ENG 225 Rhetoric and Gaming

Lavigne, C. (2015). "I'm Batman" (and You Can Be Too): "Gender" and Constrictive Play in the "Arkham" Game Series. Cinema Journal Vol. 55, No. 1 (Fall 2015), pp. 133-141 Lavigne used Batman: Arkham City (2013, Rocksteady) to create a qualitative review of dangerous tropes in mainstream games. The article shows that the character Batman “advances heteronormative, hypergendered stereotypes” with his “ripped” physique, justified violence, and having to rescue almost every female he comes in contact with. Catwoman is brought up as an equally dangerous character in regards to tropes. She fights in heels, kisses thugs, and is programmed to show all of her curves while playing as her. This, in addition to NPC interactions with her, make Catwoman a dangerous stereotype. This article shows that mainstream media can be instrumental to stereotypes being brought forward. It also shows that game design is still entrenched in the “typical male fantasy”, and that...

Greitemeyer, T., Osswald, S., & Brauer, M. (2010). Playing Prosocial Video Games Increases Empathy and Decreases Schadenfreude . American Psychological Association 2010, Vol. 10, No. 6, 796 – 802. This article covers two experiments by Greitemeyer, et al, to show levels of malicious pleasure (schadenfreude) after playing games that were rated as “prosocial”, “antisocial”, and “neutral” in regards to the game’s theme. The first experiment used Tetris (Pajitnov, A., 1984) and Lemmings (Psygnosis, 1991) as the neutral and prosocial games, respectively. The participants were then asked how they felt about a celebrity's misfortune. Those who played the prosocial game were more likely to not feel schadenfreude about the celebrity. The second experiment included the antisocial game Lamers (MobyGames, 1992), a parody of Lemmings where the goal is to kill all of the animals, rather than save them. Those who played the antisocial game experienced the highest level of schadenfreude...

Gumulak, S., & Webber, S. (2011). Playing video games: Learning and information literacy . Aslib Proceedings, 63(2), 241-255. This article has Gumulak & Webber research the correlation between gameplay and learning. By interviewing a group of local teenagers, Gumulak & Webber could see if problem solving in a digital play space would translate to real world problem solving. They asked the teenagers about how they feel when they accomplish a hard task in-game, and how that makes them feel. By using this qualitative approach, they were able to find a direct correlation between solving problems in a play space, and being able to translate into the real world.

Texas A&M University. (2016, July 15 ). Health benefits of Pokémon Go.  ScienceDaily .  The Texas A&M article discusses what Matt Hoffman thought was beneficial from playing Pokemon GO. Although this article does not give any data it did give ways that Pokemon GO can be socially beneficial by making you go out into the community, Pokemon GO also has a community of its own for its players. This article was posted in July of 2016, the same month that Pokemon GO came out, therefore Hoffman did not play for more time than the game was at its most popular moment. In the article they talk about ways that can improve your experience in Pokemon GO but, he does not talk about the harms of Pokemon GO or how the world was before the game came out. I need to focus on the harmful parts of Pokemon GO but so far I am only focused on how the game has benefited the world health wise. I also need to find articles that are not made so fresh after the game came out. Compare the res...

Chih-Chien Wang Ph.D. and Chia-Hsin Wang M.B.A (June 1st, 2008). Helping Others in Online Games: Prosocial Behavior in Cyberspace This study analyzes the reasons why players in MMOGs help each other. It also looks at how gender influences these interactions. They laid out two possible reasons for helpful player interactions which were altruism and reciprocity. Altruism leading a player to help another because they feel fulfilled by it. Reciprocity leading a player to help another because they expect help from the other in the future. The study collected data through an online survey using a 5 point likert scale. The original sample size was 405 but only 402 fully completed the survey. The questions attempted to measure altruism and reciprocity. Additionally they attempted to differentiate between “prosocial behavior, prosocial behavior with same sex beneficiaries, and prosocial behavior with opposite-sex beneficiaries”. The survey was conducted on an online web community best known...

Tateno, M., Skokauskas, N., Kato, T. A., Teo, A. R., & Guerrero, A. P. (2016, December 30). New game software (Pokémon Go) may help youth with severe social withdrawal, hikikomori. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573581/ This scientific journal written by the combined efforts of Tateno, Skokauskas, Kato, Teo, and Guerrero, explains how hikikomori, or severe social withdrawal, is connected to the popular augmented reality game, Pokémon Go. In Japan, 230,000 people are reportedly categorized as hikikomori (Koyama et al., 2010). This extreme social withdrawal epidemic could be fixed with something as simple as leaving your room for a couple hours to go catch some Pokémon. Although there is no for sure way to tell how many Pokémon Go players in Japan are hikikomori, the prime minister of Japan vouched for the game as helping people deal with their withdrawal problem. They also suggest setting up PokeStops at hikikomori support centers to increase the ch...