BrainReady Blog - Comment
It's really nice to see someone talk about the mental benefits of the adventure and exploration games genre like Myst!!! As a woman who had never had even the slightest interest in video games, I first tried playing the original Myst game upon a recommendation from a friend who told me it was like entering a brilliant novel. And she was right. I'm now 52 years young and continue to play games in many genres, although I am still particular to the immersive adventures like the Myst series.
A wonderful article about video games 'for the rest of us' Brain Ready, thank you.
J.Johnson
http://www.acmi.net.au/game_on.aspx
There's an exhibition of video games called "Game On" at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square (Melbourne). I was there on Day 2 and the fire button on 'Galaga' was already broken. Seems there are many like minded people.
I had always been sceptical of the benefits of computer games. My daughter finished university with a degree in computer science and maths and after a couple of years writing websites and database programming she was fortunate enough to get a job with Astraware (ahnd held computer game developers)in the UK as web programmer.
She soon progressed to games programmer for portable devices and convinced me to try Sudoku on my mobile phone.
That relieved the boredom of regular train travel and I was hooked. I was amazed how much skill was required when I first tried some of the games and equally surprised to find that my skills developed at a good pace.
I am very pleased to hear that it really is good for our aging brains.
I have always play various video games, but always thought it was just mindless entertainment. I am now playing the dreaded Grand Theft Auto IV. I find that, like the article said, it's not only has a "shoot em up" component, but it also has a lot of social interaction. GTA IV has significantly more social interaction than even GTA III. You can go on line in the game and arrange internet dating, or find work,choose between places to take dates or just friends, decide whether it's best to kill or not kill a target. This is just the highlights! So, there are logic and moral delimna problems in the game. There is also a pretty consise map of Liberty City which is very simular to NYC. I used to be one of this games biggest critics and now, I'm a player. I would say that it is inappropriate for kids under around 17 with it's adult content. But because of this article I'm now thinking of all the different brain applications that are in the game.
Thanks. I thought I was just waisting time and having fun!
Commenting by HaloScan
