Although people tend not to take in serious the real health and psychological effect that computer games may produce, these might really cause different aggressive reactions especially among the youth. It is already known that many children around the world suffer vary social problems, from communication ones to more serious problems, including violent reactions.

Violence in computer games can also produce many different psychological problems, like mania, dependence and plenty violent and aggressive temperaments. For instance, games which include fights, warriors or similar actions can easily affect children’s behavior. In such cases, parents should be very preventive while purchasing a computer for their kids and educate them upon its usage.

Few of the most popular computer games risks include low social integration and much more serious problems like autism. Thus, a kid who cannot detach from everyday gaming for sure has a pretty high predisposition towards the problems mentioned above. Still these kinds of problems can easily be met among the youngsters, not only among the small children.

There are also people who spend their whole time playing different kinds of games which transform them in gaming-dependants or maniacs who pass away the everyday important things like going to school, learning or especially meeting their friends. As mentioned at the beginning, both the children and the youngsters do not realize how dangerous these computer games are.

There is no wonder how many kids and young people tend to arouse personal conflicts because of a computer game confrontation, saying that virtual fights can easily produce real ones. Apart from this, many psychologists affirm that a virtual space (for instance, a game) is what a man needs in order to stage what he or she really is.

More exactly, this affirmation refers to the fact that although we tend not to take in serious a computer game (or any kind of electronic game) confrontation, the way we behavior while playing it is what we truly are. So, there is not just this excuse of a virtual space in which we are just playing without involving serious affects, but also a real space which is able to demonstrate us the way we really are, with all of these violent reactions, aggressiveness, irritations and so on.

For sure, there are many who do not agree with such opinions, but at least they should think about the way they really act while playing a computer game, more exactly they should ask themselves simply why people react in such ways if finally “it is just a simple game”.

In conclusion, there is to say that a computer game which includes vary kinds of confrontations, fights or any other violent actions, it isn’t including just these things, but also more real, serious and personal involvements.

Alexander Sandy Douglas was born on 21^st May, year 1921 in the capital city of England, London.When he was eight his family moved to Cromwell Road.

He attended the University of Cambridge in 1950 place where he received the chance to prove himself in the field of computers by programming the code for a simple game where a player could compete against a computer.

He invented the first computer game, a version of tic-tac-toe. In 1952, after A.S. Douglas wrote his PhD degree at the University  of Cambridge on Human-Computer interaction he needed a way to prove his theories, and so he created the first graphical computer game- which was a version of tic-tac-toe, programmed on a EDSAC vacuum-tube computer. He used a model that appeared in 1947. The game was very simple, all that the player needed to do was to play against the computer and the image would appear on the 13*16 pixels vacuum-tube. This game was called Oxo and also Noughts and Crosses, and unfortunately didn’t become very famous because it could only be played because EDSAC was a computer only used in England.

In1953 Douglas spent a year at the University of Illinois Computation laboratory as assistant Professor. In 1955 he became Junior Bursar Of Trinity College.In the autumn of 1957 the Leeds Pegasus computer was installed in the Eldon Chapel on Woodhouse Lane where Douglas set up the Computer Laboratory of the University of Leeds.

Alexander Sandy Douglas is believed to be the father of modern computer games. If it weren’t for him would we still have our computer games nowadays? Can any of you imagine a life without computers or computer games? Of course, many of you could say that there have been times when people lived just fine without technology, and that is very true, but I believe these times are better and easier than those. And besides, computer games are fun.

The story of A.S.Douglas’ life is a story of a man who had the courage to look forward in the future and to try to do something else, something different. As every invention in this world, the existence of the first computer game can also mean the beginning of a very big and important technology field nowadays. These kinds of men are men whom we should admire. This kind of men are men who make us ask ourselves whether we should also do something for this world or not.

The computer games field has increased drastically lately, and the reason is because technology itself evolves very fast, and computer games evolve even faster.

