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Essay on Gaming in 900 Words in English for School Students

Updated on
Jun 18, 2024

Essay on Gaming: Do you play PUBG or BGMI? If you do, then you might remember the auto-generated guideline at the beginning of every match; ‘This is a simulation game set in a virtual world and does not represent real life. Please play in moderation and responsibly.

Playing multiplier games has become a trend. Everyone, young and old, likes sitting on the couch and holding the joystick in their hands. Gaming has come a long way. With growing technological advancements and better infrastructure, new and fast gaming consoles are being developed. Popular gaming companies are Tencent Holdings Limited, Microsoft Corporation, Apple Inc., Sony Corporation, Krafton, etc.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction to Gaming
2 Importance of Gaming
3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Gaming
4 Career in Gaming: eSports
5 Conclusion
6 Top 10 Online Games

Games offer cognitive benefits, can help improve strategic and creative thinking and some even educate us. We all played the games of the early 2000s, like GTA Vice City or NFS Most Wanted. These games were so addictive that children like us would spend hours without caring about the outside world and delving into the missions and races. While playing games, a simple thing we need to understand is, ‘Anything too much is dangerous’.

Introduction to Gaming

Today, the Internet, Google Play Store and Apple Store are flooded with games. If you search for one game, you will get a list of 20 similar games as well. So far, the gaming market has evolved. However, this was not the case when games were first introduced. Do you know the name of the first computer game? Spacewar!

This influential computer game was developed in 1950 while scientists were still discovering computer software for the gaming future. Then Microsoft Corporation took the gaming market by introducing interesting games Bubble Space, Spider Solitaire, Pinball, and Age of Empires.

While Microsoft was leading the gaming industry, American gaming companies like Electronic Arts Gaming and Activision Blizzard took the world by storm with their new gaming series like Call of Duty, FIFA, Need for Speed, etc.

As technology improves, gaming platforms have switched from desktops and consoles to mobile phones. These days, mobile games like PUBG, Candy Crush, Subway Surfers, Clash of Clans, etc. are the most popular games.

Quick Read: How I Spent My Summer Vacation Essay

Importance of Gaming

Playing games is important as it helps improve our cognitive functioning, problem-solving, creative thinking and situational awareness. Every individual must play games to learn how to solve complex problems and adapt to the changing environment and social interaction.

Online gaming encourages social interaction as we connect with online friends and players. Competitive gaming, or esports, has become a major industry. Professional gamers and teams compete in tournaments watched by millions, creating a sense of community among fans.

Might sound cliche but gaming also serves as a powerful educational tool. They enhance learning through engagement and interactivity, which can make difficult subjects more accessible. Some ‘Minecraft’ are used in classrooms to teach subjects such as mathematics, science, and engineering. They encourage creativity and logical thinking.

Quick Read: Essay on Child Labour in 1000 Words

Advantages and Disadvantages of Gaming

Games are interesting, some play for learning purposes, while others build a hobby. We get to learn a lot from games, which can improve hand-eye coordination, enhance memory and concentration, serve as a stress reliever, and lead to the development of persistence and resilience.

However, games are not just about benefits and cognitive development. There are disadvantages associated with gaming as well. Parents and lawmakers around the world are worried about the physical and mental health issues associated with excessive gaming. Long hours of exposure to computers and mobile screens weaken our eyesight and can lead to obesity, cardiovascular issues, and poor posture.

Continuous use of game controllers, keyboards, and mice can lead to repetitive strain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Gaming addiction, also known as Internet Gaming Disorder, is a growing concern. It can lead to compulsive gaming behaviours, neglect of personal responsibilities, and significant distress or impairment in daily life.

Excessive gaming can also have negative effects on our social lives. Spending long hours on games can result in social isolation, as individuals may prioritise virtual interactions over face-to-face relationships. Its addiction can strain relationships with family and friends and lead to neglect of social responsibilities and interactions.

Other disadvantages of excessive gaming are behavioural issues, financial impact and ethical and societal concerns.

Quick Read: Essay on Child Labour

Career in Gaming: eSports

Modern gaming has given birth to a new type of employment; esports. This new industry offers employment opportunities to programmers, game developers and designers, animators, etc. Professional gamers and online streamers compete in esports tournaments for prize money and sponsorships. This career requires exceptional skill in a specific game, dedication, and regular practice.

Gaming involves a lot of research and development, such as the psychological effects of gaming, game design methodologies, and their economic impact. This role often requires advanced degrees and strong analytical skills.

Gaming is both good and bad. It is good when played in moderation, but bad when it disturbs our day-to-day activities. Gaming companies and governments are becoming more and more aware of the challenges posed by excessive gaming, and therefore several policies have been implemented. We need to understand that gaming is good for us and can improve our intelligence, but only when played in moderation.

Top 10 Online Games

Here’s a list of top 10 online games played today:

Call of Duty
World of Warcraft
Rocket League
Red Dead Redemption 2

Ans: Games are an important part of our life. They teach us many valuable lessons, improve our cognitive functioning and offer several other benefits. Online gaming encourages social interaction as we connect with online friends and players. Competitive gaming, or esports, has become a major industry. Professional gamers and teams compete in tournaments watched by millions, creating a sense of community among fans. It might sound cliche but gaming also serves as a powerful educational tool. They enhance learning through engagement and interactivity, which can make difficult subjects more accessible. Some ‘Minecraft’ are used in classrooms to teach subjects such as mathematics, science, and engineering. They encourage creativity and logical thinking.

Ans: Games present players with challenges and goals, giving a sense of accomplishment when these are achieved. Many games have multiplayer features that allow players to interact with friends or meet new people. Games often have built-in reward systems, such as points, levels, achievements, and in-game items.

Ans: Playing games is important as it helps improve our cognitive functioning, problem-solving, creative thinking and situational awareness. Every individual must play games to learn how to solve complex problems and adapt to the changing environment and social interaction. Online gaming encourages social interaction as we connect with online friends and players. Competitive gaming, or esports, has become a major industry. Professional gamers and teams compete in tournaments watched by millions, creating a sense of community among fans.

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Online Gaming Essay | Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Gaming

Online gaming is the most talked about fun topic among the teenagers of the 21st century. At the same time, it is the most talked about serious topic among the parents and teachers. Everyone has their own reasons to discuss online gaming. Our reason today is to help you write an Essay on Online Gaming so that you are exposed to the unseen side of online gaming addiction.

Long Essay on Online Gaming Addiction in 500 words | Argumentative Essay on Online Games Good or Bad

How online gaming started.

The Internet has changed the way we live, we eat, we dress, we work and we play. It has become a preferred and comfortable mode which has made our lives way too easy. Today almost everything is available at the click of a button. You ask for a thing and it reaches your doorstep within days. Amidst these gratifying moments, when we are saved from the daily hustle-bustle, another trend of online gaming has emerged.

Advantages of Online Games

Online gaming is a huge platform today. A platform that has broken all barriers and boundaries amidst countries around the world. In online gaming, you can connect to anyone anywhere in the world and play. Sometimes you don’t even know with whom you are playing and this mystery makes the experience even more thrilling. It also gives the player an opportunity to make new friends from other countries and get a chance to showcase their talent worldwide.

Nowadays, many online gaming championships are organized where gamers get a platform to compete with the best of the best and enhance their skills. It has gained much popularity over the years because one can play an online game on even a basic smartphone. What one requires is a consistent internet connection. Developing, designing and marketing online games has turned into a full-fledged profession and many are earning their bread and butter through it.

Disadvantages of Online Gaming

But then there is always the other side of a coin which is often dark and dingy. The other side of online gaming is not only dark but dreadful too. Many tend to become addicted to online gaming and it takes away all of their productive time. When money gets involved in it through betting, families are ruined. It pulls an individual into isolation as mostly online gamers play alone. Their social interaction becomes nil which leads to depression and loneliness.

Online harassment through many gaming sites is not a new thing. Children can easily be trapped in this way. Long hours spent in front of the computer can harm their posture and eyes too. These games, through their catchy visuals, entice young children and they become addicted to them to such an extent that they forget to eat or sleep and prefer to sit in front of the screen all the time. Such addiction not only harms the individual but the whole family suffers due to it. Besides social effects, there are many psychological symptoms like anxiety, irritability and uncontrollable mood swings which take a toll on the health of an individual due to addiction.

Ways to Control Online Gaming Addiction

Self-control, time management and focus can serve as the three pillars for fighting the addiction to online gaming. The external prohibitions from the government in the form of laws, certain regulations and even a ban on a few of them are not going to solve the problem. Good parenting, positive family time and socializing with friends can prove to be helpful. In some severe cases, guidance from a counsellor could become necessary. Positive reinforcement & support from loved ones is required for an individual to come out of this addiction.

‘Nothing can be more exciting and thrilling than a victory in real life’. So, let’s look forward to a win in real life than online.

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107 Video Game Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Video games have become a popular form of entertainment for people of all ages. From action-packed shooters to immersive role-playing games, there is a video game out there for everyone. With such a wide variety of games to choose from, it can be overwhelming to decide on a topic for an essay about video games. To help you get started, here are 107 video game essay topic ideas and examples to inspire your writing:

The impact of violent video games on children's behavior
The evolution of video game graphics over the years
The rise of esports and its influence on the gaming industry
The benefits of playing video games for cognitive development
The representation of gender and race in video games
The history of virtual reality gaming
The psychology of loot boxes in video games
The role of music in enhancing the gaming experience
The ethics of video game journalism
The impact of video game addiction on mental health
The cultural significance of video game franchises like Mario and Pokemon
The future of cloud gaming and streaming services
The role of storytelling in video games
The influence of video games on popular culture
The relationship between video games and education
The impact of video game censorship on creative expression
The portrayal of mental health issues in video games
The role of social media in video game marketing
The history of video game consoles
The impact of online multiplayer games on social interaction
The evolution of game mechanics in the survival horror genre
The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in video games
The influence of Japanese culture on video game aesthetics
The role of nostalgia in the popularity of retro gaming
The impact of microtransactions on player experience
The relationship between video games and violence in society
The role of artificial intelligence in game development
The impact of video game streaming platforms like Twitch
The representation of disability in video games
The influence of game design on player engagement
The evolution of mobile gaming
The role of virtual economies in online multiplayer games
The impact of video game sound design on immersion
The portrayal of mental illness in video games
The influence of Eastern philosophy on game narratives
The role of user-generated content in game communities
The impact of fan culture on video game development
The representation of indigenous cultures in video games
The influence of literature on game storytelling
The role of game difficulty in player satisfaction
The impact of video game piracy on the industry
The portrayal of war in military shooter games
The relationship between video games and sports
The influence of board games on video game design
The role of player choice in game narratives
The impact of virtual reality on therapy and rehabilitation
The representation of historical events in video games
The influence of film on game aesthetics
The role of gender stereotypes in video game marketing
The impact of game mods on player creativity
The portrayal of mental health professionals in video games
The influence of tabletop role-playing games on video game mechanics
The role of game mechanics in promoting teamwork and cooperation
The impact of game development crunch on industry workers
The representation of animals in video games
The influence of science fiction on game narratives
The role of player agency in game storytelling
The impact of game difficulty on player motivation
The portrayal of addiction in video games
The influence of mythology on game aesthetics
The role of puzzles in game design
The impact of game reviews on player purchasing decisions
The representation of mental illness in horror games
The influence of architecture on game environments
The role of game soundtracks in enhancing the player experience
The impact of game tutorials on player learning
The portrayal of robots and AI in video games
The influence of fashion on character design in games
The role of humor in game narratives
The impact of game localization on cultural representation
The representation of environmental issues in video games
The influence of psychology on game design
The role of game narratives in exploring complex themes
The impact of game communities on player engagement
The portrayal of mental health struggles in indie games
The influence of mythology on game storytelling
The role of player feedback in game development
The impact of game accessibility on player inclusivity
The representation of gender identity in video games
The influence of surrealism on game aesthetics
The role of morality systems in game narratives
The impact of game tutorials on player retention
The portrayal of mental health professionals in horror games
The influence of psychology on game narratives
The role of player choice in shaping game outcomes
The impact of game aesthetics on player immersion
The representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in video games
The role of environmental storytelling in game design
The impact of game streaming on player engagement
The portrayal of mental illness in puzzle games
The role of player feedback in shaping game development
The impact of game aesthetics on player perception
The representation of LGBTQ+ characters in horror games
The influence of film noir on game narratives
The role of environmental storytelling in shaping game worlds
The impact of game tutorials on player skill progression
The portrayal of mental illness in narrative-driven games
The influence of science fiction on game aesthetics
The role of player choice in determining game endings
The impact of game aesthetics on player emotional response
The representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in indie games
The influence of literature on game design
The role of environmental storytelling in immersive game worlds
The impact of game streaming on player community building
The portrayal of mental health struggles in interactive fiction games

Whether you are writing a research paper, a critical analysis, or a personal reflection on video games, these topics provide a diverse range of ideas to explore. From examining the psychological effects of gaming to analyzing the cultural significance of game narratives, there is no shortage of fascinating topics to delve into. So, pick a topic that interests you and start exploring the world of video games through the lens of your essay. Happy writing!

