Right off the bat I should tell you I love video games. My first system was a Sega Genesis with a wonky cord that I had to wobble into place just to play a game and that games was Looney Tunes Kids Sports, which was another first. As I got older I got into the RPGs; Final Fantasy, Tales of…series, .hack series (both series highly recommended and underrated but for the PS2 only), and my love for video games has only increased since then. Video games now, especially with the new graphic engines they have, give an experience similar to being in a movie you control and plot out. You can take the role of an unknown hero who saves the world or your favorite quarterback and lead your team to a Super Bowl. The point is obviously our choices are seemingly endless and amazing. The unfortunate stigma, however, has been that
video games are a waste of time and are quite bad for you. Surprisingly, that’s actually false because video games help in a number of psychological and mental ways. People are worried about physical health as well, but those are covered by Wii Fit and Dance Central, and while they may not be the best form of exercise my focus is on that video games are just mind rotting garbage.
My character in Dragon Age 2 via social.bioware.com
Stating the, maybe, obvious first video games do a great deal for hand-eye coordination. Gamers, I’ll use this term for people who play games regularly, have improved decision making skills as a result as well since in a lot of battles or quick-time events you don’t have much time to ponder your choices, studies showed their reaction times can be as high as a fighter jet pilots. All though, as expected, as the speed increases sometimes accur
There are probably tons more of possible and proven benefits, but I just wanted to break down the common misconception that video games are bad. Are there other things you or your kids could be doing that might be a better use of time? Maybe, but let’s all agree that gaming every now and again is pretty good for you. For those of you who might be a little lazy and want the TL;DR version here is a link that compilied most of what was in the studies I read 10 Surprising Video Game Benefitsacy falls off as a result, but this quick reaction time also improves dexterity, where a study showed that surgeons who were gamers were 27% faster and 37% more accurate than those who didn’t. All of the events and things happening in games also helps gamers with multi-tasking as studies show they can focus on up to 6 things at once against an average persons 4. This also helps train a gamers eye, and disproves that it will actually ruin them, as it’s been shown that playing action-type video games for a few hours a day actually improves performance by 20% on eye chart testing. Video games even improve IQ, with gamers performing 50% and managing events and spotting details. Toddlers who play games also develop a thicker cortex. The effects even branch out into relationships as well, 76% of couples who game together report back a positive influence. Games can even help improve social skills(I know what you’re thinking) in MMORPG games like World of Warcraft players are encourage to join friends and interact and rely on people to complete tasks as a team. It helps foster teamwork and communication. One last fact, and one of the more surprising statistics, violent video games have been shown to increase pain tolerance 65% and burn victims pain decreased up to 50% while gaming.