Video games: Are they good or bad for you?

Video and computer games are some of the most common pastimes of people in our generation and those younger than us, and the gaming industry pulls in billions of dollars each year. As a relatively new "invention" games and their effects have been scrutinized and put under fire by many politicians, counselors, parents, etc. I want to present here some of this information, both the good and the bad, tell you my opinion, and then let you decide for yourself whether the games you are playing are a waste of time or maybe, just maybe, games can be of some value beyond their hours of entertainment.

The Bad

The media tends to promote the idea that "video games are evil", mostly because it makes for interesting stories with more shock value - and more viewers. Video games have been blamed aplenty for breaking up marriages and giving rise to so called "video game widows" (wiki has some links). News companies and anti-gaming crusaders have used tragic shootings to blame video games for such incidents. The argument that playing violent video games (such as the classic example of Grand Theft Auto being the root of all evil) is the cause of violent behavior has been largely based on misinterpretation, as crime has actually declined since video games came into the world. The small minority of individuals who are already aggressive are more likely to be playing violent games if they are available to them, but it doesn't mean that everyone who plays violent video games is more prone to such unspeakable acts.

I know plenty of gamers who will shoot at avatars with great enthusiasm in games, but would never hurt a thing in real life. Correlation does not imply causation, as we know from science, though the relationship between video games and violence is probably going to be murky for a long time, since there may indeed be a minority of individuals who may be "encouraged" to be more violent due to playing video games. In this world, you can't rule anything out.

Video game addiction is certainly real and dangerous, and has been compared to drug addiction, as well as gambling and alcohol. Lots of people's lives are hurt, relationships are destroyed, classes are flunked, and real life social interaction abilities go down the drain. Not to downplay the situations, but the person usually has to have some addictive tendencies for that to happen. (again wiki for more info) The video games just make this come out. I know plenty of people with "mild" video game addiction - where hours are sucked away playing games without the person noticing, followed by pangs of guilt and feelings of having wasted one's life. I have certainly stayed up many a night playing video games, only to regret it in the morning.

Why does this happen so often, you ask? Let me hypothesize... Probably for the same reason that these games are so enjoyable. They provide you with a state of flow (read this if you don't know what that is, it's applicable to many areas of life). In other words, you're "in the groove" and it feels awesome, and you don't want to get out. Interesting how many of the conditions of flow sound like they'd be the same for addiction...

Anyway, for more "dangers" of video games (rise in inactivity, inability to focus or do homework, loneliness - you name it), just google it up or ask a frustrated mom of a 30 year old jobless son living in her basement who does nothing but play video games.

The Good

Lets move on to something more cheerful, the benefits of gaming! Here, thankfully, there is some nice scientific data. I'd like to say outright that here I'm talking about the benefits mostly of already existing games that are marketed for pure entertainment value, not "virtual learning tools" or specifically designed "brain training games", though I will mention these.

Video game playing, especially on consoles, has been shown in several studies to help surgeons acquire certain techniques quicker and be more dexterous with their tools. Action gamers were found to have better contrast sensitivity, visual acuity, and more precise multisensory temporal processing abilities.

This Boston Globe article talks about how playing certain video games, even if you're an 80 year old in a rehab home, can improve scores on memory, reasoning, and multitasking tests (they used the real time strategy game Rise of Nations for the study). The effects can last up to two and a half years after eight weeks of play. Research shows that playing a specific video game will make you more efficient at playing that game, with which come a number of changes in the brain related with higher level functions such as spatial abilities, sensory data integration, and planning.

Complexity in games.

Another article argues that the inherent complexity of many modern video games and the cognitive skills and speed needed to make sense of the environments, develop strategies, and react to the virtual worlds quickly has led the video-game-playing generation to have higher IQ's and respond better to a more complex world. I won't dwell on this, so read the source. The article also points out that although for most of us gaming is something we will not readily put on our resume, the senior engineering manager at Yahoo says that the skills he gained from leading a guild in World of Warcraft have helped him in his real life job. It seems that maybe.. just maybe.. in the future you will be able to put on your resume if you were a guild leader or were a guild officer in an online game, and it may actually give you a boost.