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Essay on Video Games

Students are often asked to write an essay on Video Games in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Video Games

Introduction.

Video games are interactive digital entertainment platforms. They are played on devices like computers, consoles, or mobiles.

Types of Video Games

There are many types of video games. Some are educational, others are adventure-based or sports-themed.

Benefits of Video Games

Video games can improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and strategic thinking. They can also be a fun way to relax.

Drawbacks of Video Games

Excessive gaming can lead to health issues like eye strain and lack of physical activity. It can also impact social skills if not balanced with real-world interactions.

Also check:

250 Words Essay on Video Games

Video games, a form of interactive entertainment, have evolved dramatically from their rudimentary origins in the 1970s. They have penetrated almost every aspect of modern society, becoming a significant part of our culture and a powerful force in the entertainment industry.

The Evolution of Video Games

In their inception, video games were straightforward, consisting of basic graphics and gameplay. However, as technology advanced, so did the complexity and visual appeal of these games. Today, video games are immersive experiences, boasting high-definition graphics, complex narratives, and intricate gameplay mechanics.

The Impact on Society

Video games have a profound impact on society. They have transformed how we spend our leisure time, and have even created new professions, such as professional e-sports players and game developers. In addition, video games have educational potential, as they can develop problem-solving and strategic thinking skills.

Controversies and Criticisms

Despite their popularity, video games have attracted controversy. Critics argue that they promote violence, addiction, and social isolation. However, research on these issues remains inconclusive, and many argue that the benefits of video games outweigh potential negatives.

500 Words Essay on Video Games

Video games, a form of digital entertainment that has dramatically evolved over the past few decades, have become a significant part of contemporary culture. They offer a unique blend of interactive storytelling, art, and technology, engaging players in a way that no other medium can. Video games are more than just a pastime; they are a platform for expression, learning, and innovation.

The history of video games is a testament to the incredible technological advancements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From the rudimentary pixel graphics of the 1970s to today’s immersive virtual reality experiences, video games have continuously pushed the boundaries of what is technologically possible. They have transformed from simple, solitary experiences into complex, social phenomena, connecting people from all walks of life.

The Impact of Video Games

The benefits and concerns.

Despite the criticisms often associated with video gaming, such as addiction and violence, numerous studies have highlighted the potential benefits. Video games can improve cognitive skills, such as problem-solving and spatial awareness, and can also foster social interaction and cooperation when played in groups. They can serve as therapeutic tools, helping to manage conditions like anxiety and depression. However, it is essential to maintain a balanced perspective, acknowledging the potential risks and promoting responsible gaming.

The Future of Video Games

The future of video games is as exciting as it is unpredictable. With emerging technologies like virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and cloud gaming, the possibilities for innovation are limitless. Video games are poised to become even more immersive, interactive, and personalized, offering experiences that were once the stuff of science fiction.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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How to Write an Effective Essay on Video Games

Writing an effective essay on video games requires a good understanding of the topic, strong writing skills, and the ability to analyze and present your ideas clearly. Whether you're a passionate gamer exploring your favorite titles or a cultural critic examining the industry's impact, a well-crafted essay can offer valuable insights and engage readers. If you need assistance with essay writing services at Ukwritings , they can help. Ukwritings is an essay writing service that provides professional writing assistance to students on various topics, including video games. Their team of experienced writers can help you craft a compelling and well-researched essay. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling essay on video games.

Choosing a Focused Topic

The video game industry is vast, covering a wide range of genres, platforms, and themes. Rather than attempting to write about video games in general, narrow your focus to a specific aspect or angle. This will allow you to delve deeper into the topic and provide more meaningful analysis.

For example, you could explore the impact of a particular game or franchise, analyze the representation of certain groups in video games, or examine the evolution of game mechanics over time. A focused topic will help you develop a clear thesis statement and maintain a cohesive structure throughout your essay.

Conducting Thorough Research

Gather information from reliable sources, including books, academic journals, industry reports, and reputable online publications. Look for sources that provide in-depth analysis, historical context, and expert opinions. Avoid relying solely on user reviews or fan sites, as they may lack objectivity or present biased perspectives.

Consult a variety of sources to gain a well-rounded understanding of your topic. Take notes, highlight key points, and organize your research in a way that will help you support your arguments and provide strong evidence.

Developing a Clear Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement should be a concise and focused statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will explore in your essay. It should be specific, debatable, and supported by evidence from your research. A strong thesis statement will guide the development of your essay and help you maintain focus throughout the writing process. For example, instead of a broad statement like "Video games are influential," you could propose a more specific thesis, such as "The open-world design of the Grand Theft Auto series has significantly influenced the gaming industry's approach to storytelling and player agency." Crafting a clear and compelling thesis is crucial, especially if you're writing the essay for college admissions or scholarship applications, where college essay services can provide valuable guidance to help you stand out.

A strong thesis statement will guide the development of your essay and help you maintain focus throughout the writing process. For example, instead of a broad statement like "Video games are influential," you could propose a more specific thesis, such as "The open-world design of the Grand Theft Auto series has significantly influenced the gaming industry's approach to storytelling and player agency."

Organizing Your Ideas Effectively

Structure your essay in a logical and coherent manner. Begin with an engaging introduction that captures the reader's attention and provides context for your topic. Use body paragraphs to present your main points, supporting each one with relevant examples, facts, and analysis. Finally, conclude your essay with a strong summary that reinforces your thesis and leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Consider using subheadings to organize your essay into distinct sections, making it easier for readers to follow your line of thought and navigate the content.

Analyzing and Critiquing

An effective essay should go beyond simply describing or summarizing information. Analyze and critique various aspects of your topic, such as game design, narrative elements, societal impact, or cultural representation. Offer your own insights and opinions, but support them with evidence from your research and careful analysis.

Encourage critical thinking by examining different perspectives, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and exploring the broader implications or consequences of the subject you're discussing.

Considering Multiple Perspectives

Video games can be viewed from various angles, including artistic, cultural, technological, and psychological perspectives. Acknowledging and exploring different viewpoints will add depth and complexity to your essay, demonstrating your understanding of the topic's nuances.

For example, when discussing the representation of women in video games, you could examine the issue from a feminist perspective, exploring how certain games perpetuate harmful stereotypes or objectification. However, you could also consider the perspective of game developers, who may face challenges in creating diverse and authentic female characters while appealing to a broad audience.

Using Examples and Evidence

Strengthen your arguments by providing specific examples and evidence from video games themselves. Describe key scenes, gameplay mechanics, or design choices that support your points. You can also use quotes from developers, critics, or industry experts to bolster your analysis.

Concrete examples and evidence make your essay more engaging and help readers better understand the points you're making. They also lend credibility to your arguments and demonstrate your familiarity with the subject matter.

Maintaining Objectivity

While it's important to express your opinions and insights, aim to maintain objectivity and avoid biased or overly subjective language. Present different viewpoints fairly, and acknowledge potential counter-arguments or limitations to your arguments.

By maintaining a balanced perspective, you demonstrate your ability to think critically and consider multiple sides of an issue. This approach also makes your essay more persuasive and credible, as readers are more likely to trust an objective analysis.

Editing and Proofreading

After completing your initial draft, take the time to review and revise your essay. Check for clarity, coherence, and logical flow. Ensure that your arguments are well-supported and that your writing is free from grammatical errors, typos, and inconsistencies.

Consider having someone else read your essay and provide feedback. A fresh pair of eyes can help identify areas that need improvement or clarification.

By following these tips, you can craft an effective and engaging essay on video games that showcases your knowledge, analytical skills, and writing abilities. Remember, the key is to provide insightful analysis, use concrete examples, and present your ideas in a clear and organized manner. With dedication and attention to detail, you can create a compelling essay that contributes to the ongoing discussion around this influential medium.

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Positive Effects of Video Gaming

This “positive effects of video games” essay explores the benefits of games on education, cognitive skills, social side of gaming, and other aspects. Get some ideas for your “positive effects of gaming” essay with the help of our sample.

Introduction

Gaming and cognitive skills, social side of online gaming, the matrix has you: gaming and self-perception, the major danger, works cited.

The influence of video gaming on an individual’s physical and psychological health is a rarely debated issue in psychology and psychiatry. The majority of the research focuses on the adverse effects of video gaming such as insomnia, depression, social isolation, and even heart failure (Sublette and Mullan 4). Nevertheless, primary targets of such research are obsessive video gamers who sometimes play video games for thirty hours straight or more (Sublette and Mullan 4). While excessive video gaming can be harmful to an individual’s physical and psychological health, moderate gaming can positively influence players by developing their cognitive and social skills, as well as improving the satisfaction with life and motivation.

First-person shooters (FPS) are frequently blamed for violent gameplay and excessive exposure to blood and other disturbing imagery. The influence of FPS on the cognitive skills of players remains a peripheral topic among psychiatrists and psychologists. However, Colzato et al. point out that playing FPS improves one’s ability to react faster, as well as monitor and update working memory (238). The violence of battles in FPS can indeed be disturbing to some, but approximately the same level of violence can be seen in average action movies about wars or city gangs.

The benefit of games is that they allow the player to interact with the environment, encouraging him or her to react to situations faster, conduct complex decision-making, and refer to the collected information to ensure accurate navigation. My experience has shown me that gaming can significantly improve personal ability to navigate in an unknown place by implementing the same set of skills necessary for video gaming: attention to details, analysis of the environment, and logical reasoning.

Puzzles and quests are other types of games that also require the player to use logic and attention to complete a task. It should be noted that early childhood programs also can include puzzle games where children need to match geometry figures and shapes or find a way in (or out of) a maze. Despite their seeming simplicity, such puzzles help children think symbolically and establish cause-effect relationships. One can also pay attention to eSports professionals to understand how computer games influence our cognition. The majority of them display an incredibly fast reaction to what is happening during the game and notice any changes before other viewers are aware of them.

Their experience in games that require full attention and rapid thinking allows them to evaluate a situation much faster, and, based on this evaluation, suggest one or several decisions. The importance of decision-making in college and career is discussed extensively, but there are few suggestions on how such a skill can be improved. My suggestion is that we should play puzzle and quest games more often to evaluate our own ability to think logically and make decisions based on the limited information we have. While a game is a more or less notional situation, we have to provide multiple choices each day, and not all of them are right. I believe that games can improve this ability.

Shooter video games are perfect training bases for those who want to improve their spatial resolution and attention. As Granic et al. notice, those participants who played FPS showed “faster and more accurate attention allocation, higher spatial resolution in visual processing, and enhanced mental rotation abilities” (68). Furthermore, the improvement in spatial skills from playing FPS was equal to the effects of university-based courses that help attendants work on the same skills. Spatial skills, in return, can predict achievements in technology, science, engineering, and mathematics (Granic et al. 68).

