Positive Effects of Video Game Play

This essay focuses on the positive effects of video game play on kids and teenagers. It discusses how video games can improve cognitive functions, coordination, accuracy, quick thinking, problem-solving abilities, and social skills.

Running head: POSITIVE EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAME PLAY
Positive Effects of Video Game Play
Name of the Student
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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1. Introduction
In the recent times, there has been a major impact of video games on teenagers. With the
rise of high graphical video games, it has been a huge factor of interest within teenagers to try
their hands on the latest kinds of video games. In a certain kind of research, it has been seen that
97% of kids and teenagers in the United States play video games for at least one hour in a single
day (Greitemeyer, Tobias and Dirk O. Mügge). The most popular view on video games within
lovable sources based on recreation could lead to antisocial behaviour within kids. This essay
would focus on the positive effects of video game play on kids and teenagers.
2. Discussion
Video games could play a major role on the skills development if the children and
teenagers. Some of the most positive effects of video game play are:
Improving of Cognitive Functions – The impact of video game play could lead to the
enhancement of multiple form of cognitive skills that would include the better form of allocation
of attention, memory, processing of visual content and perception skills. This has been seen
according to a research that was primarily published by American Psychological Association
(Anguera et al.) Researchers within the institution have mostly studied a meta-analysis based on
video games. Based on the conclusion, it has been seen that the positive effects based o violent
games have included the improvement within the thinking capability of the player based within
different dimensions. This was in the same way as some of the academic course would have been
done.
Coordination of Hand and Eye – Different researches have shown that teenagers have
the capability of learning visual, spatial and coordination skills within eye and hand that would

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be developed from the impact of shooter games. Some of these kinds of games would require a
greater deal of some skills in order to be successful (Granic, Lobel and Engels). In these kinds of
games, the involved players would need to keep a track of their positions, aiming, speed, idea of
directions and many more. The human brain would be able to process the entire data and thus be
able to coordinate with their hands as all the entire set of actions would be performed with the
help of a game controller or keyboard.
Accuracy and Quick Thinking – The action supported by video games would help in
preparing the gamer in order to make smart forms of decisions within a quick matter of time. The
high form of gaming would need an acute mode of attention in order to cope with the fast form
of unexpected changes in the situations (Tsai, Tsai and Lin). The games based on
accomplishment of a mission would require quick thinking and users would need to think faster
about various kinds of situations.
Work with Dexterity – Online gaming would prove to be helpful based on the
improvement of the movement of hands of the user over the keyboard and mouse (Kühn et al.).
With the help of these kinds of gaming experiences, the user would be able to use different
shortcut functions on the keyboard and thus be able to provide adequate quicker responses.
Problem Solving Abilities and Skills – Researchers have suggested that video games
could help in aiding teenagers in the development of different kinds of problem-solving skills
such as role-plays (Adachi and Willoughby). These kind of games would be helpful for
adolescents in getting better with their skills based on solving different kinds of problems.
Games can ward off anxiety and improve moods – Different games such as
Bejewelled II and Angry Birds are simple games. These kind of games would be helpful for

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bringing instant form of happiness and help in relaxing the users or would improve their mood
(Mekler et al.). These games would also be able to teach young people about the ways in which
young people would be able to cope with different situations of failures.
Promotion of the Theory of Incremental Intelligence – There are some teenagers who
are mostly encouraged and get praised for their work on a certain game of puzzle. These would
help the teenagers in developing an idea based on progressive knowledge. This form of
knowledge helps in believing that intelligence does not remains in their fixed form and thus it
cannot be improved (Eichenbaum, Bavelier and Green). The factor of intelligence within the
users could grow with a huge form of effort and also with proper time. In this way, video games
would be able to provide an ideal ground for children and teenagers based on acquiring of such
kind of traits of thoughts and ideas.
Better forms of Decision-making Skills – Different players learn to make better forms
of decisions each time they would play a new kind of game. They would inherit different kinds
of skills that would be helpful for them in their real-life. Based on playing different kinds of
games, players would perform mistakes and thus they would learn from such mistakes
(Giannakos). There are also such kind of games that would require making of creative decisions
for deciding the best kind of moves within a minimum time frame.
Enriched Social Skills – Different kinds of virtual multiplayer games would be able to
provide a chance to their kids based on interacting with other players from all over the world.
This would help an individual to work with other users and thus be able to connect with them on
some level and thus work as a team (Faiola et al.). This would enhance the quality of teamwork
within an individual, which would be helpful for them in their real life situations.

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3. Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it could be concluded that there are many positive effects
that are made with the impact of video game play. These kinds of effects would be helpful for
development of several skills of the user and would also help in improving their personal skills.
Hence, it could be concluded that video game play would have many positive effects and thus
would make a major impact on individuals.

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References
Adachi, Paul JC, and Teena Willoughby. "More than just fun and games: The longitudinal
relationships between strategic video games, self-reported problem solving skills, and academic
grades." Journal of youth and adolescence 42.7 (2013): 1041-1052.
Anguera, Joaquin A., et al. "Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults."
Nature 501.7465 (2013): 97.
Eichenbaum, Adam, Daphne Bavelier, and C. Shawn Green. "Video games: Play that can do
serious good." American Journal of Play 7.1 (2014): 50-72.
Faiola, Anthony, et al. "Correlating the effects of flow and telepresence in virtual worlds:
Enhancing our understanding of user behavior in game-based learning." Computers in Human
Behavior 29.3 (2013): 1113-1121.
Giannakos, Michail N. "Enjoy and learn with educational games: Examining factors affecting
learning performance." Computers & Education 68 (2013): 429-439.
Granic, Isabela, Adam Lobel, and Rutger CME Engels. "The benefits of playing video games."
American psychologist 69.1 (2014): 66.
Greitemeyer, Tobias, and Dirk O. Mügge. "Video games do affect social outcomes: A meta-
analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play." Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin 40.5 (2014): 578-589.
Kühn, Simone, et al. "Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: gray matter
changes resulting from training with a commercial video game." Molecular psychiatry 19.2
(2014): 265.

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Mekler, Elisa D., et al. "A systematic review of quantitative studies on the enjoyment of digital
entertainment games." Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in
computing systems. ACM, 2014.
Tsai, Fu-Hsing, Chin-Chung Tsai, and Kuen-Yi Lin. "The evaluation of different gaming modes
and feedback types on game-based formative assessment in an online learning
environment." Computers & Education 81 (2015): 259-269.