Beyond the Call of Duty

Video games are the marmite of technology. Those that love them can’t get enough and those who hate them can’t get the ones they love, off them.

Gaming has evolved. Gone are simpler days of Ping Pong and Pacman when small dots evoked yelps of ectasy and gasps of anguish at the arcade. Now games aren’t so much about achieving a super-duper astronomical, record score, but they have been developed to have a totally submersive effect. These modern console games allow the gamer to fall deep into a virtual world and suspend all of their concrete beliefs such as 'humans cannot fly' and 'humans cannot be respawned'.

But what happens when instead of providing fantasy worlds or alternative planets – such as in Zelda, Mario, World of Warcraft etc – developers such as Treyarch, begin manipulating realistic scenarios; things that could actually happen? The answer; Call Of Duty (or COD). The seventh and latest game from the hit franchise, COD Black Ops, is a first-person shooter during the conflict of the Cold War. Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game sold more than 7 million copies, 5.6 million in the U.S. and 1.4 million in the U.K., breaking the record set by its predecessor Modern Warfare 2.

Now, depending on the reader of this blog, I won’t bore you/titillate you with the game's synopsis or pontificate on details of the various firearms that a gamer carries (apparently two different firearms can be held at one time.) My questions for discussion are:

a) Is COD detrimental to social interaction?

b) Is COD melting brain cells and breeding sociopaths?

Let’s look at the benefits that game playing provides.

COD, when played online, is as much about social interaction with other real-life humans as it is blowing up the Russians. When I observe my boyfriend playing COD, I see genuine expressions of sheer joy as well as hilarity. Players do actually laugh an enormous amount whilst hurling grenades and flying apaches. It’s a blast (pun-intended) apparently. There’s also team-work, cohesion with total strangers, organization, and tremendous concentration involved. And although the plot is fictional, at least it’s built around concrete historical facts.

However, when the game drops off the internet and players return to their solitary and silent virtual world (otherwise known as single-player mode), the whole exercise becomes more difficult for friends, partners and family members to comprehend. Social interaction is cut off, laughing becomes a distant memory and the glazed/comatose expression (occasionally interrupted by a jerking of the mouth or a twitch of the brow) replaces the once joyful and animated one. This is where the benefits of computer games are harder to detect. This is when gaming becomes addictive.

Addiction to gaming can be as detrimental to mental and social well-being as one to drugs or alcohol. Although the effects are not physically severe, they are lasting and difficult to counteract. Popular documentary series Panorama, focused on gaming addicts for one of its programmes at the end of 2010. They were speaking to gamers who had dropped out of school or university just to sit around on their arses for 21 hours a day, while the games console replaced reality with an unhealthy dose of escapism.

Escapism – in proportionate doses – is not dangerous and is in fact a healthy exercise that can be as important as cardio vascular. But it’s when the escape turns into a permanent exile from reality that gamers drop of the reservation, so to speak. And it’s not just when the game is switched on that there is a problem. For most gamers the brain still processes battle scenarios long after the console is switched off. For hours, gamers can replay exploding heads, twitching bodies on the edge of death, or transport themselves into the boots of a foot soldier looking through the sight on a sniper’s gun. Prolonged exposure to games affects sleep patterns and concentration on even the simplest task. The brain becomes preoccupied and distracted and as a result habits and mannerisms begin to change. Some gamers can even adopt anti-social behaviour.

Cuba has condemned the release of COD Black Ops (not a surprise there). The Cubadebate website said the game "encourages sociopathic attitudes of American children and adolescents, the main consumers of these virtual games". Evidence which suggests that COD Black Ops encourages the entire gaming population to commit acts of violence, is unfounded. Computer games with violent content are as dangerous to mentally stable individuals as criminal dramas, epic war films or even news bulletins. But, put a person with a personality disorder or a penchant for petty crime in front of a shoot-em-up for 21 hours a day and one morning they might wake up and want to pick up a real gun.

However, thankfully the majority of gamers are just tech mad. COD provides a scenario where (excuse the cheesy sentiment) every player can become a hero. It is escapism at its best. Gamers are part of a team that can never reject them or prevent them for joining in because of the way they dress, the language they speak or their gender. Perhaps online gaming even promotes global social cohesion and acceptance...maybe I went too far.

What I do know is that in order for games to have positive effects, the balance between game playing and engaging in activities outside of the Xbox, PS3, Wii etc, is essential. Playing on COD for more than a couple of hours a day is heading into dangerous territory. Not just for the social and mental wellbeing of the gamer, but also for his/her partner, who, if they're anything like me, need a break from repetitive phrases such as ‘We’ve got the bomb’ or ‘capture the [friggin’] flag’ or whatever it is! It’s a case of SOS for girlfriends/boyfriends worldwide; save our sanity (for just a few hours a day)...please?

Over and out.

For more info surf here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/panorama/2010/12/computer_games_-_a_hard_habit.html

Or here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Black_Ops