Another fact that can support my opinion about the importance of games is the extensive use of gaming in education and healthcare facilities. Students learn to understand complex concepts such as magnetic fields or Earth rotation by playing specifically designed video games, and young patients learn new information about diseases and vaccines with the help of applications and interactive games. At the same time, future health care professionals use serious games for training and medical education (Wang et al. 45). If games begin to enter education and healthcare, it is unreasonable to argue that their main aim is still entertainment. As we can see, they become another advanced learning tool that helps users improve their target skills or knowledge.

The social side of gaming is addressed more often but with a negative attitude as well: researchers pay attention to the development of addiction in online gamers, isolation from peers, and lack of social contact with family and friends. This stereotype is based on an excessive type of gamers and not on moderate or naive (with little experience) gamers who typically use online games as a means to entertain or communicate. Trepte et al. argue that online gaming and gamers’ interaction with their clan results in better interactions offline as well; if gamers are willing to engage in team management, “they seem to gain more social support in both settings, online as well as offline” (837).

Technology and gaming are often seen as negative influences on the development of social bonds among adolescents and young adults. It happens due to the common stereotype about gamers in particular and millennials in general that portrays them as persons who prefer to spend their time on their phone or PC/laptop and write thousands of messages per day.

However, before such technologies as the Internet and instant messaging emerged, personal contacts were limited to a more or less narrow circle of family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and other acquaintances mostly from the same city or country. Today, adolescents and adults use the Internet, including online gaming, to find friends from other continents and countries, discuss their interests, and share important aspects of their life via social media and gaming as well. Bonding in online games is also successful because it attracts people with similar interests who are more likely to become friends exactly due to their corresponding perceptions of entertainment and hobbies.

Online gaming in teams also helps gamers develop leadership and management skills by providing them an opportunity to form and rule a clan or a team, where the leader will help others achieve the team’s goals and gain some benefits. In-game terms, these benefits usually include gold or artifacts (weapons, spells, etc.). In real life, the knowledge about group management can come in handy during collective work on a project at the gamer’s place of employment. I would not say that the gamer will become a leader instantly, but, instead, he or she will use the acquired skills in a real-life setting, thus gaining real benefits from them. Online games “reward effective cooperation, support, and helping behaviors”, thus teaching players to build relationships offline efficiently (Granic et al. 73).

Such findings sometimes can lead to expected, but false conclusions: only nonviolent cooperative games lead to increased prosocial behavior in players, whereas violent video games’ influence is still more or less negative because they lead to increased aggression and competitiveness. In a way, this is true, but one should pay attention to the context in which violent games are defined as negative influences. If players choose a violent game that encourages (or requires) cooperation, they are more likely to display prosocial and helping behavior after the game is over (Granic et al. 73). What is more, cooperative gaming decreased the feelings of hostility in individuals compared to those players who preferred to play alone.

The research also found that adolescents who preferred playing cooperative games were more likely to be engaged in different civic movements such as charity or volunteering (Granic et al. 73). The potential of games in encouraging cooperation among citizens is often overseen due to their status as common, even “dumb” ways of entertainment that are more associated with adolescents and children than adults. However, the ability to cooperate is one of the major tools that human beings use to conduct research, invent, discover, and share. Therefore, I cannot agree with opinions that view gaming as a degrading experience. In its core, it targets unique human abilities such as the utilization of language and motion to achieve a goal, analysis, and decoding of abstract concepts and situations to choose the right time to take action, and desire to share positive and negative emotions with other human beings.

More than half of all Americans play video games (59%: 52% male and 48% female Americans) (Grooten and Kowert 70). Despite the frequent use of the word “gamer” in everyday lives, people often have a different understanding of gamers as persons. Some believe that gamers are those individuals who merely like to play from time to time. Others tend to view gamers as persons significantly immersed in the gaming world, i.e. interested in gaming news and fashion. According to Grooten and Kowert, “a player” is a temporary status that a person acquires when he or she plays any game (73). “A gamer”, however, is a more complex concept that relates to the cultural and social capital of a person. A gamer is not simply interested in playing games; he or she also finds a specific value in them and views him/herself through the prism of what he/she understands as “being a gamer”. For example, if a person has other social contacts interested in discussing games, he or she can perceive him/herself as a “gamer” during such conversations.

The concept of a “gamer” as a social identity becomes a part of the individual’s self-concept (how they see themselves), and this self-concept includes parts or characteristics associated with the social group “gamers” that further define person’s preferences and interests. The stigmatization of gamers as a social group is possible due to the existing stereotypes about this community. Gamers are often portrayed in the media as isolated, pale, overweight or malnourished individuals (more often male than female) who display an apparent obsession with games and gaming culture (Grooten and Kowert 75).

I frequently notice such stereotypes; they make me wonder whether the marginalization of the gaming community happens precisely due to negative associations (Internet addiction, mental illnesses, violent behaviors) related to gamers and gaming experience in psychological research. My decision to reference “The Matrix” in this section was due to my belief that social identities (including gamers) and self-perception often merge, creating a desired or partly illusionary self-concept, which incorporates both social and individual beliefs and stereotypes about “gamers” as a social group. For example, despite having a rich social life and harmonious relationships with peers, some gamers that I have met confessed that their primary interest in life was gaming and nothing else.

Such self-perception is the result of external labels created by pop-culture and internal desire to see oneself as a part of a social group that is famous for its obsession with a particular form of entertainment (gaming). I believe that gamers purposefully choose these labels to feel like a legitimate part of the cultural/social group they appreciate. Another problem of gamers’ self-perception emerges due to the lack of any clear consensus about the definition “gamer” in the gamers’ community as well (Grooten and Kowert 76).

More experienced or “hardcore” gamers (as they call themselves) might not accept a “newbie” who recently joined the community and is familiar only with a majority of recent mainstream games. At the same time, the “newbie” gamer would be seen as an experienced gamer by his peers who are completely unfamiliar with the gaming culture. Thus, the definition of a “gamer” changes depending on the perspective of the beholder.

It should also be noted that the uniqueness of a gamer identity is in its duality: when logging in a game, the gamer acquires a new personality (or an avatar) that she or he will be associated with. The importance of the avatar should not be underestimated. For example, recent complaints of female gamers about the lack of strong female protagonists in games led to the emergence of games with such avatars (“Syberia”, “Life Is Strange”, “Horizon Zero Dawn”, “The Last of Us”). Furthermore, some developers decided to allow the player to choose a female or male protagonist (“The Elder Scrolls”, “Prey”, “Dishonored 2”, “Mass Effect”, various massively multiplayer online role-playing games).

However, the gamer’s identity can experience even more radical transformations in games, where they can play as animals and supernatural or divine beings (“Ori and The Blind Forest”, “Divinity: Dragon Commander”, “The Elder Scrolls”, “Vampyr”, “Spore”, “Black and White”). The opportunity to perceive oneself as a supernatural deity or animal is yet another factor that, in my opinion, attracts gamers because they acquire a chance to become someone (or something) else. This is the reason why gamers are perceived as escapists who prefer imaginary life to the real one (such perception is also one of the major stereotypes about gamers).

Life in a virtual community has its established values, beliefs, cultures even that encourage gamers to identify with their guilds (e.g. by wearing a particular type of coat of arms, weapons, or having an identifiable nickname such as “Tom_Team_Raven”, etc.). In the offline world, gamers can also use such markers to show other members of the community their values or allegiance to a certain clan. Various merchandise sold by the biggest online retailers also helps gamers translate their adherence to a game via key chains, T-Shirts, backpacks, badges, etc. Thus, the virtual life goes beyond its digital frames and integrates with the gamer’s real life, affecting and changing it.

The line between the real and the digital life is clear to some gamers but extremely blurred to others. Addiction to video games (including online ones) is the currently debated topic among psychologists and psychiatrists; the reasons behind this addiction can be different, from increased stress levels to depression and compulsiveness (Whang et al. 146). As intriguing and attractive as the digital world might be, an extensive immersion in it can significantly worsen one’s quality of life and well-being.

If an interest in gaming transforms into an addiction, there is little chance that the discussed cognitive and social benefits will be derived. Instead, the person will find that she or he is unable to control her /his life, think about anything else, or find other hobbies interesting. Moreover, since the human body is not designed for a sedentary lifestyle evolutionally, addicted gamers can experience back pains, fatigue, severe headaches, and insomnia. Their social ties often crumble as well: frequent conflicts with parents about the addiction, reluctance to meet with offline friends, and a reduced interest in other activities are common among excessive gamers (Liu and Peng 1306).

Like any other addict, excessive gamers show signs of psychological dependency, which eventually results in loss of control over one’s time and life. Digital life becomes more valued by gamers because they believe that they are more loved or respected there. For some, the opportunity to experience fantasy adventures (slay dragons, shoot zombies, create spells, etc.) becomes more attractive than the real-life itself. The distortion in the self-perception is also typical because gamers see their digital self as more important than the real one. The adverse impact of gaming is evident, but it only emerges when the gamer loses control over his/her hobby and prefers it to the offline life.

However, I believe that individuals can protect themselves from these consequences by paying attention to their behavior. If any negative effects of gaming outweigh its positive ones, it is advisable to stop playing any games immediately and restrain from them for several days or even weeks. If a person is interested in deriving positive benefits from gaming, he or she should play moderately, i.e. devote a limited amount of time to gaming per week (a couple of regular gaming sessions will provide the necessary benefits). Only a reasonable approach to gaming will allow one to reap the rewards.

Interest in digital games and gaming should not be perceived as a sign of possible addiction or negative quality of life. Moderate gaming can improve one’s social and cognitive skills, build new online and offline relationships with other like-minded persons, and make one’s free hours more adventurous and exciting. Despite the violence that repels some, brutal games can encourage a person to display helping behavior more often, thus strengthening their offline social ties.

Games exist not only as a form of entertainment. Simulators, also known as “serious games”, are developed to help different professionals acquire necessary skills via completing digital tasks and trying out their future role in a virtual environment. Games teach individuals how to react to events faster, solve puzzles and problems in a limited amount of time, and employ decision-making skills for a better situational outcome. Thus, gaming has significant potential in developing our cognition and making us more aware of our unique personality.

Colzato, Lorenza S., et al. “Action Video Gaming and Cognitive Control: Playing First Person Shooter Games Is Associated with Improvement in Working Memory but Not Action Inhibition.” Psychological Research , vol. 77, no. 2, 2013, pp. 234-239.

Granic, Isabela, et al. “The Benefits of Playing Video Games.” American Psychologist , vol. 69, no. 1, 2014, pp. 66-78.

Grooten, Jan, and Rachel Kowert. “Going beyond the Game: Development of Gamer Identities within Societal Discourse and Virtual Spaces.” Loading… The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association , vol. 9, no. 14, 2015, pp. 70-87.

Liu, Ming, and Wei Peng. “Cognitive and Psychological Predictors of the Negative Outcomes Associated with Playing MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games).” Computers in Human Behavior , vol. 25, no. 6, 2009, pp. 1306-1311.

Sublette, Victoria Anne, and Barbara Mullan. “Consequences of Play: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Online Gaming.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction , vol. 10, no. 1, 2012, pp. 3-23.

Trepte, Sabine, et al. “The Social Side of Gaming: How Playing Online Computer Games Creates Online and Offline Social Support.” Computers in Human Behavior , vol. 28, no. 3, 2012, pp. 832-839.

Wang, Ryan, et al. “A Systematic Review of Serious Games in Training Health Care Professionals.” Simulation in Healthcare , vol. 11, no. 1, 2016, pp. 41-51.

Whang, Leo Sang-Min, et al. “Internet Over-Users’ Psychological Profiles: A Behavior Sampling Analysis on Internet Addiction.” Cyberpsychology & Behavior , vol. 6, no. 2, 2003, pp. 143-150.

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Video Games Essay | Essay on Video Games for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Video Games Essay: Video games are electronic games that requires a user interface, input device (it can be joysticks, controllers, motion-sensing devices, keyboard, etc.) that generates visual feedback for the player or players, an output device that is either a two or three-dimensional display device (like TV monitor, touchscreen, VR headset, etc.).

