John G. Messerly
Abstract
Compulsive game playing, especially of the role-playing variety, risks failing grades and withdrawal of financial support from tuition-paying parents.
Index Terms
- How computer games affect CS (and other) students' school performance
Recommendations
Computer games and CS education: why and how
SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science educationComputer and video games have grown to be a major industry but, until recently, have largely been ignored by academia. The last couple of years, however, have seen the emergence of new academic programs, conferences, and journals dedicated to games ...
Serious games + computer science = serious CS
There has been significant recent interest in computer games in University and College curricula as a way to teach early computer science, to attract more students into the program, to teach advanced concepts, and to help lend vocational weight to a ...
Reviews
William Edward Mihalo
Messerly's discussion of the addictive effects of computer games (particularly role playing ones) represents a cogent discussion of a problem that may be occurring with undergraduate students. He is unable to support his assertions with any empirical evidence, however, just anecdotal data. While reading Messerly's Viewpoint, I realized that it would be an interesting exercise to substitute the string "soap operas" for "computer games," and then reread his piece. If you did this, you would probably draw the same conclusions about the negative effects of soap operas upon student behavior. Moreover, why stop with soap operas__?__ You could also substitute the following strings for "computer games": "pornography," "greed," "rollerblading," "parachute jumping," "Unix," "writing a member of Congress," or "searching for weapons of mass destruction." In addition, you could argue that focusing on any of the above items could easily contribute to some contemporary social problems. Messerly's Viewpoint on computer games could easily be used as a template for identifying the causes of a number of social problems that are endemic to contemporary society. Online Computing Reviews Service
Ann E. Fleury
Messerly's discussion of the addictive effects of computer games (particularly role playing ones) represents a cogent discussion of a problem that may be occurring with undergraduate students. He is unable to support his assertions with any empirical evidence, however, just anecdotal data. While reading Messerly's Viewpoint, I realized that it would be an interesting exercise to substitute the string "soap operas" for "computer games," and then reread his piece. If you did this, you would probably draw the same conclusions about the negative effects of soap operas upon student behavior. Moreover, why stop with soap operas__?__ You could also substitute the following strings for "computer games": "pornography," "greed," "rollerblading," "parachute jumping," "Unix," "writing a member of Congress," or "searching for weapons of mass destruction." In addition, you could argue that focusing on any of the above items could easily contribute to some contemporary social problems. Messerly's Viewpoint on computer games could easily be used as a template for identifying the causes of a number of social problems that are endemic to contemporary society. Online Computing Reviews Service
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