In the era of smartphones, people often contemplate the risks and benefits of excessive access to electronics. A lot of research has been dedicated to gathering data on the detrimental impacts of video games, which are said to lead to violent or addictive behaviors. However, I believe that gaming has been beneficial to me in many ways.
Professionals have stated that TV shows, movies, and books can be helpful in modeling interactions to people who struggle with social skills. The same could be said about gaming, which has the bonus of adding a more interactive setting. Sometimes you have the chance to rehearse these interactions within the game. While playing video games, I have interacted with hundreds of characters. Although these interactions are not always direct representations of socialization in real life, they provide an approximate framework that can be applied in daily life.
There are games that essentially center around your relationships with others. For example, The Sims is a game first developed in 2000 that centers around the development and maintenance of a complex community. In the game, you are also responsible for maintaining characters’ day-to-day needs, such as food and sleep, as well as developing functional interactions with your household and neighbors. You make ongoing choices regarding who you interact with and how to carry out those interactions. You receive game bonuses for making more friends. Games that model complex interactions can be very useful for people who have limited opportunities to experience community relations like these in real life. There are consequences if you do not meet all your characters’ daily needs; if the house gets messy or people get sick or start falling asleep in random places throughout the day. This is a fantastic representation of the things a person must do to maintain their own wellbeing, thereby teaching important management skills that go into daily living. Of course, you have a limited amount of money to spend, and if you fail to show up for work too many times, you are fired and then you don’t get paid anymore.
(Image copied from SimsVIP.com)
Most of these games reinforce the appropriate allocation of monetary exchange and tangible resources. You typically have a limited amount of money to spend on in-game items that make your gaming experience better. More useful items are typically administered in limited quantities, so it is in the player’s best interest to use them only when most necessary. This provides the player with exercises in effectively managing their own resources. Ideally, this translates to a better-informed allocation of money in real life. It’s helpful to discover the consequences of impulsivity and the payoffs of self-control within the context of fun and the spirit of play.
There are many games that do not center around the fundamentals of daily living but still emphasize that the choices you make have a significant impact on what happens to you in the game. For example, in The Witcher 3, you are required to choose to pursue a romantic relationship with one of two partners. If you try to choose both, they find out and you end up with neither and spend your life alone. If you choose only one, then you spend the rest of your game life with that character. This portrays how making careful moral decisions in your social life often results in better outcomes in the long run. People who struggle with empathy and social morality can learn from seeing direct examples of these traits played out virtually among characters that interest them.
(Image copied from MobyGames.com)
The best part of gaming is that it offers numerous social opportunities in real life. In elementary school, my intense interest in Pokémon lead to me befriending peers who also played Pokémon. As an adult, I have met others, thanks to playing Pokémon Go, a mobile app that provides high levels of payout through playing with other people. This includes raid battles where a group of people meet up to battle and catch a specific powerful Pokémon. Additionally, some quests involve the need for you to meet group requirements in order to complete the quest and move forward.
The Pokémon franchise also places great emphasis on the importance of friendship and bonds. While the primary surface objective is to catch all the Pokémon and become the league champion, you spend much of your time forming bonds with other players. The dialog often calls for complex social interactions, and the player is provided with choices on how to respond. This may or may not be a coincidence, but the creator of Pokémon is on the autism spectrum.
Video games typically offer a high level of support regarding your own value. As a character, you are generally praised frequently, in glowing terms such as ‘hero,’ ‘brave,’ and ‘strong.’ As an outcast at school, I was accustomed to hearing a lot of insults. I was called all sorts of derogatory names. But I found the positive interactions offered to me within the gaming world to be a very helpful form of modeling, it let me know that when I was bullied, it wasn’t how I should be treated; it wasn’t how interactions were supposed to go.
ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) often uses both pretend play and interactive play skills. Pretend play encompasses an individual’s ability to apply and respond to fictional components during their interactions with others. For example, two children may hold up two Barbie dolls and pretend that they are talking. Games can provide children with imaginary constructs to develop these skills. Exposing children to fantasies such as fairytales helps to boost their imaginations. Broadening children’s interests to include gaming often leads to enjoyable opportunities to interact with other children.
This isn’t to say that concerns centered around excess gaming are not valid. It is important to lead a balanced lifestyle involving real world social interactions and activities. For online gaming, it is wise to target safety, particularly through teaching kids as well as adults about the possibilities of bullies and predators. However, it’s also good to remember the many positive aspects of video games and the ways they can be used to facilitate relationship development and teach functional skills.