Video games also are augmented with audio feedback using either headphones or speakers. Other types of augmented feedback systems of video games include haptic technology.

You can also find more Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Video Games for Students and Kids in English

We are providing students with a long essay sample of 500 words and a short essay sample of 150 words on the topic Video Games in English for reference.

Long Essay on Video Games 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Video Games is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Video games have undeniably become an imperative part of most of our life, either as a form of entertainment and even hobby. Video games came into existence through the invention of the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device by Thomas T Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947. And in 1948 they got the patent for their invented device with knobs and buttons used for stimulating airborne enemies. It was not until the 1970s, and 1980s those video games reached the mainstream popularity.

One of the biggest technological evolution examples is that of what is seen in video games. Over the years there had been massive changes and several creations since the first released video game. Before the age of Playstation, Xbox, or even computer games, people used to be engrossed in playing video arcade games and later the 8-bit video games using consoles, joysticks, and other controllers. Now we have video games with much higher graphics, better storyline, and even more options. This makes the gaming experience more thrilling and enjoyable; however, it does not change the fact that video games have turned almost an entire generation into couch potatoes.

It is no news that video games are fascinating and because of the graphics along with sound effects gives the player a real-like experience. The video game industry has also started experimenting with virtual reality resulting in even more realistic games which give the player the sensation of truly witnessing the activities of the game. Bur we all know that technology is both a good and a bad effect. The condition is not much different when it comes to video games as well. There are several benefits of playing video games; similarly, there are also adverse effects of the same.

The positive effects of video games include developing one’s skills, like strategic thinking, quick learning, cooperation, creativity, etc. Simulations which are based on the similar technology behind video games are used for training purposes (like shooting, golfing, driving, etc.). Simulations have helped in reducing the risk of accidents occurring during training by allowing the user to practice longer without the requirement of frequent maintenance.

However, there are also some very destructive negative effects of video games. Firstly, children and young adults often get very addicted to playing video games and end up wasting a lot of time and becoming socially isolated. Another aspect of video games which has affected the players immensely is the increase in the violence and aggressiveness in them while trying to imitate the competitive traits of the game.

As intelligent beings, we must use our wisdom and self-control to spend our time wisely and efficiently while avoiding things that have the potential of causing us harm. The gaming industry should monitor the type of games being manufactured and restricting the game for the age for only which it is suitable. Players too should understand the negative impacts of excessive video game playing and addiction. Hence, it can be concluded that the effect of video games depends a lot on the player.

Short Essay on Video Games 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Video Games is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

The electronic games that involve the user interface interacting with a human that results in generating feedback onto the video device are called video games. The platforms are the electronic devices used for playing various video games. The size of platforms or gaming units can range from large mainframe computers to even small handheld devices. The trend of playing video games became prominent from the late 1970s and has only increased over time with the advancement of technology. At present, the global value of the video game industry is stated to be USD 152 billion approximately.

The large scale engagement of youth and people of other age groups as well has turned video games into a trend factor. However, there has been a lot of debate on the matter of the positive and negative impact of games on people. Thus, both the industry and the user need to monitor the content of the games being made, and the amount of time being spent on it, respectively.

10 Lines on Video Games in English

There are several types of video games like arcade games, console video game, computer video games, and mobile games.
The evident increase in the commercial importance of the video gaming industry began from the 2010s.
The Asian market is the biggest contributor to the growth of the video gaming industry.
As of 2018, video games were the third-largest segment drawing revenue in the entertainment market of US, behind broadcast and cable TV.
Today, numerous people are involved behind creating video games like developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, third party manufacturers, etc.
Studies show that gaming addiction causes several physical and behavioural problems in people, especially in children.
There are also competitions held for video games in various stages (local, national and international) to find the best player among all.
The growth and expansion of the video gaming industry have opened up several job opportunities as well.
Parents should monitor the game playing type and time of their children so that it doesn’t turn into an addiction.
Lack of motion because of excessive video game playing can cause diseases like obesity and diabetes, along with muscle pain.

FAQ’s on Video Games Essay

Question 1. Mention some positive effects of playing video games.

Answer: Some positive effects of video game playing includes the following-

It improves IQ and reflexes of an individual.
It develops skills like decision making, attentiveness, multi-tasking, etc.
It improves motor skills of players.

Question 2. Which is the most iconic video game character of all time?

Answer: Mario

Question 3. What is the first invented video game?

Answer: Tennis for Two is the first video game, and it was created in 1958.

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Video Games Essay | Negative & Positive Effects

A brief essays and paragraph about video games are given below. These paragraphs briefly answers the queries: Are video games good or not?. Also read advantages and disadvantages.

There is no doubt that the video game industry is massive. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on video games, and the market is only growing. But what draws people to them? What is it about video games that entice people to keep playing them?

Table of Contents

Short Paragraph On Video Games

There are numerous theories, but one of the most widely accepted is the concept of escapism. People play video games to distract themselves from reality. They want to forget about their problems and simply have fun for a while. Video games provide a distinct form of entertainment that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Another reason people enjoy video games so much is that they are extremely immersive. When you’re playing a game, you completely immerse yourself in it. You lose track of time and become completely absorbed in the world on the screen. This is a sensation that is difficult to replicate through other forms of entertainment.

I’ve been thinking a lot about video games lately, and how they’ve changed my perspective on the world. Since I began playing them at the age of 11, they have brought me joy that few other things can match. I was hooked from the moment I got Mario Kart 64 to play with friends or try out all those new tracks. I began to play more and more, learning every trick in the game and eventually beating it with all of my friends. This was only the beginning of my fascination with video games.

Soon after, I obtained the Pokemon Blue version and began collecting fakemon to add to a new team, battling with them online on Game boys or trying out all of the new games like Pokémon.

Does that appear to be something to be taken lightly? Are gamer simply lazy kids who spend too much time playing video games and don’t get enough exercise to burn off those calories? I’m sure some people use it. How could you live with yourself if you were one of them?

I believe that many of the negative stereotypes about gamer stem from the fact that adults are less likely to play video games. It’s something you do as a child, not after you graduate from high school. This is most likely why we don’t hear much about adult gamer and instead concentrate on children.

The truth is that people who play video games are not slackers. They’re just people who have a different hobby than the rest of us. And there are numerous advantages to playing video games. For starters, they can assist you in improving your problem-solving abilities. Games like Portal and Super Meat Boy necessitate quick thinking and precise movements, which can be applied in real life.

Games can also aid in the development of your hand-eye coordination. This is especially critical for athletes and surgeons. Sports like Street Fighter and Dance Dance Revolution have helped people improve their skills in sports and surgery.

Furthermore, video games can help you improve your social skills. Playing online games with people from all over the world can teach you how to communicate with strangers and make new friends through online chat. Also, because they will most likely be talking about something they enjoy rather than forcing conversation, playing video games is a great way for shy people to feel more comfortable around others.

While some gamer do not get out as much as they should, the majority of negative stereotypes about gamer are simply false. There are numerous advantages to playing video games that can help you improve your life in some way. Don’t pass judgment on someone who is playing a video game the next time you see them. Simply think to yourself, “that person must be having fun because there’s no way they’d be playing a game if they didn’t enjoy it.”

Finally, there are numerous reasons why people enjoy video games. Some enjoy the challenge, while others enjoy the escapism and immersion they provide. Whatever the reason, it is obvious that video games are here to stay.

Argumentative Essay On Video Games | Positive And Negative Effects

1. Introduction

Video games have become a ubiquitous part of modern society, with people of all ages and backgrounds engaging with them on a daily basis. From console games to mobile games, the video game industry has grown significantly in recent years, and shows no signs of slowing down.

2. Positive Effects Of Video Games

Video games can have a number of positive effects on players. For example, they can improve hand-eye coordination and reaction time, as well as cognitive skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking. Additionally, video games can serve as a form of stress relief, allowing players to relax and unwind after a long day.

3. Negative Effects Of Video Games

However, there can also be negative effects associated with playing video games. Excessive gaming can lead to addiction, and can also negatively impact social relationships and physical health. Furthermore, some video games can contain violent or inappropriate content that may not be suitable for all players.

4. Conclusion

Overall, while video games can have both positive and negative effects, it is important for players to be aware of these potential effects and to use moderation when playing. Parents should also monitor the games that their children are playing and ensure that they are appropriate.

Essay on Video Games and Violence

The relationship between video games and violence has been the subject of ongoing debate and research for many years. Some studies have suggested that playing violent video games can lead to an increase in aggressive behavior, while others have found no significant link between the two.

One argument for a link between video games and violence is that playing violent games can desensitize individuals to real-world violence and make them more likely to engage in aggressive behavior. This theory is based on the idea that repeated exposure to violent imagery can lead to a decrease in the emotional response to violence, making it easier for individuals to commit acts of aggression.

On the other hand, other studies have found no significant correlation between playing violent video games and increased aggression. Some researchers argue that other factors, such as a person’s overall level of aggression or their environment, may play a greater role in determining their behavior. Additionally, it has also been suggested that playing violent video games can actually serve as a outlet for aggression and help to reduce the likelihood of real-world violence.

It is important to note that the majority of research in this area has found that video games are not the sole or even primary cause of violence. Rather, a complex interplay of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors are typically at play in determining an individual’s likelihood of committing acts of aggression.

In conclusion, while some studies have suggested a link between video games and violence, the evidence is not conclusive. Further research is needed to fully understand the relationship between the two, and it is important not to jump to conclusions about the effects of video games on behavior without considering other potential factors.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Can video games be addictive?

A: Yes, excessive gaming can lead to addiction, and it is important for players to use moderation when playing.

Q: Are video games bad for children?

A: Not necessarily, but it is important for parents to monitor the games that their children are playing and ensure that they are appropriate.

Q: Can video games improve cognitive skills?

A: Yes, video games can improve cognitive skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

How to Write an Essay about Video Games: Presenting Effective Arguments in Papers

Gaming on video consoles is becoming more and more common. In actuality, the typical gamer plays for roughly six hours each week. There are many who claim that video games are harmful to one’s health since they promote inactive lifestyles like prolonged sitting and isolation from the outside world. On the other hand, some people say that playing video games is a good way to unwind and relax, and they are not wrong. So, what is the real story of video games? Are they good or bad? The controversy of playing video games presents an opportunity for students to either be proponents or antagonists of the issue through essays. Accordingly, this article discusses how a learner can write an essay about video games.

It would be best to do thorough research before writing an essay about video games

Research is often the most challenging aspect of preparing an essay. While writing your video games essay, you’ll have to employ the information you get from research to define video games, describe different genres, and give relevant examples to support your claims. Students must recognize that the amount of research they conduct totally affects how good their essays turn out. Your video game essay will benefit greatly from your careful attention to detail and thorough investigation. Just keep in mind that you are trying to convince your audience to see things from your point of view. This is why having a great deal of background information is essential. Researching your favorite video game would give you an added advantage. Additionally, to support your claims, you must include relevant examples and research-based data.

You should develop an introduction that captures your reader’s interest

The whole point of the opening paragraph is to capture the interest of the audience. To achieve this, it should pose an intriguing topic or provide a contradiction or paradox. You ought to add a good hook to grab the reader’s attention so they can’t help but keep reading your paper. Given that there are numerous motivations for why individuals engage in video games, the introduction is where you have to specify the reasons. Moreover, it would be best to incorporate your thesis statement in the introduction. A thesis statement is basically the writer’s primary concept, summed up in one or a few sentences. A well-formulated thesis statement expresses the work’s central argument in a way that makes sense in light of the inquiry or issue at hand. It would be the correct response to the question, “What is the primary theme of this essay?” from the instructor. Nonetheless, you should perceive your thesis as an opinion that may be debated at any time, rather than an established fact or objective reality. In other words, now is the time to speak your mind regarding the impact of video games on today’s youth.

