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Games and Our Behavior

People are said to be the sum of their experiences, and their reactions to those experiences. Games are a kind of playground where we can find out more about ourselves and how we react – but how do their experiences influence us? Time spent in games is time spent nonetheless, and considering the amount of it spent by those who count it amongst their hobbies, the final tally couldn’t help but leave some kind of mark. Hence I’m not asking if games influence our behavior, but how.

I’m not approaching this academically, because A) I don’t want to, and B) most if not all the research done regards that dead-dog of a topic I’m too bored to mention. I’d rather approach this personally, because while I can see some of the effects games have made on me, I have only questions to pose. I’d rather encourage others to partake in their own reflection for their own answers. So how do our choices on what kind of games we play impress our behavior in the rest of our lives?

Save for my netcafe stint, I’ve very much been a man of the singleplayer, chiefly because I prize narrative and challenge. Soldiering on, sometimes literally, for thousands of hours inevitably cultivates certain thinking when you’re the only one who has any impact on the outcome. It says, “nothing will get done, nothing will change unless I do it – and no one else can help.”

A lot of single-player games, particularly action ones, work off hero fantasy. You’re supposed to be the only one who can save the world – everything is up to you. I’ve redeemed hundreds of worlds just from my abilities, and probably adopted some sort of hero complex. Every time I play one of these games I’m inadvertently telling myself “everything is up to me.” Eventually that message becomes second-nature, then behavior, then personality. So games have made me independent – fiercely independent. I’m self-reliant and confident in my abilities, but I’m also stubborn, I overestimate myself, and I don’t ask for help when I should.

Even NPCs don’t much alleviate your burden. Playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, my teammates are consistently helpful, if for nothing else than causing distractions. But I don’t rely on them. They don’t drive the progress. They won’t save the Heleus Cluster for me if I do nothing.

Nowhere was this more evident than Resident Evil 7 – a game which gave me a bad case of the willies. With an atmosphere made of trepidation, no one was going to help me complete the game. No one was going to remedy my apprehension if I kept playing. No one but the imaginary girlfriend would sit with me for the full course, and no one could play it for me.

Of course you can always ask for help where the rest of your life is concerned, but that certainly isn't my immediate response, because through practice and repetition I've learnt to respond with the single-player answer. So are we then living more empowered, or are we needlessly sequestering ourselves from help and cooperation?

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Obviously there are more factors involved in a person's independence, but in retrospect, games have probably been the most significant for me – almost like behavioral prep to adapt for rest of life. We all have different play habits, and we all react to different circumstances in different ways, so I wonder what somebody else would be like who's subsisted on MOBAs and team-based games. I imagine they'd have a greater sense of their role as part of a collective body – what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Though I'd also wonder how they fare as an individual. Do they struggle to complete tasks on their own? Would they still be trying to rely on other people even when other people aren't around to help?

Playing Overwatch has been somewhat of a truth-bomb, being so antithetical to the games I'm use to. I'm no longer a lone maverick – instead I'm part of a fully-functional team with a specific role to play. When I'm feeling particularly altruistic and I'm playing as Reinhardt or Mercy, other players are depending on me to shield or heal them, and I'm depending on them to take out the opponents I'm trying to resist attacking – the ones I'm so accustomed to killing by my lonesome in single-player.

Games are subtle teachers. For better or worse we adopt the lessons they put forward. We learn new behaviors and new ways of thinking, often incognito, from the kind of games we choose to play. Whether a game has any message or not, we’re often learning something regardless. I didn't even recognize what had happened until years later, after looking through the games I own. And while my independence has become a double-edged sword, which I can't really blame on games, that I can also counteract my behavior using the same medium is truly unique.

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Back in Black with Black Ops 3

Black Ops III is set to be the next big Call of Duty game following Advanced Warfare. BO3 was created by the popular development team known as Treyarch and will feature characters with technological upgrades. In the game's story people are able to see better, have improved physical endurance, and so on, from the use of tech implants. The military has begun using this futuristic technology throughout their campaigns as well.

BO3 doesn't make gameplay as wild and unrealistic as AW did, however. There are a lot of new additions, though, compared to Black Ops 2. The developers, Treyarch, have changed up player movements quite a bit in BO3, but the new abilities are nothing in comparison to the high-flying stunts you can pull in Advanced Warfare. There’s a plethora of new weapons to use, though.

In addition to the new movements there is also a new class system in the game. The classes are referred to as specialists in Black Ops 3. At the beginning of each multiplayer match players are asked to choose a specialist. These are brand-new clasess that feature advanced weapons and even some nifty abilities. Players can use lightning guns, massive grenade launchers, a compound bow, and loads of other awesome weapons.

Tons of CoD enthusiasts weren't fans of the past 2 titles in the series: Ghosts and Advanced Warfare. They are hoping that Black Ops 3 will have the same vibe and appeal as BO2. A lot of gamers weren't fans of being able to essentially fly and use lasers in games like Advanced Warfare. Black Ops 3 does include new movements and more, but not to the level of flight or ridiculousness like in CoD: AW. In other words, just about everyone should be comfortable with the minor changes that have been made to the movement system. To learn how to master the new moves and more you’ll want to grab a BO3 strategy guide - they help a lot.

If sporty new moves and character classes aren't enough for you, good news, BO3 still has even more new features. Gunsmith and Paintshop, features that will only be available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, make it so that players can create custom weapon paint jobs, inspect weapons with more detail, put attachments on, and more. These new features give players more customization options than ever before. Games like Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 2 didn't have advanced weapon custimization.

Love it or hate it, there are plenty of gamers that are excited for CoD: Black Ops 3 to hit shelves later this year. While many are stoked for BO3, it may lag behind sales projections simply because of the massive hype behind another shooter, Star Wars Battlefront, that's also being released in November.

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Directed Energy Weapons Seen in Advanced Warfare Not So Farfetch'd

Think the laser-like guns seen in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare are way ahead of their time? Well, that technology might not be as far off-base as you would think. The United States Navy actually just started using a directed-energy weapon aboard the USS Ponce.

What can it do? Well, it's definitely more than capable of killing a person but the Navy has mainly been testing it against drones and ships. The laser has successfully destroyed these targets with ease.

What's even better is that this tech is actually going to make our military run at a cheaper rate. Each shot out of this energy-based gun costs just $1. That's significantly cheaper than bombs or missiles which can run into the millions.

Source: CultofMac.com

So, those directed-energy weapons you're playing with in Advanced Warfare aren't so futuristic. It probably won't be long before we see this technology in the hands of troops in compact forms. The laser mounted to the USS Ponce is quite large but it's only a matter of time before it's put to use in a more mobile setting.

Want to know more about CoD: Advanced Warfare? Visit www.CoDAWPro.com for news, tips, and more.

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Microsoft Knocks $100 Off Xbox One Price with PS3 Trade-In

Well it looks like Microsoft is trying to do something to get more people to buy the Xbox One console. It was recently announced that the company would be accepting PS3 trade-ins which would provide people with $100 off the X1's rather pricey $499 price tag.

This offer is only available until 3/2/2014 and is only usable with the Microsoft Store (it counts as store credit) but it's better than nothing.

This is obviously a temporary measure to match the Playstation 4's lower price tag and hopefully get more consumers to turn to the new Xbox. It's already been reported several times that as of right now the PS4 is outselling the Xbox One by a long shot.

Credit - TotalXbox.com