**Guest Post** , Gaming is Good for You

Guest Post:  Gaming is Good for You written by Claire Lowman

Gaming is Good for You

A Bad Reputation?

You’ve surely seen the reports. The paranoid, panic-stricken reports in the tabloid news that claim computer gaming is bad for you. Perhaps these reports aren’t as common as they once were, since society has found new things to panic about, but they’re definitely still around. Apparently games are raising a generation of children who sit around all day in front of a screen getting fat and never leave their homes to develop social skills. Of course, it’s not hard to see that’s not true. You just need to take a look at kids’ sport clubs, which seem to be doing as well as ever. Alternatively, go out in the street and see how many children and teenagers are wandering around as normal when they should, according to the reports, be locked up in their rooms playing Call of Duty. But there’s one important fact that often gets overlooked even by the people who don’t give those tabloid reports the time of day. It’s not just that games aren’t bad for you (unless you really go overboard). They can actually be good for you and for society. And that’s the reason for this article. It isn’t a rant about the bad reputation of games, but a celebration of the good things they can achieve.

Games Make People Clever

Video games can be good for you on several levels. According to kwikmed, gaming increases your intelligence. Computer games have been shown to employ several skills and qualities such as problem solving, perseverance, and reaction times, because players need those skills to succeed. At The Next Web Conference in 2012, keynote speaker Gabe Zichermann spoke extensively about this subject. One particularly striking example he used was a twelve-year-old boy who was put into an aviation simulator. This particular simulator was no ordinary game. In fact, it was the very realistic kind used to train professional pilots. The boy’s challenge was to land a Boeing 737 at a busy airport. Amazingly, this child successfully landed the plane! Playing video games had helped this boy get used to using controls and developed the same skills that are used in piloting a plane. It had also helped develop his “fluid intelligence,” which roughly means his ability to solve new problems by adapting existing skills. Of course, this is good news for gamers individually, because it means gaming will help them develop useful skills and increase their own intelligence. But it is also good for society. The fact that computer games are becoming so widespread among the current generation of children means that the generation is getting a boost to several important mental skills. Educators and games companies alike have caught onto this fact. Once, educational games were primitive spelling- or maths-based affairs. Now, much more sophisticated games are sometimes used. Major developer Valve, for example, has previously made its immensely popular physics-based platformer Portal available free for limited periods. Their reason was to make it more available to help teach children about physics.

Video Games are a Social Activity

The claim that video games keep children locked up alone in their rooms and deprive them of social skills is particularly faulty. Games encourage children to be social, and they are often played with friends. This is especially true now that online multiplayer means that people can talk and play together without even being in the same room. But the social element of gaming is by no means new. Gamers of a certain age probably remember crowding onto a sofa with three friends to play split-screen multiplayer sessions of classic games like Goldeneye 64. Some major games, such as Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. series or the immensely popular Call of Duty games, are much more renowned for their multiplayer mode than for the single player game. Of course, it’s true that online multiplayer, talking through a microphone to people who are actually miles away, isn’t quite the same as meeting people in person. But this isn’t the only way gamers socialize. For example, meeting with a group of friends for a gaming party is popular among avid gamers. Often, they will all bring their own computers in order to enjoy games without old-fashioned split screen, yet still talk, laugh and eat together. There are also public places that function almost like gamers’ clubs, as well as popular events like large-scale competitions and conventions. These offer access to computers and consoles so that like-minded people can come together to meet, play, and have a good time.

Guest Post: Gaming is Good for You written by Claire Lowman

#computers #gaming #pcgames #pcgaming #computergaming #guestpost

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."