Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Oh, hell yes

This recent post from The Last Boss, a phenomenal blog about video games and the nerds that love them, says what I've always known to be true: Video games are good for you.

I dug the picture they used so much that I totally ripped it off. I could scour the interweb for weeks and not find a better picture to go here, so, sorry fellas.

Anyways, aside from rampant obesity, anti-social tendancies and the dreaded Nintendo thumb, video games actually help you out quite a bit.

To quote The Boss:

Daphne Bavelier, the professor of brain and cognitive sciences at Rochester, said that "these games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it. That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life." The study involved giving eye examinations to a group of people, and then divided them into two groups. One group played a visually boring game for an hour each day, while the other group played a shooter game each day. The ones that Jack Thompson would surely despise, ended up scoring much better on the eye test after the study was over.

That's so rad.

I don't even know where I'll begin to extoll the virtues of this study, but I think the first stop is an e-mail to my mom.

(Image from TheLastBoss.com)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

On a tangential note, here's a direct quote from an ESPN chat yesterday with Illini football recruit Martez Wilson, who is considered to be the #1 defensive end in the nation graduating from high school this year:

"Corey (Nebraska): Martez, best of luck in college. You know you will have to play real hard so you can get a good rating on the video games right?

Martez Wilson: That's going to be fun, because I've always wanted to be on a video game. I'm ready to work hard at that next level."

It's so true. I can't wait for the day when an Illinois team won't have to give an average of 20 player rating points per player to Michigan in EA Sports NCAA Football.

Anonymous said...

Please go play Guitar Hero... if you don't have fun with it, your best check your body for leaks because your soul must be slowly dripping away.

Matt G said...

Went through my Hero phase... now the 360 rules the living room and the poor PS2 is reigning over the basement.

There are a few PS2 games I'd consider buying - God of War 2, Bully and GH2 - and that's what keeps the older system around.