Video Games: Benefits of Playing

 (catch up)

Only a couple days ago we posted a blog discussing the latest topic in the video game world, and also popular outside the video game world too, which is if the violence we see in video games does have an impact on us, the players.  For those who would like to read the post here is a link; https://pwnersmanual.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/a-brief-look-at-video-game-violence-a-political-and-video-gamer-view/

The benefits

Full of strategy and strength, today, in this all new post, it is time to discover the reasons why playing video games are good for you.

• They can help ease pain

Although you do not feel any pain direct (well at least we hope you don’t!) while playing video games there are two studies which prove just how video games can help the player to feel less pain.  The most recent study, conducted by Keele University (based in the United Kingdom) in 2012, shown that you can increase your pain tolerance by as much as an impressive 65% even if the video game is of violent content.

The other study,  was conducted by the American Pain Society.  In 2010 the society focused upon video games,  carried out the research by looking at what benefits playing a video game had on patients who are undergoing serious procedures.  This led to the discovery that when the patients are immersed in a virtual world, allowing them freedom, they became not only significantly less stressed but also less trepidation.  The study results also show a decrease of around 30 to 50% in pain for burn wound care patients.

• You can become more creative

Remember as a child when you used to love playing with a cardboard box.  Although it was not just a cardboard box to you, it could become anything you wanted, whenever you wanted.  Such as a dragon or a secret hiding place leading into another universe.  One of my personal favourites was after putting up the Christmas tree my sister and I used to sit in the box it came in while our dad (poor guy) dragged it (with us in) around the living room.

Over time, having to adjust to the adult world, this creativity can unfortunately fade.  It is with playing video games that you can get this creativity back.  Although the study was initially done on children, there could be an pass into our adult like…and atleast telling someone you play video games to further you creativity will sound good right?!  Linda Jackson, professor of psychology and lead researcher on the project at Michigan State University discovered this.  In 2011, Entertainment Software Association revelaed that around 72% of American households play a video game.  She surveyed 491, middle school, 12-year-olds and then assessed how often the students used different forms of technology.  These included playing video games, internet use and mobile (cell) phone use.  The researches used mostly the ‘Torrance Test of Creativity-Figural’.  We believe this to be that, firstly, each child was handed the form of an egg shape on a blank sheet of paper, they then were required to think of a unique picture to could draw with this shape and write a story about what they had just drew. The second stimulus was a picture of an elf lying in front of a small pool of water, staring at its reflection, every child then had to answer a collection of hypothetical questions about it.  The results shown the relationship between video game playing led to the greatest creativity.

• Better eyesight

Did anyone else used to get told as a child that eating carrorts would help to improve your eyesight and belive it?  I did.  Now,  thanks to the University of Rochester, New York, I and now you too, can inform them that a 2007  study discovered after just 30 hours of “training” on a first-person shooter, this can result in a significant boost to your spatial resolution (the ability to clearly see small, densely packed together objects).  If they want more convincing explain in 2009 a further study, conducted by the same university, found that players of action games can become up to 58% better at perceiving fine contrast differences. Guess Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell must have played many video games while he was younger.

“If you are driving at dusk with light fog it could make the difference between seeing the car in front of you or not seeing it,” Quoted by research leader Daphne Bavelier.

• Boost self-esteem

Who needs to and watch the latest television show when playing the latest video game is better for you.  Three researchers, Dr Penny Sweetser, Dr Daniel Johnson and Dr Peta Wyeth,from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, made a discovery that playing video games can be more beneficial for a child than watching television.  Watching television is a passive experience (you just watch) whereas playing a video game involves the child and allows them to be active and involved in what they are doing. More than 92 per cent of Australian homes have at least one device for playing video games  Although the majority of children aged two to five exceeded government recommendations of a maximum of one hour of ‘screen time’ per day.  Analysing data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children the researches found children aged two to five spent, on average, some two to three hours watching television compared to less than a half hour playing video games.

Remembering that computer games are an  interactive experience, it is this research which shows this experience boosted children’s self-esteem, cognitive skills such as problem-solving and, in some cases, physical activity levels.

• Become a faster decision maker  

After discovering that video games help to improve your eyesight the researchers at the University of Rochester, New York, decided to see what else you can improve by playing video games.  This time, in 2010, cognitive scientists discovered that while you play a video game, being more immersed in the game, instead of the world around you, can be a good thing.  Being involved in the game it helps to “develop a heightened sensitivity to what is going on around them, and this benefit doesn’t just make them better at playing video games, but improves a wide variety of general skills that can help with everyday activities like multitasking, driving, reading small print, keeping track of friends in a crowd, and navigating around town.”  The research was carried out by playing 50 hours of video games over multiple weeks. It is important to note that it is fast action paced games, such as Call of Duty, which have this effect.

Other benefits include;

• Tackle Mental Illnesses
  

• Improve Motor Skills

• Increase Social Activity

•  Help the Elderly Avoid Serious Falls

Sources;

IGN (2012) 5 Reasons Video Games Are Actually Good for You. [online] Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/09/10/5-reasons-video-games-are-actually-good-for-you [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].

IGN (2013) 5 More Reasons Video Games Are Actually Good for You. [online] Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/21/5-more-reasons-video-games-are-actually-good-for-you [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].

Kids and Media (2000) When video games are good for you. [online] Available at: http://www.kidsandmedia.co.uk/when-video-games-are-good-for-you/ [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].

Michigan State University (2011) Video game playing tied to creativity. [online] Available at: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2011/video-game-playing-tied-to-creativity/ [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].

QUT (2013) QUT | News | Video games benefit children: study. [online] Available at: http://www.news.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/News.woa/wa/goNewsPage?newsEventID=54961 [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].

R4 revolutionds (2011) 3 Massive Benefits of Video-Gaming. [online] Available at: http://www.r4revolutionds.co.uk/3-massive-benefits-of-video-gaming/ [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].

Rochester (2010) Video Games Lead to Faster Decisions that are No Less Accurate. [online] Available at: http://rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3679 [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013].