The Halo Effect on Human Functionalism

Video game development has been accelerating over time. With the rate of technological advancement we are currently seeing, creativity and invention have raised the bar for the sector. Despite the fact that video games have been around for a while, the introduction of the Halo video games cannot be overlooked. Halo has revolutionized the video game business and altered how people traditionally view them. Halo is a science fiction video game with a military theme. It is a first-person shooter video game made by Bungie (Lenhart and Amanda 9). Teenagers love this game because it makes many assumptions about functionalism and human nature. The game features fight between humanity and a theocratic alliance composed of aliens. It is an adamant fight between two fronts which battle for control of superiority. One front is led by human beings while the other front is led by Covenants. The game has been played in many fronts with youths being the largest group. The game combines human skills and art of shooting. The process of playing the game has been established to have effects of human morals, nature, and functionalism.

The Halo Video Games can be well understood by evaluation of the Halo Universe. Halo Universe is a fictional universe where the activities of Halo fight take place. It is the Halo media space through the 26th-century humankind that controls the universe. The humankind has control of the hundreds of the colonies across space. In the game, humankind control Orion Arm of the powerful Milky Way galaxy (Thompson and Clive 34).A unit alliance known as Covenants exist which work to conquer the colonizers. The Covenants are motivated by the fact that they will become very powerful and start operating at godhood level after conquering the humankind control. The success of the Covenant was prophesied by the prophets who motivated the aggressive Covenants to fight more and attain the godhood ranks (Jull and Jasper 23). After forming the godhood level, they would operate in the form of the eponymous Halos. Halos are powerful ring-shaped weapon used in dreadful fights. Halos were created by a very ancient group known as Forerunners whose their mission is to destroy humankind. The battle between the two groups makes the Halo Games have both negative and positive impact of human functionalism.

Halo games were made for entertainment. Since it is a computer game, the primary target are the individuals who are fond of playing computer games. The main composition who play computer games is mainly the youth. However, Halo games can be played by any category of people. The game has no restrictions hence can be played by young children and teens as well as middle-aged people. Since the game uses the skills of shooting the opponent, the main objective to eliminate the shooter and one is required to have very effective skills in handling the weapons (Bates and LaMotte 125). Guns are main fighting weapons which when well-used lead to one winning the battle easily. However, both the fighters have got the same type of weapons hence the battle is more on skills and art of handling the available weapons. Since fighting is aimed at getting high ranks in the control of universe, the motivation to get into godhood levels motivates the Covenants and hence the humankind gets into a tough battle. The only way to get out of the complex situation is to fight more and fight using skills. The game being made by Bungie group. The creator of the game emphasizes on drawing the hidden battle of human nature and the universe creatures. The continued play of the game has got various impact on the human functionalism. Individuals who play the game acquire skills related to accuracy and shooting art in relation to online games. Since the game has got real time strategy, is very much interesting while playing, making it attractive to young people and game lovers. The Halo games are designed in a way that they have a lot of impact on the human functionalism. Since human functionalism is the doctrine of that which influences personal thoughts, desires, pains and that which is connected to the mind, playing the Halo games has got both negative and positive impact on human functionalism. According to the theory of human functionalism, all activities done by a given individual have an impact on the human reasoning. The outcome is achieved through personal activities, behavior and human perception. Halo games change the way human beings view the battle and fight with the other people though it may not be an immediate result. The concept of competition can be said to be one of the originators’ idea which promotes the fun of the game. The game has got stimulation to the human brain which makes the players have different views towards a given set of conditions.

In relation to culture, Halo feeling can be said to have negative impact on the society, people who play the game for too long have been found to have negative functionalism. Playing the game involves shooting and battling with the opponents to have control of the universe. The main goal is to win through accurate killing of the opponents. Failure to kill while playing the game leads to one being killed or injured while playing it. The long time effect hence leads to one having increased desire to win through violence and tricks. In real life situation, people who play the game for long time may hence be induced and inclined to feelings of eliminating their close opponents through violent approaches. The game involves chasing for illusion control which cannot be physically controlled or attained in real life condition. Since the players seek to capitalize on attaining a given level of control, they get into conditioned form which seeks one to have very strong desires of winning in every condition. The spirit of fighting and completion is very dangerous if not controlled in the social arena. People may end up acquiring very strong feelings of fighting of forcing success using unfair means. Forcing for success can be a very detrimental activity since human being may become very hard to control and lose the ethical nature. The cultural norms may end being ignored and washed away. Since every community has got is valued cultural practices, continued control of the game on human functionalism may reduce good morals of human beings. Cultural practices should be valued natured. However, when an individual gets into very serious playing of the Halo games, one may forget the humanistic nature and get totally engrossed in poor mannerisms. The final outcome is poor human relationship and decline in value of culture in the growth of the community.

