Video Games

A blog devoted to video games, their effects, and fellow gamers' stories!

[melee-hell]

❤️

[michiganator]

Life lessons from gaming!

[michiganator]

Well, that about wraps it up! Thanks for reading everyone, I hope I’ve opened your eyes to some of the valuable benefits of playing video games! (Click here to head back to where it all began). If you say, “that’s it, there aren’t any more benefits to video games, this blog completely summed it up”, (thanks!) then I’d love for you to Google it and discover that this blog only scratched the surface. Scientists and researchers are discovering new uses for and benefits from video games every day, they are a historically new technology after all. New studies appear constantly, providing even more legitimacy for video games effects, so what can you gain from inputting video games into your daily routine? I, for one, will continue to game. It is an integral part of my life that I love sharing with others, and I cannot wait to see where this technological era takes their development and evolution. As the game says, “Thanks Link, you’re the Hero of Hyrule. Finally, peace returns to Hyrule. This ends the story.”

[michiganator]

Flex those Burly Neurons!

You’re driving along the highway at 75 mph, when suddenly, the car in front of you hits black ice and begins to spin out, what do you do? How fast can you react? I believe that gamers react faster than non-gamers since – with games like Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo presenting similar car crash situations – the gamers have experience. “In order to sharpen its prediction skills, our brains constantly build models, or ‘templates,’ of the world… the better the template, the better the performance. And now we know that playing action video game[s] actually foster better templates” (Perry, 2014). Hah! There is science backing it up.

Reaction speed is only one area of your brain that is improved when gaming – motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and movement memorization are three others. Talk to any gamer, they can do the in-game motions in their sleep. For example, in Guitar Hero and Rock Band (which is your favorite? I’m a GH fan), advanced muscle memory between left hand, right hand, and the eyes is required. For those of you who don’t know, in-game, a stream of notes travels down a path towards guitar strings and if a player is not capable of visually locating where these notes are placed and at what time they will need to strum, they will become confused and their hands will not keep up with their eyes (DragonForce anyone?). Over time, gamers will discover and recognize patterns of notes that their muscle memory will be able to rapidly identify and hit with minimal effort. Science also proved that gamers learn the patterns in first-person shooters faster than non-gamers (Perry, 2014). If people aren’t playing video games, even sporadically, they are missing out on an opportunity to improve their brain, and who doesn’t want to be “harder, better, faster, stronger”?

[michiganator]

Flex Those Burly Hand Muscles!

“One more turn, that’s all, just one… more… turn…” 6 hours later, “maybe one more turn.” Spending an entire day without getting up, sound familiar? This is a major criticism of video games, lack of physical activity. People perceive the typical gamer to trade health and exercise for achievements and pizza. In order to combat this problem, companies released consoles promoting movement and health: Wii, Wii U, PlayStation Move, and Xbox 360 Kinect. These consoles require the player to stand up and move their body, or “active gaming”, and they have been quite successful! “Organizations like the American Heart Association now cite, even recommend, video games as a fun and entertaining way to enjoy physical activity” (Steinberg, 2011). In this same study, middle-schoolers were found to have a higher energy expenditure playing four of six games than walking on a treadmill. Don’t bother with a gym membership, go out and grab yourself a Wii! That may be a little extreme since gaming does not fully replace the need to exercise, but it certainly can be an entertaining way to work off a few pounds while handing the computer a beat-down in Wii boxing (believe me, after 20 minutes, you will have a layer of sweat). What is your favorite “active game”?

[michiganator]

Career Benefits? Those Exist?

Compare today to 50 years ago, what’s different? Today, I am sitting at a personal laptop computer typing this blog which will be posted to the Internet so anyone in the world can read if they are interested (and getting constantly distracted by listening to music and checking my personal smartphone). 50 years ago, I am writing a paper by hand for class. However, I am not writing about video games since they do not exist. The creation, adoption, and evolution of video games has occurred at an unprecedented rate; new technological jobs and opportunities have spiked as well. But does playing video games prepare you for these new tech jobs? Yes! Check out “Game Modes”.

Even professionals acknowledge this fact, “‘the success of complex video games demonstrates that games can teach higher-order thinking skills such as strategic thinking, interpretive analysis, problem solving, plan formulation and execution, and adaption to rapid change,’ the Federation [of American Scientists] announced in a 2010 report. ‘These are the skills U.S. employees increasingly seek in workers and new workforce entrants’” (Steinberg, 2011). When your parents say “turn that time-waster off”, you now have factual evidence to say back to them, “but mom, I’m learning so much! You are damaging my future potential for growth!” (I’d love to see her facial expression!) Even though playing video games is quite beneficial, addiction is a real problem (if you know someone who could be struggling with video game addiction, please see this link). However, the argument should be about how much time people spend playing video games, not about whether they should be allowed to play in the first place.

