The Educational Benefits of Video Games

So this is a paper that I wrote for English class last semester. It's on the educational benefits of video games and also how video games could be integrated into the education system. It's about 10 pages long so there's quite a bit there but if you've got the time I think it'll be well worth your time. Enjoy.


The early 1990’s brought on a new form of entertainment, video games. Not only were video games gaining in popularity but they were becoming more and more popular as well as more accessible. Home consoles were something that many people were investing in for the ease of video gaming in the home instead of having to go out to an arcade in order to play their favorite video game. This brought many to contemplate the issue that could arise from gaming, and whether or not it would have a positive effect on children and teens. Many would go on to blame violent crimes such as the Columbine shooting on those people’s interest in in such video games. Since this time, many have believed that video games cannot have a positive effect but are just rotting the brains of today’s youth. This, however, I do not believe to be true. While yes, there are many negative affects tied to video games, it is possible that video games can be used in the educational system to help increase students learning capacity; and that the good that can come out of video games outweighs the bad.

So, why study video games? When people think of video games one of the most popular examples that comes to mind is the game Grand Theft Auto. This is a game that has five different installments, all of which you take the role of an American gangster, or criminal, where you eventually wreak havoc on the city. So how can this possibly be beneficial? In short, it can’t. Let’s be honest here, these types of games have so little educational, mental, and physical benefits it’s not useful. It is true that playing video games of any type can provide you with increased hand eye coordination and increase decision making skills but the types of games that are filled with mindless violence don’t provide enough good to overtake the bad.

Jane McGonigal, a game researcher, author, and designer explains in her book, Reality Is Broken, that the positive effects are far greater than the negative effects that come from gaming. She argues that there is a minimal effect from the violence contained within video games, while the positive effects are great. She explains that the popularity of games is because they give us something to do, something to imagine, and not something keeping our minds idle like many television programs. They keep our minds active, giving us problems to solve and tasks to complete. They open our imaginations to possible futures as well as inspiring many that play games into progressive fields of learning and study.

“It is games that give us something to do when there is nothing to do. We thus call games “pastimes” and regard them as trifling fillers of the interstices of our lives. But they are much more important than that. They are clues to the future. And their serious cultivation now is perhaps our only salvation” (McGonigal 1).

McGonigal believes we need to look at gaming in a new light and to understand that maybe having a strong boundary between the real world and a fantasy world is not that great, but instead we have to use our imagination to solve problems, not only in the fantasy world, but it can also help us in the real world in which we live. She argues that video games help in brain development, therefore, they should not be discouraged.

In a recent study done by IMAGEN they took the studied the correlation between video game playing and the thickness in the left frontal cortical. They took surveys of how often they play video games during weekdays, and then on the weekends. In the survey process they questioned both males and females of all ages. They were able to discover that on average a person plays about 12 hours of video games per week. According to the data collected, women tend to play less video games than men in the data sample. However, the results match up in both males and females, affecting them both in the same ways. What they were able to find out was that those who spent more time playing video games actually had a thicker prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) and the “prefrontal cortex has been described as the substrate of executive control”(Kühn 36). DLPFC is what is primarily responsible for “manipulating decision relevant information and during decisions involving conscious deliberation” (Kühn 38). From this alone we are able to see immediate benefits that can come from playing video games and that they are not, in fact, “turning our brains to mush,” as so many may state, but on the contrary are making them stronger and more capable of processing data.

While playing video games in general, we are able to help in brain structure, and are actually able to strengthen the brain rather than weaken it. How are we going to be able to integrated it into the education system? It’s not advisable, nor is it practical, to just assign out assignments to go play 2 hours of video games a night to improve brain strength. There has to be a way to integrate video games into education in order to correlate with, and complement the school system so that they can work as one entity and not as two separate entities.

