It’s the age-old question, are video games bad or good for the human race? While millions of people understand that they are simply objects of entertainment that can be educational, interesting, deep, emotional and, above all, fun, there are also millions of people who have it in their heads that video games are nothing but trouble for our youth. No doubt it’s thanks to years of seeing their kids and other people’s kids mesmerized by the tv screen, controller in hand.
Of course this ignores the fact that much of those youth are now in their college years and are perfectly capable of understand the implications of playing video games for hours on end (which they will argue, is no different than watching TV or reading a book or seeing a movie for hours on end). And while many people of all different shapes, sizes, genders and ages play video games, that hasn’t changed the fact that most adults still don’t know the difference between Master Chief and Pikachu and still think that the majority of gamers are under 13.
And thus, articles and studies trying to prove why video games are good for kids still persist. Despite all the money the industry makes and all the excellent storytelling it does, parents and most adults (especially of the elected official kind) are still completely oblivious to our number one form of entertainment. Yahoo.com has put together it’s own list of five ways games are good for you.
1. Video Games Can Improve Your Eyesight
Your mother might have had good intentions when she told you not to sit too close to the television screen, but it turns out that staring at certain digitized images can present notable visual benefits.
A March 2007 research study on how video games improve eyesight at the University of Rochester had a group of 10 male college students (who started out as non-gamers) play 30 hours of high-caliber action fare. Games included Gears of War, Lost Planet and Halo. Afterward the subjects showed a substantial increase in their ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space, compared to 10 non-gamers given the same test who didn’t go through the video game playing grind.
Research author Daphne Bevelier explained, “First-person action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution, meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects, such as letters . . . the present study highlights the potential of action-video game training for rehabilitation of visual deficits.”
In laymen terms, that means years of fragging might actually sharpen your vision by training your brain to quickly process information. This also has therapeutic ramifications, potentially aiding in the treatment of a variety of ocular disorders including vision loss from aging and lazy eye.
Of course that doesn’t mean you should go on a 30-hour fragging spree before taking an eye-exam and expect to pass . . . . Or does it?
2. Video Games Can Help You Focus
We know, it sounds crazy. After all, how many homework assignments were left unfinished due to all those late nights trying to find your way through Metroid’s labryinthian hallways so you could vanquish the evil Mother Brain?
Too many, to be sure, but for kids suffering from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), the inability to focus and finish a task goes beyond a love of Samus, Link, Mario and Pikachu.
Though in its infancy, the burgeoning field of gaming as a means to contend with the negative effects of ADHD was bolstered by a Cornell study. The study found that video games help train kids to pay attention. Even at an early age, kids seemed to respond well to games as a treatment method, showing significant improvement over their non-gaming peers.
This comes on the heels of an emerging effort aimed at directly contending with focus issues by tapping into brainwaves themselves. Expanding upon technology first created by NASA, the whimsically-named Play Attention system allows ADHD children to control customized video games simply using their minds.
Via a red bicycle helmet lined with sophisticated sensors, children are rewarded for focusing on certain gameplay elements, watching their scores rise as they maintain focus on a moving onscreen object. Over time, they begin to understand that paying attention produces higher and higher scores, equating focus with success. It might sound far-fetched, but as of 2006 Play Attention has been adopted in over 450 school systems nationwide!
Now any gamer could’ve told these so-called “researchers” that the zen-state of uber-focus and video gaming go hand-in-hand. Where have they been the last 20 years? 😉
3. Video Games Can Help You Lose Weight
Thanks to the tireless efforts of marketing reps, the image of the overweight, malnourished gamer is, at last, slowly fading. Still, there’s no question that gluing your butt to a couch for six hours a day doesn’t do anything good for that rear end and tummy area; not to mention your proclivity for high cholesterol and heart disease thanks to all that soda and chips (which you are careful not to eat while playing, of course. Don’t wanna make those controller buttons sticky. That’s important).
So how do you get a gamer to work out? Simple: build exercise into the game.
And in the case of West Virginia in the US, build it into your curriculum.
Anyone who has been to a mall in the past five years has seen Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution work its cardiovascular magic on unsuspecting teens dancing away in the arcade area, showing their skillz. But state and school officials in the Appalachian state (that’s West Virginia people) have upped the ante by partnering with Konami to put DDR machines in all 765 of its schools. School officials see it as an innovative way to engage kids in physical education, while the kids see it as . . . well, video games in school! Not exactly a hard sell.
For those of us no longer stuck in classrooms all day, there’s certainly no shortage of games designed to make you move instead of sit. From the myriad home versions of DDR to Sony’s Eyetoy Kinetic to a whole plethora of Wii games, consoles have certainly tried helping you shed a pound or two without boring yourself into a stupor.
Yahoo even put one of their own through an experiment wherein their editor Mike, a 203 pound, six foot guy, would go on a diet and excersize using nothing but video games (the likes of DDR and Eyetoy Kinetic) and blog about the results as he went through his routines. You can check out Project Gutbuster and see for yourself the effects these games can have on ones physical health.
And of course, anyone with a copy of Wii Sports knows that an evening of virtual tennis has real-world ramifications, particularly in the triceps and back muscles. Is anyone working on Wii Masseuse?
4. Video Games Can Help You Understand Classic Literature
It’s no secret that games draw inspiration from books, but one enterprising teacher has turned the tables by using Halo to help his students understand the complexities of Homeric epics.
Roger Travis, associate professor of modern and classical languages at the University of Connecticut, claims that the trials and tribulations of Trojan hero Aeneas chronicled in Virgil’s Aeneid mirror those of Halo’s Master Chief.
Travis clarifies, “Both Halo and the Aeneid tell a story about a more-than-human hero defeating enemies who would be too much for ordinary people like us – enemies who nevertheless bear an important resemblance to the ones we and the Romans face in our respective presents.”
He likens the interactivity found in contemporary gaming to the oral tradition that prompted ancient audiences to connect with their plays, going so far as to actually haul an Xbox to class to help prove his point.
Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of endless gamers rushing to join Travis’ class! 😀
5. Video Games Can Literally Save Lives . . . When Those Lives Hang in the Delicate Hand of a Surgeon
There’s nothing particularly pleasant about going under the knife, especially if you’re wary of the surgeon’s skills. That’s why before making the first incision, Dr. James Clarence Rosser, Jr. of New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center lets his patients know that he’s awesome at Super Monkey Ball.
You read correctly. Years of honing his hand-eye coordination with video games have led the good doctor to believe that they can have a significant impact as training tools for laparoscopic surgeons at every level.
He takes his theory quite seriously, and after co-authoring a study proving that surgeons who played video games three times a week were faster and made fewer mistakes than those who preferred to avoid the toys, the rest of the medical community is, too.
So remember kids, if you are ever in an accident and need to get surgery, make sure the guy working on you has his Super Monkey Ball chops first. 🙂