[michiganator]

VR Heasdets: This is the Future

If you had the chance to fly, would you take it? Soaring through the skies, passing birds, looking down at the world… I certainly would! Now, what if I said this was possible? You don’t believe me, do you. How about wearing this virtual-reality (VR) headset, can you see it now? These 360-degree visual and audio headsets are technology of the future – today. VR systems have unlimited benefits, of which we are just beginning to scratch the surface. For example, I participated in emergency training as a victim of a tornado. We were placed in a black room and told to act as if we were injured, terrified, dead, etc… (I tapped into my acting abilities and hyper-ventilated with shock, how fun!) The first-responders were to save as many of us as they could before a second wave of tornadoes came through the area. There were about 15 victims and two teams of eight first-responders in total. Take a minute and consider the amount of time, space, and volunteers this training required. With a set of eight VR headsets, the first-responders could receive all necessary training with even more realistic victims and consequences, not requiring any extra time, space, or volunteers. “70 percent of major domestic employers have utilized interactive software and games for training purposes, and nearly eight out of 10 plan on doing so by 2013” (Steinberg, 2011). Companies and governmental public safety organizations can train workers to respond to an endless variety of emergency and stress-inducing situations using VR video games.

“Sure, there are all these pro-social benefits to them, but what about my games, man, what do these headsets give to me in entertainment value?” Well, your best current options are: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream View, Google Cardboard (yes, it’s a thing), Microsoft HoloLens, Fove o, and Razer OSVR HDK 2 (Wareable, 2016). Let’s take a look at the Sony PlayStation VR system. Still have that craving to fly? Well Eagle Flight is the game for you. Want more thrills? Check out Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, Thumper, or Batman Arkham VR. Perhaps sports are your taste (like me): RIGS Mechanized Combat League, Battlezone, Headmaster, or 100ft Robot Golf. While these are not exceedingly famous titles, Resident Evil, Star Trek, Star Wars, and Final Fantasy are all on the way, just have to give it some more time for programmers to clear the bugs. (Wareable, 2016). If you couldn’t tell, there are a plethora of new games being created for VR headsets and a few years down the road, they will be “all the rage”. Which gaming worlds do you want to become literally immersed in? (Please release Legend of Zelda or Mario, I need to be both Link and a fat plumber!) 

[michiganator]

Educational Gaming: Where Are We Now?

The name Sid Meier resonates with gamers across the world. Why? He has created tons of games, with Civilization being one of the most famous. This game began in 1991 with a simple entertainment concept: build a civilization from the ground up and conquer all others, either diplomatically, militarily, or culturally. Apparently, gamers love this concept since about a month before this post was written, Civilization VI was released and it has already sold over a million copies. Not only is Sid Meier’s team focusing on entertainment games, he is creating a whole new direction for the series, CivilizationEDU. “CivilizationEDU will provide students with the opportunity to think critically and create historic events, consider and evaluate the geographical ramifications of their economic and technological decisions, and to engage in system thinking and experiment with the causal/correlative relationships between military, technological, political and socioeconomic development.” (Frank, 2016) Could you imagine your school years consisting of classes based entirely on video games? This concept will only continue to grow as learning facilitated by books and homework is outdated by a technological society. The future is bright, my friends!

[michiganator]

Educational Gaming: Where It All Began

A short history lesson: back in the 1940’s New York World’s Fair, the first video game was debuted. 32 years later, Pong was released by Atari (Video). However, the first educational video game was sold in 1971 – The Oregon Trail. As the name describes, pioneers (players) travel from the Midwest to California on the Oregon Trail with the goal being to simply survive (click here if you want to try it for yourself). Rather than schools teaching this lesson out of textbooks, this video game changed the entire experience. Now, students can make decisions, interact with others, trade, and even name their own characters! It is quite the shock when you see “Mom has died” or “______ has died”, believe me. Even adults can learn valuable lessons from the game, such as rationing the food, never eat it all at once (yeah dad, come on man!). The Oregon Trail began the educational video game craze, read on to discover how they have evolved, even creating one of the most successful chains of computer video games.

[michiganator]

Game Modes

Continuing with sports games, one of the reasons they are so popular comes from their multifarious game modes: season, dynasty, and Road to Glory (NCAA Football specific). Season mode consists of joining a team as a manager/player for only one season. By playing one season with one team, it allows players to get a taste of how the team functions and if they would like to keep playing with them in the future. Also, a gamer can gain experience in performing various tasks that would not be ethical in dynasty mode. For example, trading draft picks for aging stars may not be effective in the long-term, however, these stars could lead your team to a championship in this season.

Don’t want to fall in love with a team only to lose it? Try dynasty mode. Here, a player becomes the manager for a team for as long as they want, or until they are fired or take a different position. This mode teaches practical life skills, such as managing money, wheeling-and-dealing with trades, and handling injuries and the press. While this simulated managerial training does not fully prepare someone for the real-world, it does provide practice and increases problem-solving skills.

