Video Games and Their Impact on the Success, Abilities and Worldview of Students

Abstract

The paper explores the impact on students of playing video games. The authors present an overview of the properties and the types of video games, the main research findings on the effects of video games, and the results of a survey on a student sample in the Republic of Croatia. It may be concluded that the negative and positive effects of playing video games depend not only on the frequency with which, but also on the manner in which one plays as well as the video game genre itself. The survey conducted showed that there are very few students with compulsive player symptoms, and that there is no significant relationship between the frequency with which video games are played and poorer student grades. Also, it demonstrated that those who play video games a few times a week (not those who play on a daily basis, however) give higher rating to their abili ty to concentrate, adopt new rules and methods of action, make quicker decisions, logical conclusions, observations and responses than do others. Answers by respondents in the survey clearly showed that the degree of consistency with claims that promote egocentrism and violence is higher in those who play video games (especially in those who play every day) than in those who do not play video games at all.