Influences, Benefits, and Effects of Gaming Technology

Aaron Davis

University of Maryland University College

Ethics in information tech 304 6384

The video game industry has always been on the forefront of emerging technology. When games first moved from the arcade to the living room with Atari it be considered to be a great technological advancement and it has only gotten better from there. In addition to technological advancement of the consoles with the addition of the ps4 and Xbox 1 the peripheral entertainment systems in the living room have also advance with the LED, OLED, 4K,UHD TVs, 3D sound bars, surround sound and 4k surround sound technologies assisting console to submerge the user into a more realistic gaming experience. What happens when gamers are consistently submerging themselves in games like Grand theft auto, which enables players engage in a lot of vices including but not limited to smoking weed, soliciting prostitutes, killing people, and robing convent stores. Some people believe that companies like “Rockstar games” shouldn’t be able to profit by making a video game like grand theft auto, they tend to compared them to people who profit from selling drugs or pornography, other believe that because the game is incorporating real world issues i.e. violence, drugs, prostitution, and murder why should they be shunned for making a video game about it. I believe that this is a valid argument on both parts, for example journalist and documentarians are meant to give people an in depth unbiased look into what is actually happening with a particular issue in the world, they tend to go places and get stories that others either do not know about or just wouldn’t go. An example of a documentary series that could be criticised similar to GRA would be a series such as VICE that appears on HBO. “Simply put, there is no doubt that game playing affect the EXTERNAL behaviour of the game player and that it has both LIMITED and EXTENDED consequences. Even those who defend so-called ‘violent e-games’ claim for the...