The community has got negative view on Halo games. The negative view main comes from the nature of the game and its composition. The natural setting of the game is universe. In the universe, there is always battles for the control of the space. Lack of good space control by humankind and the Covenants make humankind become very much aggressive while fighting for his success in the space. Since the fighting space provides the same conditions for each group, the society members view it negatively (Kafai and Yasmin 216). Human beings should control the universe. The control of the universe can be attained through working together of the individuals something which does not happen. The individuals seem to betray each other, raising the level of human suspicion. The context of suspicion hence makes human being in the natural settings start having very strong trust issues. Curing trust issues in human beings is not an easy activity. It is therefore evident that the games have some negative impact on the growth and progress of the community in relation to cultural growth (Mangan and Bruce 17). Causes of anxiety and conflicting desire may rise up among the individuals who play the games for long time. The conflict is caused by the nature of the game which gets into human mind that being a good fighter is all what is highly needed in course of doing competition. The thoughts and imaginations of metaphysical world and its nature may still lead to individuals yearning to operate at different conditions and physical state. One may hence become very much power hungry in relation to acquisition of control and power. The hypothetical world is not existent hence the human nature for long for such conditions may be meaningless. The outcome may only lead to negative desire to control the world which may not be attainable. Cases of disrespect of the rule of law and the governing bodies is another impact which is closely related to the Halo games.

Though Halo games have been found to have some little impact on the nature of human culture and character, the contribution may not be that much impressive. Halo games have been found to have an increased level of knowledge and accuracy to the players. The act of playing the Halo game gives one an opportunity to get challenged. Being challenged makes one to thinker faster and better (Stocking and George 167). The game hence increases personal level of critical thinking and decision making skills. Growth of personal decision making skills promotes the level of ability to solve common troubles and challenges at personal levels. Still, the skills acquired through playing the Halo game helps in solving challenges in various fronts. At an organizational levels in the community, one can make use of the creativity gained though the game to help solve social problems.

One the other hand, individuals can enhance the level of productivity through coming up with new ways of solving cultural problems. Individuals can employ the tricks and techniques in real life situations to have solutions for any cases of challenges which face them. The game still helps people to get entertained and pass time in an effective manner. Playing the game is interesting and also enjoyable. Since it is a computer game, the main target is the individuals who are fond of playing computer games. The main composition which play computer games is mainly the youth. Studies shows that most individual get good avenues to pass time effectively through playing the game. Since Halo games can be played by almost all category of people, it is a good way for socialization. The game has got no restrictions hence can be played by young children and teens as well as middle age people. Since the game uses the skills of shooting the opponent, the main objective to eliminate the shooter and one is basically required to have very effective skills in handling the weapons. Guns are main fighting weapons which when well used lead to one winning the battle easily.

The Halo Game can be said to have very negative impact on the human functionalism since it promotes various type of vices as seen above. The most common include creation of spirit of fighting and competition among the participants. The human spirit of such nature can be said to be dreadful in the cultural growth. Being a very dangerous if not controlled in the social arena. In most cases, lack of control of the human activities may end up making people to become violent and addictive to unhealthy competition. People may end up acquiring very strong feelings of fighting of forcing success using unfair means (Gee and Paul 98). Forcing for success can be a very detrimental activity since human being may become very hard to control and lose the ethical nature. The cultural norms may end being ignored and washed away. Since every community has got is valued cultural practices, continued control of the game on human functionalism may reduce good morals of human beings. Cultural practices should be valued natured. However, when an individual gets into very serious playing of the Halo games, one may forget the humanistic nature and get totally engrossed in poor mannerisms. The final outcome is poor human relationship and decline in value of culture in the growth of the community. Cultivation of poor culture may occur if there is lack of control in which the games are played.

























Works Cited

Bates, Bob, and Andre LaMotte. The game design: The art and business of creating games. Premier Press, 2011.

Gee, James Paul. "Why game studies now? Video games: A new art form." Games and culture 1.1 (2006): 58-61.

Jull, Jasper. Half-real: Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. MIT press, 2011.

Kafai, Yasmin B., and Mitchel Resnick. Constructionism in practice: Designing, thinking, and learning in a digital world. Routledge, 2006.

Lenhart Bennie and Amanda Chris. "Teens, video games, and civics: teens' gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement." Pew internet & American life project (2008).

Mangan, Bruce. "Dennett, consciousness, and the sorrows of functionalism." Consciousness and Cognition 2.1 (2013): 1-17.

Stratification, Socio-Cultural. "Functionalism and Stratification, Socio-Cultural Evolution and Revolution." (2016).

Stocking, George W., ed. Functionalism historicized: essays on British social anthropology. Vol. 2. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2014.

Thompson, Clive. "Halo 3: How Microsoft labs invented a new science of play." Wired Magazine 15.9 (2007).

Squire, Kurt. "Cultural framing of computer/video games." Game studies 2.1 (2002): 1-13.



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