Although we don’t actually know much about this A.S.Douglas, what is clear about him is that he and his Noughts and Crosses game helped improve a lot the technological field and that he can actually be considered the father of the computer games field.

At the beginning of this field, when the first computer games appeared, people had to save the game on their computer and then play it. Nowadays it’s a different situation, because you can play computer games online and what’s even better, is that these online computer games are free. Online computer games have the advantage that you don't need to install them and that they do not occupy space on your personal computer. Like every computer games, playing online computer games has it's advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages could be that you don't waste time installing them and that they do not occupy space on your hard disk, but a big disadvantage is that you can always take viruses.

I suppose that everybody has tried at least once in his life to play an online computer game. There are different types of online computer games and for all people, of all ages, nationalities, religion etc.

So there are online computer games for toddlers, for children between 10-14, for teenagers, boys, girls, adults, old people, computer games about war, about fairies, about animals, plants and so on. It’s very easy nowadays to play a computer game online because most of them do not require an account and you can just play it like that, without having to pay for it. Of course, there are some online computer games that require an account but those are more complex games and following the steps in order the register the site is not difficult alt all.

One of the most common online computer game is “tetris”. This is a dynamic puzzle game invented by Alexey Pazhitnov in the year 1985.It’s really easy to play. The square pieces must be rotated and shifted as they fall and fill in the blank spaces. The game ends when the bricks don’t have any space left where to fall.

Another online computer game that is very famous is the arcade game “Pac-Man”. What is the most important fact about this game is that is non-violent, reason why it actually became very popular during the 80’s. It’s simple to play, all you need to do is eat dots and other prizes and try not to meet the four ghosts that are trying to catch Pac-Man.

Card games such as “freecell”, “Yukon”, “pyramid”, “shamrocks castle”, “blackjack” “solitaire” are also a category of very popular online computer games. The most played in my opinion is solitaire and especially FreeCell solitaire where the player must place all the cards in each suit in ascending order. The victory in this game depends more on strategy than on luck.

Online computer games, simple complex or strategic they can also be a meaning of entertainment and they can all help us relax. Online computer games have become quite a business nowadays, a real life area that people use every day for fun, field that they can even use to make money, by inventing, using and selling computer games.

I will start this article by telling you a little story that I have read some time ago, about a young man and his addiction to computer games. This boy has always been a good child, the only child in his family, always had good grades in school, never caused any problems to his parents, finished a good highschool and also graduated from a good University. He was that type of person who is very calm, and kind who liked long walks, good movies and good books. He actually had a thing for books. He liked to read and books were his life. He even opened his own Book Store, and everything was great for him. A lot of people trusted him to buy books from because they got the books in a short time and because it was obvious that the guy really knew what he was doing. This situation lasted for a few years, until…until he discovered the pleasure of playing computer games. He started like everybody does. Playing a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow and so on, until he started not to care about his life anymore. His friends called him everyday asking what was happening to him, and he would just answer “I’m busy, I can’t talk right now”. He was indeed busy, playing computer games while his books were just standing there waiting to be sold. By the end of the year he had lost everything; his family, his friends and his little store. He now works as a salesman. He sells computer games in a video store.

The conclusion of this little story is that once we are trapped in the computer game addiction is really difficult to escape from it, and most of the times people realize it when it’s already too late.

Computer game addiction has indeed become a problem, especially for young people. This story is one of the many of this kind in the world and unfortunately it hasn’t ended in a happy way.

.Ask yourself how many of these stories have a happy ending? How many of these young people know when to stop? How many of them even realize that they have a problem? I believe that not many of them. Taking into consideration that the cases of computer games addiction are more and more numerous then I believe that not enough people realize what they are getting into.

A lot of teenagers and young men have a computer game addiction nowadays and most of the times neither their friends nor the family can help them escape this addiction. The only one who can help these people is themselves. It’s important learning from the mistakes of others so next time when you feel like playing computer games all day ( and all night) long, think about the story of this guy and about what his computer game addiction did to him.

