The critical analysis of the article

Video games are fun to play as they offers the adrenaline sensations as equally as

doing extreme activities such as air-gliding or even fast water rafting without having a

person to get off the comfy couch. In the article "Video Games-An Escape From

Reality?", the author, Jeffrey, argues that playing video games for an extremely

amount is not a way to take a break of the desk as it will soon be addictive. Word such

as paradise, innocents, deplorable, murder and aggressive behaviors reflect bias

language through which his tone of disapproval and concern is conveyed as he

attempts to convince parents about the pros and cons of video games.

Jeffrey, in his article states that the outcomes of both pros and cons of playing video

games but later takes his stand on the cons instead of the pros. One among of all the

pros he states is playing video games helps people escape from daily stress. On the

opposite, video games spark the violence in children's behaviors.

He begins his case by expressing out the various feelings people feels while playing

certain critical scenes of the video games. He continues by posting up a propaganda to

the reader in his line "Are video games a paradise?". He also introduces several other

questions to the reader however he is not expecting answers as he then elaborates his

findings in order to satisfy all earlier questions.

Jeffrey claims the U.S Army and Navy have employed video games to train their

recruits as this allows their instructors to spend far more time training soldiers in

battlefield rather than spending all the valuable time on explaining how to use the

complex simulations. He also states "Since there is a whole generation already raised

on video games, training today’s recruits through video games is considered an

obvious solution", however, he does not state any citation on the regarding facts

making his point merely his own personal view rather than proved facts. He mentions

that there is evidence of which "gamers" have faster reaction times and more accurate

hand-eye coordination than normal people, but, he does not include the evidence

hence weakening the points although they are logically true.

Jeffrey disapproves that playing video games as a major contributor which makes

people more intelligent even though they score higher in IQ test as compared to

generations before them despite the author of the book, "Everything Bad Is Good For

You", presents the idea that playing video games further develops various aspects of

the brain since they are complex and difficult, concluding that people who plays are

smarter. Jeffrey also claims that there are various conflicting theories to do determine

and measure intelligence which are undoubtedly precise. At the end of this particular

paragraph, he points out that gamers are becoming more experienced and unlikely of

becoming more intelligent.

The author then claims that violence in games may have largely contributes to the

aggressive behaviors among youth nowadays. He also argue that parents need to be

more caution before buying video games for their children as he state “Many parents

are unaware of the level of violence to which they are exposing their kids in giving

them such games. Sadly, most parents simply do not take the time to know what their

children are really doing. Often, the few who try are met with the violence or cursing

that their kids have been learning from video games” because even the stores cannot

be trusted in classified the video games whether it suitable or not. He presents the

“kids and family” section on Amazon.com as the example of his argue as it currently

contain Grand Thief Auto III. However there is no external support such as research

findings. Therefore, they appear merely as the author’s opinion.

Jeffrey then states that video gamers lack the social skills for the real-life relationships

as their do not allowed themselves to develop a social life. He states that “Many

gamers claim that since they are not good at dealing with other people, they turn to

their “online friends” to find the camaraderie they lack in reality”. He immediately

presents a counter-argument by stating from Bible (Ecc. 4:9-10) that “human beings

were intended to work with, confide in and rely upon each other”. He also cite from

Bible (Gen. 2:18-25) and there are some words that he used such as designed and

supposed love and devotion clearly reflects his tone of sarcastic.

Besides, Jeffrey also claims that another destructive quality from video games which

is addictive can be demonstrate profoundly throughout the world tragically. He then

presents four examples of this addiction which people actually died while playing

video games:

An Everquest gamer actually took his own life (2002)

South Korea, a man died after playing non-stop for 86 hours (2002)

Taiwan, a man died after 32 hours of gaming (2002)

A twelve-year old collapsed after 12 hours straight of gaming in a computer

club

He also state that “Doctors said that his death was the result of emotional stress due to

being obsessed with games” to show that addiction toward video games not only

cause the gamers to neglect their personal life but could actually leads to such events.

However, these examples are lack validity as there are no sources or citation stated.

The author, Jeffrey, generally appears to be deductive in his reasoning, as he starts a

claim with general statement and followed by all the specific support on which it is

based, for instance, claiming that addiction to the video games has cause these gamers

to neglect their personal life and then providing all the examples of implication of

addiction. Paragraph “Addictive Behaviors” presents an example of deductive

reasoning.

In summary, Jeffrey’s first argument appear to be explaining about the pros from

video games, however his others arguments explained about the cons from video

games. The use of cons more than pros suggests that the author has a few mental

reservations about the argument. Although he managed to show some validity and

credibility in some of the earlier claims, his overall argument on "Video Games-An

Escape From Reality?" is weak due to lack of strong support.