Benefits of Video games

Video games today are most commonly viewed as a way for students of high schools and colleges to slack off and procrastinate on homework and studies.  What most people are not aware of though, is the social benefits that video gaming has on individuals.  Video games can have positive effects on a gamer's social life when it comes to teamwork, helping people, multitasking, and communicating efficiently.

Educational Benefits for Students

A recent study from the Education Development Center and the U.S. Congress-supported Ready To Learn (RTL) Initiative found that a curriculum that involved digital media such as video games could improve  early literacy skills when coupled with strong parental and teacher involvement. Interestingly, the study focused on young children, and 4 and 5-year-olds who participated showed increases in letter recognition, sounds association with letters, and understanding basic concepts about stories and print.

The key for this study was having high-quality educational titles, along with parents and teachers who were equally invested in the subject matter. That way kids could discuss and examine the concepts that they were exposed to in the games. Also interesting is the value that video games are proven to have even for very young players. A study by the Education Department Center further found that low-income children are “better prepared for success in kindergarten when their preschool teachers incorporate educational video and games from the Ready to Learn Initiative.”

Older children such as teens and tweens can benefit from game-play as well.Even traditional games teach kids basic everyday skills, according to Ian Bogost, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and founder of software maker Persuasive Games. “Look at ‘World of Warcraft’: You’ve got 11-year-olds who are learning to delegate responsibility, promote teamwork and steer groups of people toward a common goal.”

Games that are designed to help teach are having an impact on college-agepupils as well. Following a recent 3D virtual simulation of a US/Canadianborder crossing, wherein students assumed the role of guards, Loyalist Collegein Ontario reported that the number of successful test scores increased from 56percent to 95 percent.

Improved Multitasking

Other carefully-designed studies have also shown that action video games canimprove several aspects of brain activity, including multitasking. According tostudies by Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at theUniversity of Rochester, video gamers show real-world improvements on tests of attention, accuracy, vision and multitasking after playing certain titles.

“If you think about it, the attentional and working memory demands of videogames can be much greater than other tasks,” says Michael Stroud, a professor of psychology at Merrimack College. “Consider Pac-Man as an example. InPac-Man, you must navigate your character through a spatial layout whilemonitoring the separate paths of four additional objects (the ghosts), whilekeeping the overall goal of clearing the small pellets in memory, as well askeeping track of the remaining large pellets.”

“Think about how this may apply to skills such as driving,” he continues.“When you drive your car, you are faced with a constantly changing environmentin the road, not to mention several other distractions that compete forattention that reside in the car. At the same time, you are attempting tonavigate through the environment to reach a goal.”

Social Benefits

Games with broad appeal that are easy to grasp can additionally help manyfamilies play together, and better bridge the gap between generations. Considera title like hip-wiggling simulation Just Dance, which can have young kidsdancing alongside their grandparents.

There are also many games that have positive social messages that encouragefamilies to be a force for good. In a series of experiments published in theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found thatparticipants who had just played a “pro-social” game in which characters mustwork together to help each other out as compared to those who had just played a“neutral” game (e.g. Tetris) were more likely to engage in helpful behaviors.Examples included assisting in a situation involving an abusive boyfriend,picking up a box of pencils or even volunteering to participate in more research.

So-called “serious games,” specifically designed to teach and inform, arealso having an impact on the world. Titles like the United Nations’ Food Forceteach kids about real-life issues, humanitarianism and the practical challengesfacing governments and private organizations today. In the game, children mustcomplete six different missions that reflect the real-life obstacles faced bythe World Food Programme in its emergency responses. Other games, like NourishInteractive’s online Chef Solus and the Food Pyramid Adventure, teach kidsabout the benefits of healthy eating habits, while still more highlightpressing geopolitical and social issues, e.g. the Global Conflicts series.

Upsides can even extend into the physical world. Consider Facebook gameEcotopia. In summer 2011, players of the popular social game met a challengefrom its creators and planted 25,000 trees in the game world in 25 days,leading the game’s developer to plant 25,000 trees in real life.

Encouraging Cooperation and Teamwork

Many games today also emphasize the cooperative aspects of game play, inwhich two or more players need to work together in order to reach a commongoal. For instance, games like Lego Star Wars or Kirby’s Epic Yarn are enhanced byhaving players cooperate to solve in-game puzzles.

Massively multiplayer games such as LEGO Universe and Lord of the RingsOnline further offer added depth, atmosphere and enjoyment by allowing playersto band together and work as a team in order to complete certain quests ordefeat especially tricky opponents. Game industry analysts such as DFCIntelligence actually predict that video game revenue will reach nearly $70billion by 2015, thanks in large part to these online, cooperative,subscription-based games that can be played together. Small wonder top titleslike Star Wars: The Old Republic and Titan (the next MMO from Blizzard, thecompany that created World of Warcraft) continue to resonate so strongly withmillions worldwide.

Even the way that games are made can encourage teamwork. At WashburnUniversity in Kansas, students study the game development process as a way tobuild teamwork and collaborative skills.

“It taught me to work in a group,” said Washburn student Adam Bideau of theprogram in a recent interview with the Washburn Review. “Video games are notcreated by just one person and they require you to work well with others. Youhave to pool everyone’s talents together in order to produce the requiredproduct.”

Promoting Exercise

All parents know that kids need a healthy combination of physical and mentalexercise. Happily, today’s motion-controlled games for Microsoft’s Xbox 360Kinect, Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U, and Sony’s PlayStation Move help kids getboth kinds of workouts at the same time.

Better yet, people of all ages are finding them a more approachable way tostay physically fit. While many shy away from exercise because they see it asan activity that isn’t enjoyable, organizations like the American HeartAssociation now cite, and even recommend, video games as a fun and entertainingway to enjoy physical activity.

Upsides of active play are considerable too. A study reported in theArchives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine of 39 Boston middle-schoolchildren who played with six different interactive gaming systems found thatthe games “compared favorably with walking on a treadmill at three miles perhour, with four out of the six activities resulting in higher energyexpenditure.”

Organizations supporting individuals of all ages and interests areadditionally using active games to help get people up and moving. Nursinghomes, cruise ships and even after-school programs all now employ active videogames in some form to help stimulate both the mind and body.

The good news: People seem to be enjoying active play more than ever.Healthy diversions such as Wii Fit and Zumba Fitness continue to be some of themost popular and best-selling games year in and out.