Advantages to Gaming (

By:Troy Roberts, with James Stevenson
Date: Friday, May 30, 2003

If you've been reading the news lately, you'll see that recent studies at the University of Rochester have found that people who regularly play video games full of high-speed car chases and first-person shooters have shown better visual skills than those people who do not play games. You know what I have to say about that? Finally! It seems like it has been too long for good press about video games.

And you know what? This has really got me thinking. If first-person shooters give gamers better visual skills, then what about the other types of video games out there? What do they provide us with? Surely there is something. So, I did a few minutes of research and have found out that all video games benefit us.

First up, we'll take a look at fighting games. Hey, come on, we all know what this does for us. Yep, these types of games make our hands stronger. Have you ever met a video gamer that didn't have strong hands (okay, don't answer that). But I have fairly strong hands and shaking hands with me is like putting your hand in a vice.

And we all know that strategy games make us smarter. They have to, right? You know all the army commanders out there have to get hooked on COMMAND AND CONQUER and the like. I'll put ten bucks down that most of the US army commanders were playing C&C GENERALS before the Iraqi war began, trying to develop new strategies on how to conquer the nation.

And of course, role-playing games open up our senses to our surroundings. In an RPG, anything can be anywhere, which makes us more aware of what is going on in the world. When you're walking down an aisle in a store and you see something high on that shelf? Yep, those keen senses that you get from playing RPGs alerted you to the presence of that object.

Obviously, sports games and flight simulators prepare us to be athletes and pilots. It's a proven fact (proven by hours of research by myself and my colleagues) that if you play baseball games, you will be a better baseball player! The same goes with football and basketball. And for people who love flight simulators: You think those pilots in the Air Force have anything on you? Yeah right. We know for a fact that gamers who play flight simulators four times a week for at least an hour at a time are better than our military's pilots!


What better way is there to improve almost everything about you than by playing video games? There isn't, so the next time your mom or significant other tells you to stop playing that baseball game, laugh in her face and blather on about how you'll be making millions of dollars soon. They'll love it!


Take-Two's exclusivity deal with Sony for GRAND THEFT AUTO may be nearing an end... Fans of EARTH AND BEYOND can look forward to a massive war starting in the universe sometime this month... 3DO has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection... Sony will release a set-top box with PlayStation 2 gameplay ability, the console will be called the PSX (not to be confused with the codeletters for the


original PlayStation)...


There isn't much coming out this week, but CRIMSON SKIES: HIGH ROAD TO REVENGE for the Xbox is going to be the best bet, and should be a pretty good game. I'd imagine Troy will be reviewing it sometime in the not so distant future.

Gamers' Thumb is our weekly Video Game column.

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