Ask Lewis: Game Theory Skills And Video Games

Building strategies and tactical thinking

By Lewis Harrison

I have always been fascinated by how playing video games enhanced my skills in strategic thinking.

Researchers found that such enhanced abilities could be acquired by training with action games, involving challenges that switch attention between different locations, but not with games requiring concentration on single objects.

· It has been suggested by a few studies that online/offline video gaming can be used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of different mental health concerns.

· It has been argued that video games actually demand more from a player than traditional board games. Rather than thinking like one dimensional robots, for a player to experience the game fully they must first determine the objectives, as well as how to complete them.

· They must then learn the game controls and how the human-machine interface works, including menus and HUDs — The head-up display or Status Bar. This is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game’s user interface.

· Beyond such skills, which after some time become quite fundamental and are taken for granted by many gamers, video games are based upon the player navigating (and…