Game On!

CEBU, Philippines - The fact of the matter is that everyone has an addiction. Some people are hooked on drugs, some on booze, but in my case, I’m addicted to video games—lots of it. Back in the early 90s when the family computer was still a huge hit, I would easily forgo my extra readings for an extra five more hours of making sure that Super Mario pulverized the Dragon and made it all the way to World 8.

It’s an addiction that I share with millions of other kids most especially when gaming consoles like the entire Playstation line, when Xbox, Wii and the whole lot came into the scene. Add the whole slew of PC games like Starcarft, DOTA, and baby, you’ll know what’s keeping the rest of the teen-age world nocturnal.

Now our parents may see the likes of Warcraft and Final Fantasy as banes; and I’m particularly sure that if you’ve been a video junkie yourself, you’ve had your share of the ‘you can only play video games’ spiel from either your mom, your dad or both. However, although too much video gaming may keep you up until the wee hours of the night, it’s safe to say that apart from contributing a little bit to deteriorating your vision, video games aren’t all that bad. In fact, there’s good reason to keeping them plugged on—even on weekdays and exam weeks.

Just like your favourite crossword puzzle or that Sudoku piece on the daily that you can’t seem to get enough of, video games—most especially RPGs and puzzle games—according to various studies that have been conducted over the years, provide a great workout for the brain. 

Role playing games like Star Ocean and Tomb Raider which consist of a complex storyline and a long list of problems to solve serve to sharpen the memory and fine tune problem-solving and strategizing skills more effectively than a regular doze of boring, traditional drills that many of us have to reckon with in the classroom.

Because kids today learn more through interactive means, video games have the power of cutting the time it takes for kids of all ages to learn new stuff by sparking their curiosity for new things. In fact, it’s this particular finding that sparked the birth of what we know as ‘edutainment’.

The Wii as well as other gaming accessories that bank heavily of real-life movement have even broken that notion that video games contribute absolutely nothing to giving us a regular doze of exercise. With game systems that translate actual physical movement into the game itself, golf, tennis, and yoga can already be squeezed into the living room—and that’s even sans the rain.

Video games really, aren’t just some pointless source of entertainment. In fact that best thing about video games is the fact that it’s one of the good things in life that can actually be considered has good fun.

Now, here’s a piece for our parents to read.