Ethics is the field of moral philosophy involving systematic defending as well as recommendations of behavior either as wrong or right(Gunter,234). Currently, philosophers have classified ethics into several categories such as metaethics which is concern with investigating the origin of ethical principles and normative ethics which helps to regulate what is wrong or right within a given society and therefore helps to regulate what is generally accepted in the whole society (Vorderer, 280).
Game design is a process of creating the the total content and rules of the game played through a medium and entails both the game and its documentations; the process needs artistic and technical competence within human ethics (Gunter, 237).
The video games have increasingly replaced the movies that have been enjoyed for several generations. This is because first, video game gives the audience the responsibility to participate in the game by manipulating the characters thus crating his own storyline very time he is playing the a game hence making it more enjoyable and one pays more attentive on playing(Vorderer,286) .
Secondly, the outcome of the video game is unpredictable as compared to movie in which the audience can predict the point at which the story would end thus making the video games more interesting to the audience as who keeps gazing the continuously changing plots of the game, the programmers give the audience a few hours of to relax as the players find themselves becoming part of the story(Vorderer,290).
However, the game designers must maintain high level of social responsibility on designing these games due to their adverse negative effects on the recipients especially children and teenagers. The negative impacts include; excessive inclusion of violent activities in the games such as gun shootings and gender violence evoke anger making players especially children to become aggressive in real life and get motivated to apply the activities in real life (Vorderer, 296).
The child develops a feeling that shooting is a normal and does not feel guilty of having killed another. Playing violent games may also result to proactive aggression which is a deliberate behavior controlled by external forces to achieve certain objective such as robbery with violence(Gunter,260).The child may adopt such behavior as a result of learning from the violent plays that he may tend to copy.
Secondly, violent video games encourage egocentric culture to the children who tend to ignore the sense of brotherhood and treat themselves as competitive identities with limited or no relationship from other people who might be their close relations (Vorderer, 312) .They consider themselves better placed and more experienced to carry out any activity regardless to the consequences that inhuman in nature such as killing. In addition, young players may develop a tendency of sitting to play the game for along period without sharing with other members of the family the gadgets for playing the games. The egocentrism nature therefore requires the intervention of parents to create a soul centric lifestyle in which family members are frequently encouraged to adopt life of love and free to assist one another (Gunter, 256).
In addition, violent video games leads to physiological arousal which is a kind of psychological excitation one feels when he is afraid or must defend himself and therefore feels either to run away or must fight back (Gunter,259). It is a “fight back fight back situation” as the violent video games make children feel insecure making it easier for them to cause great harm and danger whenever they are faced with challenges in which they feel their life is in danger (Gunter, 306).
Similarly, video games negatively affect the physical health of the children since they have to sit down for longer time playing the game hence likely to developed complications such as carpal tunnel syndrome which is a muscular disease and skeletal disorder in kids (Vorderer, 235).
The designers should therefore create games that are less captivating to keep the attention of the children for less hours while playing so as to enable them maintain their health. Parental control is also necessary in controlling the activities of children while playing the games to avoid the harm to their children.
The games designers should create more educative video games at the expense of the violent ones since over playing of violent games reduce children’s academic performance in school (Gunter, 327). The violent games conflicts what the child learns in school and therefore makes it difficult for him to apply what is taught by the teacher.
The game designers should emphasize on games that educate children on healthy skills such as self-care and imparting positive attitude towards life for example playing a video on surgery makes children develop positive attitude and future aspirations in life as compared to shooting movie (Vorderer, 346).
In conclusion, several researchers questioned the impact of video games to lives of children and noted the grave effects in the lives of young children. Playing a violent game for several hours per day could results to poor performance in school as well as increase aggressive behavior that might further lead to engagement into antisocial activities such as murder (Vorderer, 350).
Game designers should therefore consider the social and long term implications of the games before they are released to the market for the children and teenagers who might develop confusion in life. Parents on the other hand should recognize the great effect violent movies are likely to cause in the lives of their children and guide them anytime they get into play (Gunter, 360).
Works Cited
Gunter, Barrie .The effects of video games on children: the myth unmasked. New Jersey: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1998.Print.
Vorderer, Peter .Playing video games: motives, responses, and consequences. New York: Norton and company, 2006.Print.