You must present your arguments in the body paragraphs

The arguments are what learners utilize to support their thesis. A single contention and one or two examples must each have their own paragraph. It would be best to provide your reasoning for your video game position and be sure to explain why you firmly disagree with the opposing viewpoint. Examples include your own experiences and, where appropriate, references to data from studies, forecasts, and statistics. Students should provide answers to contentious topics like “Do video games promote addiction and violence among players?” The arguments you employ ought to back your main point rather than contradict it.

You may offer vivid illustrations as you write an argumentative essay about video games

Learners should offer evocative examples of the genres and video games under consideration. Instead of stressing about whether the material you discover online or the game’s publishers are legit, dedicate yourself to writing a fun and vibrant paper for the person who reads it. This approach piques the audience’s attention and facilitates their comprehension of the argumentative essay about video games. Additionally, these vivid examples assist you in conveying your ideas in a manner that words can’t. Even if you aren’t convinced that your assignment requires an example, using one might perk up your reader and provide your arguments additional weight.

You should write a conclusion for your essay

The last section is meant to sum up the college essay. You may accomplish this by restating the thesis statement and briefly mentioning the arguments you presented in your body paragraphs. This approach will help the audience understand how you systematically addressed the issue and made conclusions. For instance, suppose you had to respond to the question, “Do games negatively affect us?” A topic like that can’t be satisfactorily answered by psychology, particularly when it involves something as novel as video games. Consequently, it is actually way easier to just pick a side and support your position with some research. In the end, your readers don’t expect the argument to be elaborated upon but rather summarized. No new material should be introduced in the last paragraph.

Identifying the sources you employed would be best

When you are writing an essay about video games, it is essential to cite your sources. That means you got to make a list of every resource you used in your paper. References to diverse books, scientific studies, statistical data, and remarks made by well-known experts are acceptable. It would help to make sure your research is from the past five years.

Proofreading is vital for developing a top-notch paper

Students must make sure that their essays about video games have been edited and proofread prior to submission. So basically, you are going to check your assignment for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical mistakes. Completing an essay that is free of errors increases a learner’s likelihood of academic success. Here are some tips to help you proofread your work:

Read the text aloud. This will enable you to detect any mistakes.
Take your time proofreading and revising your work. Spend sufficient time on it to ensure you catch any possible oversights.
Concentrate on correcting a single mistake at a time. Avoid the hassle of searching for spelling and grammar mistakes at the same time. Prior to checking for punctuation and spelling problems, you may concentrate on grammatical issues.
You may also create a list of the most typical errors that students make while writing essays, then review your work for each one.

Using these suggestions will guarantee that your essay is devoid of all types of mistakes that might undermine how persuasive your argument is. Alternatively, you can delegate your “ write my essay ” request to online essay writing services like CustomWritings which may allow you to complete a high-quality paper about video games.

Extra tips for presenting better arguments in essays about video games

Today’s youth often engage in video gaming, and this trend will only spread in the coming years. Composing a paper about video games can help you learn more about the subject while also providing readers with information they can utilize in their lives. Just consider the potential for them to be inspired by and gain new knowledge from your essay about video games. Following this article’s recommendations should take you a step closer to achieving your academic goals.

Nick Sinclair

Nick Sinclair, a gaming aficionado since the Commodore 64 era, studied Creative Computer Games Design in university before founding his own gaming company. Discovering a passion for content creation, Nick now helps gamers squeeze every drop of fun out of their favorite gaming hardware

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Persuasive Essay: Video Games

Teenagers today often spend a great deal of time playing video games. These games are fun and engaging and young people often feel like playing games is a great thing to do in their spare time. However, you shouldn’t spend too much time gaming and there are a number of reasons for this: it’s unhealthy, you should spend more time studying, and you need to socialize more.

The primary reason to cut down on gaming time has to be that youths that spend a long time on computers and games consoles are often not getting enough exercise. With high obesity rates, it’s very important for young people to spend as much time being active as possible, especially since studies show that people who are overweight during childhood and adolescence are far more likely to become overweight adults than those of a healthy weight when they’re young. There is just as much, if not more, fun to be had in getting out and about and being active. This doesn’t have to mean going for long runs if that’s not your thing; team sports are both fun and great exercise. Dance or fitness classes are also a good option for those not into sports.

Secondly, getting a good education is that best thing that you can do for your future. If every teenager cut down on their gaming time by 30 minutes per day and used this time to study, the whole of that generation would achieve better results and be more likely to have the career that they want. With education, you get out what you put in, so it’s really up to you to put in the additional effort. If you want to go to a good college, extra study in your own time will be completely vital, but gaming can reduce your concentration span and make this more difficult.

The third main reason that playing video games too often is that it’s no good for your social skills. Some teenagers may argue that because they can now play their games online with friends, they are socializing in their own way. However, you can’t beat face-to-face contact, and if you want to succeed in interviews and build good relationships in later life, you need to develop some proper communication skills. This shouldn’t be a chore, or difficult, because hanging out with friends is far more fun than sitting indoors playing on games all day anyway!

In conclusion, there can be no doubt that spending too much time gaming isn’t good for you. You don’t have to stop all together, but it’s all about moderation. Cut down and allocate your additional free time to doing things that are good for you, and you definitely won’t regret it in later life.

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Effects of Video Games Essay

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Introduction

School performance, effects on social relationships.

The society has been immensely influenced by the technological changes, which are reshaping some of the activities. The emerging technologies in one way or another have affected every member of society, irrespective of age.

Video Games have had the greatest influence on the lives of children. Children no longer appreciate the outdoor games as was before, as most of their time is spend indoors playing video games.

Although this trend may have a positive impact on the lives of the concerned children as far as their knowledge of computer is concerned, there are various negative impacts.

Various educationists have confirmed that outdoor plays are very important to the development and growth of children.

It helps them develop socially as they meet with their friends and learn to share discussions, get involved in physical activities and develop physically through such games. The paper talks about some of the negative effects of computer games (Finkel, 1995).

It is established through research that computer games do not help children grow academically. In fact, computer games contribute to inactivity of body cells, which might lead to oversight hence causing diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

Moreover, indoor games contribute to poor academic performance among students because most of the time is spend on useless games that do not offer any academic lessons.

Lastly, computer games lead to the development of antisocial behavior whereby a student is not interested in interacting with his or her peers.

Available literature shows that more children are growing obese owing to the fact that they spend little time exercising and engage frequently with the computer.

Research shows that children who take part in physical exercises are more healthy, intelligent, and active in class. The study conducted by American Heart Association proved that children are contracting heart diseases mainly because of lack of physical activity.

The research indicated that the number of obese children increased by four percent in 1974. Those affected were children aged six to eleven years.

However, the percentage increase could not be compared with the study conducted in 2006 whereby the increase rate was seventeen percent. As from 1971 to 2006, the number of adolescents thought to be obese increased from 6.1 percent to 17.6 percent.

The percentage increase was shocking. Furthermore, the increase was attributed to lack of physical activity and video games (Wiegman, & van Schie, 1998).

Overweight is a costly condition that leads to a number of illnesses among school going children. According to experts at the University of Michigan, obese children have higher risks of contracting diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and high blood pressure.

Other illnesses associated with overweight include high cholesterol levels in the body, hyperlipidemia, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal malfunctions, early adolescence, and finally mental problems.

Studies show that obese children tend to have a low sense of worth and despair.

As AHA records show, obese children are likely to be obese when they attain the adulthood age. This would even cause more problems because they would be exposed to a number of diseases.

A study conducted by Media Literacy Clearinghouse indicated that children had developed a habit towards computer games. Video games had gained relevance among children aged eight and eighteen years to an extent that the rate at which children played computer games rose from an average of 26 minutes in 1999 to 73 minutes in 2009.

Generally, the rate at which children interacted with the computer daily rose from six hours in 1999 to seven hours in 2009. A report compiled in 2004 at the University Hospital of Zurich revealed that a strong link between obesity and video games exist.

It can be concluded that video games do not help children in any way but instead it affects their health. Video games interfere with the children’s eating habits because such children would tend to consume food with high calories.

In this regard, parents need to monitor the behavior of their children as regards to physical fitness.

In the United States, a study conducted to ascertain the effects of computer games on the performance of students proved that PlayStations and other video games such as Xbox Video affects the concentration of children in class.

Furthermore, the study revealed that children who are like using playing video games could not compete favorably with those who prefer physical games. One of the researchers was quoted saying that the performance of students who engage in physical exercises will always improve with time.

Boys are affected more by the new trend since they would rarely improve in class. Their performance would always remain stagnant for a period.

Moreover, boys cannot develop skills that would help them to read and write well in case they are allowed to interact with the computer frequently (Sakurai, 1984).

It should be noted that video games might not necessarily cause poor performance among school going children but the time spent in watching the games or playing them would consume the time that a student would be expected to read, do some homework, and write a good composition.

Definitely, a student would register a poor grade in case he or she does not engage in a serious research. Video games have a tendency of instilling negative reading attitudes to students. This is because a student would find reading a storybook or solving a mathematics problem boring.

Video games are very fast and demand a higher concentration unlike other academic activities that need time for conceptualization. In a joint study conducted in Australia, researchers concluded that video games affect the performance of students in many ways.

Students who spend time playing video games would always perform dismally in class. In fact, the study revealed that computer games do not help children perform well in any of the subjects. This is because students who spend time watching and playing computer games would always score low in each subject.

This research contradicts some of the assumptions that computer games help children to perform well in some subjects. The Australian study revealed that there is no single positive correlation between academic performance and computer games.

Video games are known to influence the cognitive and educational dexterities of children. Moreover, the games can as well as define the children’s social relationships. In a traditional setting, the relationship between the child and the parent or other senior members of society is clearly defined.

The video games have changed meaning that social relations are no longer the same. Studies indicate that video games, especially those that are violent, reshape the behavior of children. Moreover, video games could contain some sort of competition and aggression, which affect the reasoning of children.

In the current society, the rate at which conflicts occur in society has increased. Youths are currently violent because of the new games. The main objective of video games, according to Nintendo and Sega Genesis Center, is violence.

Any game played by children via the computer does not have anything new other than violent content. The companies specializing in selling computer games would convince parents that the games are non-violent but in the real sense, they are not.

A study conducted in 1998 confirmed that many children, over 80%, were familiar to a violent game referred to as Duke Nukem. Unfortunately, only 5% of parents were aware of the game meaning that children are access even those games that are supposed to be accessed by only the adults.

This trend affects the social life of children. In 1999, students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado engaged in a destructive demonstration mainly because of the influence of computer games.

Students shot at their fellow teens and other people because they experienced it through video games. Such kind of behavior is destructive because it could lead to social anomy (Griffith, 1999).

Studies across the world indicate that violent video games increase an individual’s hostility and aggression. Aggressive games would lead to a habit whereby students prefer to play the games rather than engage in physical exercises.

This is even related to overweight. Children who are used to video games tend to be indifferent and unresponsive to the sufferings of other children. They would easily bully their fellow students without mercy.

Finkel, S. (1995). Causal analysis with panel data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Griffith, M. (1999). Violent video games and aggression: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior , 4(2), 203-212.

Sakurai, S. (1984). Construction of the Social Desirability Scale for Children. Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology , 32(2), 310-314.

Wiegman, O., & van Schie, E. (1998). Video game playing and its relations with aggressive and pro-social behavior. British Journal of Social Psychology , 37(2), 367- 378.

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Bibliography

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The Field of Dreams Approach: On Writing About Video Games

Tony Tulathimutte on the future of video game criticism

Every year, more and more great essays are published on literary sites concerning video games. In the past year I’ve especially loved entries like Janet Frishberg’s “On Playing Games, Productivity, and Right Livelihood,” Joseph Spece’s “A Harvest of Ice,” and Adam Fleming Petty’s “The Spatial Poetics of Nintendo: Architecture, Dennis Cooper, and Video Games.” But for each great essay there are a handful of others written like apologies, seemingly perennial pleas to take video games seriously as a form of meaningful narrative.

