“Hey mom, if I pass my exam with good grades; will you buy me a new video game?” That’s the wish most of the mothers of 90’s have heard. It all started from a little wish from these children. “Mario” on the gaming console named as “Nintendo” from Japan, the most played and loved game among children. There was just a small man wandering through different castles to get his girlfriend back that a “Donkey king” had kidnapped. Then there were other great games “Tetris, Snake Xenzia” and many more.
Wondering where video games lay now? Well that should be enough to tell you that we as a planet spend 3 billion hours playing video games in a week. About half billion people worldwide play video games on regular basis. Only USA has 183 million gamers. By the age of 21, an American has spent 10,000 hours playing video games . Shocked? Well don’t be so quick. Have you ever heard about the game “Grand Theft Auto (GTA)”? The game’s sequel just released in September 13’ and broke 7 world records in Guinness book of world records. You’ll be more shocked to hear that “Rock star Games” the makers of GTA earned $800 million on the GTA’s first day of release that reached about $3 billion in the next three days. 11.1 Million Game copies of the game sold on first day. In North America, about 8,300 stores opened their door at midnight to welcome their fans to buy it. Wondering what kind of game GTA is? Well, it’s an open world game that takes place in American cities “Los Santos” and the “San Andreas”. The concept of the game is to make you feel like a living criminal in the city. This is what actually attracts people. Wandering through the whole city on any vehicle they want to. The GTA V has it’s own world. Beside all this the game really has a great storyline. “World of Warcraft” and “Counter Strike” are also one of the most played games online. By one analyst's calculation, the 11 million or so registered users of the online role-playing fantasy World of Warcraft collectively have spent as much time playing the game since its introduction in 2004 as humanity spent evolving as a species-about 50 billion hours of game time, which adds up to about 5.9 million years.
Bored? Okay let’s swap it with something even interesting. As we were talking about little wish from children, most mothers usually think “Games are bad for their children” Well I will say “Your mother is wrong. Video games aren't bad for you. They're actually making your life better.” Okay let’s take Mario. German researchers conducted a study, which was released in November, 2013. They asked 23 adults with a median age of 25 to play Mario for 30 minutes a day over a period of two months. A separate control group did not play video games at all.
Examining the brains of the two groups using an MRI machine, they found that the gaming group had a rise in gray matter in the right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum areas of the brain responsible for spatial navigation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills in the hands. "While previous studies have shown differences in brain structure of video gamers, the present study can demonstrate the direct causal link between video gaming and a volumetric brain increase," study leader Simone Kühn said. "This proves that specific brain regions can be trained by means of video games ." Moreover he said “Video games can act like steroids for human brain”.
The study, conducted at Queen Mary University of London and University College London, is based on psychological tests conducted before and after 72 volunteers played "Starcraft" or the life-simulation game "The Sims" for 40 hours over six to eight weeks. They found that participants assigned to play "Starcraft" experienced gains in their performance on psychological tests, completing cognitive flexibility tasks with greater speed and accuracy.
Playing brain-teasing game for just two hours a week may help slow the degree of mental decay associated with the natural aging process, according to a study this year from the University of Iowa.
A study from the University of Padua throws cold water on the idea that video games are bad for the brains of young children. In February, the Italian researchers presented evidence that playing fast-paced video games can improve the reading skills of children with dyslexia.
So did that make you reconsider games for your children?