Video games gain a bad reputation for making people lazy and unproductive. Parents, teachers and even the government has voiced their opinion about video games being bad for children and adults alike. There are many who would have gaming banned or legislated if they could. It is true that video games are not very good for the body, but to say that they are entirely without benefit is not true. Similarly, to say that they should be moderated by anyone other than parents is simply poor reasoning. Mature adults are fully capable of moderating their time playing video games or their children’s time playing video games.
It is true that video games have addictive qualities, but so does everything that is enjoyable and pleasurable. Video games are merely an extension of traditional games, but at a more advanced technological level. The levels of realism and the life-like physics of video game mechanics are an impressive use of digital media and take many talented people hundreds of hours to create. There is no denying that video games are enjoyable. They simply must be enjoyed with a mature level of moderation.
Video games can be surprisingly informative. A number of games are based on historical events, particularly war. Much of the content of war games is violent in nature, but some games also have large portions devoted to narrative and facts about the war that is being emulated. Other games are full of trivia and can engage the gamer with peripheral learning. Anyone who says you cannot learn anything from video games is unlikely to have ever really played them.
Another proven beneficial claim of video games is that they improve hand-eye coordination. This has been revealed in studies of people who went from playing no video games to consuming a regular video game diet under controlled circumstances. Video gaming was found to improve people’s motor skills, reaction times and hand-eye coordination quite significantly.