—Cover Letter—

This has honestly been the toughest assignment I’ve done in this class, but I feel that it was a very useful lesson since I wasn’t sure at the start how to do a research essay and also how to cite sources that you use in your essay in MLA format.

I tried to make my audience professionals like engineers and people in the medical industry, that could possibly use video games for their advantage and also for people that say that “video games are bad for you” without thinking of all of the positives that video games could have an effect on you. I tried to make my language a bit more on the informal side by saying “I”, although trying to keep the professionalism still there. I also tried to use professionals that know about this subject so that I could show the correct proof and evidence to my audience that video games aren’t as bad as it seems to be.

In this phase, 2 of the most meaningful insights that I’ve gained are how to make an essay with many different sources and how to cite sources correctly in MLA format. I haven’t done essays that I needed to prove something and support it with evidence for years, and I never was able to use outside sources for most of them. I’ve also never got to use MLA format, and it would be useful for any future assignments that I need to do that require it.

The terms that have most impacted my learning and writing practice are argument, purpose, and evidence. The reason why is that I needed to argue in my essay on how video games had a positive impact on society instead of a negative one, and I needed to support it with at least 4 pieces of evidence that I needed to explain to support my argument, and also show the purpose on why I’m writing the essay in the first place. 

There are 3 Course Learning Outcomes that this assignment helped me achieve or also helped out in any way. The first one, which is #7, states that I should’ve “Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.” I needed to use evidence that was accurate for the essay that I was writing, and check if the source was credible enough to be used. The second one, which is #8 on the list, says that I should have “Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.” For 1 of the assignments, we needed to do a full synthesis to implement in our essay, and I also did an extra one as well for 3 sources instead of 2. I also needed to analyze the sources to make sure that #7 was done well. The last one, which is #9, says that I should’ve“Practice systematic application of citation conventions.” I have accomplished this because I needed to cite every source I had used for the essay.

— End of Cover Letter—

Some people think that video games are a menace to society, saying that they are “corrupting the minds of little kids.” I say, on the other hand, will be the future of a lot of modern technology. Video games could be used in many different aspects, from medicine to engineering, to mental health. Video games are extremely underrated and are sometimes blamed for even school shootings (although rarely true). Other professionals also have been talking about this subject. While it could be a slight problem with users playing too many video games., it could be the future of how we experience and discover new things as humans because has the advantage of having a big amount of gamers, generating breakthroughs in certain topics, and could be easier in discovering new things or creating existing things faster, like engineering projects. I will talk about how video games could be used as a method for almost anything you can think of by providing sources from professionals and giving examples of already existing games that do such a thing for medicine, to just having fun whilst improving your mental health while doing so.

Video games are the backbone of some societies nowadays, and shouldn’t be accountable for all of the negativity that they have. They keep on getting better and more realistic at an exponential pace. So realistic that they have been used many times for real-life situations an unbelievable amount of times for decades. The research paper by Author Felicia Nazareth, a full-time teacher, asserts that video games could be used to solve real-life engineering and medical problems and projects and suggests that there are many benefits to using video games for real-world problems and certain mental health issues. She backs up this claim by doing the following: first, she shows the evolution of what video games were and what they now became; next, she shows a specific example of a video game being used to resolve “the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys”; last, she describes broader examples of how video games could be used to help in real-life problems

Similarly, researcher Kirsten Drotner’s and author Sonia Livingstone’s chapter of a textbook addresses the topic of video games and argues that they could be used in the learning environment and help strengthen the brain’s functions. They support this claim by how different puzzle games could “very well exercise pattern recognition capacities,” then show how some flight simulator games can be used as a training device for real-life operations, and finally, they explain how video games could help scientists solve problems by playing video games. Drotner’s and Livingstone’s purpose is to show how video games could be used in real-world issues and challenges to promote video games to be used in said environments. They adopt a very professional tone for their audience, the readers of “The International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture,” and others interested in the topic of the modernization of what we do things as humans.

Firstly, Nazareth says that “A 2014 study published in Molecular Psychiatry by researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that playing Super Mario 64 caused an increase in the size of brain regions.” Thus showing the increased capabilities in the brain. Secondly, in “Video Games Are Good For Learning, But Not Just Because They Are Games,” they say that “Puzzle games like Tetris and Bejeweled may very well exercise pattern recognition capacities…” Both of the quotes show similarities in how they could increase your brain functions and capabilities with increased pattern recognition and an increased size in the brain. Although Nazareth referred to a broader approach to the topic, both of them refer to the topic of how it could make your brain work better.

