When gaming appears in mass media, it’s usually as the scapegoat for some kind of crime committed by a ‘gaming addict.’ These kind of media outlets love to pin controversy to the form of entertainment, just as television, radio, and even mass-produced novels elicited negative attention. Even in the worst of situations, the violence attributed to video games could have been provoked by any form of media. It’s the person that does the crime, not a game he happened to have at home. With a modern eye, we can see that some of the accusations are complete rubbish—and often leave out the positive effects of gaming.
The most obvious advantage of video games is their ability to improve motor skills. Many games penalize moving just one pixel further, or reward shooting a distant object, and because of this, gamers have more accurate and sensitive hand-eye-coordination. A study showed that surgeons who gamed completed their tasks faster than non-gaming surgeons, all while having fewer errors. This kind of improvement is dramatic, and large organizations like the US Military have already started incorporating this into their training programs. The controls, precision, attention, and problem-solving skills required and taught by gaming are applicable to many different sections of our life.
Another advantage to video gaming is that it can affect how you look at your life and interact with the world around you. Just as reading novels can affect how you perceive others and make choices, games with certain features can change your personality. A game called SPARX, designed around the premise of treating gamers with depression, actually succeeded in treating multiple symptoms even better than therapy did. Taking an active stance, identifying unproductive thoughts, relaxing, and doing positive activities are all addressed in the game, and people who excelled at each area in-game showed improvement in real-world scenarios. PTSD is another psychological condition that has been successfully treated using video games—by simulating the same experience that caused the PTSD in the first place, patients slowly become desensitized to the trauma and are able to cope better with their experiences. We must say that just like the advanced technologies like the laser acupuncture pen, games are playing a vital role in treating humans and helping them relax.
Of course, games do have their downside. It’s true that games do tend to make children more violent when the games have an emphasis on violence. This is what the rating system is for, but sadly, it goes unused, and many parents will also allow their children to play unmonitored. By getting multiplayer games that encourage cooperation, parents could prevent their children from becoming too aggressive. Multiplayer games actually cancel out the usual aggression seen during gaming—knowing there’s a person on the other end, and not a computer, seems to decrease the amount of frustration felt while playing a game.
Overall, gaming is still relatively new to the scene. After roughly four decades, we still have a lot to learn about this highly interactive form of entertainment. As the games industry becomes bigger and bigger, game design will take the human mind into account more and more. Across all ages, video games offer huge benefits for people who play them—as long as they’re played in moderation.
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