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Loghan Kreinbrink

Professor Flores

English Composition 2

November 19, 2020

Literature Review

How do video games of different genres affect a person's lifestyle? Well according to

many different sources this question isn’t so easily answered. “Video games desensitized us to

violence” (Administrator). According to ​https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/​ “research has focused

merely on violent video games”.(von der Heiden et al.) Most sources focus on how violent video

games can affect the human brain but not many focus on the aspect that other genres of video

games can affect the brain as well.

It is not stated that this website tested individuals on different genres of games. I do believe that

some games may affect people differently. I do not think it is fair to associate the results of a few

people and place that label upon a wide variety of people who may not get violent tendencies

from playing these games. Another genre similar to FPS or first person shooter games is horror

games. “​ ​researchers found that horror video games can have strong spill-over effects, causing

disrupted sleep and increased fearfulness after playing”.Says:, Agfun4.com. "How Do Horror

Video Games Work, and Why Do People Play Them?" ​Research Digest.​ 30 July 2016. Web. 20

Nov. 2020. Research has shown that when people play horror game it triggered their fight or

flight responses making almost equally as dangerous as violent games.

I believe that there are video game genres that positively affect the human mind. Some of these

genres don't have a specific name but mobile games or games on the phone seem to bring people
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relaxation which is shown in research. Mobile games may affect people positively because they

are easy to access and you can bring it anywhere. Strategy games are anything but negative for

someone, they help with things like problem solving. Although research can directly correlate

video games with an increase in anxiety and depression they can also do the exact opposite like

for example the mobile games bring people happiness while some games on a computer on

console may do the opposite depending on the person. I am not going to disagree with the age

warning on mature game because I believe the human mind should develop before experiencing

some things.
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Works Cited

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/video-games#:~:text=Simple%20games%20th

at%20are%20easy,to%20consider%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20Granic.

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/07/06/how-do-horror-video-games-work-and-why-do-people-play

-them/#:~:text=Moreover%2C%20the%20researchers%20found%20that,experiences%20with%

20frightening%20video%20games​.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6676913/