Scholarly Sources

Story Immersion of Videogames for Youth Health Promotion: A Review of Literature

This is the first of two sources I plan to use. It is a study headed by health department member and health researcher as it relates to video games Amy S. Lu. Her claim in this article focuses on the concept of immersion. It defines immersion as a frame of time where the player is fully interested in the video game they are playing. In her article, she covers how immersion is commonly seen in massively multiplayer online video games where someone can play with a vast amount of others in competition. To give a few examples of what these are for reference, games like Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and the sort. These are all big video games that are advertised regularly in stores, on the web, and on televisions worldwide. People buy these games, and play them so regularly that they will skip meals, lose track of time, and be affected on levels that the average video game shouldn’t be able to reach. I believe that this concept is definitely one of the bigger for my paper. As an avid gamer, even I’m aware that immersion exists and I’ve even gotten to the point of immersion on multiple times. Not to the extent where it’s unhealthy but, I have become very involved with the premise and fun of playing certain online video games. Immersion also leads to unhealthy eating since the player always wants to be physically playing the video game causing the player to snack rather than eat. The biggest difference is that the snacks consists of chips, soda, and the sort rather than a nutritionally balanced meal to cater to the daily needs of the average person.

Kathryn Montgomery (PhD Scholar and Video Game Researcher)

Interactive Food and Beverage Marketing: Targeting Adolescents in the Digital Age

Montgomery’s biggest points in this study and the reasons I find her a very key source for my paper are that she focuses on two points that are probably the biggest in the inefficient dietary choices by the players of video games. In her article, she pays more attention to the adolescent-teenage range of players and how they are easily influenced by the big conventions like MLG. But another point is the emphasis she puts on the players around this age looking for a sense of “identity”. One would assume, that video games have nothing to do with identity. However, even if someone doesn’t want to be a character completely they can believe that eating the same things will give some of the qualities inhabited by this character that the player idolizes.

 

I mean who wouldn’t want to be this guy right? No… that’s just me…oh… sorry.