10 Ways Videogames Are Good for You
People who call videogames the root of all evil need to be put in their place. Here are 10 points to help you pwn them.1. Videogames can teach leadership skills. If you play RPGs, you've had to strategize what areas your character will specialize in, choose just the right companions based on their skill sets, and allocate resources effectively. And if you've run a guild or clan in an MMORPG, you've sharpened your leadership abilities even more. "A guild master," writes John Seely Brown, director emeritus of Xerox PARC and a visiting scholar at USC, "must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members; creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes. Never mind the virtual surroundings; these conditions provide real-world training a manager can apply directly in the workplace." (Source)
2. Gaming is an active cognitive experience (vs. passive TV watching). The people who claim gaming is rotting your brain are often the same folks who'll soak up hours of dreck like "Deal or No Deal" each night. "Watching television is a completely passive experience... Video gamers, on the other hand, are active during their media interaction," writes teacher, parent and gamer Russell Dawson in the article, Benefits of Playing VideoGames. "Some games may require quick reflexes or some may require problem solving or analytical thinking skills. All video games, by their very nature, require players to use their powers of cognition at some level." (Source)
3. Gaming = experimentation. The act of progressing through a game essentially boils down to the question, "What happens if I do this?" which is the essence of scientific experimentation. "Video games require the player to learn the rules through trial and error, observation, and hypothesis testing," says Obe Hostetter of James Madison University's Department of Educational Technology. "These cognitive skills are essential skills in science called inductive discovery." (Source)
4. Videogames can improve physical health. There have been several documented cases of people losing weight playing the Wii, and the soon-to-be-released Wii Fit will whip us into shape with yoga and other exercises. And there's been scientific research examining students at some of the 1,500+ schools across the country integrating Dance Dance Revolution into their gym classes. West Virginia UniversityÕs School of Physical Education "found significant health benefits for overweight children who played the game regularly, including improved blood pressure, overall fitness scores and endothelial function, which reflects the arteriesÕ ability to deliver oxygen." (Source)
5. Gaming enhances hand-eye coordination. The next time you need surgery, choose a doctor who's a gamer. Research performed at the Beth Israel Medical Center found that surgeons who played three or more hours of videogames a week made 37 percent fewer mistakes than those who didn't. (Source)
6. Videogames improve peripheral vision. According to researchers at the University of Rochester in New York, "Video gamers tend to be more attuned to their surroundings while performing tasks like driving down a residential street, where they may be more likely to pick out a child running after a ball than a non-video gamer. Such action video games train the brain to better process certain visual information." (Source)
7. Gaming builds multitasking skills. Many modern games are so complex that they train the brain to follow a number of simulaneous actions and events. Research published in the journal Nature shows that "experienced players of these games are 30 percent to 50 percent better than nonplayers at taking in everything that happens around them. They perceive numerous objects without having to count them, switch attention rapidly and track many items at once." (Source)
8. Videogames can help with conditions such as autism and Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.). Some psychologists treating children with A.D.D. prescribe videogames to help them learn to focus. (Source) And a mother of an autistic child has written an article detailing how gaming has helped her boy develop skills and interact with the family. "Video games provide the visual patterns, speed and storyline that our kids love while helping them refine basic skills they might not grasp in your normal everyday setting," wites Kandi Demarest. "They also allow our unique kids an acceptable way to de-stress and mellow out while increasing their knowledge of peer-related topics." (Source)
9. Videogames can encourage communication and cooperation. Researchers at England's Bristol University observed the effects of videogame play on social interaction. They found "a number of strong, useful discussions between groups of children, in which individuals were required to listen to others and to justify their ideas in ways that would encourage others to accept them." (Source)
10. Videogames have positive effects in healthcare. Mark Griffiths, professor at Nottingham Trent University, says when recuperating children are offered videogames to play, they require less medication for pain relief, feel less nausea and register lower blood pressure than those who didn't play games. (Source) Then there's the widely praised work of Penny Arcade's Child's Play program providing games to hospitals, which has been observed to lift a hospitalized child's spirits and provide bonding time between a child and a hospitalized parent. (Source)
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