Games Are Still Good For You

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It's not all guns and gore. Read on to find out how games are good for you.

2. They can help fight cancer.

There's nothing remotely playful about the silent killer, but that hasn't stopped the game industry from joining the battle.

An enterprising research team at Stanford University has seen firsthand how video games can sway the tide. Their celebrated Folding@home project features the largest distributed computing network the world has ever seen (it's even been verified by Guinness Word Records), and nearly every shred of that power is focused on unlocking the mysteries of protein folding, the key to the formation of numerous cancers.

It wasn't until they tapped into the power of Sony's PS3, however, that things began to really take off. Via a simple download, PS3 users around the world were able to donate small amounts of processing power to help the greater good. In the first month of PS3 integration, computing power across the network doubled. More recently, the project reached the unthinkable petaflop processing milestone.

Project lead and Associate Professor of Chemistry Vijay Pande was amazed.

"The recent inclusion of PS3 as part of the Folding@home program has afforded our research group with computing power that goes far beyond what we initially hoped," he said. "Thanks to PS3, we are now essentially able to fast-forward several aspects of our research by a decade, which will greatly help us make more discoveries and advancements in our studies of several different diseases."

WATCH RE-MISSION VIDEO

Software makers are getting in a few licks as well. A joint effort by Cigna Healthcare and Hopelabs, Re-Mission teaches young cancer patients about their illness through a sophisticated third-person action game. By literally blasting away malignant cells while enlisting the aid of helpful T-cells and platelets, players learn important facts about different kinds of cancer and methods of treatment. It seems to be working; findings indicate that kids exposed to Re-Mission have demonstrated increased cancer knowledge and a better understanding of their own particular care management.

3. They can raise awareness.

For most, games offer an escape from real-world ills. But some see the medium as a fantastic way to reach a generation often considered uninterested in social issues, and in turn lead a burgeoning movement of games aimed at enlightening as they entertain.

Published by the United Nations World Food Programme, the PC/Mac game Food Force requires players to help supply relief to a fictitious, famine-stricken island in the Indian Ocean. The game features an array of thought-provoking missions, from creating a nutritious diet on a budget of 30 cents a day to rebuilding a village over the course of 10 years. Designed to be completed in about one hour, Food Force is offered as a free download and users are encouraged to burn it to disc and share it with their peers. Eat your heart out, RIAA.

Targeting a direr scenario is the browser game Darfur is Dying. The winner of a contest sponsored by mtvU, the online title puts players in the role of a Darfuri family struggling to survive in the midst of genocide. While the gameplay has been criticized as being somewhat detached from the grim conflict itself, Darfur is Dying has succeeded in reaching well over 1 million players.

It's not all death and taxes...or at least it's not all death. Hitting a bit closer to home is Fantasy Congress. A playful spin on fantasy sports, the game works just like your office NFL league, but with elected officials in place of linebackers and wide outs. Players 'draft' politicians, whose performance is rated on everything from voting record to bill sponsorship. Teams can be managed just like regular fantasy squads - if one of your Congressmen starts falling asleep at the wheel, bench him! Applauded by educators and politicos alike, it's a handy way to keep track of Washington's finest (and not so finest) movers and shakers.

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Still think all video games are evil? Then you haven't been paying attention. Read on to learn about gaming's good side.

4. They can ease your pain.

Okay, so we openly admit to faking a cold just to skip school and spend more alone time with Super Mario Bros. But could it be that in our duplicity, we were unknowingly tapping into the potential of the video game as a therapeutic healer?

Workers at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Center in Edmonton seem to think so, at least when it comes to Wii Sports. They've been using the motion-based activities of Nintendo's hit game to help treat patients suffering from movement and balance issues caused by brain injury. Dr. Grigore Burdea believes patients prefer the inherent challenges and rewards that come with gaming to other, more tedious forms of rehabilitation, which often leave them bored and frustrated.

WATCH WII SPORTS TRAILER

"The problem here isn't the patient not wanting to do it," said Burdea. "The patient wants to do it too much ... People are addicted to games, but in this case, the addiction is towards a good cause."

You'd be hard-pressed to find a cause more honorable than the one taken up by Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In fact, the center's monthly video game socialization therapy program was spearheaded by a nonprofit soldier's aid group actually called Cause. For soldiers plagued by both physical and emotional injuries sustained in the field, the group gaming session is a boon.

"When you're just sitting in your room thinking about what happened, it drives you crazy," said Army Spec. Juan Alcibar, who suffered a leg injury while serving in Baghdad. "This is something to get your mind off your sorrows. . . . I wish they had it every week."

The benefit of gaming as a pain distraction was the topic of a 2006 study at West Virgina's Wheeling Jesuit University. Researchers examining the effects of six different game genres found that sports and action games provided dramatic distraction levels from pain.

Dr. Bryan Raudenbus, Director of Undergraduate Research, put the findings into perspective. ""There are implications here for children, adolescents, and young adults, all of whom are the primary users of such video games. Physicians could possibly implement this in their office to aid in distraction during a painful procedure such as injection or dental work."

We're not sure Madden 08 would be a worthy replacement for Novocain, but we're willing to, uh, give it a shot.

5. They can brighten your day.

In a bad mood? Feeling a bit stressed? Then consider turning that frown upside down with Mindhabits. Initially designed by Dr. Mark Baldwin, a psychology professor at Montreal's McGill University, the online game purports to help users develop positive thinking habits through a series of games based around the psychological triggers of inhibition, association and activation. By clicking on smiling faces or circling 'positive' words, players are theoretically relieving stress and reshaping their attitudes towards acceptance and rejection.

If happy faces aren't your thing, maybe Doom is. Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland have found success determining the severity of clinical depression by using a first-person simulator (very loosely) based on Duke Nukem. A 2007 study overseen by Neda Gould suggested that those suffering from depression had a much harder time navigating a virtual town than otherwise healthy control subjects.

Gould believes this could play a major role in determining the severity of clinical depression. "Our results suggest that spatial memory performance on a virtual reality navigation task may represent a quantifiable measure to assess possible hippocampal deficits in patients with depression," she writes.

Hmmm...first-person shooters could stave off depression? No wonder we smile whenever we think of Bioshock.