The first step is finding the right types of games that can both entertain and educate. Most games are not created for the sole purpose to educate the player, however that does not mean that they are completely void of educational value. Take the highly popular Assassin’s Creed series for example; in this particular game you take the role of an assassin who is in a war against a society known as the Templars. While this game is quite violent as you move from target to target through the game, there is also much that you are able to learn about ancient civilizations. In one particular game you take the role as an assassin during the Renaissance in Rome, fighting against the House of Borgia. In the game you are able to learn a lot about this power in Rome at the time and how they influenced Roman civilization during that time. Another game titled Rome: Total War teaches you about the roman society and their vast empire. You take the role of a roman general commanding troops and building cities to eventually take over the world. In this game you are able to learn about how the romans gained power over the known world by concurring nations such as the Carthaginians, and the Gaul. While there is violence in these video games they have the potential to teach the player about history.

While there are many games that we are able to learn from, there are also many games that have little to no educational value. This however, does not make them useless or void of any value at all. Many games, even the most violent of games, have moral issues or life lessons embedded within them. Take the game Halo, for example. In this sci-fi action game the player takes the role of a solder known as the Master Chef. As this game progress the player is able to see and even feel the values of friendship and sacrifice throughout the game. In another game known as Mass Effect the player is forced to make moral choices sometimes having to choose between saving a single life (usually of a character that has become close to the main character of the story) or saving the lives of many. One may argue that these are just game characters and there is no real attachment that grows there. This, however, is not true. Much like when one is reading a book or watching a film, you grow attached to the characters there in, and when one has to die it can be difficult to let them go.

There are also games such as Minecraft and Little Big Planet which are not only fun, light hearted games, that are imaginative and show us a beautiful new and different type of world, but they help us to be imaginative. These types of games encourage the play to be imaginative and build and design their own worlds. These games also allow the play to create complex systems and devices. Devices as complex as calculators have been created in these games by using a series of switches and components that are available to the player. The author of the book, Out of Our Minds, Ken Robinson, argues that imagination and creativity are key components in providing a strong basis of education. He urges the need for people to learn to be creative. He argues, “creativity is also about working in a highly focused way on ideas and projects, crafting them into their best forms and making critical judgments along the way . . .” (Robinson 5). These focuses outlined are all benefits that often are associated with video games.

Video games have many advantages and disadvantages. We’ve seen throughout the history of video games that there have been many clear disadvantages. However, “despite the disadvantages, it would appear that video games (in the right context) may be a facilitator in educational aid” (Griffiths, 48). Studies have shown that video games have the capabilities to increase learning capacity in spatial abilities, problem solving exercises and mathematical ability.

We have also seen that here are many other ways that video games can be used as an affective educational source. For example, a group of M.I.T. scientists got together and conducted an experiment bringing in two control groups. The first group played a particular video game and then attended a lecture on the subject while the second group did the same process in reverse. The research showed that the first group had a better context of what was being discussed and was better able to focus on key points, while the second group did not know what to listen for and were unable to pinpoint key points in the lecture (Gershenfeld).

There are many examples of how video games can be beneficial, but it raises the question of what type of video games will ad to the education of our youth. Griffiths, in his paper, “The educational benefits of video games” argues that we need to play the right type of games which have been developed for the primary purpose of education, while avoiding violent video games which are currently most popular with today’s youth. Gershenfeld, however, provides us a study done by Daphne Bavelier in which even the most violent video games were shown to increase a person’s brain plasticity and learning capacity, improve vision and improve one’s ability to make quick on the spot decisions. While violence can have negative affect on person's who are too young to distinguish between the virtual world and the real world, once someone is older and has the capability to distinguish between the two different worlds, virtual and the real world, it can be shown to lower stress levels and help relieve tensions in one’s life.

Video games have also been shown to help those who are mentally disabled or who have learning disabilities. People who have these disabilities struggle with learning basic skills such as language, math, reading, and social skills. Many times when a child with learning disabilities goes through the education system, they get left behind. The teachers are expecting them to learn at that same rate as the other students but they just are not able to do so. However, through video games these children are able to enter into a more conducive learning environment. Video games can help by having a player listen for, and follow basic instruction, improving their language skills; by having them play interactive games which keep a score of the points they’ve earned, helping their math skills; by having character dialogue on the screen, improving reading ability; and by giving them something to talk about that many other children are interested in making communication easier, giving them the chance to improve their social skills.

