The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Here's what I reckon. I've been playing games since a very young age, and I feel that it's benefitted me in a number of ways.
I've got excellant hand-eye co-ordination, but then again, so do loads of people who don't play games, so I'm not sure how much of a can be attributed to playing Game & Watches as a child.
I'm a very quick learner. I believe that this has been helped by playing loads of games. You need to pick up the play mechanics and controls as quick as possible. More to the point, you need to start thinking about how you can improve your performance on the game, which leads me onto my next point.
I believe that playing games (especially these days, with the wide variety available) teaches you a number of transferrable life skills. Problem analysis and solving for one. All sorts of games involve this in one way or another, from simple things (in GT3, you keep getting whupped in a race, so you figure out that you need to drop a big turbo in to go faster), to more complicated spacial problems (a la Tomb Raider, Mario 64), to lateral thinking (Banjo Kazooie has a few great examples of this kind of puzzle) to classic problems (Zelda, zelda and zelda) and classic puzzles (Tetris, Bust-a-Move).
Experienced gamers tend to think on far more advanced lines than the non-gamer when it comes to playing games. Personally, when I come up against a puzzle in a game, rather than thinking "how will I get past this?", I think on a higher conceptual level: "what was the designer trying to teach me with this puzzle?" In this way, the solution is usually more obvious (e.g. in Zelda, to get to a dungeon boss, you invariably have to use the item/ability that you gained in that dungeon). This leads me onto another point.
Gaming teaches us increased pattern recognition and memory skills, both of which are the basis of communication and intelligence. Typically, the old-skool 16 bit scrolling shooters would be completable only with some inkling of the enemy's attack patterns. Likewise, some things apply from game to game. It stands to reason (as a gamer) that if your character picks up a burger, he'll become magicallly more healthy, as opposed to the real life alternative of a spreading waistline, indigestion, and heart disease later in life. It's worth pointing out how at odds with reality this is. There is no direct mapping between gaming abilities and real-life intellect, but I believe that one's propensity for one tends to enhance the other.
The crux of the issue is that games as a skill development exercise is immediately well set up for it. For any system of learning to be successful, there must be positive reinforcement. And how good does it feel when you drift round the final corner, taking your opponent on the inside line, or taking out the terrorist who's holding a gun to a hostage's head with a single shot between the eyes?
Anyone agree, or am I on my own.....
I've got excellant hand-eye co-ordination, but then again, so do loads of people who don't play games, so I'm not sure how much of a can be attributed to playing Game & Watches as a child.
I'm a very quick learner. I believe that this has been helped by playing loads of games. You need to pick up the play mechanics and controls as quick as possible. More to the point, you need to start thinking about how you can improve your performance on the game, which leads me onto my next point.
I believe that playing games (especially these days, with the wide variety available) teaches you a number of transferrable life skills. Problem analysis and solving for one. All sorts of games involve this in one way or another, from simple things (in GT3, you keep getting whupped in a race, so you figure out that you need to drop a big turbo in to go faster), to more complicated spacial problems (a la Tomb Raider, Mario 64), to lateral thinking (Banjo Kazooie has a few great examples of this kind of puzzle) to classic problems (Zelda, zelda and zelda) and classic puzzles (Tetris, Bust-a-Move).
Experienced gamers tend to think on far more advanced lines than the non-gamer when it comes to playing games. Personally, when I come up against a puzzle in a game, rather than thinking "how will I get past this?", I think on a higher conceptual level: "what was the designer trying to teach me with this puzzle?" In this way, the solution is usually more obvious (e.g. in Zelda, to get to a dungeon boss, you invariably have to use the item/ability that you gained in that dungeon). This leads me onto another point.
Gaming teaches us increased pattern recognition and memory skills, both of which are the basis of communication and intelligence. Typically, the old-skool 16 bit scrolling shooters would be completable only with some inkling of the enemy's attack patterns. Likewise, some things apply from game to game. It stands to reason (as a gamer) that if your character picks up a burger, he'll become magicallly more healthy, as opposed to the real life alternative of a spreading waistline, indigestion, and heart disease later in life. It's worth pointing out how at odds with reality this is. There is no direct mapping between gaming abilities and real-life intellect, but I believe that one's propensity for one tends to enhance the other.
The crux of the issue is that games as a skill development exercise is immediately well set up for it. For any system of learning to be successful, there must be positive reinforcement. And how good does it feel when you drift round the final corner, taking your opponent on the inside line, or taking out the terrorist who's holding a gun to a hostage's head with a single shot between the eyes?
Anyone agree, or am I on my own.....
I have an arrangement with my friends. Should I ever wear a Red Dwarf T-shirt, they are honor-bound to kill me there and then.
I don't think gaming corrupts people at all, the only people it may affect are people are a bit mental anyway. Gaming can keep people off the streets, it can be a social activity and it's something to do when it's raining. But, I've seen people messed up from too much PC gaming, wearing computer game clothes and square eyes. Nasty. You have to know when to quit.
How can you be corrupted by games? Aside from the usual 'Doom make kids kill' nonsense, that is. I spose that I've been corrupted to stay up later than I should, or perhaps to not bother opening the curtains in the morning, but it's hardly raping and pillaging.
