Goods of Playing Video Games
You have to wonder: what makes video games worthwhile? At just a glance, it seems there are no benefits from this system that allows you to interact with fictional character or situation. But if you were to dig a little deeper, you would be surprised at what you can get from video games.
Reading:
Quite a few articles mention that video games promote reading. I would say that this is true in games where text dialogue is a must since the characters do not speak such as the Legend of Zelda. it forces the player to read the text in order to understand the events going on. However this is only good to a certain extent because most games will not use complex words. Games don't necessarily expand one's vocabulary, so books should never be neglected. In generally, reading is strengthed.
Logic:
Particularly in the Role Playing Game (RPG) or strategy genre, these games force players to look at the environment. The players have to take into account the avaliable facts and come up with the solution in order to get to the next stage of the game. In the case of The Legend of Zelda, you have areas called dungeons where you must find the items and use them to reach the dungeon's boss and defeat it. It takes a certain degree of skill to figure out the puzzles in the dungeon's rooms. I will say there are times when you do have to cheat and look at a guide because some puzzles or items are extremely hard to figure out. Nevertheless, logic is exercised in these games.
Communication:
If it weren't for technological advances in certain areas, this could never be considered a benefit. However thanks to bluetooth and the rise of First Person Shooter (FPS) games, communication have been an increasing skill. Communication on games were limited to Massive Multi Player Online RPG via typing. It was no easy feat to coordinate those group fights considering some were playing in different timezones. Not to mention some can't spell. Since Bluetooth technology, players are now able to talk with other people on networks. It's much easier to voice what you want the other person to do. Particularly helpful in those FPS games where you're trying to get rid of the other team, Current video games allow you to interact with a multitude of people from all over the world. In this time, it's not uncommon for online games to have people from Japan, China, England, etc playing. they just come and go. It also gives you the opportunity to make friends in a cheap fashion.
Patience & Concentration
There is no video game that does not have those two qualities. I doubt there is a video game where a player hasn't gotten frustrated. It happens often to me and the only way I get through it is learning to wait and practice. In games where you have to press button sequences require the player to focus or they screw up the sequence and start over. These two skills are particularly useful anywhere, especially in driving. In driving, there are points where you hit rush hour traffic and there isn't much you can do. Honking the horn isn't going to make traffic go faster, so you learn to wait. As you drive, you want to be focused because a distraction could be fatal. A second goes a long way when you drive.
Knowledge:
This is a particularly questionable area because there are not a whole lot of things you can learn from video games. One of the few things that it could help with is foreign languages. Putting the game in a different language could help you to learn it and some of the structure. Another feature I've noted happen is players tend to learn about other objects particularly cars and guns. For cars, some racing games allow you to construct the car and so players tend to learn about various car models, engines, etc. For guns, it's more of the model, killing capability, reload time, and other stuff. Unless you're going to own a gun or autoshop or something, it's not real applicable. but it's there.
Desensitization:
Unless your children have free choice and you really don't care, you understand that M rated games have quite explicit content. For younger children, it exposes to them an ugliness than they're expected to see. For example, all games in this category usually have profanity within the game. It gives them new words to possibly try out. In any case, you should see how often profanity occurs in daily conversations. I believe it has gotten so bad that profanity is treated as a typical common word. Some M-rated games have nudity, graphic violent scenes, blood, etc. It really exposes under 17 children to a lot of stuff. The only good thing that I can see from this is children are given stuff that they will eventually encounter when they grow up. In the case of the game Grand Theft Auto, prostitution, violence, and auto theft were parts of the game. Not that much different from real life where prostitution, auto theft, and violence does exist.
Resource: James Shimoda
