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Positive Effects
Home Positive Effects Negative Effects Addiction Children & Adolescents References	Positive effects of video games With video games becoming more and more popular these days, more people are playing video games and also owning more gaming systems. With the increasing amount of play in video games, more research has been conducted on video games and how they affect us in our everyday lives. In this section, we will talk about two main areas where research has shown significant positive impacts from video games on both adults and children in many ways. These two areas will be on how video games provide educational benefits, and social and emotional regulation benefits. Educational Benefits As we all know, different games have been made to appeal to different audiences and have a unique style of play to attract a gamer and keep that gamer immersed in the world he or she is playing in. So how do these different games play a positive impact on us? Much research has been placed into video games, and lots of positive and negative results have emerged from these studies. One area that has showed strong positive results from video games (especially in children) is education. Mary Schlimme explains that researchers have found children’s reading and spelling abilities significantly improved with exposure to educational video games (Schlimme, 2002). Video games allow improved reading and spelling abilities because one becomes so immersed in a game, allowing one to follow a story and become part of the adventure and learn along the way. This is especially true if there is lots of text-based words and scenarios in the game the require different types of decisions from the player. But what characteristics does a video game possess to help teach children or even adults? And how would one become so immersed in a video game to gain these benefits? Video games are very engaging and elicit constant activity (Kolko & Rickard-Figueroa, 1985) in which an individual must control every aspect of a character(s) in order to see what happens next in the story line, and make decisions along the way on what he/she is going to do next. By playing a role, he/she will make decisions on how to go through the game, and this in turn will open doors of educational opportunity in different fields such as reading, spelling, math, and even history and geography. One excellent example of an educational game would be Brain Age for the Nintendo DS. In this game, one expands his/her mind by performing several levels of reading and mathematical exercises to help stimulate the brain. This game is inspired off of research done by Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. This game could be considered one of the best educational games on the market, and allow exceeding gains in reading and math for those who play it. Other games such as Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars (tactical strategy games) require players to take the role of several characters to defeat the enemy they encounter. These games are very similar to chess, in that when the player makes a move, the enemy also makes a move. The player has a turn to move his/her characters and attack the enemy, defend a point, and many other scenarios that take place. Once the player’s turn is over, the enemy then has its turn and can combat with the player’s moves. The player has to use strategic maneuvering to combat with his or her enemy to come out on top in the game. By playing a game like this, it could allow an individual to build his/her concentration and decision making on how to effectively combat with the enemy. This in turn could allow one to use these concentration and decision making skills in the real world, such as studying for a test, working on a project, or coming up with a new plan for a business. Video games could also set one’s goals at a higher level. If one builds his/her goals within a video game (getting a higher score, a faster time, a better rank, etc.), he/she could transfer those ideals of building higher goals into real life situations (doing better at a task or even quitting a bad habit). Complex games requiring a variety of skills (such as Fire Emblem) to succeed may also contribute to academic success by promoting problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and creativity (Smyth, 2007), but only if one is truly interested and immersed in the game. If one is not that interested in the video game, then it is unlikely that he/she will gain these benefits from the video game played. Social Skills There are also video games that require multiple players to complete the game or certain areas of the game, such as multiplayer games. Many games require that participants work together in order to succeed in the game, which may improve players’ social skills (Schlimme, 2002) and also emotion regulation skills (Smyth, 2007). A perfect example would be a game called Mekong e-Sim. This game was developed to support the learning requirements of geography and engineering undergraduate university students (Kirkpatrick, McLaughlin, Maier & Hirsch, 2002). Most students agreed that the simulation developed an awareness of multiple dimensions to natural resource decision making (91%) (Freitas & Griffiths, 2007). Four-fifths of students said it benefited their team building skills (80%) and over two-thirds of the students said it supported their electronic communication skills (71%) (Freitas & Griffiths, 2007). This game, along with other multiplayer games, can prove to benefit one’s social skills. Video games have also been effective for the military in emotion regulation. A game called Full Spectrum Command (FSC) was developed as an educational tool to teach cognitive skills, such as leadership and decision-making skills (Freitas & Griffits, 2007). This game involves taking command of and army composed of several hundred soldiers and strategically engage in missions to overthrow fictional enemies that have fictional profiles. As the player advances through the missions, the stories become more complex, with greater surprises and twists designed to put the student under greater pressure, thereby testing their abilities to keep calm under increasing pressure (Biros et al, 2005). Video games used for military purposes, such as Full Spectrum Command, is perfect in preparing one for engaging in battle and real-time scenarios. Because video games are so engaging, it allows multiple individuals to become immersed in a game and work together in order to complete a task. By creating more games with more multiplayer functions with real-life situations, it will allow more individuals to build more social and emotion regulation skills when encountering people in the real world. We covered two very important areas (Education, social and emotion regulation skills) in which studies have shown positive results from video game usage. More video games aimed towards these areas will benefit more people from the game play they provide. Also, more research should be done in different areas of video games to see how else they may impact and benefit us in different ways. Although not all video games shine a positive light of benefits, many do provided with right content, and if an individual really immerses him/herself into the game. It all started as 8 gig side scrolling games, now they have become multi-million dollar projects that effect us both positively and negatively in the world of Cyberpsychology.

