Research Shows Video Games Good for You, Probably

Our future overlords?

Video games are cool. That's just science. But now there is a growing amount of research that shows video games might affect our bodies and brains in beneficial ways, like enhanced hand-eye coordination and improved night driving ability, which would be useful if video game players actually left the house at night.

What is most remarkable is that action games, and particularly the most violent (and controversial) action games, are the ones that produce the greatest effects: people who played action games were able to make decisions 25% faster than others, without sacrificing accuracy.

One of the studies, a three-year examination of 491 middle school students, found that those students who played more computer games achieved greater scores on standardized creativity tests, regardless of race, gender, or even the type of game played. This begs the question, however: are creative young people playing video games, or are video games making young people more creative?



Frankly, I'm not the kind of person who will be moved very much by this research. If a study came out tomorrow that said video games cause terrible, nightmarish diarrhea, I'd probably still keep playing them. But maybe this will calm down some of the reactionaries out there who are either bent on banning video games altogether or reducing the video game market to a cottage industry pumping out games like "ChurchVille," "Don't Run With Scissors," and "Good, Clean Fun: Best Friends Edition."