How to Write an Essay about Video Games

author By Mary Boies
video-games-essay-guide

Many students, even those who like video games, do not like writing essays on video games. Yet video games are a fertile topic area preferred by most instructors.

Video game essay guide

Students hate writing these essays because writing them on video games is hard work; it is not like playing one. It is hard work involving researching, creating an outline, developing a first draft, and then editing it.

In this post, you will discover what you need to do from A to Z to create the perfect essay on video games. While this post may not be as exciting as playing a video game, it will help you create the perfect essay.

What is a video game?

If you have a video game essay assignment, the first thing you need to know is the definition of a video game. You cannot write a great essay about video games if you do not know the meaning of a video game.

So what is a video game? A video game is a video-based or electronic game designed to be played by a single player or multiple players. A good example of a video game is the COD (Call of Duty) video game that allows single or multiple players to play as soldiers in various missions or battles in real-life settings. Modern games are designed to ensure the players who play them have a blast every time they play. This is the reason people, especially young people, get addicted to gaming.

Most video game essay topics don't focus on specific games, but sometimes they do. When they do, you must try to find out more about the game before you do anything else. Nevertheless, essays on video games are often not game-specific. So even if you are not an avid gamer, another student who is will not really have an advantage when you guys are asked to write an essay on video games.

Types of Video Game Essays

Video games

Video game essays can be argumentative essays, expository essays, narrative essays, descriptive essays, and cause & effect essays.

Apart from all these types of video game essays, you will also be asked to write a common app essay or a college essay about video games. A video game can be an excellent topic for a college essay given the craze around it. Unlike other stuff that unified people, both young and old play games. Video games build spatial awareness of the players, enhance problem-solving skills, modify the functionality of the brain, and be used to simulate real-life activities. There are also other sides of video games.

Argumentative essays

Argumentative essays, which is a close cousin to persuasive essays. They are also called persuasive essays because a typical argumentative essay is all about convincing the reader to agree to a specific argument. When writing an argumentative essay, you need to research the topic, take a position based on the evidence you find, and then develop your essay by presenting arguments supporting your position. To get maximum marks when writing an argumentative essay, you need to be convincing, accurate, informative, and reader-oriented. And your essay needs to have a good structure and organization.

Examples of argumentative video game essays you can be asked to write about include:

Expository essays

An expository essay analyzes a topic generally without making a specific argument or taking a position to support it. Expository essays aim to define, explain, or talk about a topic generally. To write a good expository essay, you need to do a good research so that your paper will be based on facts. Because when professors give expository essay assignments, they expect essays based on facts. And facts can only come from thorough research.

Examples of expository video game essays you can be asked to write about include:

Narrative essays

Narrative essays tell important stories. Most narrative essay assignments enable the writer to share a significant experience or story in their life. Because of this, narrative essays are usually more engaging than other types of essays. The best narrative essays tell a straightforward story without trying to convince the reader about anything. The most important thing you need to do when writing a narrative essay is to make sure there is something the reader can take away or learn from it.

Examples of narrative video game essays you can be asked to write about include:

Descriptive essays

Descriptive essays provide a comprehensive depiction or portrayal of a specific thing. They are usually given to allow students to discover more about specific topics. To write a good descriptive essay, your aim should be to help the reader to visualize the topic through your words. So be as detailed as possible to ensure the reader gets the complete picture from your words.

Examples of descriptive video games you can be asked to write about include:

Cause and effect essays

These essays explain how things are linked. The typical cause-and-effect essay involves the explanation of reasons why certain things happen and the effects or consequences of those things happening.

Examples of cause and effect video game essays you can be asked to write about include:

Steps to Write a Perfect Video Games Essay

video Games guide

To write the perfect video game essay, follow the eight steps below. The steps provide all the information you need to write an excellent video game essay from scratch.

1.  Unpack the question from the prompt

The most important thing you need to do before you write any essay is to understand the prompt. You need to read the prompt two or three times slowly to make sure you understand everything.  By understanding what your instructor wants you to write, you put yourself in a position to write an excellent essay.

Particularly focus on reading the topic/question several times to understand it. When reading the question, think about two things � what is being asked directly and indirectly. What is being asked directly is what the question is asking for literally.

What is being asked indirectly is your take and your understanding of the topic as per the topics you have covered in class. By thinking about what is being asked both directly and indirectly, you increase your chances of doing good research and writing an excellent essay.

In addition to focusing on the topic, also note the format, the deadline, and the word count. Having these things in mind will help you to make sure the essay you develop is exactly what your instructor is expecting.

2. Choose a suitable topic

After reading the prompt, do some light research and then decide what exactly you will write about. This is the point when you focus on how you will answer the prompt or essay.

So decide what you will write about at this stage. Make the topic very specific. Sometimes, it is unnecessary to make the topic very specific because it already is. If you feel that the video game topic you want to write about is very specific, ignore this step and jump to the next one.

