There are people who believe that dedicating one’s energy to playing video games is a waste of time. I remember watching an Instagram video of a Greek entrepreneur called Damian Prosalendis (he built a million-dollar business in his early twenties) giving his ‘Tip of the day’ in reference to ‘Why I said that gamers are losers and how 1000+ of them went nuts’. In the video, Prosalendis insists that video gamers are dedicated to ‘having fun’, the result of which is being ‘broke’, unsuccessful, and failing in ‘real life’. This video got me thinking about the multiple ways video gaming is actually beneficial for you and should not be juxtaposed to ‘real life’ on any level. First of all, video games are a source of personal learning and expression. Far from being separated from reality, video games actually help foster real-life skills in a pleasurable, entertaining way. According to Laura Alonso Diaz and others, ‘[g]ame-playing and learning are in fact two sides of the same coin, and video games are rife with new opportunities for adults to build new bridges of connection with each other’ while also building ‘hard and soft skills’ like communication, ‘social and civic competences’, ‘sense of initiative’, ‘cultural awareness and expression’, etc., all based on the ‘Recommendation of the European Council (2006 & 2017) on key competences for lifelong learning’. Diaz and others base their analysis on gamers varying in gender, education, technological competence, etc., and the results show the many ways these competencies can be boosted through video gaming. Indeed, video games can help you find your identity and your place in society by focusing on specific skills like communication and socialization. Through playing these games, you can socialize with other people from different places and different cultures, open your mind to different representations, ideas and conversations, and find yourself in a community that is fun, diverse and educational. For many, video gaming is not a hobby. For a lot of people, video gaming offers a viable career path and an opportunity to make a living and progress as a professional video gamer. There are many dynamic and fulfilling jobs created through the video gaming industry in programming, design, product management, to name just a few. Moreover, video games help you exercise your brain. There are studies showing that those who ‘played action-based video and computer games made decisions 25% faster than others without sacrificing accuracy’, and this means that ‘the most adept gamers can make choices and act on them up to six times a second—four times faster than most people’. This is an interesting counter argument to the long-held view that video games can damage your brain through too much exposure. Another positive effect of playing video games that I have also noticed as a gamer myself is how video games enhance multi-tasking. It is true that video games can have a positive impact on cognition, according to Michelle Trudeau, as well as the development of ‘attention, speed, accuracy, vision and multi-tasking, says [Dafne] Bavelier’, who is ‘a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester’. Video games offer a diverse, fun, engaging and productive environment to develop life skills, and are directly connected to everyday life. Works Cited Laura Alonso-Díaz, Laura, Rocío Yuste-Tosina, Santiago Mendo-Lázaro, ‘Adults video gaming: Key competences for a globalised society’, Computers & Education, 141 (2019), 103616, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103616. Michelle Trudeau, ‘Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills’ (2010) https://www.npr.org/2010/12/20/132077565/video-games-boost-brain-power-multitasking-skills?t=1610047212713 [accessed 07 January 2021]. Prosalendis, Damian, ‘Why You Shouldn’t “Have Fun” Until You Succeed’, Instagram, August 31, 2018, https://www.instagram.com/tv/BnI3NbQlkaG/?igshid=1a8m5p8e58zon&fbclid=IwAR1b6byl4ok220a-OmIC-WQc1-43s5GRWZLy_pppWhx7s_P5SS3AEbjO8HY. Robert Lee Hotz, ‘When Gaming is Good for You’ (2012) < https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203458604577263273943183932> [accessed 07 January 2021].

"Video games" refer to a wide ranging medium, and "good" can be measured in so many different ways. References to "video games" usually refer to COD in popular media. Even with concerns about violence, I wager that video games help with response time. Video in general can help with learning (watching a sports game can help improve skills later when playing the game itself). Video games are also an artistic medium that can expose users to new stories told in new ways. It puts the user in the uncomfortable position of having to make the decisions that are usually shoved off onto the characters on screen. Video games can also be indirectly good for you through their benefits towards society. Strategy games like StarCraft help computer scientists develop better AI which makes the technology we use more responsive and...better. It was video game technology that helped create the technology used to film the Mandalorian (replacing green screen with dynamic LED projections). This means that productions won't necessarily have to fly thousands of miles to film on set, saving money and jet fuel therefore benefitting the environment.. So video games can be good for your personal development, but also the development of arts and science. Ultimately it is an amazing contribution that can be good for humanity. DeepMind’s AlphaStar: A Grandmaster Level StarCraft 2 AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtlrWblOyP4 Why the Mandalorian uses Virtual Sets over Green Screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufp8weYYDE8

This is an interesting argument. I had never really considered how video games could be beneficial before, it seems that there are a few advantages to participating in them. However, there are still cases where 'the bad outweighs the good'. Video games are also proven to contribute to addiction, social disconnection, negative effect on mental health and a difficulty to engage in relationships in the real world. Whilst playing the games clearly have advantages there needs to be a way to ensure that it does not progress into something harmful e.g. addiction to playing the games. Perhaps there should be more recommendations on how long you should play video games per day. Therefore, people benefit from the advantages of playing them without it developing into something much more negative and dangerous. Source : Lal Kabir, '10 negative effects of video games' (21 July 2020), https://www.healthygamer.gg/10-negative-effects-of-video-games/

When one comes to think about whether video games can be good for you, it all boils down to one question: can games be good for you? A lot of positive associations come to mind - creativity, problem solving, strategy building, inspiration, overcoming challenges, appreciating a win and learning to lose, setting goals, building patience, teamwork, respect, and of course the sheer fun of it are just a few of the joys that await the player when entering the magical world of games. As long as one is conscious of the possibility of addiction, plays responsibly and respectfully, does not embrace violence beyond the realm of the video game and maintains a healthy dose of contact with the 'outside' world, gaming can be not only harmless fun but also extremely rewarding cognitively, intellectually and artistically!