Video Games as a Learning Tool Research Assignment

Video Games as a Learning Tool
Just because it is called a game, most people strictly consider it as a waste of time and even as something that deteriorates the brain cells. There is a stigma attached to people who play video games a lot such as the players’ incapability to make real life decisions, their lack of interpersonal skills, and of their future being doomed to be spent in the basements of their parents’ homes. People think that individuals who are fond of playing games are obsessed with it and are already showing signs of addiction, when in fact many video game players are only playing casually (Zastrow, “New Feature: Is video game addiction really an addiction”). It appears that the immense interest on video games and especially of being avid players of it, have been tied to mostly just negative matters. Parents, older individuals, or any non players have the tendency to suggest that players are better off spending their time with other worthwhile activities. Society discourages strong passion towards playing even though in some countries, video game playing has become a career, and even a class someone can take. Are video games really all that bad? Are there some benefits someone can get from playing video games? It can be argued that video games can actually be efficient tools to exercising one’s cognition in terms of logic and even of emotions.
Video games help harness a person’s logical thinking. Video games are just in the surface called games but it does not mean that someone is going to play absentmindedly (“Playing video games may boost brainpower, strategic thinking skills”). Unlike watching TV where responding, making choices, or logical thinking is required, many video games allow its player to think logically. While TV only plays any movements and graphics that a person can blankly stare at, video games are different. It would be safe to say that a video game is less damaging to the brain than the TV could. There are several kinds of video games and many of them include strategy, puzzles, planning, and critical thinking. Video games are not restricted to color games or brick games, which even then require thinking, but there are many that are even involved in real life events and history. For example there are strategy games about the world wars that allow its player to alter history depending on the tactics he applied to the game. But even for fictional games where pl...