The gaming industry is undoubtedly huge and will continue to grow and evolve. We have seen games progress through our generations, from the original Pokémon Red and Blue, to the latest Call of Duty. However, all games are associated with being ‘bad’ for our health. Compared with the old social norms of outdoor activity, gaming is stereotyped as ‘lazy’ and a driver of aggressive behaviour. The chances are, if we told you that playing Mario Kart for hours on end can actually prove beneficial in the real world, you wouldn’t believe us. So, lets find out…
Keeping you on your toes
If you’ve played any karting or racing game, the chances are you’re giving it everything to keep yourself in 1st place. Those levels of concentration and commitment to racing games were given external purpose by a group of scientists. The working memory and attention span of a group of players was measured before and after several sessions of these games, the after result showing a 30% improvement. The argument put forward here is, all those hours of Mario Kart actually relate to an improved attention span. This links gaming and the workings of the brain in such a way that real world skills are developed. So, I guess those hours of game time were worth it after all.
Neuroracer
If you have a Nintendo handheld, the chances are you have come across ‘Brain Training’ at some point, with the ideal of testing the age of your brain and improving it as you play. Well, a game which has been proven to enhance the skills of gamers of an older demographic, is Neuroracer. This game is the brain child of Prof Adam Gazzaley, and focuses on developing the multi tasking abilities of players. Neuroracer requires you to keep control of a car on a road, whilst performing other tasks such as shape identification. The results, after 12 hours’ game time, pensioners were out performing young adults who had little experience with the game. Also, relative to the previous paragraph, improvements to short term memory and attention span were also found. Are video games really that bad for you?
The problem with aggression
If you have played any of the Grand Theft Auto games, sometimes things can get pretty hairy. Being a rated 18+ game, you would expect violence of some nature, killing, shooting or general criminal offences. This leads us onto the stereotype that video games encourage violence and anti social behaviour. Psychological studies suggest that there is a relation between video games and levels of aggression, but the evidence to conclude this is simply not conclusive. The effect of violent games can act as a form of emotional therapy, exerting stress, or aggression into a game instead of the real world. So, the next time you see someone on a rampage in GTA, don’t worry, they are just having bad day…
Call of Duty and the future of games
The Call of Duty franchise is one of the giants in the first person shooter genre, personifying the fast, action series of games. Studies by Cognitive researcher ‘Daphne Bavalier’ focus on how the brains of action gamers are in some ways faster, and more efficient than that of non gamers. The results show improvements to eye sight and a higher ability to process small details, gained from the stimulus of action based gaming. For the future of gaming and its effect on the brain, scientists look into how the action games we play, sub consciously effect our ability to process information.
So, the ending question is, how does this effect the future of gaming? Currently, the answer comes with more research. If games are further proved to be a beneficial method of improving our brain, this could further lead to the implementation of gaming into education and rehabilitation. Minecraft and its mechanics have already begun to take to the classrooms, it is only a matter of time before games could become a form of digital therapy too. Overall, providing a new genre of gaming and looking deeper into the psychology behind our favourite games.
The good and the bad
While there seems to be a positive outlook on the relationship between gaming and the brain, there are always some negatives. As much as we love our games, too much gaming is not always healthy. Our mission here, is to address the overall negative stereotype associated with gaming and its effect on the gamers.