So China is still pretty crazy, is just about what I got from this book. It looks like we’re still delving into how imperialism, the West, and otherwise Modern influences helped to remake China into a weird, scary place. Especially in that modern movements pushed China towards viewing bodies, and especially women’s bodies, as devices of reproduction or how Mao pushed everyone to do sports so that they, China’s citizenry and by extension China, could be powerful. Since we’ve been talking so much about sexism and other women’s issues and just how depressing China is, I’d like to talk more about what modern games are doing to the body as well as what current body trends amongst gamers are heading towards.

Games, video or otherwise, just genuinely improve people. Obviously, sports and exercise have huge benefits to health which are all well documented so we won’t really be talking about that either. As we had briefly discussed last week, certain games have the capability of curing early onset cataracts. While this is one of the only direct physical benefits of games that has been researched, this seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. Video games seem to allow for better multitasking, and statistically, ‘gamers’ have larger areas of the brain that focus on rewards. All this is clearly indicating that games have a significant effect on our physical and mental processes, and it will be interesting to see what changes emerge from the increasing amount of people playing them.

Aside from the physiological changes games engender, the culture around them is also changing. The body image of those who play games has historically, and stereotypically, been divided between people who play sports, athletic and healthy, and those who play video games, over or underweight and out of shape. However, due to the rapid rise in eSports, and its current focal location in game culture, we are seeing a significant shift. Most professional gamers actually have a similar athletic health standard to those who play physical sports. This is because being fit greatly affects mental ability, including reaction speed, reasoning, and emotional health. This new ideal will likely reshape what most people think of as the stereotypical gamer, already having that effect within gaming circles.