The Outline

Here it is, the start of my argument about how games effect our cognition and long-term psychological development. I am keeping it brief, but I will flesh this out more later.

We do not just play video games. Video games play us too.
When we are playing a game, some parts of the game are acting in accordance to our actions through whatever peripheral we are using. This much is really obvious and intuitive. But what about how the game is playing us? There is a whole system running the game, a set of mechanics that work together to make something more than the sum of it's parts. It creates in a sense real-time interactivity with behaviors that we integrate into ours in order to play the game. We shape the way we behave to shape how the game unfolds, and the unfolding of the game shapes our behavior right back.

The events and systems in our lives can radically change our thinking.
Another uncontroversial statement at first; Attitudes about the nature of intelligence have profound effects on our lives (Dwyeck) and can push us towards foolishness. Small changes from moment-to-moment can change our way of thinking, such as the changes in insight problem solving ability exhibited by people when told to focus on the different aspects of navon letters.

The developmental power of games is that they provide a stable system that we can explore that can subtly guide our development.
This stability and the exploration is what helps turn the short term moment-to-moment interaction into the long term attitudes and cognitive styles. That is why games can be incredibly powerful engines of folly in our lives, but can also be useful tools to help us become wiser.

My motivation.

I have thought it for a while now that games that push us away from our process oriented thinking are really bad for our development, and I planned on writing about it soon. But I think that I had become too academic in my feelings about this subject lately. Since I had cut out the worst offenders from my gaming diet a few years ago, I had lost touch with how important this issue is. I had become a little discouraged, I didn't think that people would care to know why they are a problem. But a post that I saw on a message board today renewed me and made me motivated when I needed it.

They created a topic, titled I am addicted to flash games....and I don't know why.

In it they said:

I have been playing AdventureQuest and DragonFable and MechQuest and AdventureQuest Worlds(the latest drug), and most Newgrounds flash submissions for a long time. I am now nearly two years into a simple yet fulfilling game. Why does it fulfill me? I am an avid gamer and own a PS3 but my PC has had my attention too much lately.

Hi I am ********** and I am a Flash Gaming Addict. Is there hope for me?


Yes, I think there is hope. I think that we can not only understand what makes these games so bad for us, but also what we can do to make things better. I think we can make games that make us better people. Thank you random internet message board poster guy.

That is why I want to be a game developer.