I hoped to have a conversation with a writer about games that went a little deeper. There were two main reasons I turned to the Whiting Award-winning writer Tony Tulathimutte. The first was because of his response in an interview with Playboy , in which he said that his interest in gaming probably “had something to do with my desire to bend or break formal conventions in fiction.” The second was his three thousand word essay about Clash of Clans , “Clash Rules Everything Around Me,” which was exactly the type of essay about gaming I wanted to see more of. Tulathimutte is the author of Private Citizens , which we listed as one of the 25 best novels of 2016 .

What I want is long-form literary criticism. But writers should just write what they want to read. The body of work will be there and the audience will follow it. The ‘ Field of Dreams’ approach.

Graham Oliver: Can we have this conversation without getting stuck trying to legitimize video games as a medium?

Tony Tulathimutte: “Are video games art?” “Have we had the video game Citizen Kane yet?”

GO: That’s such a boring and overdone conversation. I think it’s more interesting to look at the ways in which video games actually do interact with literature, and not to hold the conversation just as a demonstration of our respect.

TT: Take the respect for granted and go from there. I thought about starting a literary magazine about video games a while back, but the discourse had by then become so toxic that, even with the most anodyne academic essay you could write, the best you could hope for was that it would be ignored. There needs to be more space for this kind of writing, but I just didn’t want to wade into it then. I feel a little better about it now, which is why I did the Clash of Clans essay.

GO: What is the difference between video game-related essays showing up on a literary site, versus a site where the primary purpose is the intersection of video games and literature? What could that site do that can’t be done (or isn’t being done) otherwise?

TT: Part of it is just volume. You can’t have a general interest magazine like the New Yorker covering video games to the same depth or degree as it does film or music or even theater. Every big magazine at this point covers video games occasionally — I know the New Yorker has written about Minecraft and No Man’s Sky , for instance. New York Magazine just did a big essay on gaming more broadly.

But for some reason, there’s no video game editor at the New Yorker , no dedicated departments or verticals, except at newer places like VICE, Vox , The Verge . Unlike music or movies, video games aren’t equally distributed through the culture; it’s more compartmentalized. This owes in part to a marketing apparatus around games that caters to and fosters a specific audience, and because the audience for certain genres — responding to these pressures — became self-selecting, especially with respect to gender. Video games may be art, but they are also a STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] industry, which makes them no different from any other STEM field in that regard.

GO: It’s a question of access. I was thinking about your Clash essay; you have this entire paragraph that has to explain this massively popular and mechanically fairly simple game. Does that automatically turn off an audience who are already proficient in those basics? In which case, are you only writing for people who don’t game? I suppose that’s another conundrum of coverage in a general interest publication…

TT: If you read an essay by Susan Sontag or Martin Amis about the great books, or by André Bazin about film, they can assume a certain level of knowledge about the text or film from their audience. I can write that way about games on my own time and my own dime, but there’s no presumed canon or general readership for games, because they’re not taught in schools and not regularly discussed in big publications. So you either write for the diehards — the equivalent of film buffs or bookworms — or for novices.

GO: Is that why we haven’t had novels which interact with video games the way David Foster Wallace did with tennis, or Ann Patchett with opera? Neither of their books included explanatory paragraphs; it’s so ingrained in our culture that it seems almost impossible to have grown up without some idea of what tennis or opera are.

TT: Most people have played a game, and the average gamer spends six hours a week playing them. I think it has less to do with the medium inherently than just the failure of writers who have approached the subject. I haven’t read everything on games, but so far, the fledgling efforts have been too literal or kind of corny. Some writers seem to think that you’re supposed to transpose the form of games into fiction — to provide this very lightly remediated experience of reading a book so that it feels like you’re playing a game.

The last thing you want to do is create a watered-down experience of gaming in a text. A book should still work as a book. It’s the usual difficulty of writing about other mediums; there’s that old chestnut that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. But there are special considerations for how to write about any form in a way that conveys deep presence and vividness comparable to the experience itself.

GO: When you’re writing about games in one form or another, do you find you prefer to write for someone who is like you — very interested in both writing and video games — or is your preference for someone in that liminal space somewhere between them?

TT: I approach it as I do with all my creative writing, which is to write for the audience of Tony. That frees to me to write things irrespective of their publishability. Right now I’m working on a long essay about Metal Gear Solid — the whole series. That’s between ten and twenty games, depending on which ones you call canon. The dialogue alone stacks up to something like sixty thousand words each. And the companion synopsis is almost three thousand words. I’m just trying to make points about the series that haven’t been made before. Would Kill Screen or The New York Review of Books ever run that? Hell to the fuck no.

If writers keep doing this, eventually there will be a readership equipped to deal with it. For the longest time there have been really smart people playing video games and wondering where all the good criticism was. It’s a discoverability issue, to a certain extent. There’s so much good writing out there about games, but most games-writing outlets cater to fairly niche perspectives. Action Button is extremely good, irreverent creative criticism, probably my favorite. Five Out of Ten is academically oriented, Kill Screen is mainstream journalism. What I want is long-form literary criticism. But writers should just write what they want to read. The body of work will be there and the audience will follow it. The Field of Dreams approach.

GO: You said earlier (and you’ve also mentioned it in your Playboy interview) that the discourse around games is toxic and partisan. Are you talking about within or outside of the gaming community?

TT: All of it. Partisan lines have been drawn within it for purposes far beyond aesthetic disagreement. In part because so much of this discourse occurs in a medium where people are not held accountable for their words, i.e. on the internet.

GO: How does that compare to conversations within the literary community? You’ve written before, for instance, about the MFA vs. NYC debate .

TT: I want to do my part to de-estrange gaming discourse. Not de-stigmatize or demystify, but de-estrange. This cancerous shit happens everywhere — it just happens in a spectacularly aggressive and organized way in gaming.

GO: When you’re not actually writing about video games, what place do they hold in your life? Are they the stress relief at the end of the day, the reward after two hours of writing? Or something you try to avoid when you’re in the middle of a big project?

TT: I’ve played video games since I was three years old. I have loved video games a lot longer than I’ve loved literature — which is not to say more. Actually… yeah, probably more. It just so happens that I’m a writer. I don’t feel the guilt that some people do who, even if they enjoy gaming, approach it feeling as if it’s a waste of time, or a form of entertainment which takes them away from their “real life.” You wouldn’t condemn a cineaste or a lover of literature. But a fug of non-respectability still attends video games.

That said, the reward mechanisms in most games are designed to get you hooked in cognitive motivational ways that don’t apply to most literature. So it’s absolutely possible for games to displace other things that you would want to do just as much. I don’t struggle to fit them into my life, but I probably would, if my life consisted of much more than just teaching and writing.

GO: I suppose I was thinking more about the effect on your mental state. For instance, I have to save video games for the end of the day, because I have a hard time going from the almost meditative state of game-playing into writing. How does it fit in, not in the sense of time but in how it interacts with your ability to produce writing afterwards?

TT: If a visual narrative enters my head before I start writing, it’s enormously difficult to pull myself back into writing. A huge amount of psychic inertia has to be overcome to transition from consuming a narrative to assembling one. I have a lot of wacko bird theories as to why. Perhaps language is such an information-poor medium that it demands a sparseness of input, so that you can have room to envision or create new stuff in your head. Maybe the act of viewing, which puts you in the posture of evaluation and judgment, beefs up the inner critic that makes it hard to write. That’s all pure superstition, I have nothing to base that on.

GO: What about when it comes to the type of video game? You’ve mentioned playing DotA 2 in other interviews, which is very different from more narrative-heavy single player games. In the middle of a big writing project, do you find yourself drawn more to one type of game over another?

TT: With the caveat that writers are the worst self-appraisers, I’ll say that I have not noticed any influence from the type of games I’m playing on what I write. I think games engage an entirely different part of my brain, which might also account for the difficulty I have toggling between those two modes. That said, I think longer games can work like long books — immersively — where you have to pinch your nose and take a deep breath before plunging into the Neapolitan books and it just becomes the medium you swim in for months. Some games demand a higher or more frequent degree of engagement to get any kind of nuance at all. You can play a thousand hours of DotA 2 , without coming anywhere near understanding it.

GO: How does that compare to the relationship between reading and your own work? Do you avoid other people’s writing when working, or do you keep books on your desk for the sake of referencing them?

TT: I do. I try to keep a messy puddle of books around my work area, in case I want to steal something from somebody else. But I Google as much as I refer to other books. I don’t disconnect from the internet when I’m writing, like some writers who have this almost mystical anathema against technology. I generally find I benefit from my procrastination.

You can have a rom-com game, a campus game, an adultery game, or a boring-but-important game that will get taught in high schools circa 2110.

GO: You referred to language as being information-poor a minute ago, which reminds me of the AGNI essay you wrote on boredom. The thesis of that essay was basically that boredom in literature is okay. Can you also apply that idea to video games? Can there be meaningful or productive boredom while playing, through the act of repetition, for instance? I just played Her Story, which I know you enjoyed, and while it has a super interesting story you have to slog through a certain amount of repetition to get to it.

TT: The democratization of game creation is producing a wider range of games, like the Super 8 camera did with film. You can have vignette-style games like Nina Freeman’s — Cibele , how do you Do It? , Freshman Year , etc. You can have “walking simulators” that are almost purely meditative, like Gone Home , Firewatch , or Dear Esther . I just saw a piece on a game based on Thoreau’s Walden .

The impulses and tendencies that make people want to create literature are present. It will happen more as people are able to do what they want to do, without enormous corporate financial support or even crowdfunding, which, to an extent, just moves the bottom line to having to be crowd-pleasing. Games can be plenty boring in spite of themselves, even if that’s not what they’re trying to do. It’s a cliché by now to point out that the most time investment-heavy games like World of Warcraft consist largely of “grinding.” Or, if you play something like DotA 2 , queuing for a game.

GO: For DotA 2 you also have to spend a lot of time reading up on viable builds. Work that’s not in actually playing the game.

TT: Yes, although I will say that that intellectual work doesn’t feel like tedious labor to me. I have fun looking up builds. The deep strategy and understanding are coextensive with the pleasure of playing the game.

Moments of boredom are built into games for reasons that range from comedy to suspense. I think a lot about the moment in Final Fantasy VI where you’re directed to just wait at the edge of a floating continent for a character to come along. On the one hand you’re sitting watching a clock tick down. On the other hand, it’s extremely tense.

Contrasting aesthetic effects in games to those in other media is not always productive, because it’s like playing Twenty Questions. Can games do X like books? Can games do Y like films? In the same way we should assume games are art, and that there’s an audience out there hungry to make something of them, we should assume that games can do anything. You can have a rom-com game, a campus game, an adultery game, or a boring-but-important game that will get taught in high schools circa 2110.

GO: I go to these academic conferences where a similar conversation is happening among professors who write in the field of gaming studies. Some bring in literary and film theory, and try to lay that on top of video games, while others reject that. The tools and the language are already there from other fields, so it seems easy. On the other hand, it can be kind of reductive, and perhaps prevents you from having the more meaningful conversation.

TT: Right, or even just the conversation you’re trying to have. There are also those efforts to create a language around game studies, partly I think try to legitimatize it in the eyes of the academy. You get people going on about the Ludologists versus the Narratologists, about ludonarrative dissonance, copping these quasi-academic terms. I can see the point of systematizing things, but my favorite criticism helps you not to just describe and understand, but to enjoy stuff more.

GO: How much do you worry about the effect that being an “out” gamer will have on your literary career?

TT: If I were bashful or coy about my love of video games I wouldn’t do this interview. The same goes for pornography or television. Even the language of being “out” implies a political and social pressure or an importance that just doesn’t exist. I’d hate to believe that being a writer means living in a constant state of deposition, publicizing everything you do, think, or feel. The fact that I like video games isn’t interesting. Video games are interesting. I love talking about them with smart people, both within and outside of gaming culture. But I’m also perfectly happy to be left alone with them.

