For over 30 years, since they were invented, people have debated whether video games are good or bad for you, much like television, rock & roll music and even the novel, were criticized in their day.
Negative effects attributed to video games at different times include addiction, increased aggression and several other health-related outcomes like weight gain and repetitive strain injuries. While these claims grab headlines, there exist research papers outlining the possible social benefits of online role-playing games.
The truth is that there is now a bunch of research showing that video games have an educational and even therapeutic value, and that they can improve physical performance in terms of reaction time and hand-eye coordination. This research demonstrates that spatial visualization ability, the act of mentally visualizing rotating two and three-dimensional objects, improves with exposure to video games.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and written by Vikranth Bejjanki and his associates shows that high-paced, 3D video games indeed improve a player’s perception, attention and cognition. An experiment involving 10-14 game players per study found that game-players with previous gaming experience showed better perceptual ability than those without. In another experiment, beginner gamers were taught for 50 hours, after which they showed better performance in perceptual tests than they had prior to the game exposure. “The enhanced learning of the regularity and structure of environments may act as a core mechanism by which action video game play influences performance in perception, attention, and cognition,” the study reports.
Dr. Mark Griffiths, a researcher who has studied video gaming, argues in his work and in an article published online at TheConverstaion.com that video games have the potential to be useful: they can make educational experiences more enjoyable and keep a user’s attention better than traditional learning formats. Additionally, video games’ interactivity can stimulate learning and because they are so engaging, they can be used for therapeutic purposes – as a form of physiotherapy. He cites research which showed that children undergoing chemotherapy needed fewer post-treatment painkillers when playing video games. Dr. Griffiths adds that the negative results of video game playing is most often found in cases of excessive exposure, whereas moderate amounts of game playing have shown little adverse effect.
