nicksmith May 12, 2009 Features 1,494 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

It seems like not a week goes by without a story about a child killing someone or going on a rampage then blaming it on video games. Then there are the stories of how video games make people fat, hinder social skills, and generally hurt society. These types of stories do a decent job of making video games look bad.

We decided to put together twelve examples that show that video games can actually be a benefit in “real life”. A few of these are counter arguments to unfounded claims while others are examples of the gaming industry doing things to better the world, many of which widely go unnoticed.

We would love to hear your thoughts on our list and possibly other items we may have missed. Let us know here on Twitter @PWN_or_DIE.

Education

Spore, The Sims, and Sim City creator Will Wright feels the fundamental way of learning has been changed by video games.

Just watch a kid with a new videogame. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. This isn’t a random process; it’s the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play. As the players refine this model, they begin to master the game world. It’s a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it’s a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents.

Studies continue to agree with Will Wright in that video games can have educational value and ’stimulate learning’. Some have been obvious instructional tools that teach math, history, typing, or spelling. Then there has been a large group of games including Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? and Oregon Trail that make learning about things like geography and resource management actually fun. Other games teach problem solving and complex thought in seemingly non-educational settings.

Video games have also become a source of academic coursework. Many universities and colleges now teach a variety of classes and programs centering around video games. Some of these classes include game development, animation, music, game theory, and design. There are also now colleges devoted entirely to video games.

Social Benefits

Video games often get a bad reputation for diminishing the social skills of those that play them. There is plenty evidence that supports just the opposite. In fact getting together with your friends in the living or at a bar to play video games is on the rise. It is the “sense of freedom and connection to other people” that make games more fun and addicting.

Having services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network allow us to play games and communicate with our friends that are miles away. I can speak from personal experience that I have been able to meet new friends online and maintain relationships with friends that have moved away just by playing video games online with them.

Many of the claims that gaming is evil and socially inhibiting have been debunked. MIT Professor Henry Jenkins points out that;

“Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players – for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players.”

When there are no kids in the neighborhood, it is late at night, or your best friend is miles away, video games give you an opportunity to interact with other people and be social.

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Charity

Gaming has become another strong contributor to various charities over the years. There have been countless gaming tournaments and marathons to help raise money for private benefits as well as large charitable organizations.

Child’s Play is an organization that has collected games, toys, and money for sick children that has totaled over $3.5 million dollars from over 100,000 donors. Then there are organizations like Fun For Our Troops that collect video games and gaming equipment to send to the men and women serving in all branches of the military.

When it comes to charity, every little bit helps. Video games have gotten some people involved in charity that may not have otherwise. More importantly the joy and assistance brought to the recipients of this charitable work is very much part of “real life”.

Employment

The gaming industry has become a growing source of employment for thousands of talented individuals. There are a wide range of jobs available at all times all around the world and websites like GamesIndustry.biz that help keep track of them. Employers in the industry are looking for everything from game designers (animators, artists, musicians, programmers) to writers (journalists, creative) to business executives (human resources, marketing, sales) and so much more.

The rapid growth of the popularity of video games has caused studios and projects to be developed at heightened rates. On the flip side, the current economic situation has caused over caused over 8,450 people to lose their jobs and studios to close. That being said, old studios are reshaping and new studios are popping up to take their place. Analysts suggest there is a wealth of talent from the layoffs now out there that will give rise to a “Gaming Renaissance” in years to come. As the industry continues to broaden, the need for workers will rise as well.

Physical Therapy

Gamers have been stereotyped for years as “couch potatoes” because all you used to have to do for most games was sit on a couch in front of a television. Some games over the years used pads on the floor, but it really was not until the Nintendo Wii hit the scene that medical professionals looked to video games for their physical benefits.

The rise of the Wii started getting people of all ages off of the couch and up playing games. Doctors have started to include the Wii in their rehabilitation programs for injured patients of all kinds including soldiers and the elderly. Many patients praise the game for the physicality and also breaking up the repetitive excercises commonly used in rehab. The competitive nature of the games add enjoyment and press them on to keep going.

Schools have started to follow the doctors’ lead by adding the Wii to their gym class curriculum. Through technology schools are hoping to “help kids sweat and get moving” by trying to “engage students in physical activity through gaming and through interactive techniques.”

At home people are using Wii Fit and games like Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum game for aerobics, yoga, and balance-based games. Many agree that you can lose weight and better your health if you follow your training faithfully.

Medical Research

Would you believe that your PlayStation 3 could help in the fight against diseases like Alzheimer’s while you sleep? Through a project called folding@home, users can allow their PS3 to be used to help examine a process called protein folding. Protein folding is a part of almost every biological process, when they fold incorrectly, diseases like Huntington’s and Parkinson’s develop. These processes happen extremely quickly in the body but take a long time to simulate with even one supercomputer.

By connecting the thousands of unused PS3’s and dividing the workload, scientists are able to complete a higher amount of folding simulations and in a much faster time. This research, which is so vital to understanding these diseases is being done at a much higher rate because of a gaming platform by Sony and the goodwill of video game players.

Emergency Response

One of the more surprising items in this list is surely the fact that video games have become an important part of handling the responses to emergency situations.

Emergency workers during Hurricane Gustav were able to use disaster-simulation software based off of video games to rescue over 15,000 stranded pets. Another piece of software called Interactive Triage Trainer, has been designed to train first responders on how to prioritize casualties after a catastrophe.

