10 Skills You Practice By Playing Video Games
Anna 
“Schrater said while people can learn in boring ways, it could take them thousands of times to show a significant improvement in whatever they are learning. When people do things they find fun, like video games, the process is sped up.” – MNDaily.com
Video games have gotten a bad reputation. It can be easy to see why: some gamers play 40+ hours a week. Some addictions are so strong that people lose their jobs, their spouses, and even their homes. It’s not a pretty story.
However, that’s just one side of it. Games aren’t all bad.
I play a lot of video games, and I know a lot of gamers. Personal experience has proven to me that gaming isn’t what debaters like Bill O’Reilly make it out to be.
To put it simply, I see video games as more than just fun. The benefits can be put into three sections:
Your Brain Works Better
Today’s games are full of fast-paced, visual action that challenges our minds. Studies find that gamers succeed in detail-oriented careers in fast paced environments. They make better surgeons, drivers, and soldiers – and anything else you could think to add to the list. Games improve your brain in all sorts of ways:
1. Reaction Time
First-person shooters, racing games, and many other genres rely on the gamer’s reaction time. Over time, neural connections related to reaction time improve. Quick reaction times can save lives outside of the gaming world.
2. Visual Processing Skills
Reaction skills are great, but noticing stimuli is even more important. You can’t dodge a bullet if you didn’t notice it was shot at you. Visual processing is important for avoiding accidents and remembering visual information (like what a criminal looked like). Video games encourage a strong awareness for stimuli.
3. Concentration
Challenging tasks in video games involve a lot of concentration – and patience. The ability to pay attention with and without distractions is rewarded in any genre.
4. Motor Skills
If you’re not used to using a console controller, you’ll notice right away. You’ll feel awkward and you’ll have a hard time controlling it. Video games train hand-eye-coordination, which is important for any of us to be able to live normal lives. It’s what allows us to do everything from type to make tea.
You’ll Know Your Numbers
All games involve numbers. After all, how else can you tell whether or not you’re strong enough to kill an enemy? Some say that MMOs are nothing BUT math. Either way, gamers need to know their math for a few important reasons:
1. Finances
Money is important in most games, whether it’s online or offline. You use it to buy new skills, weapons, armor, food, materials, and any else you can think of. Gamers have to pay attention to their budget and their means of income in order to advance in the game. Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) have even more complex economies that can take a lot of time to study and understand. Second Life and similar games even use actual (real life) currency.
2. Percentages
Numbers are everywhere in games. They’re involved in nearly every aspect of gameplay, and most of the numbers can relate to percentage. How close am I to leveling up? How much stronger will this weapon be with a 5% bonus? What’s my rating? There’s a lot to calculate.
3. Algebra
Games involve simple calculations (additions, subtraction, multiplication, and division). The more involved the gamer is, the more involved the math becomes. The math covers at least the most simple concepts of algebra, and can lead to complex calculations.
You’ll Be More Social
Popular games (and even less popular ones) have their own communities. Game related content (forums, chatrooms, walkthroughs, etc) are created by fans more often than not. Online games especially are all about community. MMOs are impossible to succeed in alone.
1. Teamwork
Generally, games involve different character types that have different strengths and weaknesses. Difficult tasks in MMOs require gamers to work in teams. Strategy becomes a team effort, and can be one of the most important things in the game. It’s hard to become a top player without a few friends.
2. Networking
Gaming communities can involve millions of people around the world. There’s a lot of opportunity to connect and network with people when so many others are playing the same game as you are.
3. Communication
Any amount of teamwork will make you use your communication skills. Who gets what items from the monsters? Who heals? When will players get together to work on a certain task in the game? Communication is a vital skill for any MMO gamer.
Gaming, like anything else, is best done in balance. Addiction to anything can be harmful. It’s about knowing when to stop, and having the ability to control what you do and when you do it. Enjoying something doesn’t have to be an addiction.
Parents new to unschooling worry about their kids watching TV and playing video games all day. It doesn’t need to be such a negative idea.
What’s the harm with a little fun?
11 Comments to “10 Skills You Practice By Playing Video Games”
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Good points all. My weekend at SakuraCon and you have inspired my own post on gaming. I’d love to hear what you think. http://zombieprincess.blogspot.com/2010/04/gamers-are-future-and-future-is-now.html
Gamers definitely have their own community. It can make a huge difference in the way you talk to people. Like you said in your post, there’s the inside jokes and the shared experiences. Gamers enjoy sharing strategies, bragging about great plays, and generally just love having fun together.
One thing I do have to say is that while gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of jobs, only about 5% of the games are successful enough to make a profit for the developers. It can be an insane industry to work in. Professional gamers have it easier than the game developers, that’s for sure!
For some idea of how the internet has changed the gaming community, check out sites like Machinima and NextGenTactics.
I enjoyed your post. You made some good points! Thanks for commenting.
Great points all of them – My 10yr old is frequently surprising me w/ little nifty bits of knowledge and when I ask where he learned such and such the answer is pretty much always either video games or the history channel – so he really rocks my world like that :)
Thanks for sharing. :) There’s a huge amount of information that can be learned from video games! It can cover historical events, modern weaponry, architecture, strategy and even ecology. But even if it’s a fantasy world with fantasy creatures and characters, there’s still a lot that can be learned.
When I was a kid I learned a lot from TV channels like the History Channel (I liked Discovery and Animal Planet and a few others, as well). TV (just like video games) is more than just a brain rotting form of entertainment.
We believe children also learn values – at minimonos we want to grow great kids, not just great consumers. It is our belief we can support children to build a better future.
More details can depend on the game, but a lot of games certainly cover values. A lot of games aimed for children often cover them deliberately. A fun, friendly environment for kids to play in is important (both online and offline). Games for older gamers tend to cover values in more subtle ways, and maybe not at all, since they’re more likely to focus primarily on entertainment.
I checked out Minimonos, it’s a very cute game! Thanks for taking the time to comment. :)
Thanks, I enjoy your blog.
This is a wonderful piece of writing! I’ve been researching this topic a bit and your arguments are sound and well-presented, even compared to other recently published articles on the matter. I’ll be linking to your post from my blog, http://www.worldstaracademy.com (an educational blog for students). Thanks very much for posting. I look forward to reading you again!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the post. It’s definitely a topic of interest to me. People need to be more open to the fact that we do learn things outside of artificial environments (like school).
Good subject!!! I think video games help using every part of the brain. It uses the automatic part because you have to know without thinking about it that one button will do one action, it uses the figuring out part because you have to figure out what button to press, it uses the part that knows stuf because you have to know who your fighting.
Exactly! I’m glad we agree. Thank you for commenting. :)