Are video games really a waste of time?

[ShadowFox]

Certainly not! I am a gamer ( for those of you who couldn't guess by my tag ). On many games My team mates and I have to use our brains and reflexes constantly. This helps the brain be able to plan things out more effectively. One example is when u play Halo on Xbox live. I'll give an example. We were playing on a map called Headlong on Halo 2. It was capture the flag. The flag was on the third story of a building towards the center of the map. Our team spawned on the opposite side of the freeway on the map. We quickly made a strategy. We would have 3 players get a rocket launcher and 2 shotguns and assault their base by the catwalk connecting the building to another building on the 4th floor. The majority of the forces would respond to the attack (and the sounds of rockets going off) and leave a minimal force at the bottom of the building. We had another player get a sniper rifle to assist the players on the cat walk. Meanwhile, the other 4 of us picked up battle rifles and grenades, along with a warthog ( a 3 person, human vehicle with a machine gun mounted on the back) and stormed the bottom of the base. A simple but effective strategy. Yet they had one themselves. An opposing player had position himself on the second floor and had picked up a large supply of grenades and a energy sword (weapon that kills in one blow, extremely dangerous) and would leap down and cut us to shreds as the other players left down would fire with needlers, weapons that fire explosive crystal needles that do a good deal of damage quickly. We quickly regrouped and made a plan to counter them. On the map there is a steal beam you can jump onto and off of to get to the 4th floor. We had one person get a shotgun and take that route. He managed to get down to the 3rd floor undetected. When we launched another attack, he ran down behind the guy with the sword and.. well lets say he took care of the problem, lol. We rushed up grabbed the flag, had 2 guys stay behind to delay them, got into the warthog and made a point. The guys on the 4th floor had luckily only lost one guy, so their delay was to much of a threat to be ignored. This is one advantage of video games, people learn to make strategies and work together. Sure we could do that in sports, but in video games, theres no chance of getting really hurt (unless your an epileptic, that's different) So there is some advantages to video games.

[Wiggin]

Haha, that's a long story made longer by the fact that you lumped it together into one big paragraph.

But strategy isn't all there is to it. You need skill too. Last game was shotguns and snipers, and I got 25 out of the 50 kills needed to win even though my team had 5 people on it. The next closest killer in the game? 13.

[ShadowFox]

nice, lol. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare I got 27 kills with a shotgun. I'm also good with a sniper rifle. In Halo I prefer a energy sword and a battle rifle for the most part. So I hack my way to a good post a bit off ground level and shoot theguys using the rifles scope.

[Muser]

I can't stop myself from posting this. Although this post travels a fine line, I believe it is, in fact, not only funny, but on-topic, as well.

How to cure a gaming addict.

The cure and the explanation.

[ShadowFox]

I suppose your right, we are getting off topic. Well then, lets get back. I still say it's not a waste of time.

[Kite]

I prefer to look at it this way: I could be spending the time that I spend playing games the way alot of other teenage folk spend their time: having unprotected sex, getting girls pregnant, experimenting with illegal drugs, and totaling my car. Given the choice, I'll go with counter-strike.

[simple simon]

Quote by: another day Things that actually build up your real life skills. None of this bullshit "it quickens your reflexes"... what? In your thumbs? When your walking in the jungle and a snake attacks you? Non wastes of times are things that educate you, things that foster your talents, and things that produce a body of work, such as art, writing, music, business, etc.

imo unless youre a professional artist, writer or musician it seems by your logic those things would be as much a waste of time as video games

[Nigh Eve]

If entertainment is a waste of time then I don't care if I waste my time.

'Nuff said.

[gela]

lol. Video games are no more a waste of time then posting on internet forums.

[Jubloz]

Maybe someone beat me to it, but the book Everything Bad is Good for You gives some unique and interesting perspectives on the cognitive benefits of video games, as well as other forms of media that are heavily criticized for lacking in intellectual value.

I think the answer to the question also largely relates to the video game being played. A game like Half Life's portal is extremely intellectually stimulating, whereas mindless grinding in World of Warcraft probably does a good job of "rotting your brain."

In an interesting twist, video games have also done a good job of demonstrating how a lot of gender stereotypes are not biological, but more likely the product of gender roles. Women, often times associated with spacial-recognition inferior to men, lose this inability with only a few hours of gaming. To me, this suggest that many of the concepts of gender have a cultural basis, not biological.

