Raymond

Garrett Raymond
Debra Dagher
UWRT #1102-092
13 April 2015
Inquiry Draft
My true love for video games started when I was just a young kid when my
parents gave me my first gaming system, the Nintendo 64, when I was around 5 or 6
years old. The first game I plugged in was Super Smash Bros and after that I was
instantly hooked to the whole idea of gaming. I started playing games with my friends
getting them hooked as well in till all my friends could not resist gaming. Playing video
games was something I loved as a young kid and I made many friends because of it. All
you would have to say is you got the new game and everyone would be interested in you.
You could also make great connections through people from video games because its
something you both experience in your life. As I got older I continued to pursue my
hobby and kept buying new games and consoles. At some points in life I felt it was a big
distraction but in reality their nothing like playing a good video game to me. It gives me a
great sense of calm, enjoyment, excitement, and accomplishment when I play a really
good video game. This amazing experience is what lead me to want to discover more
about this interesting topic and dig deeper in research about it then I ever imagined.
At the beginning of the new semester I was given an inquiry project in my writing
class. At first I was very aggravated and flustered because I didnt want to do such a huge
project but after a week or two I finally got into it. I just had to look at it as something I
would enjoy doing on my own and not like boring schoolwork. At first it was very hard to

Raymond
put together because there were so many components to the project and it was easy to get
lost. The main point of the project was finding something meaningful in your life and do
an inquiry project on it; this was a tricky part for me. At first I didnt know what to do
and I tried different topics all turning out bad. Then I remember my love video games and
I instantly became excited. I knew at that moment that I wanted to do my inquiry project
on something about video games but the question was what about them. After a lot of
thinking and research I finally struck gold and knew what I wanted to do for my inquiry
project. I decided on video games and what were the long-term effects of it on children,
teenagers, and young adults in todays society.
Video games are very prominent in young people lives in this modern age and I
believe its important to know what happens to you when you play them. First things first
are that video games like anything else have to be well time managed. If you play too
much or thats all you do it can definitely have negative affects on you. The total amount
of game time appears to be related to school performance, risk of obesity, and other
physical health outcomes(Multiple Dimensions) which all have no benefit. Poor
management of time can also lead to increase ingression in games in may cause young
kids to lose their temper or become frustrated quicker. Dont think there are only
negatives because of this first part because video games also can also lead to better
cooperation and collaboration skills. Many games encourage teamwork and are designed
to make you use cooperation skills to beat certain levels. Another benefit to video games
would be a increase in problem solving skills. Many games now a day use confusing
puzzles and riddles to block you in advancing and its up to the player to solve them so
that he/she advances. Repetition is the key and you do so much in it in video games that

Raymond
you improve in some specific skills that you would never expect or notice. The biggest
problem I noticed about video games in my experience would be the laziness that comes
from them. You can get addicted to a video game so easily in till eventually thats all you
want to do. Its all will power at that point and you have to force yourself to manage your
time wisely, maybe only play about an hour or two. Overall video games can beneficial
as long as you understand how not play them to long but other than that you can make
great friends from playing them, connect better with people, increase your hand eye
coordination, think faster on the spot, and finally increase motor skills.
If you dont remember my research question was what are video games and what
were the long-term effects of it on children, teenagers, and young adults in todays
society. Through a lot of research and exploration I believe I was able to find that answer.
At first I wasnt sure how I was going to approach it. I was wondering if I should do what
I always do for paper, look up first site on Google, or actually take my time and find
credible sources. So I decided to actually research and not bullshit my way through this
project because it only helps me. It really helped that we did most of it through class and
it that made it a lot easier not to get lost in my assignment. After I found credible sources
I summarized them in my own words so that I would be tempted in plagiarism and then
translated it to my project. After tons of hours in research and exploring new ideas I
finally came to my conclusion. The long-term effects of video games determine on what
you play and how much of it. If you play to much your never going to accomplish
anything because all your time is invested into video games. If you play only a couple
hours then youll have more time to put in your studies, work, and other learning
activities. Game content is important as well. If you play violent shoot them up games

Raymond
then you more likely to have increase ingression and lower empathy for other people. But
if you play action adventures were you are exploring and solving puzzles you gain more
benefits. Overall its very confusing but its important to know that what you play and
how long you do is what determines your outcome for the future.

Raymond
Work Cited
Southwell, Brian, and Kenneth Doyle. "The Good, the Bad, or the
Ugly?" American Behavioral Scientist. 48.4 (2004): 391-401. Print.

Green, C S, Renjie Li, and Daphne Bavelier. "Perceptual Learning During Action
Video Game Playing." Topics in Cognitive Science. 2.2 (2010): 202-216. Print.

Jordan, Nickolas A. "Video Games: Support for the Evolving Family

Therapist." Journal of Family Therapy. 36.4 (2014): 359-370. Print.

Ferguson, Christopher. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: a Meta-Analytic
Review of Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games." Psychiatric
Quarterly. 78.4 (2007): 309-316. Print

Gentile, Douglas A. "The Multiple Dimensions of Video Game Effects." Child

Development Perspectives. 5.2 (2011). Print.