Young people in general play more often computer games than adults. It is a good way to have fun and many students don’t know when to stop playing these computer games.

The first and main negative effect of computer games is violence. Many computer games are violent and most young people actually start to enjoy violence. It would be a good thing if students learned how to keep violence only in the game but most of them have the tendency to also be violent in real life. Parents usually see this effect on their children most of the times when is already too late. So the violence of computer games is the most negative effect that computer games have on students.

Another reason why computer games are not good for students and why computer games have a negative effect on them is the ADD (attention deficit disorder).More and more students suffer from this syndrome and most of the time this happens because of computer games. Students tend to get very involved in a certain game and when they must deal with facts or situations in their life becomes very difficult for them to do that.

I was reading the other day  a story about a 14 year old student who had a very big problem with computer games. He started like every student does, by playing one computer game, then another one and so on. The young man started not to care anymore about school, his friends or his family. By the time his parents realized it was already too late. His parents took his computer and locked it in another room, but the boy managed to open the door and take his computer back. Trying to talk to the child didn’t work and the parents did not know what to do anymore. Fortunately, one day, the child realized what he got himself into, and decided that this was not the way he wants to live his life and decided by himself to quit playing computer games. The fact that this child realized what he had done was a great thing, but how many students in the world manage to solve these problems by themselves without specialized help?

As a conclusion for this little story, we can easily see that the reasons why computer games are not good for students are related to the fact that they interfere in student’s social and family life. Computer games have the tendency to become addictive and as every addiction, it’s quite hard to get cured by your own and without help from friends, family or specialized persons.

The reasons why computer games are not good for students are very numerous and computer games really have some negative effects on students, and the reason why I choose to talk about these two is because they seem to be the most frequent and the most dangerous ones. In order for these things not to happen, a student must be educated in a certain way so he doesn’t fall in the trap of computer games addiction.

Some may think that playing computer games is always something negative, especially for children .But are those who believe this always right? Further on I will try to find and explain some reasons why computer games are good for us.

First of all, living in this world,  when the time passes very fast, when the entire world is based on a very fast evolution, computer games are one of the most relaxing and especially cheapest ways of relaxing ourselves. Think about people who work all day long, and can not afford all the time to pay for the gym or go to trips. One of their relaxing ways is playing computer games, half an hour per day, or even more. This can not harm anybody .So, a reason why computer games are good for us is because they are relaxing.

Second of all, there are numerous educational computer games, such as “Conquiztador”, or games about mathematics, literature, word order, chess etc. So another reason why computer games might actually be good for us is because they can teach us things, in an easy and pleasant way. This reason applies for people of all ages, such as children, adults and old people.

Third of all, by playing computer games we can easily interact with other people from all around the world. Think about the fact that not all of us have the possibility to travel around the world, and by playing computer games is easier for us to meet new people, to find out more about other countries, their culture and their way of living. This is a good reason why computer games are good for us because as we all know, there are two types of people around us, introverted and extroverted people. For those who have problems in interacting with others (introverted) and showing their feelings or opinion about all sorts of things, computer games can be very helpful.

Last, but not least, one reason why computer games are good for us is because most of the games that we play are so much fun. By playing a computer game we can be whoever or whatever we want, whenever we want it. It’s great to be able to have some sort of idea about how life would be in another reality. For example, playing real time strategy, real time tactics, and role playing games etc. can make us fell a lot better after a bad day at work or even in our spare time.

There are many other reasons why computer games are good for us, but there are also a lot of reasons why computer games are not good for us, so the important thing is to always keep in mind that there are only computer games and try not to loose our connection with the reality in order to have a happy and healthy life.

It is very true that men generally spend more time playing computer games than girls, but this doesn’t mean that girls don’t know how to play a computer game or that girls don’t have their own games.

