THERE are some people who think gaming is a culture, but others believe that it is a waste of time. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about what they think about gaming and how it affects people. Granger students think that the gaming can be a stress reliever, simply a form of entertainment, or a way to get their anger of the real world out.

Lancers also play games just to escape reality- to not think about all the stress that is going on in their life. “I am only focused on the game, not anything else in my life,” Jose Topete (12) said.

There are some who think that it’s a waste of time. “ You can be playing football, soccer, etc. I prefer playing in real life rather than on a console,” Marcos Suarez (12) said.

People may enjoy playing games with their friends online, as most people cannot play most of the time because of distance problems.

Everyone who plays video games always say the same things when asked what a negative affects gaming has on them: lack of sleep. “Sometimes I stay up too late playing video games, and I wake up late for school,” Kyle Thompson (12) said.

“Gaming affects your body and your health. It affects you in a good way because you learn more about technology and coding, that is really all that is good about gaming,“ Suarez said. Some Lancers believe that it helps them learn more about technology and what’s going on in the world. Although there may be some positives on gaming, there are a lot of negatives that go along with it as well. Some students feel as though it has a bad influence. In some cases people have done some serious crimes and blamed them on the video games. Some of these crimes include killing, robbing, and torturing. This may be because an individual’s mind is not really in the right state to be playing such violent games. Most Lancers play video games around 6-10 at night due to working or doing other things throughout the day.

Some Lancers also believe that gaming doesn’t have a culture. They may say this is because they simply play alone and/or when they have free time. During this time students are looking for entertainment to wind down from a busy day. “I want to escape reality,” Gilad Lara (11) said.

Others believe that gaming really brings people together. With many races and living styles, teams of people can come together. People may sometimes fight online, but there is nothing serious that can really happen over the internet, because no one really knows the people that they are talking to. People that have friends that are very far away can come together to play in a game. They can have fun like they used to when they were together at one point, like the saying goes, “we may not talk a lot, but when we do it is like we never stopped talking.” It may also bring strangers together, as some people can make new friends online- you are not limited to people that you have met in real life. People may have a good bond with people they met online through gaming. Lancers even make friends from playing video games together. Students overhear people talking about playing video games and the game that they are playing and that gives them the courage to ask what their gamertag is so that they can play together, and that is when they become friends. Although there can be some really good friends while playing video games, there can be people who just get on the game to lower people’s self esteem. People should not really take what people say online to heart, but sometimes even just hearing the mean things that people have to say can be very hurtful. Gaming has many communities- it can vary from fighting game communities to shooter game communities. Gaming is not for everyone, and a lot of Lancers have different opinions on whether to play games or go out, but at the end of the day it is the choice of Lancers to do what they will enjoy most.