1. The future of Virtual and Gaming worlds and their Influence on effects Mariam Jabbar - 0904023

2. Introduction

Many people believe that gaming has a number of effects on consumers; both positive and negative. I however, feel that the negative effects of gaming outweigh the positive. I will focus on Gears of War which I found has the potential to encourage more negative user effects then positive as for me it falls under the category of a 'violent' video game.

3. Virtual currency

Is virtual currency going to have an impact on the virtual world?

Are people likely to spend large amounts of money on buying this currency?

4. Branded goods

Are virtual worlds and social gaming offering a new type of business model toother companies?

Is this just the case for advertising (within a virtual world or game) or is it so that they would set up boutiques in these games?

5. Computers

Growth /Improvement of computers in the next few years

Gordon Moores interpretation : Moores law

6. Virtual reality

Is Virtual reality as useful as computers?

Are the negative issues surrounding virtual reality worth the positive aspects?

7.

Those inexperienced with 3D social environments like Second Life struggled to learn about the potential in virtual worlds while others heralded its future impact, noting that the millennium generation had effortlessly transitioned into digital avatars.

(www.globalmantra.blogspot.com) 8. Effects Positive Negative

Social Effects

Education

Improvement of human consciousness

Allows people to express their creativity

Social Effects

Isolation

Withdrawal effects on long-term users

Avatars becoming increasingly real ethical issues

9. Gears of War(II)

During my experience of playing the game I interacted with a number of consumers of various age groups and backgrounds.

10. My Experience I found that with the mic I was able to communicate with my team members as you would do when you're put into a group to complete a task when you start university. I found that having the opportunity to speak to my fellow team members enabled me to play the game better as we were able to give each other directions and advice. This was good because it means that consumers have the opportunity to develop their teamworking skills whenever they like. 11. My Experience continued... Although playing with people from different backgrounds and of different ages it did particularly raise some concerns when i played along side a ten year old boy and an eight year old boy. Usually, we tend to hear about the potential dangers of the internet concerning paedophilia and cyber-bullying. However these factors are hardly stressed when it comes to online gaming. 12. My Experience continued... I feel that there needs to be greater awareness when it comes to the dangers of online gaming for the younger consumers as they are more vulnerable. I felt this because i thought that just as this child was talking to me, he could be talking to anyone and as i live in a household with many children, the importance of online safety and parental limitations have been stressed but the danger of online gaming doesnt usually seem to be an issue which is taken on board. Another experience i had playing with a child was fairly late into the night at around 2am and this made me wonder why she wasn't asleep as she was only twelve years old. 13. References

Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and behaviours during development, http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html (Accessed 13th April 2011)

14. Gears of War 2-Life effects, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y-9pt3BQHA (Accessed 16th April 2011) 15. Jenkins, H. (no date) Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html (Accessed: 18 February 2011). 16. McClean,G. [Online] Available at:http :// globalmantra.blogspot.com/2007/04/virtual-worlds-future-of-gaming.html(Accessed 1st May 2011) 17. [Online] Available at: http://addictionblog.org/top-10/top-10-negative-effects-of-video-games-on-children/ (Accessed 1st July 2011)