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Kirsten
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Video Games
February 19, 2008 - 10:06 AM
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Does playing video games make you smarter? Yes/no, and why? Does playing games like Wii or Halo make you smarter than a 35-to-40-year old who grew up playing arcade games/Atari?
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Nigel A
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Re: Video Games
March 3, 2008 - 12:17 PM
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I think that some games like Brain Age for the Nintendo DS, challenge's our minds.
Nintendo Wii helps our eye hand coordination. Letting us to be physical and active while playing.
A lot have changed since the Atari days. Before it use to be about the high scores. Today, we just want to kill to win.
This post was edited on: 2008-03-03 at 12:18 PM by: yeloman
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Nikki
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Re: Video Games
March 14, 2008 - 10:42 AM
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I don't know if they make you smarter. I think in moderation they can make you a bit happier, like knitting or Suduko. I think that it depends on the person. I do remember seeing a study that kids that played driving video games with the pedals and the wheel frequently are much more likely to pass their driving exams.
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skillo
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Re: Video Games
March 15, 2008 - 06:38 AM
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In a way it does. In the sense of enhancing our creativity and making us attentive, smart and agile.
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Rex Lee
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Re: Video Games
March 15, 2008 - 09:41 AM
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There has been several interesting studies on this recently. I did a blog post about this as well which you can read here.
I also attended a lecture by Dr. Ian Spence of University of Toronto around cognition and video games. you might find his research on interest.
BTW, I am one of those 35 year olds and still play video games... 
Cheers,
Rex
This post was edited on: 2008-03-15 at 09:47 AM by: rexlee
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Nick Yeo
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Re: Video Games
March 27, 2008 - 10:31 AM
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I think that while researchers continue to see if video gaming has any correlation with intelligence, there are 2 solid examples of organizations using video games to improve their "employees" abilities: businesses and the army.
The US Army (and no doubt other national armed forces) have used first-person shooters not only as a training tool, but also a recruitment tool. The thinking is if you're good at using a game controller or mouse to shoot and kill bad guys, it should translate onto the field. I remember watching a short news piece on police officers also using virtual worlds to develop their hostage situation skills.
As for business - simulations are an excellent way to experiment with different strategies, policies and markets. I remember Theme Park (a 90's Bullfrog game) where you managed an amusement park and one of the tasks was negotiating with your employees union. At the time, I would just settle with whatever they were asking for which is probably bad business!!
The same can be said for urban planning and the SimCity games - through building a city from scratch, you begin understand the thousands of little details a mayor needs to be aware of. It makes one sympathetic (I hope) to the challenge of running a city, and hopefully encourages you to become more involved in your local community.
So in conclusion - I think that video games can make you smarter, so long as its applied in the right context. But in the end, it still isn't "real" - but it's a whole lotta fun!!!
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hekatea
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Re: Video Games
March 27, 2008 - 12:14 PM
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We cant really gauge smartness based on the kind of games we play. I guess, being born digital, we are just true to our time. The complexities of computer games now may not be understandable for our parents but I am so sure that their board games are also so complex for us. I think the games are just the same, it's just that technology enhanced them.
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crazydiamond
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Re: Video Games
April 16, 2008 - 04:23 PM
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Some games can stir up our minds (strategic games) which is good for our proccessings of the brain, which can get quicker, but unfortunately most of the games aren't usefull at all. My brother learned to speak english throughout the games.
It's a shame board games aren't encouraged more these days-i love card games And maybe it's also not that bad to transfer board games on the computer, because if others don't have time to play with you, you can find someone throughout the world to play with you and make friends  But still, it's more fun to play it in real not virtual
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nick
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Re: Video Games
May 6, 2008 - 09:37 AM
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games can't make you smarter that cazy
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EthanM
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Re: Video Games
May 11, 2008 - 11:14 PM
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I think it is foolish to ask such a broad question like "do video game make you smarter." You need to take into account the many diffirent types of video games that people play. Some game i've come away feeling smarter and others just plain stupid.
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CanadianKate
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Re: Video Games
May 28, 2008 - 11:36 AM
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Tactical games such as "Final Fantasy Tactics" and "Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones" force you to move players in very strategic ways to ensure that you do not lose a member of your clan. In "Fire Emblem," a member of your party dying means that they can never come back to help you in later battles, and nobody likes that. So, yes, tactical games do help your brain develop further and are beneficial.
As others have mentioned before, Wii Fit does promote fitness and enables you to develop hand-eye coordination in a fun way.
I also have to argue for the sake of Brain Age, SuDoku, and games such as that, because they are also mentally challenging.
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Emma Kowal
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Re: Video Games
August 4, 2008 - 07:50 PM
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It depends entirely on the video game and the person playing it, as well as how involved they become with the game. It can definitely be argued that a half-hearted player might learn nothing from the same game that would teach someone playing seriously. I think video games enhance our lives in much the same way that playing a sport, learning an instrument or language would. It improves motor skills, (especially with the wii,) strategy, reflexes and problem solving. Of course it depends on the game, but over all, the point of a game is to entertain by challenging, right? I believe that any sort of challenge or problem solving is an opportunity for learning, and video games that simulate real life (eg driving) can be extraordinarily helpful to prepare for actual situations. I'm not saying that a Call of Duty 4 addict is ready to hop into a battlefield, but being interested in the diverse types and functions of guns might lead a gamer to paintball, which is good for strategy, reflexes, excercise -- and from there might become a military tactician. Who knows? (That's the way my little brother is headed right now -- he plays that game all the time!)
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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
If we forget the things we know, would we have somewhere to go?
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kelsey
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Re: Video Games
October 20, 2008 - 12:37 PM
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I think that video games can make one smarter only depending on the game. Now adays marketers are coming out with games to improve education like Leapfrog. However, there are games, like killing games, that do not help with teaching education.
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alexandra tome
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Re: Video Games
November 3, 2008 - 05:57 PM
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If video games do you make you smarter,
what kind of "smarts" or in other words intelligence are we talking about? In technological terms yes a youth in today's society woud be more smarter than a 40 year old person. But in terms of life and wisdom the 40 year old would be more intlligent than a youth.So it depends on the type of smarts one is talking about.
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