According to Research…Video-Games are good?
Don’t believe me, believe the science!
When terror attacks occur, in the United States of America, such as The Columbine High-School Massacre in 1999 and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 or the Aurora Cinema shooting 2012, one thing is for certain. People will blame the video games. You can’t blame them. “VIDEO GAMES CAUSE VIOLENCE” is a pretty good click bait title, especially when the research is steeped with bias.
You’ve probably read or heard a lot about people who believe that video games cause violence, right? But how much have you heard about the other side of the story? A 2014 study conducted by The American Psychological Association entitled ‘The Benefits of playing Video Games’ found that people can actually benefit from regularly playing video games (as the name of the study would suggest).
Firstly, video games allow you to learn to be competitive and co-operative at the same time. Many video games allow for teams to play together and create strategies meaning that communication is of the utmost importance. Take games such as Overwatch, for example, a team-based first-person shooter featuring wacky characters where the aim of the game is to defeat your opponents in battle. This game allows the players to play as certain archetypes and have specific abilities such as Offence, Defence, Support and Tank. It is up to the players to decide which class they would like to play as whilst also striking a balance with their team-mates, paving the way for on-the-spot strategic thinking. Additionally, what makes Overwatch so special (apart from winning 2016 Game of the Year, Multiplayer Game of the Year, E-Sports Game of the Year and Best Studio/Direction Game of the Year) is the fact that this game is ERSB rated Teen. This means anyone thirteen years old and up can play this game, allowing for a very wide audience.
Secondly, the study found that video games had a positive effect on the emotions of the gamer. After playing a video game that they enjoyed, there was a marked increase in the positive emotions of that individual. At the end of the day, isn’t that one of the most important things? Is this not the same reason we read books or watch television shows? To allow ourselves a brief removal from the world which we are in so that we may indulge in a world that is unlike ours, and forget our problems and stresses. I, for one, can vouch that had it not been for intermittent video-game breaks, most of my essays would be shreds of tear-soaked paper lying in a waste paper basket.
Thirdly, the research suggests that when children play video games, they receive a similar positive reinforcement to that which they would receive from their parents/guardians. Many games (especially mobile app games) give awards for completing certain tasks. This is similar to your parents saying ‘well done’ when you’ve cleaned the dishes, meaning that children are not only able to learn follow instructions and complete tasks, but their self-assurance and confidence increase as they are rewarded for their actions. Simple games such as Shadowmatic, a mobile game in which you have to re-position strange shapes in order to turn their shadows into objects and animals, congratulate you on every correct answer, even giving gold stars… and it’s an brain game that helps your real-life spatial skills.
Fourthly, are video games really that different from playing something like Chess or Monopoly? The APA research paper features a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin that I find quite pertinent.
The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions . . . we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favourable change, and that of persever-ing in the search of resources.
— Benjamin Franklin, “The Morals of Chess
This same logic can be applied to video games.
With thanks to Masha Michelle