GO: Do you hope there’s a day around the corner where a game developer decides to make a narrative-heavy game like Life is Strange , Her Story , or Kentucky Route Zero , and they look at a list of literary authors to figure out who should write it?

TT: Not at all. I believe that I can do a lot of things in writing, but I haven’t felt an urge to create a video game since the third grade. It’s always good to have some kind of interest that is totally pure, where you’re going to be an eternal fan, because sausage-making can disillusion you fast. If part of the charge of art comes from mystique or sheer baffled admiration, that’s something I want to preserve in at least a few departments of my life.

GO: As a writer, you’re expected to be both a creator and a thoughtful critic as well. It seems like once you publish a book, there is an expectation that you’ll be reviewing or blurbing for other books for the rest of your life. How does your approach to writing about literature differ from your essays on games?

TT: I review books as a practitioner; I know what goes into putting one together, so I can pan one that isn’t well-made. I write about games as an appreciator, in that I want to take something I like and enlarge people’s sense of pleasure or wonder at it. This doesn’t mean that I can’t be critical of a game. I have negative things to say about everything. But because I’m not highly qualified to trivialize or disparage a game on the level of craft — for instance, a sunbeam in a video game might look shitty and aliased because of technological or budgetary constraints that I’m not aware of — my main task is to study its narrative and to add value.

GO: You’ve been thinking about games critically for a long time. I read that you wrote your theses — both in undergrad and for your first master’s degree — on video game interaction. What were you looking at in those?

TT: I majored in something called Symbolic Systems, which would be called cognitive sciences anywhere else. They add linguistics and philosophy to the standard curriculum of formal logic, computer science, and cognitive psychology. I applied the extremely specific language of human-computer interaction studies to video games. So I wrote pretty dry literature surveys of game-writing and interaction theory, and how the latter could be applied to the former.

One was about game controller design, which ended up anticipating the Nintendo Wii controller by a couple of years. I talked about the potential for modular design and gestural input. The second thesis was about menus. They’re the basis of turn-based RPGs, and in games their definitional boundaries are weird. Take the Warp Zone Pipes in Super Mario Brothers . You go over a ceiling and drop into a room where you’re invited to select one of three pipes to go through. It is very clearly a menu, where you’re selecting one of three options, but it’s also a part of the action.

God, I sound so stoned when I talk about this.

GO: I hate to keep mentioning Her Story , but I just started it today. In that game, the user interface also has this blurry boundary. You read a ReadMe file to learn how to use the system, but that’s all part of the in-game computer you interact with as part of the story.

TT: Yeah, it’s brilliant. Any computer interaction can be extrapolated into a game premise. Here it’s basically Database Search: The Game, but it’s fun and well written. To analogize with literature, there are plenty of stories whose premise comes from its formal conceit. My favorite is “ Going for a Beer ” by Robert Coover. He takes a simple sentence gimmick — where two things that happen at different times are written as though they’re simultaneous — and it becomes the conceit of the story. The story is, “what if your life was composed of moments with endings and beginnings but no middles?”

GO: Form matching content. That happens in all types of art, right? There was a piece on Hamilton which pointed out that, as the first half progresses, the Marquis de Lafayette’s rhymes get denser and faster, coinciding with him being in America and increasingly speaking English. The music reflects the plot.

TT: Form generating content, I would say. It’s a classical idea. Sometimes it’s done very explicitly, like with Oulipo. It can be super corny, but it’s a dependable source of inspiration.

It’s Tristram Shandy-levels of batshit.

GO: Going back to your idea for a game-writing website, were you imagining a place that just collected the kind of long-form writing you want to see, or were you also imagining a community that would be built around it?

TT: I am not too concerned with building community. The idea was simply to get critical essays on games — not fiction, poetry, reviews, or personal essays, but literary analysis. Like the essay I’m working on about the Metal Gear Solid series… So many of the male characters lose their hands and are sterile and have daddy issues and misinterpret the will of one female character, The Boss. Aside from the glaring Freudian overtones, what’s that about? This is not stuff that figures into the plot as it plays out, but is something that I think screams out for conversation.

GO: I was a Nintendo kid and then jumped to PC gaming, so I never got into the Metal Gear games.

TT: It’s like the Infinite Jest of games. As far as I know, it’s the longest continuous scripted narrative in games. You can make a strained case for things like Zelda or Metroid , but this is the most sustained vision from an auteurist figure, Hideo Kojima, and it’s just bonkers. It’s Tristram Shandy -levels of batshit.

GO: Well, that sells it. I now have to ask the big, speculative question, since you just called it the Infinite Jest of games. What do you think David Foster Wallace’s writing would have been like, had he been obsessed with video games rather than television?

TT: This question is so enormously counterfactual it might as well be a novel. The guy was hugely tech-avoidant. He typed with one finger on an old computer. But games seem very contiguous with his concerns in Infinite Jest . Though who’s to say Virginia Woolf wouldn’t have also gotten equally invested in games? Wallace is a gimme because of the technological overlap, but to me the more interesting speculative question is, What would a game written by P.G. Wodehouse be like? I want to see an essay on that .

How to Have Fun Destroying Yourself: An Interview with Tony Tulathimutte, Author of Private Citizens

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Benefit of Playing Video Games

This essay will discuss the benefits of playing video games, challenging the common negative perceptions. It will cover cognitive, social, and emotional advantages, such as improved problem-solving skills, enhanced hand-eye coordination, and opportunities for social interaction. The piece will also consider the educational potential of video games and their role in skill development. Moreover, at PapersOwl, there are additional free essay samples connected to Video Game.

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Video games are seen as a useless entertainment to many parents and even some educators believe that they damage a child’s brain. Over the years, violent video games have been blamed for leading people to a life of crime because they believe that games are the cause of kids becoming violent or develop an antisocial behavior. In reality many psychologists and scientists have found that playing video games can actually have benefits towards a person’s brain. Video games can eventually teach kids skills that they will need and use in their lives.

Today everyone has played video games for fun, but some have put it to the test to use video games for research purposes. In a study done in New York, one set of surgeons played video games for 3 hours a week, while the other set played none. The set who played the video games made 37 percent fewer mistakes during laparoscopic (Medical bag). In another study, those who play action video games on a regular basis can process visual information faster and can track 30 percent more objects than non gamers. Action video games are shown to increase one’s contrast sensitivity, or the ability to notice minute changes in color against a uniform background. One group of gamers played action games, like Call of Duty, while the others played The Sims. The Call of Duty group showed a 38 percent increase in aforementioned sensitivity, whereas the Sims group showed none whatsoever. Video games can also slim you down. Wii Fit, for example, has players doing yoga, stretches and other exercise in order to unlock fun and exercise. Dance Dance Revolution requires players to dance by placing their feet on the corresponding arrows. After a while, players work up a sweat due to the required rapid movement. Gaming can also make you smarter. People who play video games display fluid intelligence and problem solving. Managing multiple objectives and multiple resources is one of the goals that helps you become smarter. Learning the rules of the game and what strategy works best for you also helps you.

When playing video games, the coordination and concentration can physically, socially, and mentally benefit the user. Research today shows that certain video games can reduce fat and therefore promote weight loss. Other sources state that doctors have instructed parents to let their children play video games to help control focus. Active video games are also being marketed for adults. New Gaming companies have been turning their gaming systems into exercise machines. The workout levels are increasing stamina causing weight loss and health awareness. The new video machines can drastically change an adults workout routine.

Video games can also improve visual skills and brain function. Action video games train the brain to better process certain visual information. When people play action video games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing. When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it, and we’ve seen the positive effect remains even two years after the training was over. By playing Action video games, vision improves up to 58 percent. Video games that involve high levels of action, such as first-person-shooter games, increase a player’s real-world vision, according to research in today’s Nature Neuroscience. The ability to discern slight differences in shades of gray has long been thought to be an attribute of the human visual system that cannot be improved. But Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, has discovered that very practiced action gamers become 58 percent better at perceiving fine differences in contrast. Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery. However, this will need further testing in people with this condition. As a treatment for poor eyesight generally though, gaming is unlikely to replace conventional approaches in the near future. Bavelier had previously found that game players had better vision when compared with non-game players. She says that these video games, and spending time in front of the computer, may not be harmful to our vision. The researchers suggest that this indicates that playing video games could have potential for improving some conditions such as amblyopia (Rochester.edu). Additionally, evidence has shown that gaming can help with psychological problems and games reduce symptoms of depression more than conventional treatment. Another research team at Oxford University found that playing Tetris shortly after exposure to something very upsetting in the experiment, a film of traumatic scenes of injury and death was used, can actually prevent people from having disturbing thoughts (oxford.edu). Therefore playing games can also help in releasing tension and help a person to have lighter thoughts.

The effects are not always so positive, however. Indiana University researchers carried out brain scans on young men and found evidence that violent games can alter brain function after as little as a week of play, affecting regions in the brain associated with emotional control and causing more aggressive behaviour (Indiana.edu). But Daphne Bavelier, one of the most experienced researchers in the field, says that the violent action games that often worry most parents may actually have the strongest beneficial effect on the brain (Bavelier). Games like Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, Doom and others, have taken the blame for various heinous crimes (Gross). Certain government officials have even gone as far as filing lawsuits against the developing companies in an attempt to outlaw video games in general. Not only that, but they have also been under inspection for supposedly causing a gaming “”addiction””.

Some of the other controversial video games are also the ones with the greatest potential benefits. Fast-paced, FPS like BioShock Infinite, Halo, Half-Life, Borderlands and third-person equivalents like God of War: Ascension, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Force Unleashed have all been accused of being too violent, but the benefits gamers gain from playing them are astounding. Researchers like Daphne Bavelier and C. Shawn Green have been able to demonstrate in multiple laboratory tests that playing these fast-paced games increases a person’s ability to try multiple pieces of visual information and decrease reaction time. They also have worked with another researcher, Alexandre Pouget, and showed that fast-action games also decrease decision making time. Basically, these games have so much going on all the time that for someone not used to following and tracking so much information it can be overwhelming. Gamers have no trouble keeping up with this information overload. The players are able to assess, make decisions and react quickly because they have learned how to do so in order to play and advance. If they are playing by themselves they may have to give orders to their computer allies. If they are playing with other humans then they have to be able to communicate effectively with them while tracking all the other data. This shows how playing video games cna help a person be more confident in telling others what to do and helps their communication skills and interact with others better. The brains of gamers adapt so quickly, that they can keep track of all the information they need to. Bavelier and her team found that a video gamer’s brain physically changes so that the player can process all of this information, and, most importantly, use it. A video gamer is capable of making accurate, informed decisions faster than a non-gamer with the same percentage of right answers. Bavelier and Green demonstrated that this benefit from fast-action video games sticks around for at least six months after a test subject has played only 10 hours over the course of 2 weeks. This means that every person can gain this benefit without actually being a gamer, as long as he or she is willing to put in a few hours a week to train his or her brains. This is really exciting because many of these changes have immediate benefits other senacios such as driving because when driving, the increased awareness, ability to track the many things going on around us and to make correct, fast decisions about likely outcomes of movements is invaluable in the prevention of car accidents. Playing video games has a huge impact on an individual’s brain and as a result has a direct impact on how gamers interact with and navigate our world.

Many gamers are told over and over that they have trouble focusing, but they do so well in focusing when there is so much happening on their screens all the time. Exciting new research, again from Daphne Bavelier and her team, is showing that gamers’ attention and focus is actually better than that of non-gamers. They are capable of resolving visual conflicts faster, which is frequently used in the lab to determine attention and focus capabilities. However, video game detractors point to information released by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) regarding increased Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis rates since 1997 with growth rates as high as 22% between 2003 and 2007. They argue that more and more children are being exposed to video games and more and more educators and parents are complaining that their children are unable to focus on things like classroom instruction the female orgasm and homework (Sucutti). What has been found, though, is that these child gamers’ brains, as well as the brains of their already adult counterparts, are very capable of focusing and they can maintain the same level of performance in what we find in many video games like World of Warcraft, much of the Final Fantasy series, and the previously mentioned first person shooters for hours. However, Gabe Zicherman, a leader in the development and application of “”gamification””, disagrees with such views. He suggests that it is adults that need to catch up and keep up with kids, not slow down kids to their slower pace.