Actually having a quick think, I'm hard pressed to come up with a decent negative aspect of games, especially now that with the proliferation of mult-player, both on and offline, the accusation of it being antisocial can no longer be used.
Actually having a quick think, I'm hard pressed to come up with a decent negative aspect of games, especially now that with the proliferation of mult-player, both on and offline, the accusation of it being antisocial can no longer be used.
I'd agree with that. Gaming doesn't just corrupt you know, it does help people. Hand to eye co-ordination, that sort of thing.
Here's what I reckon. I've been playing games since a very young age, and I feel that it's benefitted me in a number of ways.
I've got excellant hand-eye co-ordination, but then again, so do loads of people who don't play games, so I'm not sure how much of a can be attributed to playing Game & Watches as a child.
I'm a very quick learner. I believe that this has been helped by playing loads of games. You need to pick up the play mechanics and controls as quick as possible. More to the point, you need to start thinking about how you can improve your performance on the game, which leads me onto my next point.
I believe that playing games (especially these days, with the wide variety available) teaches you a number of transferrable life skills. Problem analysis and solving for one. All sorts of games involve this in one way or another, from simple things (in GT3, you keep getting whupped in a race, so you figure out that you need to drop a big turbo in to go faster), to more complicated spacial problems (a la Tomb Raider, Mario 64), to lateral thinking (Banjo Kazooie has a few great examples of this kind of puzzle) to classic problems (Zelda, zelda and zelda) and classic puzzles (Tetris, Bust-a-Move).
Experienced gamers tend to think on far more advanced lines than the non-gamer when it comes to playing games. Personally, when I come up against a puzzle in a game, rather than thinking "how will I get past this?", I think on a higher conceptual level: "what was the designer trying to teach me with this puzzle?" In this way, the solution is usually more obvious (e.g. in Zelda, to get to a dungeon boss, you invariably have to use the item/ability that you gained in that dungeon). This leads me onto another point.
Gaming teaches us increased pattern recognition and memory skills, both of which are the basis of communication and intelligence. Typically, the old-skool 16 bit scrolling shooters would be completable only with some inkling of the enemy's attack patterns. Likewise, some things apply from game to game. It stands to reason (as a gamer) that if your character picks up a burger, he'll become magicallly more healthy, as opposed to the real life alternative of a spreading waistline, indigestion, and heart disease later in life. It's worth pointing out how at odds with reality this is. There is no direct mapping between gaming abilities and real-life intellect, but I believe that one's propensity for one tends to enhance the other.
The crux of the issue is that games as a skill development exercise is immediately well set up for it. For any system of learning to be successful, there must be positive reinforcement. And how good does it feel when you drift round the final corner, taking your opponent on the inside line, or taking out the terrorist who's holding a gun to a hostage's head with a single shot between the eyes?
Anyone agree, or am I on my own.....
I've got excellant hand-eye co-ordination, but then again, so do loads of people who don't play games, so I'm not sure how much of a can be attributed to playing Game & Watches as a child.
I'm a very quick learner. I believe that this has been helped by playing loads of games. You need to pick up the play mechanics and controls as quick as possible. More to the point, you need to start thinking about how you can improve your performance on the game, which leads me onto my next point.
I believe that playing games (especially these days, with the wide variety available) teaches you a number of transferrable life skills. Problem analysis and solving for one. All sorts of games involve this in one way or another, from simple things (in GT3, you keep getting whupped in a race, so you figure out that you need to drop a big turbo in to go faster), to more complicated spacial problems (a la Tomb Raider, Mario 64), to lateral thinking (Banjo Kazooie has a few great examples of this kind of puzzle) to classic problems (Zelda, zelda and zelda) and classic puzzles (Tetris, Bust-a-Move).
Experienced gamers tend to think on far more advanced lines than the non-gamer when it comes to playing games. Personally, when I come up against a puzzle in a game, rather than thinking "how will I get past this?", I think on a higher conceptual level: "what was the designer trying to teach me with this puzzle?" In this way, the solution is usually more obvious (e.g. in Zelda, to get to a dungeon boss, you invariably have to use the item/ability that you gained in that dungeon). This leads me onto another point.
Gaming teaches us increased pattern recognition and memory skills, both of which are the basis of communication and intelligence. Typically, the old-skool 16 bit scrolling shooters would be completable only with some inkling of the enemy's attack patterns. Likewise, some things apply from game to game. It stands to reason (as a gamer) that if your character picks up a burger, he'll become magicallly more healthy, as opposed to the real life alternative of a spreading waistline, indigestion, and heart disease later in life. It's worth pointing out how at odds with reality this is. There is no direct mapping between gaming abilities and real-life intellect, but I believe that one's propensity for one tends to enhance the other.
The crux of the issue is that games as a skill development exercise is immediately well set up for it. For any system of learning to be successful, there must be positive reinforcement. And how good does it feel when you drift round the final corner, taking your opponent on the inside line, or taking out the terrorist who's holding a gun to a hostage's head with a single shot between the eyes?
Anyone agree, or am I on my own.....