Social Networking in Gaming
“Video games are bad for you” “You’ll get desensitized” “You’re gonna get square eyes” “Go talk to a real person” It’s very likely that if you’ve grown up with games in your life, you’ve been told one of these phrases before. Whether it’s from your mum, sister, grandpa, friend or cat, the opinion that games negatively affect your health will be shoved in your face until you’re forced to put down your DS and pick up a book. BUT WAIT!! Books are great but there’s way more to video games than you might know and Plawasu is here to tell you how gaming could very well help you out in a few situations. Okay let’s say you’ve made a new friend at school and they’ve invited you over to their house to hang out. What do you do? You could pull out a multiplayer game and play away to your hearts content. Games can be a great way to break the ice or just to have fun with a pal in a way that’s simple and easy for everybody. If you’re a thinker, try playing a strategy game. Maybe you’d like some dual action between you and a mate. Whatever you like, the possibilities are endless when you’ve got a game, a friend and some time to kill. Another awesome possibility with gaming is the reach you have to people all the way across the world. This might sound like a daunting statement but maybe you have some family living in New York or a friend that moved to Armenia, with chat and call features via the internet possible, you can stay home and still enjoy their company in an innovative yet fun way. Enjoyment is no more limited to where you might be in the world or how far away your friends might be, there’s always something to do in the digital world that’s safe and a whole load of awesome. You may not guess it from first glance but video games are very often jam-packed with cool information, cultural imagery and realistic backbones. Take a game like Minecraft for example, on the surface, it’s just a pixelated block world to fight zombies in right? No way! The more complex storyline and freedom the game gives you comes with a whole lot of information on the real world. You can learn what kind of materials are underground. Understand how smelting works. Learn the word for a cooked rabbit. This cool info added with the fantasy concepts we all know and love makes a game you can appreciate on all spectrums. A perfect example of how games can culturally educate you is a brand new game from Blizzard Entertainment called Overwatch. Now Overwatch is a free-to-play shooter game themed as a post-war, futuristic society. The battlefields, well known countries, cities and landmarks. This kind of addition to games really gives a familiarity to gamers and provides the wonderful atmosphere gaming always does, something surreal and yet so real. So next time your parents ask you, ‘What have you learnt today?’, try replying with something you’ve learnt from a game. You may or may not have noticed this but video games have become a new and popular medium for the world to express their views with. Many people would be able to recognise Mario easier than the newest James Bond. But why is that? Over the years gaming has increased in popularity among not just kids but people of all ages all over the world. It’s a source of income for some and a source of entertainment for others but whether you play, watch or make them, games are a large part of the society we live in today. They bring people together, give them something to talk about and enjoy. They can be brought with you when you travel or connect with those travelling while you stay at home. They help players to think, design, create and smile. And in a world that’s changing for the better, I think it’s time attitudes towards gaming changed too. By Adam Elmes |
‘King’s Row’ - A map based off London, United Kingdom.
'Gibraltar' - A map based off the coast of Morocco.
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