Video Games

Conversely, a person who is playing a complex contemporary video game must first determine the purpose and rules of the game (which typically aren't provided), and then continually make decisions that can actually alter the course of the game—but always with the basic presumed goal of the game in mind. The content of a video game is thus secondary to the thought processes involved in planning and executing game movements, and in predicting the movements of the video game and one's opponent. The same things would be true of a chess or tennis match, or even of fishing.

Most games (including video games) aren't really pleasurable when complex challenges loom—third and long in football, the loss of a queen in chess. But such situations get the juices flowing in players who seek challenge within the game. Players must quickly and successfully draw on related previous strategies, or make creative risky decisions in order to stay in the game, and this enhances their problem solving abilities within that setting. A recent column described the cognitive systems that process such familiar and novel challenges.

A game must thus have a strong emotional attraction that will maintain the effort the game requires. Last month's column suggested that competition, violence, and sexuality are innately arousing emotionally, and so it's not surprising that they're explicit (or at least implicit) in many games and media narratives. Indeed, even revered childhood fairy tales contain violent and sexual themes. Hansel and Gretel worried about getting baked in an oven, and a princess kissed a frog in The Frog Prince. How kinky can a children's fairy tale get?

Johnson argues that the challenge and complexity of the most popular newer video games are such that they don't need a heavy dose of violence and sexuality to initiate and maintain interest. For example, the immensely popular SimCity challenges the player to design a complex metropolis, and the continually popular Tetris forces the player to quickly make decisions about the placement of geometric shapes.

Video games (and other games, such as hockey and football) that require aggressive responses to dangerous situations will obviously strengthen the neural circuitry that processes similar decisions. It's problematic, though, whether this increased capability makes the player more aggressive generally in the real world. Current commentary on this issue is based more on opinion than solid research. It's very difficult to do credible cause and effect research on this issue.

I suspect that many folks who decry the violence and sexuality that they believe is endemic in video games watch TV shows and sports that contain violent and sexual content—oblivious to the inconsistency between their beliefs and behavior.