Why Are Video Games Beneficial to Everyone?

 

Why Are Video Games Beneficial to Everyone? 

Alan Gershenfeld, co-founder and president of E-Line Media, a publisher of computer and video games, and a Founding Industry Fellow at Arizona State University's Center for Games and Impact says, "If educational video games are well executed, they can provide a strong framework for inquiry and project-based learning." He continues, "Games are also specially adapted to fostering the abilities necessary for navigating a complicated, interconnected, fast-changing 21st century."  

Attaching labels such as "good," "bad," "violent," or "prosocial," according to Isabela Granic and her colleagues at Radboud University in the Netherlands largely overlooks the complicated picture surrounding the new generation of video games now available. Players are drawn to the video games they enjoy, and their motivation for playing shapes the benefits and drawbacks of how they engage with these games.

Granic also mentioned that video games could be useful instruments for teaching resilience in the face of failure. She claims that youngsters can develop emotional resilience in their everyday lives by learning to cope with repeated failures in games. 

Meanwhile, Daphne Bavelier, a neurologist at the University of Rochester in New York, adds, "When we talk about the consequences of video games, we need to be significantly more nuanced."

In 2003, Bavelier and a friend published a study that used a series of visual puzzles to show that people who played action games for at least 4 days a week for at least 1 hour per day were better at rapidly processing complex information, estimating numbers of objects, controlling where their attention was focused spatially, and switching quickly between tasks than non-gamers. 

If you play action games, you'll be able to make accurate decisions. Scientists from the University of Rochester conducted research in which volunteers aged 18 to 25 were divided into two groups and were found to be 25% faster. The action-packed first-person shooter games "Call of Duty 2" and "Unreal Tournament" were played by one group, while the simulator game "The Sims 2" was played by the other. In a task unrelated to video games, action game players made 25 percent faster selections without sacrificing accuracy. 

Last but not least, surgeons can improve their laparoscopic skills by playing video games. According to a study published in the journal PLOS One, doctors who spent one month playing Wii Tennis, Wii Table Tennis, or a balloon warfare game (called High Altitude Battle) performed better in simulated tasks designed to test eye-hand coordination and movement precision.

Note: Laparoscopic surgery involves inserting a small tube with a camera into the belly to view organs on a screen rather than cutting patients up completely.

That's a fantastic find. When given the opportunity, everyone should attempt playing video games.