Video Game Week

Hello Golden Bears,

As you may have heard, next class will cover the issue of video games and its effects on minds. Next week's homework will take the form of an interview. As usual, it need only be one page double-spaced.

As we saw in the video clip in class today, one of the marketing researches conducted interviews with people he considered to belong to cults. What he found was that many of these people, regardless of what cult they belonged to, gave similar reasons for their membership.

Although video game players are not necessarily cult members (although your assignment may argue otherwise), interview someone you know who plays a lot of video games for your assignment. The purpose of the interview is to uncover why someone will be as committed to playing video games as they are. Although I do not have any set questions you must ask, some suggested questions can be

• What is it about video games that is so satisfying to the player?
• What motivations do video game players have for playing games for long hours?
• Have they ever missed important events or commitments to play video games?

Also, pay close attention to the kind of language used by the video game player's responses. Is there any sort of value system that his/her language reflects (ie., as we saw in the video clip in class, much of the cult members' language had to do with inclusion and being part of a greater community. One interviewee even said, "It is all about being part of the Tribe.")

Once again, have fun and be creative with the questions. Try to get at the heart of what motivates avid video game players.

Yours,

David