Waters, John K. on a Quest for English. T.H.E. Journal 34.10 (2007): 27-28,. ERIC. Web

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Dougherty, Conor. "Videogamers Embark on Nonkilling Spree --- 'Pacifist Run' Wins Bragging Rights; Spells, Not Swords." Wall Street Journal: A.1. Jan 31 2012. ABI/INFORM Complete; Los Angeles Times; ProQuest Newsstand. Web. 6 Nov. 2012 .

This article introduces Daniel Mullins, who has taken videogame violence to a new level. Mullins plays the character “Felix the Peaceful Monk” in the RPG (role-playing game), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, who is quite similar to a priest. Instead of killing the evil, he would use his character’s magic to sort of “heal” the evil. One example of how he “healed” the evil was by hitting the assassin with a calming spell. This shows that people are able to place real world morals into the virtual gaming world. This type of gaming is referred to as the “pacifist run”. Mullins has been posting excerpts of his gaming experience onto YouTube, which has also inspired other gamers around the world to try this unique new approach to gaming. Another follower is Ian Jones; his character would possess bystanders in the virtual world and have those possessed do his killing for him. The quote “today videogames involve complex fictional worlds and give players free rein to create and shape characters – including the chance to mold their moral compass” supports my argument since it shows that it is not videogames that desensitizes a person, but the person’s decision and behavior towards the videogames that causes desensitization within a person. DeeAnna Soicher was a parent who was concerned with allowing her teenage son to play “violent” videogames that included shooting. But when she found that her son posted an online video for how to complete a death match in the game “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” she was shown that there are also alternate creative ways that allowed the player to defeat the game without using any sort of violence. Because players would have to think outside of the box and strategically find a way to defeat a level on a game shows that the player could also increase their ability to think critically. Counterargument to this article could be that not every video gamer plays as a pacifist. But this article shows that it is a player’s own decision and behavior towards the game that causes desensitization or better moral understanding in a person.

Waters, John K. "On A Quest For English." T.H.E. Journal 34.10 (2007): 27-28,. ERIC. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.

This article talks about MMORPG, such as World of Warcraft (WoW), to have great potential as a learning tool for ESL programs in US schools. Not only does WoW helps as a learning tool in the United States, but can also help foreign speakers across the world learn English as well. Professor Schneider would interact with Chinese children over the game, WoW, to help them learn English by using the game to motivate these children to learn English. WoW highly motivated the Chinese students to learn English more sufficiently since it was essential to helping them advance throughout the game. Learning English over MMORPG allowed the students to actually use the language they are learning by interacting withother people in the gaming community instead of just sitting in class and having the choice of either using the English to respond to the teacher or just sitting there saying nothing and falling asleep. Not only was MMORPG a great place to learn English, but to also acquire a second language. Since MMORPG required social interaction between many participating players, many players were able to interact with others who had different language abilities. MMORPG strongly allows a player to learn English more efficiently since you are required to comprehend mission information in able to advance into the game. One downfall is that if you want to benefit learning a language from MMORPG, you must at least possess some knowledge on the language and not be an absolute beginner.