1. Shrink Attention Span

Sameer, my best friend from elementary school, was one of the most patient guys I have ever met, until one of his classmates introduced him to Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. He has gotten so addicted to playing that game that he would no longer engage in fruitful conversations from his friends at school. I remember how Sameer’s mom had to confiscate his Nintendo Switch because he took it to school and played it during classroom lecture. I will need to research more thoroughly about attention span in outside conversations because this can be easily confused with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).

2. Restrain You from Socializing with Family

Roughly six years ago, I was playing a competitive match of Counter Strike Global Offensive around 6 p.m. My competitive rank of distinguished master guardian was on the line and losing will end my winning streak of 8 games in a row. My hands were trembling because I was starving since breakfast and I had to keep going due to the dopamine rush to continue playing. I did not stop until midnight at which my parents stepped in and unplugged my computer from the outlet. Socialization or lack there of because of video games is a well-researched area and I have a few articles in mind for this topic.

3. Stimulate Inappropriate Conversations

In many modern-day video games, companies try to sell “skins” that the player can purchase with real money to make their character look better. Such is the case in League of Legends where I overheard an extremely dirty and disgusting conversation regarding a champion’s revealing “skin”. During eighth grade lunch, Max discussed, on how squeezable Miss Fortune’s large breasts are. My ears were too young to hear that in middle school and it is so obvious that his parents do not pay attention to the games he plays. Like the first point, this area is well-researched, and I will use one article discussing soft core nudity in modern games.

4. Provoke More Rage

Almost four years ago, I remembered my first competitive Trials of Osiris match in Destiny. I was playing with both of my acquaintances from high school and little did we know that there were other higher skilled players competing against us. In our first game, we lost miserably and exchanged a ton of curse words to each other. My friends were so full of rage that they went as far to break their own controllers in half. I have not played with them since. I will have to conduct meticulous research to prove that stressful game modes induce rage.

5. Desensitize and Promote Brutal Violence

Bloody games like Dead by Daylight are so gory that you may wonder how parents let their kids play this game. In this asymmetrical horror cat and mouse game, you either play as a survivor or a killer. The killer hunts other survivors viciously to win. The Survivors have to escape in order to win while avoiding the killer. I remember when we watched Saving Private Ryan in AP European History. None of my friends flinched at the flying guts in the opening scenes. Violence in video games is another point where comprehensive research has been completed but I want to research more on how video games can promote violence.

6. Conceive Gambling Addictions

Sport games like FIFA provide the means to develop a gambling addiction. My former neighbor, Jack, always talked about how he got the rarest soccer players in FIFA. These player cards do not guarantee that you will be getting characters that are remotely desirable, thus wasting the real money you spent in the game. And what’s more insulting are that these games do not include gambling on their ratings. Large corporations such as Electronic Arts have been actively suppressing this topic of research, but it is still widely available for me to use. I have one strong article that I have read previously to utilize here.

7. Introduce Dangerous Online Interaction with Strangers

Online video games carry the hazard of malicious people who want to trick a child, who is not mature enough to be online in the first place, into trusting them and giving personal information. Personal information can used to commit fraud and trafficking, which nobody wants for their child. I foresee that I will use statistics to track the amount of fraud and trafficking done through online video games. This information will help me reinforce my point that young children should not be online with strangers until they have reached a reasonable level of maturity.