Positive Effects

Positive effects of video games

With video games becoming more and more popular these days, more people are playing video games and also owning more gaming systems. With the increasing amount of play in video games, more research has been conducted on video games and how they affect us in our everyday lives. In this section, we will talk about two main areas where research has shown significant positive impacts from video games on both adults and children in many ways. These two areas will be on how video games provide educational benefits, and social and emotional regulation benefits.

Educational Benefits

As we all know, different games have been made to appeal to different audiences and have a unique style of play to attract a gamer and keep that gamer immersed in the world he or she is playing in. So how do these different games play a positive impact on us? Much research has been placed into video games, and lots of positive and negative results have emerged from these studies. One area that has showed strong positive results from video games (especially in children) is education. Mary Schlimme explains that researchers have found children’s reading and spelling abilities significantly improved with exposure to educational video games (Schlimme, 2002). Video games allow improved reading and spelling abilities because one becomes so immersed in a game, allowing one to follow a story and become part of the adventure and learn along the way. This is especially true if there is lots of text-based words and scenarios in the game the require different types of decisions from the player. But what characteristics does a video game possess to help teach children or even adults? And how would one become so immersed in a video game to gain these benefits? Video games are very engaging and elicit constant activity (Kolko & Rickard-Figueroa, 1985) in which an individual must control every aspect of a character(s) in order to see what happens next in the story line, and make decisions along the way on what he/she is going to do next. By playing a role, he/she will make decisions on how to go through the game, and this in turn will open doors of educational opportunity in different fields such as reading, spelling, math, and even history and geography. One excellent example of an educational game would be Brain Age for the Nintendo DS. In this game, one expands his/her mind by performing several levels of reading and mathematical exercises to help stimulate the brain. This game is inspired off of research done by Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. This game could be considered one of the best educational games on the market, and allow exceeding gains in reading and math for those who play it.

Other games such as Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars (tactical strategy games) require players to take the role of several characters to defeat the enemy they encounter. These games are very similar to chess, in that when the player makes a move, the enemy also makes a move. The player has a turn to move his/her characters and attack the enemy, defend a point, and many other scenarios that take place. Once the player’s turn is over, the enemy then has its turn and can combat with the player’s moves. The player has to use strategic maneuvering to combat with his or her enemy to come out on top in the game. By playing a game like this, it could allow an individual to build his/her concentration and decision making on how to effectively combat with the enemy. This in turn could allow one to use these concentration and decision making skills in the real world, such as studying for a test, working on a project, or coming up with a new plan for a business. Video games could also set one’s goals at a higher level. If one builds his/her goals within a video game (getting a higher score, a faster time, a better rank, etc.), he/she could transfer those ideals of building higher goals into real life situations (doing better at a task or even quitting a bad habit). Complex games requiring a variety of skills (such as Fire Emblem) to succeed may also contribute to academic success by promoting problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and creativity (Smyth, 2007), but only if one is truly interested and immersed in the game. If one is not that interested in the video game, then it is unlikely that he/she will gain these benefits from the video game played.

Social Skills

There are also video games that require multiple players to complete the game or certain areas of the game, such as multiplayer games. Many games require that participants work together in order to succeed in the game, which may improve players’ social skills (Schlimme, 2002) and also emotion regulation skills (Smyth, 2007). A perfect example would be a game called Mekong e-Sim. This game was developed to support the learning requirements of geography and engineering undergraduate university students (Kirkpatrick, McLaughlin, Maier & Hirsch, 2002). Most students agreed that the simulation developed an awareness of multiple dimensions to natural resource decision making (91%) (Freitas & Griffiths, 2007). Four-fifths of students said it benefited their team building skills (80%) and over two-thirds of the students said it supported their electronic communication skills (71%) (Freitas & Griffiths, 2007). This game, along with other multiplayer games, can prove to benefit one’s social skills.

Video games have also been effective for the military in emotion regulation. A game called Full Spectrum Command (FSC) was developed as an educational tool to teach cognitive skills, such as leadership and decision-making skills (Freitas & Griffits, 2007). This game involves taking command of and army composed of several hundred soldiers and strategically engage in missions to overthrow fictional enemies that have fictional profiles. As the player advances through the missions, the stories become more complex, with greater surprises and twists designed to put the student under greater pressure, thereby testing their abilities to keep calm under increasing pressure (Biros et al, 2005). Video games used for military purposes, such as Full Spectrum Command, is perfect in preparing one for engaging in battle and real-time scenarios. Because video games are so engaging, it allows multiple individuals to become immersed in a game and work together in order to complete a task. By creating more games with more multiplayer functions with real-life situations, it will allow more individuals to build more social and emotion regulation skills when encountering people in the real world.

We covered two very important areas (Education, social and emotion regulation skills) in which studies have shown positive results from video game usage. More video games aimed towards these areas will benefit more people from the game play they provide. Also, more research should be done in different areas of video games to see how else they may impact and benefit us in different ways. Although not all video games shine a positive light of benefits, many do provided with right content, and if an individual really immerses him/herself into the game. It all started as 8 gig side scrolling games, now they have become multi-million dollar projects that effect us both positively and negatively in the world of Cyberpsychology.