Video Games as Media Education

Here are some of the notes I took for our presentation of Video Games as tools for Media Education.

History
Video games have been around for years but their conception goes all the way back to the late 1940s when several patents for interactive media began to spring up. However, I would argue that this generations collective video game history begins with Intellivision and is succeeded by Nintendo, who with their console and Mario Bros., brought the industry back from the brink of extinction. To date there have been eight generations of video game consoles.


Cultural Impact

Up until recently (I'd say with the advent of better graphics) video games fell into their own demographic, first emerging as a children's toy and eventually evolving into a culture of "gaming." While some negative connotations do exist (children's toys) the average gamer is now between 18-35 and ranges from children to both adult men and woman. In addition, there have been multiple movie based on games, and South Park even did an entire episode, watched by millions, that place in the World of Warcarft video game. Warcraft itself was (and can be argued) and still is a juggernaut of digital entertainment, once having as many as 12-13 million players that ranged between teenagers, to professionals (doctors and lawyers for instance) and people to work from home.

Benefits of Gaming
While the negative aspects of consistently on display in the Media, it is often the benefits of gaming that are consistently and sadly overlooked. From an article from "The Week" magazine, there are seven distinct benefits that are excelusively derived from video games.

Therapeutic: They are often used to help sick children cope with their illness.

Mental improvements such as increased Motor Skills: stronger decision making skills, and increased vision and hand-eye coordination. It was also found that surgeons who played video games prior to surgery would perform better as well.

Better Mood: Video games have also been shown to distract people from pain (soldiers needed less pain medication while playing games), and they have also show signs of reducing symptoms of depression and stress. In addition, they have also led to an increased rate of happiness among the elderly, meaning those that played games regularly were noticeably happier than those who didn't.