Quote by: Abstract We demonstrate a previously unknown gender difference in the distribution of spatial attention, a basic capacity that supports higher-level spatial cognition. More remarkably, we found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate this gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity in mental rotation ability, a higher-level process in spatial cognition. After only 10 hr of training with an action video game, subjects realized substantial gains in both spatial attention and mental rotation, with women benefiting more than men. Control subjects who played a non-action game showed no improvement. Given that superior spatial skills are important in the mathematical and engineering sciences, these findings have practical implications for attracting men and women to these fields.

http://www.richardsimoes.com/videogame.pdf

[Nemiroff]

whereas mindless grinding in World of Warcraft probably does a good job of "rotting your brain.

World of warcraft is not mindless, its multiplayer so you can easily interact with other people, especially if you have a phobia of that in real life. also strategy and battle planning when it comes to working together to take something out. i dont play world of warcraft so i'm just quoting basic multiplayer game benefits.

as for old warcraft games, you literally command armies and civilizations (sort of, just some builder guys, not like some other strategy games where its more on the society aspect then the war).

you have to balance resources time, as well as figuring out how much of what units to create. do you want long range archers, short range sword guys, some catapults, or a battering ram, etc. even some flying units.

think about it, whats better, 1 dragon or 500 sword guys (#s probably alittle off) either way each got his own advantages, depending on your choice, you could win or loss, its not called real time strategy for nothing, perhaps this balancing of resources is in the world of warcraft as well, they've never made a strategy game multiplayer like this one, not where you control only a certain character, so i dont know how they made that work.

[Nemiroff]

i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that ALL video games are benefitial. Aside from the generic, reflex and multitasking, each game usually has other benefits in addition to those, even a barbie game might benefit a girl by teaching her some fasion or something...., some dora the explorer game may help little kids develope, even if it does seem stupid to us.

[ShadowFox]

Even a gamer might disagree with this. Though fun, GTA and Man Hunt are something you could debate on. I don't think we want people learning stuff from them .

[Nemiroff]

I never said the lessons were delievered nicely. In Manhunt your superweak compared to everyone trying to capture you, so you have to use your brain to decide to strangle the guy now, or is he gonna walk over someplace alittle darker and hope he don't spot you til then.

Early gta used a lot of reflex, and both take a lot of map memorization and route planning, As well as speed driving through mild traffic.

[ShadowFox]

I guess your somewhat right about man hunt, and the early GTAs aren't as bad as the recent. The recent ones are the ones we really have to put into question.

[Winter wind]

I never said the lessons were delievered nicely. In Manhunt your superweak compared to everyone trying to capture you, so you have to use your brain to decide to strangle the guy now, or is he gonna walk over someplace alittle darker and hope he don't spot you til then. Early gta used a lot of reflex, and both take a lot of map memorization and route planning, As well as speed driving through mild traffic.

All of those things could be made just as fun without the extra, less nice stuff. But since I've never played GTA, I don't know if it is a Godfather/Saving Private Ryan like game (violent as all hell, but rich story makes it a world class movie) or Friday the thirteenth (Made to shock which is easier then making a work of art and associates violence with sex). But that's what makes the difference, and it's usually pretty easy to tell.

[Nemiroff]

Delivered as a shocker but put together like art. Aside the pointless violence, it created one of the most open ended games ever made. I know people that have finished the game a long time ago but just like cruising down vice city doing stunts and creating mayhem. It's greatness is demonstrated by all the rip offs based on it, from the godfather and scarface games, to true crime streets of LA. None have been as fun or as versatile. I can't wait for the new one to come out, part 3 has been getting silly expansions with minimal upgrades, but this ones gonna have 4 of nyc's boroughs in graphics that look like they were shot out of a real camera.

Manhunt is a super shocker but a fun one. Unlike most games you have to stay hidden most of the time and sneak around, but as alternatives hitman is just as sneaky, almost as violent, a lot less gory, and pays homage to several great movies including one of the best scenes from the godfather in the first level. Many would consider that game art.

Also a personal favorite, one of the first and best sneaking games, thief: the dark project, great game, crazy difficult, an amazing story once it developes, and for all the squemish people out there, almost no gore as far as I remember, and on the hardest difficulty you can't kill a single person or you loss Definetely art in my opinion.

[Winter wind]

See, I'm more of a kids video game kid. Super smash bros, Mario Galaxy, Kingdom hearts, Zelda, so on.

It has more to do with the fact that I role my eyes when someone swears more then twice in a single sentence and find "gangsters" to be obnoxious.

[Tycoon]

I find that in good video games the stories are worth knowing as much as a good book.

[Compugasm]

Quote by: Muser How to cure a gaming addict.

You should check out Hero By Night. I haven't read a comic since 1987, and I ended up buying the 4 book mini-series.

Quote by: Winter wind See, I'm more of a kids video game kid.

A former roommate of my made me play a racing game with that creepy Burger King character, it was actually pretty fun.