“Imagining the Blogosphere” Assignment

Timothy Galvin

Bonnie Robinson

ENGL 1117

11 February 2020

Video Games: Showing Their Side of the Story, or Crossing the Line?

We’ve all heard the age-old story. Video games incite violence; video games are not healthy to young adults; video games cause anti-socialism. The list goes on and on. There are good video games out there. However, some do cross the line and enforce their views on others.

According to an article posted to the website Atlanta Blackstar by Ricky Riley, there are a multitude of video games that portray offensive stereotypes. One of the examples Riley gives is Grand Theft Auto, which we all have seen. This stereotype is that African Americans are more criminally inclined than white people. According to Riley, “For example, Grand Theft Auto has many gangsters, thugs, and hookers. White video gamers may see that white characters are doing the same exact thing as Black ones, but they still hold the white ones in higher regard.”.

However, not all video games are bad. In fact, there are some video games that encourage more positive traits, traits such as kindness, love, and friendship. A key example of this is the Kingdom Hearts series. One of the recurrent themes is that our friends help us be who we are. One of the most commonly spoken lines is “My friends are my power.” It goes even beyond that. The first video games series I truly got into was Kingdom Hearts and I have learned far more about friendships from the series than I have in real life.

Another example of positive ideas in video games are life simulation games, such as the Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing series. Both series teach real-world skills, such as communication, balancing a budget through selling and buying crops in Harvest Moon and even making friends, as is the case with Animal Crossing. As you can see, video games don’t teach just bad habits, some teach good habits and even real-world skills. If you are looking for a fun, relaxing game series, I would recommend one of these two.

As you can tell, there are many ways in which games teach skills, but just as there are many games that foster good habits, there are some that create bad ones.

Words Cited

Riley, Ricky. “5 Offensive Stereotypes Reinforced by Video Games That Need to End.” Blerds, 10 Dec. 2014, blerds.atlantablackstar.com/2014/12/10/5-offensive-stereotypes-reinforced-by-video-games-that-need-to-end/.