Now I understand that most people will tell you that video games are terrible and that they are a waste of time. I'd agree with those people about 60% of the time especially for children who need to be more active to be sure that their body full develops. However if chosen correctly I feel that video games can provide cognitive lessons in history, logic, strategy, economics, language, budgeting, and even world relations. The only problem is these games are often over looked and clumped together with games that are extremely vile simply because they are video games. Also the advertising campaigns for these games are often a lot smaller, meaning even a lot of gamers don't know about them.
The one game with I believe the strongest argument for being both extremely fun and educational would be the Civilization series. I don't know what number they are on now, but the game involves a technology research tree spanning from the dark ages up to the space age. Along the way there is war, colonization, trading, politics, etc. The depth of the game keeps players engaged while they seek to network cities and nations together in an effort to create world peace via technology, wealth, war, or politics.
Now I'm not saying that these games can replace education in anyway. I just think that we should all take a second look at wholesome well designed media that can take leisure time and give it a little more value.
I love this post because I have been frustrated with how negative video games are portrayed. I believe that there is a lot of smut video games, but I also feel that there are good, wholesome games that help people develop cognitively. I am also a real-time strategy fan, having started with Warcraft II as well, but I have found those games extremely challenging and required serious strategy thinking. I wonder if there isn't a study out there that may highlight this value in video games. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, I've always been one of those people. I am known to hate on video games, as my general stance. I think my viewpoint is likely extremist, and to a fault. Like you said, I've clumped all games together and only think negatively, unless it's something that keeps your body moving, like Just Dance or some of the Wii games. I think I ought to take a deeper look into, and not write the idea of video games off because of my ignorance. Thanks for the insight!
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