Video games can not only help in an individual manor but can also benefit the player in a cooperative and competitive atmosphere. In cooperative games players are placed on a team and are told to accomplish a certain goal. This gets players to work on communication skills as they must communicate with one another and work as a team to accomplish their goal, and if they don’t work together or don’t communicate well they run the risk of not accomplishing the task and failing their goal. Cooperative games help to improve the performance of the player, increasing the amount able to be learned as well as increasing the entertainment levels. Competitive games are currently one of the most popular forms of gaming. These types of games tend to help the player to do better as they are striving to be better than the other players. While competitive games are usually not quite as beneficial as those of a cooperative nature they still have beneficial aspects associated with them, and have been shown to improve performance more than games played on and individual level.

It has been shown that video games can have a variety of benefits on developing the mind and can greatly improve one’s ability to think critically and make rational decisions. However, now the question is raised, how do we integrate video games into the educational system, and why is it detrimental to do so? While yes, it does seem that the education system is doing well on its own, however if teachers and educators are unable to implement new and upcoming technologies, such as video games, including the operations and usage of these technologies, “we risk creating a new equity gap that will only amplify the existing inequities in education” (Squires). As technologies evolve, so must the education system. Video games have become a huge piece of technology in our day, and to shut them out of the educational system would be cheating students out of their full potential.

Integrating video games is not, however, such an easy task. It’s more than just playing the right type of game, but it’s taking a game and teaching someone how to learn from it. Much like in reading assignments in English classes where you pick out morals and lessons that can be learned through the characters in the story, the same could be done through the right video games, however instead of just reading about the character and seeing what they have chosen to do in the story, the students would be able to make their own choices in the story, creating their own outcomes. Now imagine this, a class room full of students who played the same game, but made different choices. You could then have ethical discussions, not just on what the characters chose to do, but what the students chose to do and what their own personal decisions were.

There are many other ways that video games could be pulled into the educational system. As stated above, students could implement games pertaining to a subject in order to help them understand key points, they can help children with learning disabilities learn faster, and there are so many other possibilities. However, the purpose behind this incorporation is not to replace the current education system, but to enhance it; to make better that which could improve and amplify the amount learned and gained from schooling. Video games are not a fix all, and definitely have their time and place. To say that all video games are beneficial and provide educational value would be false, but there are many great games out there that can help students learn a variety of topics. If we can learn to use video games as something other than a pass time we can greatly improve the creative minds of our future leaders and drive those looking for a better future to the ideas that can lead us there.

COD: Ghosts Review

Alright, I know I posted a bit about this game already but I want to give my full review of it. I just beat it last night and want to share what my thoughts are of the game. And that is what follows

The games opens up with a man telling the story of how the Ghosts came to be. I'm not going to go into detail of what was said, but lets just say it sets the stage well. It's a classic Infinity Ward cut scene with still images with someone narrating the Ghosts story. From here we come to the not too distant future where a dad is telling his two sons this story around a campfire in the woods. Soon the characters in the game begin to feel tremors and being set in California they don't think much of it. They head back into town where they see that it's not in fact tremors but rather blasts from a orbital defense system. What follows is some traditional COD running through exploding/crumbling buildings as you try to get to a safe zone. It's nothing too exciting to be honest and they drastically decreased the speed of the players sprint so you can run as fast so it actually makes these moments seem less intense as everything has been slowed down to accommodate for the slower sprint. 

Beginning space mission

Now in the middle of this sequence you do a side mission to help explain what exactly is going on here. You see that you're an astronaut on your way to a space station. Upon arriving on the station you start going through the different rooms when all of the sudden you are attacked by the Federation (All of South America joined into a single faction and is now known as the Federation, they're bad). You're able to obtain one of these solder's weapons (because everyone in COD is an expert marksman) and you  start to kill the invading solders. You make your way out side, but not to worry your gun still works even without oxygen, and you make your way to an orbital defense canon that has be hacked by the enemy troops. You kill all the troops and set the canon to self destruct and you blow it up before it is able to kill too many people however this character dies in the the process. 

