Gaming's Upside
As anti-game forces in numerous states are pushing for governmental intervention, there's a growing wave of research of gamers experiencing notable benefits from computer or video games.
(Posted on Wed, May. 11, 2005)
As life skills, games are for real
RESEARCH INDICATES VIDEO GAMES PROVIDE BENEFITS IN MANY FIELDS
By Mike Antonucci
Mercury News
At the Charles Schwab company's call-center headquarters in Phoenix, human resources vice president Chip Luman has learned a secret about financial services technology and the employees who operate it:
Video-game players often display exceptional business skills.
"The people who play games are into technology, can handle more information, can synthesize more complex data, solve operational design problems, lead change and bring organizations through change," said Luman, 38.
Luman is among a host of professionals -- in fields including business, medicine and education -- who have noticed a surprising number of social benefits from the increasing time that Americans are spending with "Super Mario," "Rise of Nations" and "The Sims."
Moreover, almost all the games they cite are mainstream hits from an industry that often is vilified as brainless and exploitative. Some of the games that have the most positive potential are either famously controversial or rated Mature because of violent or provocative content.
The industry heads into its annual convention next week -- E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles -- as anti-game forces in numerous states are pushing for governmental intervention. In California, for example, the Assembly is preparing to vote on a bill that would prohibit the sale of certain violent games to anyone under 17.
But at the same time there's a growing wave of research and firsthand reports about children, parents, workers, corporations and even medical patients experiencing notable benefits from computer or video games. There's also a push to change the mindset of people who dismiss video games as dangerous or worthless.
"I'm extremely interested in scientific validation of gaming for good," said Dr. James Rosser, director of the Advanced Medical Technology Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.
Rosser, also the director of minimally invasive surgery, is a gamer who oversaw research indicating that surgeons adept at video games were less likely to make mistakes during certain forms of operations and suturing. The study, which used games that included sniper shooting ("Silent Scope") and futuristic racing ("Star Wars Racer Revenge"), generated major publicity for games as possible teaching tools.
The potential teaching value is a key area of research for linguistics professor James Paul Gee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gee has studied a wide range of games, including "Deus Ex," "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind," the "Splinter Cell" series, "Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando" and "Fable." He concluded that numerous popular games, including many with a Mature rating, are designed with cutting-edge teaching principles that could be adapted for schoolwork or employee training.
For instance, Gee noted that some games, such as the historical-strategy game "Rise of Nations," can be partly customized to suit each player. In choosing different ways to play, the gamer learns how to succeed in whatever manner is best for him or her personally.
But he also believes that some may have inherent educational value, including the seemingly lightweight "Poké¯n" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" video games. Those games, said Gee, feature such intricate jargon that children who are encouraged to discuss them can build crucial vocabulary skills.
"They're absorbing a tremendous amount of complicated language," Gee said.
The standard complaints about most video games are legion: Games make kids sedentary. They're violent and salacious. They're routinely sexist and often racist. They're shallow and addictive.
And all of these allegations have gotten considerable support from a loose coalition of politicians, educators, health officials, law enforcement officers and religious leaders.
The inventory of rebuttals, however, is expanding.
? There's a growing interest in the workout value of dance games that require strenuous activity to perform the fast-paced steps indicated on the screen. The hallmark games are from Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" series, and a PlayStation 2 and Xbox version of the arcade hit "Pump It Up" is scheduled for release in August.
One of a number of intriguing projects involves the West Virginia Public Insurance Agency, which is trying out DDR as a health and fitness tool in conjunction with schools, juvenile detention facilities and work-site wellness programs.
? Physicians are studying games as treatment aids. The Associated Press reported in December on research indicating that playing with a Game Boy machine before surgery could relax children more than tranquilizers.
? Luman, the vice president at Schwab, has held other human resources jobs, but also worked as a game company executive. He began to think more deeply about the connections between gaming and other work after reading "Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever," by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade.
Beck, president of the North Star Leadership Group, said in an e-mail interview that he and Wade surveyed 2,500 U.S. business professionals, turning up a powerful correlation between managerial behavior and playing video games.
Among the findings: Gamers are better risk-takers, show particular confidence in their abilities, place a high value on relationships and employee input and think in terms of "winning" when pursuing objectives.
Beck said the findings are proving helpful to baby boomer-generation managers who lead teams of younger, gamer employees.
"They learn that they have to develop the teams, structure the tasks and build rewards in very different ways than they might have naturally," Beck said.
One of the longest-running debates about video games focuses on whether their action and plots contain much sophisticated content, intellectually or emotionally. The most obvious examples of "useful" content are simulation games -- railroad-building, zoo-management and civilization-making games -- that include challenges involving economics, physics and political concepts.
But Henry Jenkins, director of the comparative media studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also points to the down-home lessons delivered by games such as "The Sims."
In the virtual world of "The Sims," where game players experiment with living alternative everyday lives through character avatars, Jenkins' young adult son discovered he was having personal money-management problems that reminded him of his real life. Except the consequences were more drastic.
"He realized his mistake," said Jenkins, "but his character died of starvation in the back yard just as the pizza he ordered was being delivered to the front door."