Here's a list of top reasons video games are actually good for you, and why you should hope your doctor is a gamer.
5. They might save your life ~
Before making the first cut during surgery, Dr. James Clarence Rosser tells people he's good at Super Monkey Ball. Video games, he found, has helped this laproscopic surgeon sharpen his hand-eye coordination, and for that, we should be grateful to video games. This doc even conducted a research study proving "that surgeons who played video games three times a week were faster and made fewer mistakes than those who preferred to avoid the toys."
4. They can help you understand classic literature ~
An associate professor of modern and classical languages in Connecticut sees video games as being inspired by classic novels, going so far as to compare characters in Virgil's Aenied with the Master Chief in Halo.
He even uses an Xbox in the classroom to demonstrate.
"Both Halo and the Aeneid tell a story about a more-than-human hero defeating enemies who would be too much for ordinary people like us - enemies who nevertheless bear an important resemblance to the ones we and the Romans face in our respective presents," he said.
Then, there are other video games that blatantly teach about literature, like a new
game about Shakespeare called "Speare."
3. They can help you lose weight ~
Gone are the days of the overweight gamer, sitting at his computer for hours on end shoving potato chips and pizza in his face. Today games like Dance Revolution are creating a who new kind of gamer. I was recently at an arcade and while waiting for the rest of my party to arrive, observed some kids in an all-out dance competition war. What they were doing was more intense than any cardio workout I'd ever seen, and I have no idea how anyone's brain and feet can move that fast.
2.. They can improve your focus ~
Cornell University has studied the effects of video games on kids with attention deficit disorder with surprising results. Those with the disorder, which causes the inability to focus and finish tasks, responded well to treatments compared with those who were not playing video games.
1. They can improve your eyesight ~
For as long as we can remember, moms have been telling us not to sit too close to the TV because it will "ruin our eyesight." Turns out, some digitized images can actually sharpen your vision by allowing you to process information faster. The University of Rochester presented results of a study in March 2007 that found that after 30 hours of playing Gears of War, Lost Planet and Halo, gamers were able to identify objects better in a cluttered space. (Bet they were good at "Where's Waldo.")
"First-person action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution, meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects, such as letters... the present study highlights the potential of action-video game training for rehabilitation of visual deficits," author Daphne Bevelier explained.
There you have it! The ultimate reasons you should drag out that Xbox and get busy gaming.