A good example is Miss Bimbo. I myself played it and I must say that it feels good to live a virtual life where you can be whoever you want to be and where you can get dressed however you want or date whoever you want without others judging you. Of course this does not mean that a Bimbo Virtual Life is that easy. You still must work, eat, drink, take medicine when you get sick, you must buy stuff for the place where you live, you must take care of your pet( that is if you have one) but you can also go out, find a boyfriend, go dancing, shopping etc, and this is only one example among the numerous girl games that exist.

The computer games for girls are not as numerous as those for men. This is the reason why some girls sometimes play computer games for boys, such as RPG ( TheCrims-The life of a criminal) or Need for Speed or Counter Strike etc.

The difference between computer games for girls and computer games for boys is that those for boys are more complex and this is the reason why these games are more addictive. Boys will always play more computer games than girls, because girls also get bored relatively fast ,after only one game.

Computer games for girls mostly refer to little girls and teenagers but rarely to young women or old women. Little girls get involved fast in this virtual world because they can do whatever they want with their Barbie doll, and their little dog can walk on water and fly gaining points so for them these games usually offers them a world of fairy tales, of fairies and fairy dust, of princesses and magic. Computer games for girls offer them the possibility to enter a world that they only dream about.

Computer games for girls help little girls develop their imagination, their sense of beauty and gives them the possibility of not feeling lonely or just playing which is something vital for childhood period.

Taking into account the great amount of computer games that exist nowadays we could say that there aren’t so many computer games for girls, but that really doesn’t matter much, because girls are not so into the virtual gaming world and also they do play less computer games than boys.

Still, we can say for sure that in the near future computer game industry will probably have a separate branch for computer games for girls because nowadays there are more and more girls and teenage girls which use them in comparison to the number of girls and teenagers that played computer games in the past.

It is still unknown why men play more computer games than women. And nowadays especially older men play computer games.

When older man plays computer games all day long might mean that he might have been sometimes in his past, a man with a very agitated life, a very exhausting job, and now, being retired, needs to do something with his life and imagination. Because I suppose that is not easy to work an entire life and then just stay and do nothing. So men need to do something with their time.

Another reason why older men play computer games every day could be that they need to relax during breaks. At home, at work, in   the bus or while drinking their coffe. A computer game can easily distract one’s attention from his daily worries or problems. So, men need to relax in order to continue with their work and fulfill their responsibilities.

As human beings, not only as men, we appreciate and miss most of the memories of our long lost childhood. Who wouldn’t just love to turn back in time, to be a child again, to have no responsibilities, no problems, just to play and play and play some more. By playing computer games older man can go back in time, to the period of time in which they were children. This is their way of not being old anymore, at least for a short period of time.

It is well known that men sometimes have certain issues when they get older. And playing computer games may be the result of not being pleased with the idea of getting older and trying to forget about it or even escape it.
Older men can sometimes play computer games because maybe they need to be distracted from some things such as problems, thoughts, inner conflicts.

Sometimes, I believe that the reason why older man play computer games all day long is because they feel lonely. They do not have whom to talk to because it is harder to be understood by young people, by the new generation, and by playing computer games, by entering a virtual world, older men can forget about all this and not feel lonely anymore.

Being lonely, wanting to relax, looking for an extra occupation, not having whom to talk to, all these are reasons why an older man plays computer games all day long. This might be a good or a bad thing, depending on the man. But as long as they have a limit and know when to stop and still keep in touch with the external world this might be a good thing for an older man who needs to do something in his spare time. Playing computer games (all day long) can have its advantages and disadvantages without taking into consideration the age or the game type. Important is to know when to stop.

In the previous article we talked about computer gaming in children’s life and we have seen the advantages and disadvantages that this games have. In this article we will see how adults treat computer games and if these games have the same effect on adults as they have on children.

As surprising as this might seem, gaming is something very important not only for children but also for adults,for their psychic balance.We are not talking of course about the sort of games we used to play as children but other kind of games,such as online games.Pew Internet & American Life has made a research about this topic and the result was that the number of American people who have over 18 and play computer games has increased, so 53% of the American adults play computer games while one of five Americans play games such as World of Warcraft every day.

