Final Image

I used lots of different tools when using Photoshop to enhance my final piece. I used my own images as opposed to images off the internet, one of which was of my brothers face which I then copied onto a war game scene then smoothed out his face using the healing tool and posterized then pixelated it to give it a 'game like' look. My intention was to create a 'create your character' scene from a game using a real life child AKA my brother to show how 'stuck in the game' children can be, in order to do this I needed a 'table' or 'grid' at the side of his 'now game face' to show the 'create options', I drew this table out using the 'rectangle drawing tool' and 'text tool' as well as changing the opacity to allow some of the war scene to shine through the 'create your own character'. To say I'm not used to using Photoshop I think I did a really good job in achieving the game like scene I did.

Negative effects of video games on children

I found a list of the top 10 negative effects that video games have upon children. I found the seriousness of these effects very interesting to say they come from children playing video games which is supposed to be a fun, friendly activity, or so I had thought!

Top 10 negative effects of video games on children

Many parents worry, no doubt, about the effect video games have on their children. We list the ten most common problems recently investigated by researchers from 2006-present.

1. An increase in emotional disorder symptoms
2. An increase in and behavioral disorder symptoms
3. Declines in verbal memory performance
4. Somatic complaints
5. Attention problems such as hyperactivity, ADD or ADHD
6. Detrimental school performance (as video game usage increases, GPA and SAT scores decrease)
7. Family interaction problems such as less positive parental relations
8. Significant reduced amounts of slow-wave (REM) sleep
9. Modifications in visual selective attention
10. Playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior

SOURCES:

Pediatrics 2008 Nov;122(5):e1067-72
European Psychiatry 2008 Apr;23(3):212-8
Journal of Psychiatry Research 2008 Mar;42(4):253-8
Pediatrics 2007 Nov;120(5):978-85
Cyberpsychology & Behavior 2007 Aug;10(4):552-9
Psychological Science 2007 Jan;18(1):88-94
Pediatrics 2006 Oct;118(4):e1061-70

CONSIDERATIONS:

Males are more attracted to, and more likely to become “hooked” on video games than females which has been found to generalize across very different cultures. So being male significantly predicts computer gaming.  It’s also possible that aggression and narcissistic personality traits can predict game addiction, whereas self-control is negatively correlated with game addiction.

This list has given me a push forward to produce the final piece I had in mind. I want to show these effects within my piece as well as how chhildren get 'stuck in the game' and allow it to become a big part of their lives.

Alter Ego - My brother

I looked at some of the characters my brother has created or modified that he uses 'to be' on the Xbox. I noticed all of his characters look completely different from him apart from the one he uses on Fifa where he has uploaded an image of his own face onto the player. The other characters act as a 'second life' to him where as the Fifa player is more like what he strides to be like.

Alter Ego

''Our City of Heroes moments are moments of release that allow us to escape long enough to complete a few missions.''

''I just wanted to win respect from people in the game, to be somebody in the EverQuest world. But it cost me. Everything else in my life started to suffer – my social life, my schoolwork, even my health.''

''The difference between me and my online character is pretty obvious. I have a lot of physical disabilities in real life, but in Star Wars Galaxies I can ride an Imperial speeder bike, fight monsters, or just hang out with friends at a bar. I have some use of my hands – not much, but a little. In the game I use an on-screen keyboard called ‘soft-type’ to talk with other players. I can’t press the keys on a regular keyboard so I use a virtual one. I play online games because I get to interact with people. The computer screen is my window to the world. Online it doesn’t matter what you look like. Virtual worlds bring people together – everyone is on common ground. In the real world, people can be uncomfortable around me before they get to know me and realize that, apart from my outer appearance, I’m just like them. Online you get to know the person behind the keyboard before you know the physical person. The internet eliminates how you look in real life, so you get to know a person by their mind and personality. In 2002 at the UO Fan Faire in Austin, I noticed that people were intrigued by me, but they acted just like I was one of them. They treated me as an equal, like I wasn’t even the way that I am – not disabled, not in a wheelchair, you know. We were all just gamers.''

