Hidden Talents of Gaming

A lot of parents think that video games are a waste of time and money for their children. My vision of gaming is more positive than negative. The player can develop skills from gaming such as hand eye coordination and memorization, quicker information processing and verbal and physical team communication.

Hand eye coordination and memorization is the first skill developed. Most of every game is constantly looking at your screen with your hands needing to press the correct buttons to create movement. For me growing up and learning the buttons was the hardest part, just mashing buttons hoping I could win this next fight. To my surprise, mashing is not the right way to play. I then studied the controller understanding the buttons, my hand placement, but most importantly not looking at the controller. With a lot of practice and after school time I finally did not need to look at my controller. A lot of these skills don't just stick with video games too, that's why it's a skill. “Jobs such as physicians, surgeons, commercial and airline pilots, and technicians of any kind” says Luanne Kelchner. Most of the high paying jobs can be achieved at a young age because of video games.

Team communication is essential in gaming, It’s also one of the most important skills to have for any job or school classroom. Everytime I talk to my online friends during a game we talk continuously during combat and moving around. This is so we all have the same information as the last guy. Lauren Parker, lead editor of Atassian exclaims “Playing games mirrors the kinds of interactions that help teams work better together; Notably, this was true for novices and avid gamers alike.” This means when we play games we can see each other from their weakest to strongest attributes; Be up close and personal or being far from combat. These are thing that most novice gamers notice while picking up new people to play with. This is only the start of what's beneficial. Lauren Parker continues, “A Brigham Young University study of 80 newly formed teams found that groups that played video games together for just 45 minutes were 20 percent more productive than those that engaged in more traditional team-building exercises.” This provides more information saying video games create a stronger bond between others in just 45 minutes compared to “traditional team-building exercises” which for most people are tedious and annoying. Building a team, finding a team or just having fun we all have the communication skill that helps us all win in the end.

Information processing is one of the hardest skills. The reason information processing is difficult, because in one second you can be alive then the next dead for not registering what was going on. For myself I see it as driving always on your toes, checking your surroundings and being safe. For many gamers like myself we look around for many variables before doing anything. Checking if anyone is in front of you while crossing a very loud and slow river. This is just one example of being aware of your surroundings. When you see a person running in front of you on your screen you can’t just say “person moving in front of me.” You need to say where they are going while being aware of your surroundings. “Around that dirt mound to the left around 135 south west” for an example of what details need to be said with many gamers. The more details out the better for everyone. With more practice the skill will be better than a person who doesn’t play video games, as Gwen Dewar, Ph.D for parenting science says “Researchers have tested experienced gamers on a variety of cognitive tasks. Compared to non-gamers of the same age, the experienced gamers could, track objects moving at faster speeds, track more objects at once, filter out irrelevant visual information, switch more quickly from one task to the next, better detect changes in briefly-flashing visual arrays, more accurately predict how 3-dimensional objects would appear when rotated.” This information also supports how people who play video games can focus and understand what's happening in infront of them at that moment. Visual skills also transfer into the working world as well such as Photographer, Graphic Designer, Mechanical Engineer and so much more potential given from just playing video games; for school it helps us focus and process information during class while listening to a teacher.

In conclusion video games support the growing mind into adulthood with three of the most important skills in life for any career from being a photographer to a pilot. To just get started play a video game you are most comfortable with and grow from it. Learn the controls, movement and find a team that supports how you play. Hand eye coordination, memorization, team cooperation and visual processing will come with ease at your fingertips with the help of video games on your side.