Games and Agency

[Specterbane]

So Extra Credits did an episode on Gamifying Education (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3167-Gamifying-Education) recently, and part of it talked about games and building agency (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agency)(def. 2) in people. But as I consider my friends who are gamers it almost seems split down the middle between those who do in fact have a healthy sense of agency and those who just kind of coast through life (in so far as working to better themselves). So I thought it'd be interesting to bring the question to other people here and start a discussion.

How do you think games have motivated you to persevere through adversity? Or have they done nothing for you in those terms? What kind of aspects of games do you feel foster this agency?

[Doc ock rokc]

To me I say it has encouraged agency as much as it has discouraged my agency. Video games have made me more forgoing kinda forcing myself to focus though the hard parts of my life. while also at the same time i used games as an escape to get away from such problems.

[Aerozord]

games have never affected my sense of agency, nor has television, school, ect. If anything has given me a sense of agency, it would probably be my Mother. I was never treated as a stupid child that didn't know what was for my own good. This was my life and my Mom believed I should have a voice in how its handled. For example, when they wanted me to be put on ritalin it was up to me if I accepted, just as it was up to me when I stopped. When they wanted me in honors classes it was my choice if I accepted. While my mom did suggest I take them, I never felt pressured to.

Some of this was specific to me. I was an independent person by nature and always aware of what was going on. I see alot of kids that even if their parents give them a choice they automatically go with what they perceive to be the "correct" one, and choose what they think is expected of them. I get this alot from others I knew that decided to take honors classes(for the record I turned them down), that they did it because they thought its what they were supposed to do. I guess its a NT thing.

In any case I'd say parenting has a far greater affect on a sense of agency then any other external influence. Also that part of it is internal. I have no doubt you can modify this, but some people want to be followers and its hard to break that

[Krylo]

But as I consider my friends who are gamers it almost seems split down the middle between those who do in fact have a healthy sense of agency and those who just kind of coast through life. So I thought it'd be interesting to bring the question to other people here and start a discussion.

I don't think you are using 'sense of agency' correctly. It is entirely possible to feel a sense of agency--that your actions have real effects on the outside world and that you are in control of your life--and still coast through life. The difference is in the fact that if you do have a sense of agency doing so is a conscious decision.

[Specterbane]

I don't think you are using 'sense of agency' correctly. It is entirely possible to feel a sense of agency--that your actions have real effects on the outside world and that you are in control of your life--and still coast through life. The difference is in the fact that if you do have a sense of agency doing so is a conscious decision.

Fair enough, I suppose I should say that I'm speaking more in terms of personal ambitions. People who are gamers but feel they can't do anything with their lives beyond what they've done, if that makes more sense.