How Video Games Impact Players

The Pitfalls and Benefits of a Gaming Society

By (author) Ryan Rogers

Publication date:

17 May 2016

Length of book:

172 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498513074

How Video Games Impact Players provides a balanced and nuanced look at the complex role that video games play in society through an analysis of the positive and negative effects of game rules, feedback, and self-presentation. Rogers examines the positive aspects of video games like their use in education, encouragement of prosocial behaviors, and enablement of mood management, as well as the negative aspects like their association with violence and diversity issues, promotion of substance use behaviors, and their role as an outlet for harassment behaviors.

Chapter 1: Three Key Elements of Video Games: Rules, Interactivity/Feedback, and Self-Presentation
Chapter Two: Education
Chapter Three: Prosocial Behaviors
Chapter Four: Mood Management
Chapter Five: History
Chapter Six: Moral Questions
Chapter 7: Violence
Chapter 8: Harassment
Chapter 9: Diversity Issues
Chapter 10: Substance Use
Chapter 11: Obesity/Depression

How Video Games Impact Players is a book we have badly needed. Today, games are made for impact of all different sorts, including entertainment, learning, health, and social change. Ryan Rogers lucidly explicates how game design features give rise to impacts that can be good, bad, or ugly.