Good Afternoon Grade Eight Parents!
Games have been a part of all of our lives from kindergarten till to today, from duck-duck goose in grade one, to the game of poker you played last night in Marina Bay Sands. It seems hard to imagine life without these pleasurable pastimes, especially as technology begins to pervade our daily life, and virtual games of all sorts are at our fingertips.
However, the digitization of reality through video games has had its fair share of controversy. Specifically, concerning violent Role Playing Games (or RPGs), which have gained phenomenal success among teenagers. RPGs involve players taking on a character persona in a semi-predetermined storyline. Stimulated violence, as seen through major brands such as “Assassin's Creed”, “Call of Duty”, and “Halo” has however had submerged this form of entertainment in criticism, as the graphic imagery and violence is deemed detrimental to a player's mental wellbeing. However, most fail to acknowledge RPGs as unparalleled facets to improve performance in cognitive tasks , develop their emotional resilience, and attain independence.
In the modern day and age, there are a range of skills and qualities that promise a good future, in what ever field of work you practice. Parents, all the times you tell your children they will not get anywhere in life because they are always playing video games. Nevertheless, it is because of their video games they are learning skills to get them somewhere in life. Science has shown that children who play leisure games with simulated action have sharper vision, better hand eye-coordination skills and can envision shapes and objects more efficiently from different angles. All these qualities, though can be applied anywhere, particularly within STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). A former student of UWCSEA, Minsoo Kim, once mentioned, “Geometry has become a lot easier for me because in video games like, ‘Call of Duty’ I can rotate my view around a lot and I see objects from different angles, this makes envisioning shapes on a paper much easier.” Minsoo attained great marks in his Mathematics course. Moreover, Minsoo mentions that in the 21st century being a videogamer already provides jobs itself. One of the most successful team of professional video gamers (Team Newbee, from China) have earned approximately, USD $1,005,661 (one million, five thousand, six hundred, sixty one dollars) each from playing Dota 2. To conclude, it is not a prosperous industry, but a platform for personal development of players.
Emotional Resilience, an immensely valuable quality in people, it is the ability think and adapt to situations under pressure or during crises. For example League of Legends, a online-battle game which is popular within our UWC community, requires quick decision making skills and reaction times to attack and defend your persona. According to Russell Koh, an avid player, “Though Leauge of Legends is only an online game, I have improved my real-life reaction time, and also, I interpret information better to make informed choices, because in the game you have to also keep in mind what character the other player is using and how you can beat them.” Moreover, LoL requires many skills such as: collaboration, with your team of five you must all play specific roles and support each other to ensure success; (PAUSE) critical thinking, to create strategies and last minute battle plans to win matches; and creativity, to set up game plays that will surprise the opposition. Games with fighting often improve team-work skills, but they also teach players how to be independent and persevering individuals.
Independence is something that is not easily taught, but somehow is easily learned. Socrates, a famous philosopher said, “To find yourself, think for yourself.” Often violent role playing games require independence, self-awareness, and self-reliance. For example, in numerous New York State high schools, a water balloon war takes place before the school year ends. In the game, players are given targets to catch in order to get a new target, so on and so forth, and finally after defeating all other from different teams, win the game. These catches often require strategic thinking and to be performed alone. In a particular case, one student traveled all the way to Newark Airport to catch his target before he boarded on a plane. This shows the passion the game builds, and the freedom of control you have on your choices of attack, defense, and extent of will in the game. Coming back to the quote I previously mentioned, games that require one’s own ideas and thinking will later help your children discover their talents and strengths. They may develop into great leaders, strategizers and creative minds.
Some may argue that games with simulated violence are more detrimental than beneficial to a player’s mental health because with so much exposure to blood and gore they will begin to be unaffected by many of the problems in the real world, and that the inconsequentiality assigned to death and crimes in games players will forget about the ramifications one could face if they reenact anything from their games in real life. This is a valid assertion, but a recent study has shown the opposite, it explains that ‘video games can make children more morally aware’. Researchers believe that when the player is involved with the game they can choose to be a bad character and experience the results being bad has, or play as the good character, and see what the villain has to face in the end, both subconsciously teaching the player to make better choices. This will apply especially from a young age to players.
Video games provide stress-relieving and fun leisure activities for players, but they also help to prepare children to be the best they can be in many aspects, from their hand-eye coordination to their team-work skills. Some of you still may not believe this, but I hope I have swayed some of your opinions, but if I did not that is also okay, you are free to have your own judgment, but at least believe that games with violence do have many beneficial and valuable lessons for your children to learn, and just think, would you have a problem if all the violence was in a book?
