While there are some reports here and there about the benefits of playing video games, there are just as many, if not more reports of how video games are bad and how it contributes to violence and negative outcomes, but what is the US government’s view on video games? Are they leaning more towards the negative or the positive?Well for those who are looking to justify the pros of playing video games, you might be interested to learn that the US government might actually be viewing video games in a positive light. This is according to Mark DeLoura who was a former senior advisor at the White House. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, DeLoura said that the government views video games positively due to the opportunities that it affords the public.
According to DeLoura, “My takeaway after having been in the White House is there’s an interest in seeing if games can be used to address societal challenges. That’s the primary interest in games – we’ve seen other modalities in other media have an impact in different ways over time as we learn how to use them to teach people or express concepts. Can games do that? If they’re not doing that how do we get them to do that? If they’re doing it a little, do they want to do it more? How can we encourage this? That’s the interest.”
As an example of how video games can help address societal challenges, DeLoura revealed that they also held an ebola hack-a-thon with a bunch of game developers to come up with a better way to manage the crisis. However he also admits that positive stories about video games don’t have as big an impact compared to negative ones.
“You don’t get a ton of positive stories,” DeLoura says. “They are out there but they don’t get a huge press. That’s the challenge, as games are doing more and more great things. UCSF neuroscience research, for example, they’re looking at games and maybe getting FDA approval on a game to help people multitask. That’s a great story to get out there, to say look video games can do more things.”
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