of literature. In other words, the same artistic senses are required for both literature and game stories. However, the fundamental difference is that when literature leads the reader to empathize with a character, computer games offer the player a chance to become one. This attribute enables the player to be more exposed to the artistic sensitivity planted by game creators while he or she is immersed in the role. Susceptive adolescents, therefore, can develop their artistic sensitivity by enjoying computer games.

Last, computer games can serve as a valid tool for socialization and communication when face-to-face engagements have little chance to occur. As the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, game is notionally a competitive activity. In order to win or accomplish a mission, the player is demanded to cooperate, negotiate, and/or argue with teammates. For example, a world-famous game, the League of Legends requires the players to team up by three or five for every round. Korea`s educational situation forces each student to fight for their grades all alone, and deprives them of the opportunities for social activities. On the other hand, computer games provide rather a valuable playground on which students can learn how to interact with people to achieve the goal.

Contrary to what most legislators and voters believe, computer games have a full possibility to be beneficial to relieving stress, developing artistic sensitivity, and socializing with people. As of now, these characteristics could remain as potential, but as some scholars and politicians insist, games unavoidably are becoming a new paradigm of art and leisure. Meanwhile, debates over game addiction—whether or not it substantially exists—and its alleged maleficence have yet to be settled. One may still ask, however, if we can just get rid of computer games from our exhausted students when we have no clear views on merits and faults.