Gaming Has Perks?

 One thing that surprises a lot of people is the amount of soft skills you can gain from playing games. For this post I have compared 2 different articles that explain the benefits of playing video games, except I believe one is much better than the other. One of the articles, coming from Game Quitters and the other coming from Understood.Org. Of these two articles one does a better job of going into more detail about the benefits of gaming than the other.

First, let's take a look at Understood's article. Understood's article is catered towards parents - outlining the upsides to gaming. The article consists of 6 short bullet points outlining a skill and why / how it is encouraged or taught. Some of the skills they reference are visual-spacial skills, flexible thinking, and understanding social life. There are a few more skills they reference, but they're not worth overviewing. Overall, I think this article does a good job of grabbing actually well-learned skills from gaming, but I feel they are only scratching the surface. They could be pursuing much more with this than they are.

The second article, the one from Game Quitters is catered towards a more broad audience, this could be for parents, gamers, or people purely interested in the topic. I really enjoy this article because they give a quick summary at the very beginning, a very short overview of all the points they are making. But as they progress down the list, they provide actual scientific experiments and studies conducted that prove their point. For example, they go into a lot of detail about more cognitive improvements. Or they also go into detail about faster decision making. Instead of just making comments out of pure emotion and personal experience, they are providing accurate information backed by research.

I believe that is one thing that makes an article or blog post go above and beyond expectations. Whenever a writer links to a source that has proven that they / their points are validated, it shows the amount of effort they put in. It also shows the difference between our two articles chosen, one focuses on personal experiences and the other utilizes actual research.

A Look Into True Gaming Skills

 

All content for this post will be in reference to https://www.zenbusiness.com/blog/from-game-room-to-boardroom-4-video-game-skills-that-translate-to-the-workplace/

While searching the internet for other blogs and articles that showcase the skills and gained from different games, I found this source that made well stated points and I thought I would showcase it on my blog.

The article is a quick post showcasing the different skills gained from gaming depending on the genre. Out of the post, I think there were great points and mediocre ones. The best point being the ones involving creative thinking and problem solving. I thought the other two – although they might be true, aren’t as valuable of a lesson or are not taught just by playing games.

Personally, I do not think that both the communication and resourcefulness are great examples of skills gained from playing games. In the communication section, the writer suggests that communication must be learned and expressed to succeed, but I don’t fully agree. I think that in some games this is not learned – nor is it encouraged in some games.

The example they use in the article is the game Overwatch, which is a tactical, fast-paced shooter that involves teamplay to succeed. I have played this game previously, and although communication can be learned – I don’t think it teaches you good ways of communicating or being effective at it. It involves talking to succeed but doesn’t teach you how to be a better communicator.

The same point is to be made with resourcefulness. They use the example of the Battle Royale game PUBG. Although someone can learn to make more use of their resources through playing this game, I do not think it makes you resourceful.

I think the point creative thinking and problem solving was the best point they made. I primarily play the game League of Legends, and I can agree with the points they state in their article. The game is extremely complicated, making it so one game is never the same as the next. You must shift your knowledge on the game to fit the situation you are in so you can succeed. I think this is the greatest skill someone can learn easily from games, and I think it’s a beneficial one to have as well.