Blog 3 post

 I think games can bring a lot to the table, games can teach you to be a better problem solver. Open-world, mission-based and multi-level games are designed to be complex puzzles that take hours to solve. Sometimes the solutions will vary depending on what you do in the game. Learning to think and strategize independently in a fast-paced fantasy environment is a skill that can translate to the real world. “A 2013 meta-analysis found that playing shooter video games improved a player's capacity to think about objects in three dimensions just as well as academic courses designed to enhance these same skills, according to the study."（ Lisa Bowen 2014） This quote makes me think that they games can be a fun way to learn. There are video games for almost everything. Early on, developers realized that video games could be used to improve reading and math skills. Today, some games incorporate world history, cooking, politics, chemistry, architecture, and other topics you may not have been exposed to in school. Video games can motivate you to be more persistent.

With video games, you either win or keep trying and learning from your mistakes until you reach your goal. Because of this, some researchers and educators believe that video games can teach people to be more confident and work toward their goals, using every mistake as another opportunity to learn. Gamers may have better social skills. The stereotype of the shy person who uses video games as a way to escape is not what the average gamer looks like. Past studies involving children have found that those who play more video games are more likely to have good social skills, perform better academically, and build better relationships with other students because certain types of games have social and collaborative components.

 Lisa Bowen“Video Game Play May Provide Learning, Health, Social Benefits, Review Finds.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, Feb. 2014, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/video-game.