Games have always been looked down upon as a hindrance to studies and most of the times a waste of time. Though the argument does carry some weight, it doesn’t say all there is to say about games. Games also help people develop certain skills and hone certain abilities involved in the game play. It would just take a small leaning over to see the values that can be gained through gaming. Gaming is also learning, although in a more fun and subtle way.  For example, analytical and tactical skills are developed in strategy war games and pc puzzle games. These games have set rules and solutions for the puzzles so playing them engenders critical thinking and analytic thought. These games cannot be won without any forethought or logical thinking and the elimination of dead possibilities. Thus, rational thinking is also incorporated in these kinds of games. It’s just that this fact is buried underneath the entertaining animation and graphics of the games.  When you play arcade games, like when you play sports games, what is developed is eye-hand coordination and improvement in reaction time. Especially in fighting games, reaction times must be shorter and the coordination of character movement must be in concert with that of the opponent. Though the free arcade games do look simple to play, winning them and excelling in them is another matter. Especially setting up attacks, analyzing character strengths and weaknesses, these values are included in the game itself. All expert gamers know this and thus hold fighting games in high esteem among other games.  As one can see, there are merits in online games and puzzle free online games. If played in moderation, online games can help players develop skills that are applicable not only in games but also in real life. The key here is moderation; if one plays too much, then gaming will be destructive as it will take too much of a person’s time. But when played at the proper amount, gaming can become an asset to players and not as a liability as most people, especially parents, would suppose. And perhaps not even moderation; so long as one is aware of the skills that one is developing, then that can merit long gaming times. As they say, practice makes perfect. If the focus is redirected from the game itself to the lessons and skills that can be learned from the games, then that makes long hours of playing excusable and even justifiable.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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