Archtypes on Acid

This article discusses the evolution of video games and its effect on players'. The author, Rebecca Tews, points out that the home market has outstripped the arcade market. Men and women feel more comfortable playing video games in their home rather than wait in line to put quarters in the machine just to enjoy the game for several minutes. Gamers dont have to feel rushed to reach the end when playing a game at home. Early research in the 1980s observed video games as a youth phenomenon. At the time, this may have been true but many adults play video games and share the experience with their children as a family fun interactive entertainment. B.F. Skinner demonstrated that most organisms will perform repetitive behaviors for little reinforcement. This theory parallels with gaming because the game environments reinforce the player for improving responses with additional points or to move up on a higher level. With violent, aggressive or antisocial games, we are reinforced for aggressive, quick thinking, blood thirsty behavior. Nowadays, games have reached new levels to bring out strong reactions from gamers that play violent, thrilling scary games.

Carl Jung argues that all societies share primitive and basic understanding of the world through archtypes that appear in our arts, dreams, and metaphors. Video games bring out particular behaviors from the player that reflects how engaged the player is to game environment. These behaviors include cursing at a failure, berating their poor choice of solutions, praising themselves for their success or acting out frustration on the equipment when progress is slow. This is common for players whom have broken their controllers or directed their frustration to people around them. Games that date back from the 1980s continue to present the same archtype where the conflict between the "good" characters seek fulfillment from the environment and avoiding evil characters.