3. Develop your thesis statement

After deciding on a suitable topic for your video game essay, develop an appropriate thesis statement for it based on the topic.  The thesis statement is probably the most important part of an essay.

It is important because it gives direction to the essay for the writer/author. It does this by giving the author something to focus on when writing. It is also important in the sense that it tells the reader what exactly the essay will be about. Experienced readers usually just look at the thesis only to decide if an essay is worth reading.

So come up with a good thesis statement that is clear enough to guide your work. And that is interesting enough to grab the attention of the reader. Examples of video game essay thesis statements that are both clear and attention-grabbing include:

4. Plan your essay

When choosing your topic and developing your thesis statement, you will identify some key arguments you will want to use to support your thesis. In this step, plan your essay by deciding which key arguments will make it to your essay and in what order.

Once you decide which arguments will make it to your essay, create a rough outline and include them there. The outline should include an introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs (more if required by your word count), and a conclusion paragraph.

In your introduction paragraph outline, write down the key parts of your introduction including the hook statement, key background information, and the thesis statement.

In the first body paragraph outline, include key parts including the key argument and concluding sentence. Then proceed to do the same for the second body paragraph and the third body paragraph.

In your conclusion paragraph outline, restate the thesis in different words and write your closing sentence.

Related Article: Note-taking strategies for success.

5. Research widely and organize your sources

At this point, you have a rough outline you can follow for your research and when writing the essay itself. And that is exactly what you should do.

Build on the light research you had done earlier by finding examples, data, and other information to support the key arguments you have included in your essay outline. Note down the key points you will use to support your key arguments under the key arguments you noted in your outline.

Only get your key points from reliable sources such as books, journals, reliable websites, and so on.  And that you note down all the sources in your outline. By the time you are done with your research, you should have all the information you need to develop your essay in your outline.

6. Write the first draft

After completing your rough outline by filling it in with points from research, you should write your first draft. Begin by writing the complete introduction and then developing the body paragraphs. Simply use the information you have gathered in your outline to make sure you are on the right track.

Finish writing your first draft by developing the conclusion. By following the outline you made you should have no difficulties to develop the essay itself. When writing the body of your essay, you should use examples, evidence, and statistics. Use different perspectives and angles, look at the pros and cons of video games, and touch on something about the players, etc.

It does not matter whether you are writing about Minecraft or League of Nations, the process is the same.

The key thing to remember when developing the body paragraphs is to always make sure they are linked. Use transition words or phrases where necessary to create good flow.

Related: How to conclude an essay with a bang!

7. Proofread, Edit, and polish your video games essay

After completing your first draft, edit it thoroughly. This is the only way to turn an ordinary video game essay into an excellent video game essay.

Start the editing by proofreading your essay about a day after writing the conclusion. Getting extended rest first before editing will ensure you have a fresh pair of eyes.

When proofreading you should focus on making sure the structure, the words, the punctuations, and the references are right.

After proofreading the first time, use editing software to further proofread your video game essay before proofreading it one more time.

Your essay will be ready for submission by the time you are done.

8. Submit in the right format

At this point, you have done everything possible to create an awesome video game essay. All you need to do is to submit it in the right format (Doc, Docx, or PDF) before the deadline.

Video Games Topics and Ideas to Consider

Video Game Guide to write an essay

Below are 30 examples of video game topics you can use to write your own video game essay.

Example of an Expository Essay on Video Games

The benefits of video gaming

Nowadays, it is a well-established fact that the excessive playing of video games comes with many negative consequences. That said, many people do not know the fact that regular video gaming also comes with many benefits. In this essay, we will look at how playing video games regularly can lead to benefits such as healthy brain stimulation, stress, relief, and improved problem-solving skills.

Regularly playing video games promotes healthy brain stimulation. Studies have revealed that video gaming is not only fun but it also works out the brain. This can lead to an increase in gray matter and enhanced brain connectivity. The fact that gray matter is linked to spatial navigation, perception, memories, and muscle control means people who enhance their gray matter stand to benefit a lot. So playing video games can improve one�s, mental faculties.

Playing games regularly also improves problem-solving skills. The most modern video games are mission-based/strategy-based and multi-level. You have to act fast and do a lot of thinking to move forward or overcome each level. Doing this consistently when playing such video games will improve your problem-solving skills. Therefore, parents who want their kids to become better problem solvers should not dissuade them from playing video games.

Lastly, playing video games frequently provides stress relief. Video games improve mood and reduce high blood pressure. They are also thought to help with stress relief. This is the reason therapists have been using them over the last ten years for stress relief. Hence if you believe your son or daughter could do with stress relief, you should not restrict their gaming time.

Video games have many positive effects. They help to improve the mind, improve problem-solving skills, and reduce stress. In this essay, you learned how these benefits of gaming come about. You now know that frequent video gaming is not entirely negative; it also has some benefits.

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