Zero Gravity moment in MW3

Now this is where the real story starts. America is losing this fight and you are hunkered down and basically just trying to survive. It's a pretty cool concept... oh wait... they did that in Modern Warfare when Russia attacked. Okay so we've seen this before, but we're going to see new content throughout the rest of the game, right? Put simply, no. Through the entire game it feels like they just took the best parts of all of the previous games and tried to cram it all into one game. Take the scene mentioned above. Your in space filing in low gravity shooting bad guys. Back in Modern Warfare 3 there was a short moment when your defending an airplane that the plane begins to go into a nose dive at high altitude causing a zero gravity effect. This was an awesome moment and one of the best moments of the game, but the space missions in Ghosts just feels like they were trying to do this again but just tried a little too hard. 

In another instance there your squad is interrogating the main bad guy Rorke, when all of the sudden  the back of your plane gets shot by grappling hooks and we start to see a scene from The Dark Knight Rises when Bane escapes the plane in the beginning of the movie. It doesn't stop here either. Throughout the game we see instance after instance where they take moments from other games and just throw them in and it doesn't feel like your playing a new game, but rather a game you've before with new look. 

As I stated in my previous post, this game just has not evolved since it started. It's the same game and it just keeps relying on what's been done in the games before it. The game play is the exact same, the story is dull and boring and generic, and it was honestly kinda hard to get through. A game should have a progressive story that drives you to want to continue to play late into the night. Games like Lasts of Us and Mass Effect  do this great. The story drives you to play, and you really don't know what is going to happen. Call of Duty: Ghosts' Campaign is boring and predictable. Nothing in the game really surprises you and even the "big reveal" at the end of the game isn't surprising and you really kinda see it coming. 

So in final the campaign is not good, and is not really worth your time. If I were to give it a rating it would probably be about a 4/10. It's dull boring and unoriginal so just stay away from it. 

Now for the multiplayer which honestly is the main reason I would say 90% of the people play this game. It's good. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a new COD game. There's nothing really too new about it, but it's the same multiplayer experience that we've come to expect from COD games, just with new guns, maps and a few new killstreaks. So if you've enjoyed the previous games' multiplayer, you'll likely enjoy this one too. 

Call of Duty and the Evolution of Modern Games

So last week I borrowed Call of Duty: Ghosts from a friend of mine. And having enjoyed the Modern Warfare series I was looking forward to playing the game and seeing what the game had in store. After about 1-2 hours of playing I realized something, it's the exact same game it always has been. Now there's new guns, different perks and some extra kill streaks, but other than that it's the same. The game literally has not evolved in 6 years. When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out, it was an amazing game with new, innovating ways to play. I loved, and still love, to play that game online, but it hasn't changed.

As a gamer I'm always looking for new games with new stories and new ways to play. But when game developers are constantly releasing the same game year after year, it gets redundant.This is why I like games like Rainbow six. They are constantly innovating their games and making them better. Take their new game Rainbow Six: Siege, it's different than the last Vegas series that they did and they've tried to add elements to the game. This is what I like about developers, when they try to add something new and take risks.

Take a look at the Assassin's Creed series. The original came out in 2007 and there wasn't a whole lot like it out there at the time. But as the game progressed you could see them adding in new elements to the game and taking risks. They even failed; from the tower defense missions of Revelations to terrible game-play of Assassin's Creed 3 you can see that they failed and it looked like the franchise was going to continue to spiral downward. But they took another Risk with Black Flag, and it worked and they revived the franchise bring it back to the quality that we loved in the first three games of the series.

My point is this though, games need to evolve and game developers need to stop being scared of changing there game and potentially making a "bad" game, because when they don't change and innovate what they have, their going to get left behind and nobody is going to want to play their games anymore.