80% of the people with ages between 18 and 20 play video games and 60% of those who are between 30 and 49, and 40% of those who are between 50 and 64, also play computer games.

My brother for example (age 28) still plays a lot of computer games,although he has a job, friends,and a lot on his mind.But he still makes time every day to play computer games and this doesn’t stop him from being a very serious and reliable person,so for those of you who might think that adults who play computer games have a problem,well you are wrong.I suppose that adult computer gaming is not as dangerous as youth computer gaming.Adults (or at least most of them) know when to stop and most of them play during the break at work or half an hour at home before going to sleep just as a relaxing method.

Adult computer gaming has increased because of the very fast life style that most of the adults have.Adults sometimes need a little break and something do distract their mind.And most of the times this distraction is a computer game.

Specialists advice adults who are married and already have children, not to exaggerate with computer games,and sometimes maybe even try to include their families in this plays.Of course, it is well known the father-son relationship and its importance,so if it is possible why not improve it through an online football match or an online puzzle?

Of course outdoor activities should still lead the competition real-virtual games,but if not possible computer games can and I’m sure they will do a great job at relaxing every each of us.

Adult online gaming is nowadays something very normal,so if one day you see your husband being a warrior or a matrix figure,don’t worry he will be just fine.And if you as a husband see one day your wife being a very important designer or a very good online cook,don’t worry either,she will also be just fine.Adult online gaming is or at least should be just a way to relax and nothing more than that.

Can any of you remember the “hide and seek” time? Or maybe the “tic-tac-toe” period? Because I for one sure remember the times when I would just not get tired of playing outside with my friends (real friends, not virtual) when games were fun, simple, and non-violent.

Children of today live in a “computer gaming world” which whether we like it or not, has both its advantages and disadvantages .Before starting to say anything about the advantages and the disadvantages presented by this “computer gaming world” I must mention that these games are not only played by children but very often these games are played by grown ups. So the question we need to ask ourselves is whether these games destroy our children youth or maybe whether they resurrect ours.

There are several types of computer games. Every area of our world has a game in a virtual world. And in this “computer gaming world” our real life becomes nicer, easier, lighter but on the other hand can also become worst than the reality one may live in, harder, darker. It depends on every each of us to learn how and especially how much to use these virtual games.

One main advantage of these games is that they improve one’s IT skills. For example children in general (who are known to be very perceptive of everything new) learn easier how to use a computer by playing computer games.

A second advantage is that while children play computer games  (which is mainly an indoor activity) parents don’t have the concern of always asking themselves where their children are knowing them safe in front of the computer, and they don’t have to stop their work to go check on the children.

A third advantage of computer games is that it doesn’t take such a long time  (for example you can make a car race in 5 minutes while an outdoor bicycle race would require at least 15 minutes and another 2-3 friends) and also because children can play it when they are sick and have to stay in or when the weather is bad.
A first disadvantage that I really want and need to talk about is the ADHD.

(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

Having this syndrome a child will not be able to concentrate for a long period of time, will have problems in remembering things, and will not be able to learn as much as it will be expected of him to learn.This syndrome will also create a gap between the child suffering of it and the other children who don’t.

A second disadvantage is the solitude that a child can get into while spending too much time in the „computer gaming world”. A child might get to like more his virtual friends than his real friends and might even not make the difference between what is real and what is virtual.

The third and in my opinion the most important disadvantage of computer gaming is the violence that children can learn from computer gaming and the fact that their social behavior may be very easily destroyed.In order to avoid these things, specialists suggest parents to make a computer program that their child must respect (for example, computer games only 2 hours per day) and to try and create more family activities for the child to be a part of and to be encouraged to socialize with other children by real means not via a computer game in a „computer gaming world”.

In the next article we will see how adults deal with computer games and the „computer gaming world”