If you have ever played a videogame before, you would know that it is the most fun you would ever have from pressing buttons.  When you finished playing, did you regret the time you spent with it, or did you feel better afterwards because, for a moment, you were distracted from everyday stress of life and focused on the game?  When it comes to video games, everybody has different opinions on them, you either think they are a total waste of time, or you absolutely love them, but in the end video games prove to be beneficial in everyday life.

We always learn something, every moment of our lives, and videogames add to that.  From just calculating things like points to playing through events in history, we will always learn something from our experience with things, which in this case are games.  Gee James states that, “The alternative perspective starts with the claim that there really is no such thing as learning “in general.”  We always learn something.  And that something is always connected, in some way, to some semiotic domain or other ways,” (Gee, James).  What Gee is saying is that everything is connected, and everything we learn will eventually apply to our lives at some point in time.  Knowledge is knowledge, and there is no changing it, even if it is from a highly criticized source.  The authors of Video Games and the Future of Learning say that, “video games are important because

They let people participate in new worlds. They let players think, talk, and act—they let players inhabit—roles otherwise inaccessible to them. A 16 year old in Korea playing Lineage can become an international financier, trading raw materials, buying and selling goods in different parts of the virtual world, and speculating on currencies,” (Shaffer).  This is only a small example of many of the video games that have the potential to teach and provide knowledge about the real world.  Because video games come from the real world, and are made by people of the real world, they contain real world information.  It doesn’t matter what kind of information you are getting, it is something that could be useful later on and is worth knowing.

Playing video games cause you to use your mind more while at the same time you are learning, while books may tech you more, it is a boring way to learn and it under stimulates your senses.  Games make you focus more, and use more than just sight to learn things.  Bookrags.com states that “Modern videogames do not have a set of definite rules followed throughout the game like the simple exercises in motor coordination and pattern recognition in “Tetris” or “Pac-Man.” These games withhold critical information form the player; the player has to explore and hypothesize in order to understand the game’s environment.  Players are required to expertise in strategizing and managing a great amount of information” (Book Rags).  Video games entertain you, but at the same time make you apply knowledge and skill, resulting in constant practice of these skills, and in the end you have experience and knowledge.  Bookrags.com also says, “It may seem very odd to the public that playing video games or regularly watching television can be as educational as reading a book.  Johnson’s idea was to imagine what cultural critics might have said if the roles were switched: video games were invented hundreds of years in the past and something new called the books is being marketed to children.  Books and video games represent two very different kinds of learning.  When one reads a math book, the content being read is what matters.  However, the “education” in a video game comes from how much it is making you think and make deductions.  Reading is a precise way of learning versus a “collateral” way of learning by playing video games,” (Book Rags).  Books have a different way of teaching compared to games.  It is still learning but a different way of learning.  The process is different, but the result remains the same, we always learn something, and in this case, we are learning from games.

Games can be thought of a type of literacy.  Because of the different symbols and visual images we get from it, we can consider games to be another “language” and one that we are able to “read” and interpret like books, thus a skill.  “    When people learn to play video games, they are learning a new literacy.  Of course, this is not the way the word “literacy” is normally used.  Traditionally, people think of literacy more broadly, in regard to video games or anything else, for that matter?” (Gee, James).  Gee is saying that we always see language and literacy as the ability to interpret words.  But what Gee is trying to bring out is that video games offer more than just words, it contains symbols, pictures, and representations that are waiting to be interpreted; and thus, becomes a type of literacy.  “First, in the modern world, language is not the only important communicational system.  Today images, symbols, graphs, diagrams, artifacts, and many other visual symbols are particularly significant.  Thus, the idea of different types of “visual literacy” would seem to be an important one.  For example, being able to “read” the images in advertising is one type of visual literacy” (Gee, James).  Visual literacy is what Gee James is saying video games are giving us, to be able to “read” video games is another skill and therefore knowledge that is needed and can be used in the real world.

You often hear games as having to do with skill, whether you believe this or not, it turns out to be true due to the fact that there is hand-eye coordination involved.  Also, reflexes which determine the reaction time in fast paced games, making a whole lot of difference compared to someone who does not have fast reflexes.  “Researchers are finding players can make sharper soldiers, drivers and surgeons. Their reaction time is better, their peripheral vision more acute. They are taking risks, finding themselves at ease in a demanding environment that requires paying attention on several levels at once” (Rubin).  Games not only test the skills that you have so far, but they also develop and build on the skills that you have so far.  “The clearest examples are massively

multiplayer online games: games where thousands of players are simultaneously online at any given time, participating in virtual worlds with their own economies, political systems, and cultures,” (Shaffer).  Shaffer talks about online game play as a society, or community, and the players in this “community” are contributing a different and unique role to it.  This creates a real world like situation where the players must make decisions, and play their big or small part in it, depending on the game.  The result is that they learn skills, such as the ability to make decisions and understand that the choices they make affect everyone as a whole.  From this, players of this situated community can make choices and see the result, a simple trial and error, but because of this, they are able to learn from their mistakes and so in reality, they have something to base their decisions off of.

Games help relieve the stress of everyday life and put it all into games, not just with violent games, but casual games as well.  Casual games give you an opportunity to distract yourself from the things that you want to be distracted from and turn your attention to something else, in this case, games.  “Research has pointed out that playing a casual game for 30 minutes is a great way to relieve stress. A casual game is something that is easy to learn but difficult to master. It could be as simple as minesweeper or hearts. These games are easy to pick up and learn the few rules that exist. You can play for a while, save your game and then return whenever you need to ‘get away’ and forget about reality for a few more minutes” (Russel).  Casual games such as Tetris and Luminex, don’t require much thinking or skill, and because of this, allow the player to get a sense of peace and feel calm, away form the everyday stress of life.  “When you have experienced a tremendous amount of stress you don’t understand the things around you.  Things pile around you and you don’t get the help or recognition that you should. It is hard to keep going like that and that is where stress relieving games can help.  While you play these interesting games you won’t be thinking about work or kids or whatever else needs your attention. You can take a few minutes or longer to play a stress free game. They can mean lots of fun. If you are deeply engrossed in it you may not even count the time and play endlessly” (Can Stress).  Being too into the game can be bad, but just a few minutes with a hand held game or a game console can very easily distract you from things you want to be distracted from, and after awhile you feel refreshed and able to get back to whatever you need to do. 

In the end, from any perspective that you may want to see it, games turn out to be beneficial in ways we may have never thought of.  We may take games for granted now, but think of how our lives would be when we were stressed out and didn’t have anything to relieve that stress.  Or when children want to do something fun, yet their parents want them to learn something, what better way to do that than to play games.  So just sit down, turn on that television and game system, pick up that controller, and start playing today.