Contrary to the claim that games make you antisocial, as the gamers know, many video games are actually pro-social environments, and I definitely have better relationships with my friends due to playing video games with them (and of course we all know that a good round of Mario Party can do wonders). Teamwork often comes into play, as does communication and planning. Many online guilds let people interact with others who share similar interests and provide positive social environments. Of course there are always going to be party-poopers and haters, but that's not specific to video games by any means.

So now that we have evidence that playing video games changes our brains in various (mostly beneficial?) ways, will designers use this to make games to harness these effects? There are multiple examples of developments of video games that are intended to improve plasticity both in the brain and in the visual system in non-gamer adults for better quality of life and for rehabilitation . The navy also wants to use them to train soldiers with all these visual and cognitive benefits. Sadly though, some of the currently available "brain training" games have not shown to transfer to tasks that were not video-game-related. I will have to do another post on the topic of video games and virtual simulators/teaching tools designed for purposes other than entertainment.

Research relating to video games is quite nascent, and I think that further probing into it will reveal more of the cognitive effects that games have on us humans and our squishy brains.

Now that we've looked at how playing various video games can change the way your senses and brain work, lets look at WHAT you can actually learn from video games. This really depends on what game you're playing. If you're playing something like Tetris, you may learn how to fit blocks better together, which can help you with spacial reasoning. Playing realistic first person shooters can give you knowledge of various weapons, locales in the world, vehicles, and foreign phrases (often not ones you'll want to use in real life). The US army has a game out that they use as a recruiting tool.

Playing historical strategy, action, or adventure games can give you information about the historical settings, customs, and figures. Flight simulators are actually often quite realistic, and who knows, may one day help you if you're stuck in a plane with no pilot. Then, of course, there's this kid, who survived a moose attack due to concepts he learned from World of Warcraft. Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Dance Dance Revolution cannot really teach you how to play guitar or dance, but perhaps they may give you better rhythm abilities. Overall, a lot of the games can really teach you about how the world works, if even in a small roundabout way (think SimCity).

So are video games good or bad, and what's their value?

We've seen that there are definitely bad things that can result from playing video games - usually from playing too much in an uncontrolled way. We've also seen that there can be cognitive, visual, and knowledge-based benefits from playing certain games. So are games good or bad for us? I think that one of the articles I read put it quite nicely by saying that video games are a MEDIUM, and are not inherently good or bad. Medium like music, movies, and books.

Don't think you'll ever visit anything like this in real life.

There will be the good, the bad, and the ugly, but in the end the purpose of video games is to entertain and engage, and in this many of them succeed marvelously. I think that as long as one does not put video game playing in front of other important real world responsibilities, gaming can be more enjoyable than reading books or watching movies (there are plenty of games with stories and worlds as complex and exciting as Lord of the Rings, for example).

Games can bring people together, put you in worlds that you'll never get to experience in real life, and boost your creativity, among the other things I mentioned. The relatively few negative effects of gaming on the majority of the population that the media seems to exaggerate will probably stop being so blown up once the kids who grew up on video games grow up and become the senators, CEO's, and news anchors.

Should you play video games if you don't already? I think if you pick the right games, you may reap some cognitive benefits, and learn things you otherwise wouldn't. Mainly though, you'd have an interactive entertainment experience unlike any other. If you choose the right games, that is. I personally don't play games because I think they give me some sort of boost, but purely out of sheer love of virtual awesomeness.

As a side note, this came out to be a lot longer than I intended (and I could have made it much longer still), and I apologize for that (and for all of you who say TLDR - shame!). Next time I'll break posts like this up. I do hope it was somewhat insightful though!