Want to solo-carry a team? Try Road to Glory mode. While this is specific to more modern NCAA Football games, it provides an entirely novel gaming experience. The player starts as a high-school athlete and progresses through life to a senior in college and, if the gamer owns the required Madden game, can continue to the pro’s if he is good enough to get drafted. Not only does the player have to hone some mad football skills, there are also classes with tests and majors to choose from in college. These tests are not pushovers either, trust me!

Gaming can certainly lead to knowledge and learning, either explicitly or implicitly. Read the next post to receive your introduction to the world of educational gaming.

[michiganator]

Games are Made for Sharing

I was raised in a gamer household. My older brother (10-year gap) would play them all the time, and a good game has just GOT to be shared. We would constantly play Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda, ever since I was old enough to handle a controller. Once I began to age and my cognitive skills increased, a new favorite game of ours appeared, NCAA Football 2003. Around 7th grade I began to dominate him in nearly all games, other than football, where we were quite balanced. It would be an understatement to say that we grew closer together through video games. If we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have had as many chances to bond and “brosify”. Who knows how this would have impacted our relationship since our fondest memories come from the insane 108-yard kickoff returns and runs that broke 10 tackles. Now that we are older, whenever we can play against each other, these memories of youth flood back and provide an emotional high – especially if I win! I wouldn’t trade these memories for the world, and I know all you gamers out there feel the same way.

[danddurand]

How i met your jungler in English! finally!

[michiganator]

Nothing like a good ol’ League of Legends love story! 

[michiganator]

Social Gaming part 2

“Mom, I’m taking a trip to Canada to have a LAN (local-area network) party with my League of Legends (LoL) friend!” Now, I don’t know if your mom would be cool with this, however, mine is not. Thus, the miracle technology of the Internet and web-based gaming. LoL accomplishes humanity’s need for social interaction by messaging and playing with randos all over the world.  – For those non-gamers in the audience, LoL is a computer game consisting of two teams of five players working together to kill enemy players while destroying their turrets and base (or nexus, in proper terms) – It is from these randos that friendships can form, sometimes with a quite strong bond. For example, my best friend in Michigan played with a girl from Canada. By chatting and gaming together, the discovery of mutual single-and-ready-to-mingle relationship statuses led to him doing exactly what my hypothetical friend asked his mom in the first sentence of this post. He is heading to Canada to have a LAN party with his LoL soon-to-be girlfriend (he has a cool mom).

UPDATE: He just got back and now they are officially in a relationship! 

Since LoL is the largest online game in the world, it has garnered enough support that ESPN now covers it with “eSports”. Not only is it on television, “over the course of 73 games at last year’s World Championships they averaged 4.2 million [online] viewers watching concurrently”. Also, “in…Madison Square Garden…it was the League of Legends Semifinals on a Friday night in New York City, and over 15,000 people, young and old, were there to see it all go down” (Scott, 2016). Video games bring people together, “families are brought together…friends are here together, and they might have met each other playing League, and now they’re travelling together to come to one big event” (Scott, 2016). LoL creates a community, bonding with people from differing backgrounds and stories, all in the name of the game. What’s your story? (Tell me below)

[michiganator]

Social Gaming

“Evidence has been growing that when our needs for social relationships are not met, we fall apart mentally and even physically… we are built for social contact” (Marano, 2003). Humans need social contact. Games provide social contact. Humans need games? While we may (somehow) be able to live without them, video games bring people together and provide entertaining personal interaction with others. For example, walking onto campus at the University of Michigan as a freshman, having no connections or Ann Arbor street-sense, can be quite intimidating. Once I finally ventured outside the confines of my room to the freshman meeting of Cru, I was invited to my first “college party”. 

Google Maps led me to a house that consisted of a Wii console with four controllers and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Throughout the battles, victories, losses (more than I am willing to admit), and milkshakes, I began to meet others and attempt to learn their names. A few of these gamers have stuck around with me and are still close friends. Having no roommates in my dorm can cause moments of unfathomable boredom, thus, these friends have been necessary, keeping me from “fall[ing] apart mentally and even physically.” Now through my first semester, I have noticed that Smash is a staple at parties and gatherings. How come? Well, it is fun! Social games such as Smash provide an effective platform to meet and bond with others in-person, developing friendships that could last a lifetime.

[michiganator]

Hello everyone! To begin this series of blogs, some background info about myself and the upcoming topic would be useful. First, I am an avid lover of video games – playing and watching them, from classics to the newest generations. Second, what are these “video games” I am referring to? They are interactive forms of electronic entertainment where players make continuous decisions that directly affect the game’s current and future status and situations, either against a computer or other players. Third, why did I decide to blog about this? Rather than writing a paper for my final exam, blogging is a much more enjoyable way to complete the assignment. Also, with headlines such as “Did video games ruin your childhood?” and “Negative effects of video games: It’s worse than you thought”, researchers and scholars seem to forget about the benefits of partaking in glorious quests to save the Kingdom of Hyrule. I will be discussing video games’ positive effects, some may even surprise you… Intrigued? Then read on my fellow gamers: comment, share, and enjoy!