Effects of Online Games in the Academic Performance of ICT Students: An Emerging Guide

Abstract

Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PC’s consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person and other strategy games. The design of online games can range from simple text-based environments to the incorporation of complex graphics and virtual worlds. The existence of online components within a game can range from minor features, such as an online leaderboard, to being part of core gameplay, such as directly playing against other players. Many online games create their online communities, while their games, especially social games, integrate the players in existing real-life communities. The researchers utilized the descriptive research method. It is used to describe the characteristics of a population or phenomenon being studied. The qualitative descriptive method was used. The researchers utilized questionnaires, unstructured interviews, and FGD to the 50 respondents, 25 female and 25 male ICT students. Focused group discussion is a technique where the researchers assembled a group of individuals to discuss a specific topic, aiming to draw complex personal experiences, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes of the participants through a moderated interaction. Students should engage in the positive and negative effects of online games. The results showed the effects of online games to online gamers and how it can affect the studies of individuals. Online game culture sometimes faces criticisms for an environment that might promote cyberbullying, violence, and xenophobia. Others are also concerned about gaming addiction or social stigma. Online games have attracted players from a variety of ages, nationalities, and occupations. The online game content can also be studied in the scientific field, especially gamers’ interactions within virtual societies and the behaviors and social phenomena of everyday life.