Games have been a part of all of our lives from kindergarten till to today, from duck-duck goose in grade one, to the game of poker you played last night in Marina Bay Sands. It seems hard to imagine life without these pleasurable pastimes, especially as technology begins to pervade our daily life, and virtual games of all sorts are at our fingertips.
However, the digitization of reality through video games has had its fair share of controversy. Specifically, concerning violent Role Playing Games (or RPGs), which have gained phenomenal success among teenagers. RPGs involve players taking on a character persona in a semi-predetermined storyline. Stimulated violence, as seen through major brands such as “Assassin's Creed”, “Call of Duty”, and “Halo” has however had submerged this form of entertainment in criticism, as the graphic imagery and violence is deemed detrimental to a player's mental wellbeing. However, most fail to acknowledge RPGs as unparalleled facets to improve performance in cognitive tasks , develop their emotional resilience, and attain independence.
In the modern day and age, there are a range of skills and qualities that promise a good future, in what ever field of work you practice. Parents, all the times you tell your children they will not get anywhere in life because they are always playing video games. Nevertheless, it is because of their video games they are learning skills to get them somewhere in life. Science has shown that children who play leisure games with simulated action have sharper vision, better hand eye-coordination skills and can envision shapes and objects more efficiently from different angles. All these qualities, though can be applied anywhere, particularly within STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). A former student of UWCSEA, Minsoo Kim, once mentioned, “Geometry has become a lot easier for me because in video games like, ‘Call of Duty’ I can rotate my view around a lot and I see objects from different angles, this makes envisioning shapes on a paper much easier.” Minsoo attained great marks in his Mathematics course. Moreover, Minsoo mentions that in the 21st century being a videogamer already provides jobs itself. One of the most successful team of professional video gamers (Team Newbee, from China) have earned approximately, USD $1,005,661 (one million, five thousand, six hundred, sixty one dollars) each from playing Dota 2. To conclude, it is not a prosperous industry, but a platform for personal development of players.
Emotional Resilience, an immensely valuable quality in people, it is the ability think and adapt to situations under pressure or during crises. For example League of Legends, a online-battle game which is popular within our UWC community, requires quick decision making skills and reaction times to attack and defend your persona. According to Russell Koh, an avid player, “Though Leauge of Legends is only an online game, I have improved my real-life reaction time, and also, I interpret information better to make informed choices, because in the game you have to also keep in mind what character the other player is using and how you can beat them.” Moreover, LoL requires many skills such as: collaboration, with your team of five you must all play specific roles and support each other to ensure success; (PAUSE) critical thinking, to create strategies and last minute battle plans to win matches; and creativity, to set up game plays that will surprise the opposition. Games with fighting often improve team-work skills, but they also teach players how to be independent and persevering individuals.
Independence is something that is not easily taught, but somehow is easily learned. Socrates, a famous philosopher said, “To find yourself, think for yourself.” Often violent role playing games require independence, self-awareness, and self-reliance. For example, in numerous New York State high schools, a water balloon war takes place before the school year ends. In the game, players are given targets to catch in order to get a new target, so on and so forth, and finally after defeating all other from different teams, win the game. These catches often require strategic thinking and to be performed alone. In a particular case, one student traveled all the way to Newark Airport to catch his target before he boarded on a plane. This shows the passion the game builds, and the freedom of control you have on your choices of attack, defense, and extent of will in the game. Coming back to the quote I previously mentioned, games that require one’s own ideas and thinking will later help your children discover their talents and strengths. They may develop into great leaders, strategizers and creative minds.
Some may argue that games with simulated violence are more detrimental than beneficial to a player’s mental health because with so much exposure to blood and gore they will begin to be unaffected by many of the problems in the real world, and that the inconsequentiality assigned to death and crimes in games players will forget about the ramifications one could face if they reenact anything from their games in real life. This is a valid assertion, but a recent study has shown the opposite, it explains that ‘video games can make children more morally aware’. Researchers believe that when the player is involved with the game they can choose to be a bad character and experience the results being bad has, or play as the good character, and see what the villain has to face in the end, both subconsciously teaching the player to make better choices. This will apply especially from a young age to players.
Video games provide stress-relieving and fun leisure activities for players, but they also help to prepare children to be the best they can be in many aspects, from their hand-eye coordination to their team-work skills. Some of you still may not believe this, but I hope I have swayed some of your opinions, but if I did not that is also okay, you are free to have your own judgment, but at least believe that games with violence do have many beneficial and valuable lessons for your children to learn, and just think, would you have a problem if all the violence was in a book?
By Mehak
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