''I designed Thalia to look the way that I aspire to be when I’m older. I know the kind of person that I want to be, because I see some women like that, in real life or in films – like the character Aunt Meg in the movie Twister. I perceive them as friendly, graceful, comfortable with themselves, and very open and friendly and welcoming to everyone else around them. That’s how I want to be, and in some ways, by creating my Hero’s Journey character to look like my own future goal, it gives me something to visualize and work towards.''

''It’s like having an avatar as a boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s more like your partner. I definitely don’t get confused between my real self and my virtual self. When I’m acting I have to concentrate on my role. In the game I just try to be myself. If anything, my avatar has to concentrate on being me.''

''People buy more from my little girl dwarf compared to the old male dwarf I used to have, even though they sell the same things. Because I’m very polite, people think I really am a little girl.''

''I discovered virtual worlds a bit more than a year ago and it was a real shock. A positive one! I am a fan of all Marvel comics and also epic fantasy books. I have dreamed so much thanks to them and when I started to play online, it was as if all the stories I had read were coming to life! Megatox is me and I am Megatox, one does not go without the other. When I switch on City of Villains I am there with my own personality, the real and the virtual blending together. I simply step into a void bringing me to that Otherland. I spent a lot of time designing my costume because I really wanted it to be exactly how I wanted. I love this machine design I made, and the yellow and black colours are a mix I like a lot. The face is not like mine but I wouldn’t mind it in the real world. Megatox is all that I would like to be – strong, famous, respected, feared by some, daring, the talk of the town. This is why we complement each other. Together we make one complete person.''

People have different reasons for having an 'alter ego', There is nothing wrong with this, it's just when people get obsessed with their online life and forget aspects of their real lives when things start to go wrong, health and social problems occur. The image and quote that made me realise 'alter ego's' can be good for people was the one with the highly disabled boy and his perfectly functioning avatar. He said his online life allowed people to get to know him before judging him because of what he looks like in real life. This boy's second life helps his real life.

Alter Ego article

Alter Ego: Online Gamers Revealed

There are now an estimated 10 million online gamers across the globe. Each one has an online identity, a personally created character representing them in their virtual world.
Robbie Cooper’s Alter Ego project represents a wide spectrum of the online gaming community, from casual players to obsessive gamers, from creators of worlds to virtual entrepreneurs.

Most of us spend a huge amount of time in front of screens, at work and play. Research studies indicate that in the US, the average school age child spends around 4 hours a day in front of TV, computer and video game screens. The average work age adult probably spends far longer. We access a whole spectrum of software, entertainment programming and information through these screens. The interaction with programming, software and with others, through this space, is becoming an increasingly significant part of life.

Outside of our life in front of the screen, we are also immersed in a structure of abstraction in our daily lives. Simulation, as Jean Baudrillard writes in the classic essay ‘Simulacra and Simulations’, is an internal state as well as an external hyperreality. Our experience in a hyperreal world (held in the grip of simulacra and where much of experience is mediated) is one in which media and medium are not simply located in their own spaces, but dispersed around us, in all forms of experience.

It seems to me that this creates a fixation with the imaginary and visual aspects of our collective psyche, and experience which is itself reduced down to the elements that we like. In the sphere of work this is mostly about information. Outside of it, it’s mostly about sensation. My aim with these projects is to assemble video’s, texts and images that record our relationship with this world. In this environment, the ways in which we relate to mediated experience become, for me, an interesting portrayal of life in our 21^st Century culture.

Robbie Cooper.

'Stuck in the game' - My take on Robbie Coopers images

I took some photos of my brother pulling faces which would be made when playing an online game. I wanted a black background and limited lighting to focus on the face so this is the only thing the viewer can see, ensuring full attention on the expression.

'Stuck in the game' - Robbie Cooper

I came across the photographer Robbie Cooper who created a series of work called 'Immersion', showing the expressions on childrens faces whilst playing 'video games'. I was interested to see that most of the expressions show a 'trance like' state. These children look enthrawled in what they're playing, almost as though they are 'lost in the game'. Their minds are 'stuck in the game'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jXpvGBP0U0