It looks like it’s going to be one of those back-and-forth items between research showing gamers to be social outcasts and research showing non-gamers to be social outcasts. This is research to the latter effect. According to the article:
Playing games apparently gives young males social confidence, according to the study, while those who don’t play video games had a significantly greater risk of becoming anti-social.
Which certainly should come as a surprise to all those advocates of the evils of video games and gamers in general. In its own light, it certainly makes sense, because the researchers cite the Viginia-Tech shooter as a prime example:
“It’s interesting if you look at what happened a year ago at Virgina Tech… [the attacker's] suitemates who he shared a dorm room with said that he didn’t play video games at all and that struck them as really odd because everyone else did.
I mean, come on, we always seem to be coming up with more and more reasons why games are vital to us – haven’t people learnt yet… ah, that’s right they don’t play video games
Other benefits;
They develop problem solving skills
RPGs help develop critical thinking and sequential reasoning ability
Memory skills are developed: all those maps, mazes and puzzles – and even more is all the objects placed within 3D space
Spatial reasoning
Provide lessons in cultural anthropology. Some games incorporate foreign languages and some have the translations
Some games have artistic appeal
Vocabulary building
Real-world geography
Literary references
Moral issues
Springboard for discussion of all kinds
You call it anti-social….I call it ‘Me time’!!
my boyfriends a gamer and he is the complete opposite of anti-social…he’s friends with soooo many people whether they play games or not
I agree, gamers get bad reps
come on games are kids life
@lee: if you believe that, you´ve either been living under a rock for a while, or you´re attempting to troll.
especially since the stats show that the majority of gamers are played by people 25+
@Fayyaad, @Joseph, don’t feed teh trollz.
Question is, is it really a troll attempt, or just a bout of ignorance….either way, it’s probably one of them drive-by commenters that we never see more than once!
virtual high five with fayyaad followed by manly grunt of victory… grrrr
[...] Viewing this type of communication in a different light, shows that a lot of people think that playing video games online and contacting through the internet makes people more social. Some claim that because some people are so shy or anti-social, they feel more willing to speak out and be heard when they can’t be targeted. This website, which is a persons blog, talks about how people that play video games are always initially thought to be close-minded when according to him, they’re not. http://utterinsanity.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/new-research-non-gamers-are-more-anti-social/ [...]