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I was recently reading a study about the impact video games have on children that didn't focus on violence. Rather, Iowa State University professor Douglas Gentile and other researchers were looking at how "prosocial" titles can actually encourage children to share and support others.
You can read through their entire findings here.
What exactly is a prosocial video game, though? Could that include a video game that was technically violent, but had players helping one another succeed? I asked the Dr. Gentile to list a few games TheFeed readers might know. Here's what he told me.
"Well, a truly prosocial game wouldn't have any aggression (by the player-controlled character), although even violent games can have some prosocial aspects or acts," explained Dr. Gentile.
He then listed some examples (hint: Gears of War co-op doesn't count).
- "Zoo Vet -- Where you care about the condition of the animals and help them when they are ill or injured"
- "Animal Crossing -- Where you help other characters in your town by running errands for them etc."
- "Super Mario Sunshine -- Where you clean off graffiti around the city, although there are some levels with aggression too in this game"
Can you think of any other games that would fall into the "prosocial" category?
Comments
Displaying 1–15 of 15
kazanganti
What can you say. www.direct-2you.com
lonlynemo
it's not the best thing to label prosocial video games as just when a character dose good things. It's something to at least look at that players would be influenced by seeing the consequences of characters(I'm talking about you Hope[Final Fantasy 13]!) and the things the character learns.
CatDeville
Fallout, WoW and any game where you kill bad guys aren't actually qualified as "prosocial", since they have an aggressive element or aggression is a primary game objective. And while most MMORPGs have some prosocial/cooperative elements, they're considered "team aggressive" games more than prosocial games since the goal is your "team" ("party") vs. NPCs or other "teams" (in PVP situations.) Prosocial games are where the *primary* goals require cooperation and which utilize prosocial behaviors such as "helping" to achieve the game objectives.
"The term prosocial behavior describes acts that demonstrate a sense of empathy, caring, and ethics, including sharing, cooperating, helping others, generosity, praising, complying, telling the truth, defending others, supporting others with warmth and affection, nurturing and guiding, and even the altruistic act of risking one's life to warn or aid another. Read more: Prosocial Behavior http://social.jrank.org/pages/ 526/Prosocial-Behavior.html#ix zz0dkZNTYIC Or check out the Wikipedia article on "Prosocial behavior" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P rosocial_behavior
A lot of the popular gaming applications on Facebook... Farmville, Farmtown, Restaurant City, all the (Lil) games, the aquarium and pet games, etc. would all qualify as "prosocial" games since the main objective is productive (you're creating, building or tending something) and you advance more in the game by cooperation and by helping your neighbors. Whereas the team competition games, such as Yoville, Vampire Wars, Mafia Wars and even Castle Age (a D&D style game) would not be considered prosocial because they're aggressive, team competition games, so while developing a team or coalition is beneficial or even necessary to achieving the game goals, the primary game objectives are all violent and competition based, not prosocial (i.e., cooperative and beneficial.)
myMaddness
@ AZure_Zero, Nice. And LOL
SonicATL
Fallout 3 (if you have good karma).
mrnyo
@ RyuSensei
amen brother, amen
Canid117
World of Warcraft teaches me that if you want to kill the evil lord of the undead you better find some friends to help
AZure_Zero
Street Fighter shows you how to defend yourself from foreign people
Kallazar
Those results don't explain their methods. While I don't doubt that video games can be used for positive means, and that aggression can have potentially negative effects, it seems that a lot of these studies come in with biases and that will mess with what they come out with. Is there no "prosocial" benefit to even the violent games? Is Gears co-op only a bad thing? I realize that this particular study was aimed at a lower age group and that a Gears-type game would be inappropriate for them, but there are potential positives that could come from a violent game.
RyuSensei
When in doubt, go for the classics. Tetris! Improve hand eye coordination, puzzle solving skills, reflexes, and patience (waiting for that acursed straight line block to show up).
stilllife
Left4Dead is totally prosocial. Also, this professor is full of crap.
Greibach
Katamari Damashi! You're picking up trash to please your father! That's what the game is all about right?
/sarcasm =D
learnedfist
I'll take the anti-social games, thank you very much.
gambitjuggalo
wow if they deem mario sunshine as to harsh then im out of ideas... doesnt get much tamer then that.
IcemanMX
Hello Kitty Island Adventure where you have to restore the rainbows and help the animals find homes or help the little baby animals on the island find their mommy.
I'm not gay.
Seriously.
-M
Ok, maybe a little...
Displaying 1–15 of 15
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