At least one study has shown that first person shooter games are beneficial for fire evacuation by identifying problems with building layouts and helping people gain familiarity of evacuation procedures. Simulators are also used by police to train in situations where a quick “shoot/no shoot” decision is needed. “It offers excellent training on timing, threat evaluation and decision-making skills. It puts officers in real-life scenarios. A shooting range doesn’t offer this type of simulation.”

These types of simulations allow first-responders to get a realistic feel for a situation without the actual threat they would face in the field.

Artistic Expression

A whole new world has opened up for artists of all kinds with the introduction video games. In creating the games themselves, it takes several artists to work together to make a cohesive gaming experience. There are visual artists that range from concept artists, 3D sculptors, animators, background painters, character and level designers, and even artists to create the marketing and packaging behind the game.

There are audio artists that add dimension to the game by way of sound effects, recorded dialogue, music, and sometimes even a full composed score. In addition to adding their voices to the games, actors often times lend their likenesses as well through motion-capturing.

The art of writing is essential in game development as well. A strong story is the driving force behind a captivating gaming experience. Writers get to imagine the worlds and characters that we get to know from playing through the games. The strength of many of these stories has even caused Hollywood to turn to them for motion picture properties like Max Payne and Street Fighter.

Artists have also been inspired by video games to imagine how games would look like if they were the artists. There have been fine art exhibitions
held by i am 8-bit that feature gaming inspired artwork, primarily focused on classic gaming characters. Digital artists every day create fan art or photo
manipulations of their favorite characters and games. We love making creations like a Mount Rushmore of video game characters, putting Sarah Palin in Grand Theft Auto, giving Barack Obama a Gears of War lancer, or mashing up Left 4 Dead with Shaun of the Dead.

Art and video games are two of our favorite things at PWN or DIE, thus no surprise we love combining the two.

Military Recruiting and Training

The United States Army created a game called America’s Army that was intended to serve primarily as a recruitment tool. The idea is to give people the opportunity to get a feel for the weapons and situations a soldier would see in the Army as well as giving them a sense of team accomplishment by completing missions.

“We want kids to come into the Army and feel like they’ve already been there,” said Col. Casey Wardynski, who as director of the Army’s office of economic and manpower analysis came up with the idea. “A game is like a team effort, and the Army is very much a team effort. By playing an online, multiplayer game, you can get the feel of being in the Army.”

In addition to the game being used for entertainment and recruiting it also serves as an actual training platform. America’s Army features numerous realistic training situations including operating the Humvee mounted weapons from “safely” inside the vehicle. This particular training allows for multiple team members to work together in day situations or at night with thermal imaging just as they would in real combat situations.

Basic medical training in the game has already made the front page as man named Paxton Galvanek was able to pull two motorists from an automobile accident and assist them with no formal training aside from what he learned in the game.

“Because of the training he received in America’s Army’s virtual classroom, Mr. Galvanek had mastered the basics of first aid and had the confidence to take appropriate action when others might do nothing. He took the initiative to assess the situation, prioritize actions and apply the correct procedures,” said America’s Army Project Director Colonel Casey Wardynski.

Robotics and Technology

The research and development budgets spent to create the best gaming interfaces and controllers has ballooned over the years, even surpassing the amount of money spent on developing the controls for military uman-interface applications. The reason being, the gaming industry pours more resources into it and essentially does it better. They have done it so well that the military has chosen to adapt rather than compete.

Mark Bigham, director of business development for Raytheon Tactical Intelligence Systems says, “There are a lot of important lessons to learn from the gaming community. In the past, the military far outspent the gaming industry on human-interface tecchnology, but that’s changed. It’s never going to go back the other way. The gaming industry is such a huge market. The investment in R&D that they’re going to spend on human factors is going to dwarf even what the Department of Defense will spend.”

Xbox 360 controllers are already used to control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and will soon steer around attack vehicles like the amazing MULE by Lockheed Martin onto the battlefield. Often when soldiers are presented with the choice between traditional controls and a gamepad they take to the
controls they are used to. “You get kids that are in their low 20s that are gamers, and they go right to the game paddle. And they don’t know why us old timers like using the F-16 hands-on, throttle-and-stick controllers.”

“Some might say that all those teenagers “wasting time” on Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 are actually the warfighters of tomorrow, training themselves at zero cost to the U.S. taxpayer.”

Sports Management

More than half the NBA teams use the realistic basketball games to simulate scenarios that help them manage their team. Scouts are able to see what effects a trade would have to their lineups by placing a player from another team on their roster. They can run plays around that player and see how teams react.

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey pointed out the scenario of acquiring Ron Artest to his team. “On the game. you can see how adding Artest can change the dynamic of your team. You can program it to run offensive sets with Artest and any combination of your players.”

Sports reporters and odds makers also use video games to forecast game outcomes in addition to the other more traditional methods of gathering information.

Racing and Driving Simulation

Through video games children, teens, and new adult drivers are given the opportunity to simulate the driving experience and learn about key situations they will face when out on the real road. Many traditional racing games teach the realistic aspects of being behind the wheel and operating a motor vehicle. There are also games that take them outside of the automobile and in place them in control of situations like parallel parking and approaching a 4-way stop. These types of games can be a much safer alternative to learn the basics of driving.

Race car drivers have also turned to games to simulate upcoming races by taking countless laps on the virtual tracks. Drivers of many motorsports have
used the realistic digital representations of the tracks as a great way to familiarize themselves with the unique turns and nuances of the course.

Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of the Gran Turismo series, took it in the opposite direction by logging over 1000 laps on the virtual track and then taking it to the real track. After twelve laps, his times were on par with the professional race car drivers.

There is no substitute for real driving, but both new and professional drivers are often more prepared for the road after playing these types of video games.