Today’s kids play games in which they’re expected to chat in text and voice, operate a character, follow long and short term objectives, and deal with their parents interrupting them all the time to talk to them. Kids have to have an extraordinary multi-tasking skill to be able to achieve things today. It should then not be a surprise to discover that children who have become excellent learners in high-stimulus virtual environments may have trouble settling down into a sedate classroom with other children who are also conditioned to learning through video games. Tom Chatfield has written multiple articles and a book on how video games are the perfect education and motivation tools. He points out that children are constantly learning in a virtual environment where there are consequences to not accomplishing a task, losing a life, a tool, or not meeting a time requirement. There are also clearly stated rewards to completing the task as well as possible unexpected rewards that are doled out at calculated increments. Video game designers have been fine tweaking the ratio of difficulty, rewards and consequences to being a dumbass so that they know exactly how much to throw at a gamer at what level in each game in order to keep that person engaged and coming back for more. Educators could learn a lot from what these designers already know; children who are engaged and rewarded in an interactive learning process can and do give their entire attention and focus.

The fact that video games are a tool that can be used for education, and therefore do have an impact on the human brain, means we do need to be aware of what the potential negative impacts of those changes could be. What most every person has heard as an argument against video games is that they encourage violence and aggression in the people who play them. Multiple studies have been published on the topic, but when those studies have been reviewed and compared, it was found that they contradicted each other, and in many cases, used flawed methods to reach their conclusion regardless of the results. Christopher J. Ferguson with Texas A&M University used meta-analysis to review 12 studies available to him at the time of his publishing and found that researchers often used flawed methodology, drew conclusions that were not supported by their evidence, or in general could find no link between video games and violence. Holly Bowen and Julia Spaniol of the Dept. of Psychology with Ryerson University found that there is no indication that people who play violent video games have any long-term emotional desensitization to violence in their immediate surroundings. They do acknowledge that there may be a period immediately after playing these violent games that a gamer may be desensitized, but it is not an effect that could be attributed to an increase violence and aggressive behavior in those test subjects. Essentially, the evidence so far is showing that video games have a short-term impact on how people respond to violence and are likely desensitized to violence and possibly even reading for a short period after they play violent video games, but there is little evidence that there is a long-term impact. The heart of the argument against violent video games is based on the idea of a long-term, negative impact on gamers. Research just does not support that position.

Video games have become a part of our culture and a part of our lives in many ways. As a society we need to focus our energy and attention on is how to use them to make our lives better. We’ve already seen research that shows how video games can be used to help with several tasks with real world applications. We can use video games to increase our ability to track multiple objects and thus be able to monitor more of our surroundings while driving. They teach people how to be able to focus and maintain attention in situations where there is a lot of information to absorb in very short period of time. Video games can help us to better analyze what is going on around us and make quick decisions about the best action to take in a variety of situations. New research about the benefits of video games is coming out every year. It is time for us all to step forward and embrace the technology around us that has so many benefits and work together to mitigate the deficits that are present. Our society will not be ruined by this action, but will instead be enhanced further. There is one further thing we need to do. We need to sit down and pick up a controller. We leave ourselves at a disadvantage if we refuse to play out of false concerns regarding violence and aggression. Video games are a form of media that is often believed to be associated with negative health consequences. However, they are a great source of stress relief and improvement and development of mental health for social skills. They are engaging and immersive on a level different from traditional board games and other forms of entertainment. The player actively contributes to the level of satisfaction they attain because of the willingness to engage in the elements of the video game. The amount of play time can also be an important factor to the effects of playing certain games. In other words, excessive screen time can have its negative consequence, but if used correctly, video games possess advantages not present in other learning environments and can be a powerful tool to help children improve and develop life skills. Playing video games has become a normal part of childhood for many children and gaming in its proper manner can be healthy, fun, and educational to all ages.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Video Games

Essays on Video Games

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Video Games

Risk factors of video games addiction, timeline of video games development, how video games can shape our brains and behavior, pros and cons of video games, benefits of video games for children, influence of video games on health, the social impact of video games on children, effect of video games on people's moods, influence of violence in video games, psychological effects of video games on children and young adults, stop blaming video games, benefits and detriments of playing video games, discussion on whether video games are bad or good for us, statement that video games cause violence is a misconception, the panic over video games violence in today's society, negative effects of video games on health, investigation of whether video games cause violence in children, the effects of excessive time playing video games on children, interacting with media: how video games have influenced storytelling.

Video games are interactive electronic entertainment forms that involve player participation through the use of digital interfaces, such as gaming consoles, computers, or mobile devices. They encompass a wide range of virtual experiences that combine elements of storytelling, competition, and problem-solving. Video games often feature dynamic visuals, immersive audio, and engaging gameplay mechanics, allowing players to control and navigate virtual environments, characters, or objects.

The origin of video games can be traced back to the mid-20th century when scientists and engineers began exploring the possibilities of interactive electronic entertainment. One of the earliest examples is "Tennis for Two," created by physicist William Higinbotham in 1958, which simulated a game of tennis on an oscilloscope. However, it was in the 1970s and 1980s that video games gained significant popularity and commercial success. The release of the arcade game "Pong" in 1972 by Atari marked a turning point in the history of video games. It sparked the arcade gaming phenomenon and laid the foundation for the industry's growth. The subsequent release of home consoles like the Atari 2600 and the introduction of personal computers further expanded the accessibility and reach of video games. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed the emergence of iconic video game franchises such as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Rapid advancements in technology led to improved graphics, sound, and gameplay mechanics. The introduction of CDs and CD-ROMs in the 1990s allowed for more complex and immersive gaming experiences. In recent years, video games have become an integral part of mainstream culture and a booming industry, surpassing the film and music industries in terms of revenue.

Shigeru Miyamoto: Known as the "Father of Modern Video Games," Miyamoto is the creator of iconic franchises such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong. Gabe Newell: As the co-founder of Valve Corporation and creator of the Steam platform, Newell has played a significant role in the digital distribution of games. Steam revolutionized the way games are purchased, downloaded, and played, greatly influencing the PC gaming market. Markus Persson (Notch): Persson is the creator of Minecraft, one of the best-selling video games of all time. Minecraft's sandbox-style gameplay and open-ended world have captured the imagination of millions of players worldwide.

Action (Fighting, Platform, Shooter, Survival, Battle royale), Action-adventure (Stealth, Survival horror), Adventure (Interactive fiction, Interactive movie, Visual novel), Gacha, Horror, Masocore, Massively multiplayer online, Role-playing (Action role-playing, Tactical role-playing), Simulation (Construction and management, Life simulation, Sports, Vehicle), Strategy (4X, Auto battler, Multiplayer online battle arena, Real-time strategy, etc.).

Arcade video game, Console game, Electronic game, Online game, Mobile game, PC game, Virtual reality game.

Minecraft, Dark Souls, The Witcher, Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, Super Mario, The Sims, Fortnite, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Pacman, Tetris, Sonic the HedgeHog, Angry Birds, Skyrim, etc.

Public opinion on video games is diverse and multifaceted. While video games enjoy immense popularity and have a dedicated fan base, opinions about them vary among different segments of society. Some people view video games as a form of entertainment that offers immersive experiences, interactive storytelling, and social interaction. They appreciate the creativity, artistry, and technological advancements within the industry. Supporters argue that video games can enhance cognitive skills, problem-solving abilities, and even have therapeutic benefits. On the other hand, there are concerns raised by critics regarding the potential negative effects of video games. Some individuals argue that excessive gaming can lead to addiction, social isolation, and a sedentary lifestyle. Others raise concerns about the violent content in certain games and its potential impact on aggression or desensitization. Public opinion is often influenced by media coverage, personal experiences, and cultural biases. As the medium continues to evolve, ongoing discussions and debates surrounding video games will shape public perception and understanding of their impact on individuals and society as a whole.

1. Cognitive development 2. Entertainment and escapism 3. Social interaction 4. Educational value 5. Technological advancement

1. Addiction and excessive screen time 2. Violence and aggression 3. Health risks 4. Social isolation 5. Distraction and academic performance

1. The video game industry is a multibillion-dollar industry, with revenues surpassing those of the film and music industries combined. In 2021, the global video game market generated over $175 billion in revenue, highlighting the immense popularity and economic impact of video games. 2. According to a study published in the journal Pediatrics, video games can have a positive effect on surgical skills. Surgeons who played video games for at least three hours per week were found to perform laparoscopic surgery faster and with fewer errors compared to non-gaming counterparts. 3. In recent years, the rise of esports (competitive video gaming) has gained significant momentum. Esports tournaments and leagues attract millions of viewers worldwide, and professional esports players have become celebrities with lucrative sponsorships and endorsement deals. The esports industry is projected to reach a value of $3 billion by 2025, further cementing the cultural significance and growth potential of competitive gaming.

The topic of video games is important to write an essay about due to its widespread influence on modern society. Exploring this subject allows for an examination of its impact on various aspects of life, including culture, technology, psychology, and social interactions. Writing an essay about video games provides an opportunity to delve into their historical evolution, from the early days of arcade machines to the immersive and sophisticated gaming experiences of today. It allows for an analysis of the technological advancements that have propelled the industry forward and shaped the way we play and interact with games. Furthermore, studying video games enables an exploration of their cultural significance. Games have become a major form of storytelling, tackling complex themes and issues. They have also sparked discussions about representation, diversity, and ethics within the industry. Understanding the cultural context and impact of video games can shed light on their role as a powerful medium for self-expression and communication. Moreover, video games have been a subject of debate and scrutiny. Addressing topics such as violence, addiction, and their effects on mental health and social behavior can contribute to a nuanced understanding of the potential benefits and drawbacks of gaming.

1. Anderson, C. A., Gentile, D. A., & Buckley, K. E. (2007). Violent video game effects on children and adolescents: Theory, research, and public policy. Oxford University Press. 2. Ferguson, C. J. (2015). Do angry birds make for angry children? A meta-analysis of video game influences on children's and adolescents' aggression, mental health, prosocial behavior, and academic performance. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(5), 646-666. 3. Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 1(1), 20-20. 4. Griffiths, M. D., & Nuyens, F. (2017). An overview of structural characteristics in problematic video game playing. Current Addiction Reports, 4(3), 272-283. 5. Juul, J. (2010). A casual revolution: Reinventing video games and their players. MIT Press. 6. Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education. John Wiley & Sons. 7. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital game-based learning. McGraw-Hill. 8. Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). The motivational pull of video games: A self-determination theory approach. Motivation and Emotion, 30(4), 344-360. 9. Sherry, J. L. (2001). The effects of violent video games on aggression: A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research, 27(3), 409-431. 10. Yee, N. (2006). Motivations for play in online games. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(6), 772-775.

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Essay on Gaming in 900 Words in English for School Students

Introduction to Gaming

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Career in Gaming: eSports

Top 10 Online Games

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107 Video Game Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Positive Effects of Video Gaming

Introduction

Video Games Essay | Essay on Video Games for Students and Children in English

Long and Short Essays on Video Games for Students and Kids in English

Long Essay on Video Games 500 Words in English

Short Essay on Video Games 150 Words in English

10 Lines on Video Games in English

FAQ’s on Video Games Essay

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How to Write an Essay about Video Games: Presenting Effective Arguments in Papers

It would be best to do thorough research before writing an essay about video games

You should develop an introduction that captures your reader’s interest

You must present your arguments in the body paragraphs

You may offer vivid illustrations as you write an argumentative essay about video games

You should write a conclusion for your essay

Identifying the sources you employed would be best

Proofreading is vital for developing a top-notch paper

Extra tips for presenting better arguments in essays about video games

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Persuasive Essay: Video Games