StarCraft 2 Logo
Over the winter break my friend got me to play a new game — StarCraft II. You’re in a match up with another person through the internet, you both have a finite amount of resources, each of you chose one of the three races available, and you maintain, expand and improve your economy and militia in an attempt to out play your opponent. There are general builds to follow so the match is usually decided by the execution of the build and/or reactions, or “counters,” to the opponent’s moves. These objectives are typical of all “Real Time Strategy” games.
Recently, I ran into a study which examines the effects of a real time strategy game on the human brain. This, along with our class discussions inspired me to examine my own attention over the course of playing the game. I used StarCraft’s replay function to view my matches from December and compare them to more recent matches. During the replay I was able to view my actions per minute and analyze how I reacted to certain events. I noticed my reaction speed increasing, as well as being able to filter through useless information and react only to critical events.
Tough this isn’t exactly Carr’s ideal way of distributing attention, I firmly believe that if we consider the ability to focus on a narrative and the ability to adapt and react quickly polar opposites then the later should be considered the superior choice.
Its interesting how videogames sometimes have both fun and skill in them. I mean when I play a game, I used it just to have fun, but now that I’m more of myself using the computer I realized that we do so many things while being on the computer. For instance the thought process, problem solving, decision making, understanding the concept/idea are some of the things that you do uncognitively when you play a game. The game that you mention Starcraft II is probably the most known game in South Korea since they inspire, support Esports and have many advertisements of tournment prizes. I know a couple of people might be thinking RTS (real Time Strategy) games are boring and simple, but on the contrary it is the opposite. While watching someone, that has never played any RTS games that person was confused and by the end, suprisingly it shows there are skills invovled in RTS b/c it makes the player think and that their decisions are reflected afterwards (just like taking leadership)… I liked that you posted this, because I’ve been thinking how videogames also affect our lives as well, even though it might not be a major issue like the internet with Nicholas Carr, I still want to know b/c if you think about the smartphones, with the increase of gaming apps on the phone, almost everyone played a game. (suprisingly thats how Angry Birds, a well game title for making you so angry became so popular and now temple run) And since I was a gamer, I want to see how it affected myself as well.