But these aren’t the only sources that show the benefits of video games in your brain. Writer David Brooke addresses the topic of How video games could benefit things in the real world and argue that video games have many positive effects on your health, social skills, and learning. He supports this claim by showing an image of the benefits video games have on your brain, then shows specifically how video games help solve real-world problems faster, in his example of the game Foldit, and finally shows the positives of gaming for kids. Brooke’s purpose is to show the positives of video games in order to show that the negatives are outweighed by the benefits of video games. The image to the right, which is from Brooke’s article, shows many positive effects of video games on the brain, including improvements to memory and an increased amount of dopamine in your brain. This further supports the claims of Nazareth’s, Drotner’s, Livingstone’s claim on the positive effects that video games have on your brain.

There’s is also a source that shows an interesting discovery because of video games. In author Steve Davis’s article, who is a technology writer, asserts that video games could have many benefits to our everyday lives. He backs up this claim by doing the following: first, he; shows the benefits in our brain next, he; shows how gaming could relieve stress last, he shows a video game that helps find out the structure of an AIDs protein found in monkeys. Davis appears to write in hopes of showing the benefits of video games to prove that video games are not only negative and could have a positive impact on society. 

Some people like the games so much that they even advertise them in their own articles without any payment. In reporter Michael J. Coren’s article, he addresses the topic of how a game called “Foldit” helped out discover an HIV gene and argues that the gaming community could sometimes out beat the scientists. He supports this claim by first saying how Foldit was made, then showing the latest advancement (at the time) that the game has accomplished, and finally showing how you could help make advancements in technology. Coren’s purpose is to show the benefits of video games and to show them how can they help in order to show that not everything about video games is negative. He adopts an enthusiastic and professional tone for his audience, the readers of Scientific American, and others interested in the topic of the positives of video games.

The 3 articles by Steve Davis, Felicia Nazareth, and Michael J. Coren have a similar video game in their topics. A game that helped discover the structure of an AIDs protein found in monkeys, called “Foldit”. It was developed in 2008, released in 2011, and based on Davis it states “This problem was holding down the scientists for 10 years but after the release of the game, the problem was solved in just 10 days by the world’s best video gamers.” Incredibly, something getting worked on for many years could be solved in just a few days or weeks because of video games. And, based on Nazareth it states that “A study has shown that the total number of hours spent by people around the globe playing games is 3 billion a week. Scientists are now trying to put these hours into their benefits.” Which could be incredibly useful for future breakthroughs in science, engineering, and medical uses. Lastly, some sources are so into the positives of the game that they start advertising the game as shown in Coren’s article. The article states “Want to discover the next cure? You can sign on to Foldit, and use your 3-D spatial abilities to manipulate  amino acid chains starting simple with “One Small Clash…” They show how you could sign up for the game to contribute and shows a short tutorial on how to get started on the game.

While it could be a slight problem with users playing too many video games., it could be the future of how we experience and discover new things as humans because has the advantage of having a big amount of gamers, generating breakthroughs in certain topics, and could be easier in discovering new things or creating existing things faster. With the examples of Foldit and the benefits of having better brainpower whilst playing video games, it seems to be a no-brainer to not do so. So will you contribute?

Works Cited

Brooke, David. “How Video Games Help Solve Real-World Problems Faster.” Learn Worthy, Learnworthy.net, 5 Mar. 2021, https://learnworthy.net/how-video-games-help-solve-real-world-problems-faster/.

Coren, Michael J. “Foldit Gamers Solve Riddle of HIV Enzyme within 3 Weeks.” Scientific American, 20 Sept. 2011, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foldit-gamers-solve-riddle/.

Davis, Steve. “Can Video Gaming Help Solve World Problems?” Can Video Gaming Help Solve World Problems?, Creative Pixel Mag, 15 Jan. 2018, https://www.creativepixelmag.com/can-video-gaming-help-solve-world-problems/.

Drotner, Kirsten. “Video Games Are Good For Learning, But Not Just Because They Are Games.” The International Handbook of Children, Media, and Culture, edited by Sonia Livingstone, SAGE Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, California, 2008, pp. 198–199.

Nazareth, Felicia. “How Can Video Games Be Used to Solve Scientific Problems?” AlignThoughts, 10 Sept. 2021, https://alignthoughts.com/how-can-video-games-be-used-to-solve-scientific-problems/.