So the last blog was on how to revise when playing games, and although tongue was firmly in cheek, it did get me thinking; how much are we learning when we play video games?
It is generally accepted that people can improve their intelligence through quite abstract manners such as reading books or trying to master chess, so perhaps when playing video games you are learning in an abstract way too?
This is obviously not the first time the subject of whether or not games are beneficial, or vice versa can be harmful to those playing. I think it is accepted that most people think of playing games as detrimental to a person’s brain, especially with children. Which I can completely understand in the context of children.
Previous generations grew up quite differently and so when their child plays a game, they are in an environment where they know more than their parents and so it is hard for a parent to take charge, offer guidance and ultimately keep them safe. So I can understand how that is scary for some parents, and the negative connotations of the circumstance. Obviously there are many exceptions to this and such an occurrence will become rarer as time goes on.
Diverting from that digression, there have been worries that people are going to imitate on screen action as well as suffer degenerative health. There are however many proven benefits of playing games, a study by Wei Peng “Is Playing Games All Bad? Positive Effects of Computer and Video Games in Learning” does a pretty nice summary and any facts or examples I use are from that journal.
Without a doubtreaction times do improve, for example the military favour game conditioning over text conditioning methods before getting people to take part in reaction tests. This may seem a bit obvious and silly but it proves the point.
Video games are also proven to facilitate the development of spatial skills for three-dimensional mental rotation, for example spatial skills and spatial visualisation. They also have a certain demand for players to have a proactive method of thinking involving a systematic organisation of information and interpretation of visual information. So basically you have to know what’s going on, what you’re doing and what you’re going to do.
This seems quite obvious, but it is also the reason professional real time strategy gamers form the eastern part of the world are then trained to be stock brokers when they retire from gaming.
So playing games of certain genres and types can benefit you in a way society at large may deem positive, however I can’t shake the feeling that a lot of this stuff just doesn’t matter.
This is mainly because of the opportunity cost, in this case meaning the best opportunity you turned down in order to play a video game. You may be playing a video game instead of playing a sport which also offers many of the same benefits, and many differing ones. However you may be playing a game instead of watching T.V, in which you use less brain activity than when you sleep. Perhaps you just want to relax for a few hours, which could help brain activity later on or even let you live longer.
So it is all a bit confusing, going back to the question I set: yes you are able to learn when you play video games. It is undeniable that games allow you to take in more information at the same time and process it and as long as you live a balanced life of playing sport, socialising and educating yourself elsewhere then you will get to reap the benefits. If not then you are letting those benefits go to waste.
Even if you don’t play games maybe just give a simple shooter a try, you may find yourself keeping track of: the weapons you are holding and what they are good for, the amount of ammo in each weapon, the types of grenades you have, what they are good for, how many you have, the amount of health you have, how secure your surroundings are, what vehicles or objects are nearby etc all this before you are even really playing the game.
So maybe we learnt something today, or perhaps this blog just has my best introduction to date, or maybe what is really happening is that I’m trying to keep this blog ticking until my Valentine’s Day special. Which will be AWESOME.
By Daniel Rowbotham
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