Education

There has always been the concern that games are not good for a child's education however this has a bit of controversy around it. There is a wide range of educational games which have been proven to aid teaching, this is not just for children but even for adults. Some examples of this is, simple child games to teach maths with cartoon characters, simulations to show a real time example and brain training games. This wide range of games  can be considered a benefit as you may be able learn while enjoying it.

Separation from Reality

There has been a growing concern as people have tried to mimic some of their favourite games and has result in tragic endings. Some examples of this are games that include things such as, stealing cars, racing, violence and even murder. An example of this is the game "Manhunt" in which you play a character in a strange and dangerous situations, this was also related to a murder in the UK after someone playing the game was claimed to be obsessed with the game. People attempting to mimic games usually never has a good outcome and that it is important to display warnings in games. An example is racing games having a generic warning to not race cars unless your on a race track.

Cost of Gaming

The cost of gaming is becoming higher as the technology advances further, this is from various things such as, the console price, cost of games, internet subscriptions, subscriptions to on line services for games and many more! The cost of games used to be expensive as the technology would cost more to manufacture but now the cost of games is still high costing around £40's for some of the newest games without subscription costs. This can be a concern as some people may be easily handing over most of their money for games.

Social isolation

Playing games can lead to a person isolating themselves from their friends. This is not as common as other things such as addiction but is still a serious concern. Games consoles are now been considered more of a social isolation tool as they are more of a one person experience. It used to be the case of inviting your friend round to your house to play the latest game on spilt screen but now it is all catching them on line to join their game rather than having them at your house.

Excess playing time

There are a lot of health problems with playing games for long periods of time without breaks, some games even offer suggestions to take a break after a hours game play and repeat the warnings. There have been many issues linked to excess playing time such as depression, anxiety and ignoring responsibilities. This is why it is important to monitor the amount of time spent on games and take regular breaks. There has been a lot of news coverage of problems caused by excess playing time and addiction.

BBC news article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9251000/9251687.stm

Impact on ‘mainstream’ application development

Game development is constantly requiring more advanced hardware, an example of this is the iPhone gyroscope shown below. The gyroscope allows the user to turn their body and the game to react and show from different angles as if you where inside the game and physically looking round. Game development is progressing rapidly as we are now starting to get 3D equipment in our homes for playing games on and using things such eyefinity to immerse ourselves in the game more.

iPhone 4 gyroscope example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzjnZsQc7M

Future impact

Games are becoming more integrated with social networks such as Facebook and Myspace. This allows the game to have pre-set information based on what it discovered from your profile, it also allows for a unified login so that you can login to games that are on line compatible using your Facebook account. The future of gaming has a lot of potential but with more and more people using social networks it may have a practical use in gaming as well.