Mansour 1

Andrew Mansour

Mrs. LaCombe

6th hour

Honor’s English

The Good, the Great, and the Bad of Video Games

“Video games foster the mindset that allows creativity to grow,” - Nolan Bushnell. Nolan

is a man who shaped the video game industry for days to come, since he is the man who created

the incredible video game company Atari. Nolan is trying to say how great video games are for

the mind and not something that just rots the brain .Video games have changed our lives not only

virtually but physically through our abilities to react, think, feel, and lead, it has also changed

society to strive for victory and glory even during the most pacing of moments. However,

scientists are trying to restrict this gift of videogames by overshadowing the positives through the

negatives found through several video game related tests and how video games can create

addiction. In reality, video games help the mind in unimaginable way, and adolescent teens of all

ages should continue to play games of all rating including mature to expand and grow their

knowledge.

According to Drew Guarini, an associate editor on a tech website called Huffpost Tech,

playing video games helps increase grey matter in the brain, which can lead to huge benefits in

the brain due to video games. This is shown when he states “Examining the brains of the two

groups using an MRI machine, they found that the gaming group had a rise in grey matter in the

right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum…” (Guarini).This quote is factual

evidence of a conducted test by German scientists in Berlin in which 23 adults were tested on.

Even though countless parents believe that video games decrease, however brain health
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accelerates according with brain growth and is extremely crucial towards young minds learning

and growing giving them an edge in the future. Games rated M such as the Call of Duty

franchise help show how games help advance growth in eye growth, teamwork, and leadership.

Drew Guarini adds further information to this topic by including another test looking at

how games improve certain traits that tie to problem solving when he states” In August, British

researchers found that certain video games, such as Starcraft, can increase a player’s brain

flexibility which the scientists described as “a cornerstone of human intelligence”(Guarini).

Next, this quote has great significance for it shows how games can increase crucial factors of the

brain that will help adolescent teens throughout their life in huge needs. The needs that are

fulfilled by video games range from simple problem solving to helping them ace very crucial

tests such as the SAT and ACT since they have the ability to interpret and understand numerous

amounts of problems that come their way. Games that can help adolescent teens spur this ability

can range from strategy games such as the Diablo franchise since it requires tactics to survive,

math to help increase their stats and abilities and efficiency, to other games like Blade and Soul

and Tera in which players must learn the enemies abilities and downtimes not only in PVE but

also PVP turning the game into a strategic battle in which the fastest, most skilled, and most

knowledgeable attain the victory the desire.

Kantra, Suzane, a publisher for USA Today, enlightens the fact on how numerous

categories of mature rated games can increase very important traits that will affect the upcoming

generation and their chances of making it large in life by saying; "These social games teach kids

leadership skills, including delegating responsibility, and working effectively as a team,”

(Kantra). The advantages of having traits that connect to leadership and social skills go way

beyond the young ages of adolescent teens to past their young adult ages to even their elderly
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ages, despite countless amounts of people saying it does not help with anything at all.

Advantages to these traits can be used in the fields of business management, military, human

services, government, and law. Observing this growth can be seen in online games such as

Rainbow six siege a game based purely off tactical play and requires focus from every member

in your team, the game demonstrates leadership through the central player who leads the team

and calls orders. It also shows social skills through the communication that happens through a

single match between the groups. Even though many mature games are very gory and contain

players who use very strong language, these platforms do not see these features as their main

selling point and instead focus on a more social and dynamic team based gameplay.

Although games have a wide variety positives and can grow essential abilities, they also

have a dark zone that is compared to addiction as something as terrible as drugs. The negative

effect of games is stated by Christopher, Drea, a publisher of the company Livestrong , in which

he states “...University of Texas at Dallas notes that the addiction can lead to such medical issues

as backaches, headaches, eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome…”(Christopher). From that

statement, it is clear that others may believe that gaming in general can lead to addiction,

addiction has been a serious problem through gaming history but not for the right reason.

Addiction to games becomes present when an adolescent teen goes through unregulated gaming

meaning playing games of free will without a care of time gone by or strain on body parts like

eyes or hands. One could argue that to solve this problem and put an end to this debate, the teen

should set times for playing games, and times when to go outside, do homework, or read a book.

This method solves the debate and gives the young brain ample time to play, growing their

abilities in social skills, leadership, and problem solving without going overboard.
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`Adolescent teens should be able to play mature rated video games since the ways it can

help these teens is unimaginable not for the impact it will have now but even later on in life.

Some of the ways it can help is by improving the problem solving part of the brain. Also it can

help leadership qualities of the brain and communication skills that help create an amazing and

outstanding leader in life. Mature rated video games can also help increase the prefrontal cortex

in the front of the brain that can help with school subjects such as math and English. 64% of

parents believe video games are amazing thing in their kid’s lives showing just how wonderful a

gift gaming can be if used properly.

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Works Cited

Christopher, Drea. “The Negative Effects of Video Game Addiction.” Livestrong.com. January

28th 2016. Web. February 2nd 2016.

Guarini, Drew. “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You.” HuffingtonPost.com.

November 7th 2013. Web. January 28th 2015.

Kantra, Suzanne. “Yes, Video Games Can be Good for Kids.” USAToday.com. December 2nd

2012. Web. January 29th 2016.

How much do you know. “How Much Do You Know About Video Games?” ESRB.org. Web.

February 10th 2016.