Many companies in the game
I think that immersive gaming being the future of social consciousness is absolutely true. Gone are the days where all gamers were given the fallacious definition of being individuals stuck in their own virtual balloons and hardly bothered about the outside world. Nowadays, technology is being diverted to take up the route of having good social impact. There are morally driven organisations like ‘Game for Change’ and those annual social good summits, masterminded by Mashable, strategising the creation of games highlighting social issues like human rights or poverty and so much more.
Get Water!, THRED, Data Dealer and WeTopia are only a few in the long list of games that have escaped the ‘just for enthusiasm’ stigma and entered a platform for empathising with the frustrations and adversities of people, without any difference in race or culture. Kudos to the Canadian group that has initiated like-minded activities.
From Ms Juby Jacob
Dubai
Not practical
Donating blood each time someone ‘gets hurt’ in a video game is impractical because you can’t expect children below the age of 12 to donate blood each time they lose the game. We need to be able to target all ages. I think raising awareness via some other platform, like creating a game without any violence or games that educate the youth is more preferable.
From Ms Rinsha Rafeeque
UAE
Gamers don’t want to be aware
Video games present us with an illusion of reality. These games do excite us along with making us feel sad and afraid. They only do so because they compel us to think in a certain way. Immersive gaming has become the next level of gaming and video game enthusiasts do experience all feelings when playing a game from this genre.
However, immersive gaming may not be the future of social conscience. First, when playing video games we know that it is not real and any action will have no effect on our real life. We will not experience pain if our character is wounded in the game. Second, video games are never designed to make the gamer become aware of the social problems. The concept of playing a video game is for the user to escape from the reality and become what he or she can imagine. Third, the concept of gamers donating blood every time they get hurt in the game will prevent them from playing the game and it will not raise social consciousness. The television news channels, with their round the clock reporting and telecasting gruesome images from war and dead bodies have left humans indifferent towards the atrocities of life. Humans do not want to become socially conscious and that is why they prefer to lose themselves in the world of gaming and not face the realities of life.
From Mr Mohammad Omar Iftikhar
Karachi, Pakistan
Ironic, but good
This is the good initiative from the Canadian group. Apart from the social issues portrayed in violent video games - things like child abuse, trafficking, rape and even smoking. It may just be a way to help the society’s younger generations reconnect with responsibilities that we all have.
From Mr Ragavan Krishnamachary
Bengaluru, India
Not possible
Well, it’s a very debatable situation. You simply can’t say whether immersive gaming is the future of social consciousness or not. There are many pros and cons to this idea. I don’t think that it is doable.
From Mr Majid Khalid
UAE
An unconditional responsibility
I think that gaming in the first place is a sheer waste of time. It takes up time that could have been used more productively on real exercise to keep one healthy! On top of that, now there is a psychological angle thrown in, which is going to make the youth only bigger zombies and ‘conditioned’.
Social consciousness for me means an awareness of my responsibility towards society and this is an unconditional responsibility. I believe that violent games lead to violent behaviour. So why are we promoting them instead of banning such irrational and time wasting activities? But I don’t think we ever will because gaming is a big industry worth billions. At the end of the day, money matters to humans.
From Mr Ajit Lamba
UAE
Limitless opportunity
Starting from the soaring popularity of mobile games, such as Angry Birds, to the immersive experiences of the big budget AAA titles, the industry is changing in shape and size. Today’s fast-changing and thriving gaming market is at odds with the 1990s teenage gaming geek. A broadening of both types of games played and the hardware through which they are consumed has led to a flourishing and expanding gaming audience.
The 1980s and 1990s saw gaming largely restricted to consoles and personal computers. Huge costs acted as a deterrent. Yet, the recent proliferation of multifunctional devices like smartphones, tablets and higher-end e-readers have broken this vicious exclusionary cycle. These devices, and the games they can be used for, are always at hand and often addictive!
For casual and hard-core audiences alike, this new gaming world promises a future that benefits from cross-device integration and embedded social networks. For game developers, this unique set of circumstances is set to be the catalyst for boundless creativity including, but not limited, to developing social consciousness.
From Mr Khaleel Salmin
UAE
Can’t rely on it
Technological advancement has made video gaming almost a natural hobby. The statistics on the prolific nature of gaming only suggest that the immersive behaviour is across the board and hence should be viewed holistically. Undoubtedly, video games do increase the cognitive skills, motoring, decision making abilities and hand to eye coordination. However, the personality development is a different phenomenon.
From books to television to computers, the narrative technique has been evolving itself, but it certainly distorts the original to a great extent. Hence, when it comes to values it should be well protected from such damages.
Video gaming is accepted as a pastime, although it fosters laziness and creates couch-potatoes. I think that resorting to the mode to inculcate values will be a disaster. The only wise choice would be to leverage the addictive nature and use it as a feature to complement the basics taught at the family dinner table or at school. Immersive gaming will be on the increase, but it will not be the sole source for social conscience.
From Mr Murugesh Sambasadhasivam
UAE
Accepting and innovative
Not really, maybe if they could take a break and give a surprise caption popping up with social and moral values on the screen. Or else, the children are just going to want to give blood in the game – that’s how focussed the gamers are for them. But, it’s an innovative way in accepting that playgrounds have been replaced by playing games on tablets, so let’s do our best and do what we can!
From Mr Bindu Sathianesan
Dubai
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