Games are Good for You

The good and the bad

If you've seen a video game-related story on network television, chances are it wasn't exactly peachy. Despite rising revenue that makes film executives green with envy, the video game industry is often portrayed as conventional entertainment's raucous, hyperactive kid brother. The list of gaming's negative side-effects is seemingly inexhaustible: games are addictive, games ruin relationships, games make kids fat, and of course, games train mass murderers. Pretty scary stuff for a pastime who's most enduring mascot is a jovial plumber.

To point out the factual inaccuracies of such grim claims is a tempting proposition, but rather than simply fan the fires of the argument, we'd like to present a new one altogether.

Believe it or not, games can be good for you. And we can prove it. Here are five ways in which video games can make the world a better place for you, me, and Mario.

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1. They can improve your eyesight.

Your mother might have had good intentions when she told you not to sit too close to the television screen, but it turns out that staring at certain digitized images can present notable visual benefits.

A March 2007 research study at the University of Rochester put a group of college-aged non-gamers through the paces of such high-caliber action fare as Gears of War, Lost Planet and Halo. After 30 hours of gameplay, the subjects outperformed the control group in their ability to accurately pick out objects in a cluttered space.

Research author Daphne Bevelier explained, "First-person action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution, meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects, such as letters... the present study highlights the potential of action-video game training for rehabilitation of visual deficits."

In laymen terms, that means years of fragging might actually sharpen your vision by training your brain to quickly process information. This also has therapeutic ramifications, potentially aiding in the treatment of a variety of ocular disorders including vision loss from aging and lazy eye.

Would we recommend playing Half-Life 2 for 8 hours before taking an eye exam? Not on our remaining lives, but it's good to know that all those headshots might help our heads after all.