ENG 225 Rhetoric and Gaming

Yang, S. (2014). Effects of avatar race in violent video games on racial attitudes and aggression The article claims that the media frequently portrays Black characters as violent in video games. These characters reinforce racial stereotypes and aggression perpetuating racist or prejudice tendencies amongst White gamers. There were 126 White college students, which is 60% male and 40% female; the gender of the participants was not relevant to the experiment though. The participants were told that they were only being tested on their gaming skills. After giving their consent, participants played Saints Row 2, a game that is Grand Theft Auto, for 20 min on a Playstation 3. The participants were randomly assigned to play the game as either a Black or White male avatar. Prior to the participants’ arrival at the experiment, the experimenter set up the game with the appropriate avatar and rotated the game view, so that the avatar was seen face on by the participant when he or she star...

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.