Are digital Games impacting human lives?

Varunan : Associate Professor
Center for Animation, Game Art Design & Business

Games, have been in human history, for more than thousands of years. Recorded evidence says that, since the early time of human civilisation, games have been a part of human life and there are games based on culture, geographical locations and ethnicity. Early 19th century, when world was through a lot of revolutions, which transformed many culture due to the influence of Western culture, India took its own turn and encouraged Western games into India and marked it's own stand in gaming world. India has been performing well and ranks as best in cricket, kabadi, boxing, badminton, archery, shooting and many more. 

The digital revolution has changed the way humans live. Every sector and industry has gone through phenomenal change and lot of technologies and gadgets were introduced which were more addictive and engaging. Slowly and steadily the younger generation of the world started embracing the digital games higher than physical games.Children of today spend their maximum time playing games on mobile phones or computers or consoles and even at gaming parlours and lounges, but they seldom give importance for games in outdoor environment. This has resulted in complete shift of habits of children and there has been some serious discussion on how these types of digital games have impacted children growth and cognitive development.

There is also some serious concerns on children start earning money by playing games. There are online engines and portals like ‘steam’ where participants can invest money to play games and earn money by winning games. With such trend it raises serious issues on the impact of education system and society. In future, there could be high chances of situations where young adults would prefer earning through playing games and would may be opt not go for formal education.

Digital gaming not only has its attraction towards teenagers or young adults, as per the survey digital gaming and casual gaming has been a highly used by people of every age category. Android phones have taken casual gaming to all target audiences. There is a lot of impact of gaming among people. Gamings have at times also changed the behaviour of how people live.

In Hyderabad, where the city thralls with people from multiple culture and ethnicity, gaming has a huge influence along with technical advancement.Many youngsters and teens have been showing so much interest in playing different sort of games. There are many gaming clans in the city where each boasts of their own capacity and pride. Gaming clans are created among teenagers and they compete within themselves in online gaming like DOTA, counter strike and many more. These games have become a culture of youngsters of Hyderabad. There are often at times online gaming tournaments being conducted through cross cities and states like GAME JAM TITANS, BYOG and DARE to be DIGITAL, where many a times Hyderabad as marked success in online gaming.

These gaming mania or addictiveness also extends to the extent of serious injury. There has been cases recorded where teenagers, after being so engrossed over wrestling mania, have started their own clan of street fighting, which has eventually led to a sad demise of a Hyderabad citizen. The society blamed that games led to such sad situations and it has to be banned or discouraged from children. There were also situations in the west where youngsters and teens that were addicted to shooting games went on a killing spree, which resulted in many casualties.There has been many research papers which have been published by authors, claiming that games have become a serious concern for younger generation and the companies who are developing these games have to . 

To conclude, it is important for all the stakeholders, to give careful consideration on the content which is being produced in digital games. With the current advancement of the technology, the chances of ruling out, digital games is near to impossible, but there is always a high chance that the type of content which is being created can be well designed. Digital game making companies, will have to avoid gore games which create a impact on children. Every country should have a censorship board, which filters the type of game which can be played. With all stakeholders, taking responsibility, then the quality of game and its experience can improve, which will inturn make the children lives better, by less impact. 

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Associate Professor – Varunan, being a seasoned academician and entrepreneur with more than a decade of experience in teaching and heading institution like ICAT Design & Media College, has his expertise and research interest in the fields of Animation, Game Design & Development, Virtual reality and Augmented Reality. Varunan did his masters in Management and has a teaching certification from Birmingham City University (UK).