Does Gaming Have Benefits? [Column]

The following is the rough draft of my eGamer column, which is due to go live tomorrow. Tell me what you think, I really want feedback on this one.


Reader! I have something truly ridiculous to tell you! This column ISN'T going to be talking about Call of Duty! Believe it, for it is the truth! In what is quite a monumental step forward in my writing career, and ultimately my overall development as a person, I have indeed decided to cover a topic other than the one I have been harking on about for the past six months or so (for those who didn't pick it up, the topic in question is that of Call of Duty). Anyways, enough about how I'm not going to be talking about Call of Duty, otherwise this is introduction is going to become very counter-intuitive very quickly.

Instead of talking about Call of Duty (last time I'm saying that, I promise), I'm going to be taking the liberty of using my next few columns to expand and otherwise further discuss issues pertinent to the realisation of a concept which I referred to in my previous column as 'The Dream'. For the sake of continuity and in the hopes of generally not confusing the living nonsense out of you, I'm going to keep referring to it as The Dream. Only without the apostrophes.

Anyways, for those of you who forgot or didn't read what I wrote in the aforementioned previous column and are too lazy to dig around the eGamer archives looking for it (I don't blame you, it's a pretty fat mission), here is a convenient linky-link to the column in question.

Now that I've got a few extra views on my last column (and as such, now that I view myself as a more worthwhile person), let me quote the particular extract I am referring to:

“For now, accompany me as we envisage ‘The Dream’… what on earth is the dream? The Dream is gaming popularised. The Dream is to turn on the TV and see Super eSport showing the highlights from a recent StarCraft 2 match. The Dream is professional gaming being a viable career. The Dream is ultimately gaming becoming as fully integrated into our society as sport is.”

Lol.

Hopefully you get the idea of what I'm talking about from that, 'cause devoting an entire column to defining something which can essentially be described as the popularisation of gaming in general (boom! Inadvertent yet effective clarifications of definitions for the win!) would be somewhat of a cop-out in my opinion.

So, to kick off this general theme of the realisation of The Dream, I'm going to be using my next two or three columns to discuss some of the more fundamental attacks on video gaming as a hobby – after all, only once the arguments against video gaming have been thoroughly rebutted and gaming's critics been ruthlessly silenced can we truly see The Dream fulfilled.

Before I actually get started, level with me here: did that previous sentence not sound like an extract from a speech given at a political rally for a Big Brother-esque, autocratic dictatorship. Just saying.

Anyway, let's get started for real now.

The attack I'm going to be discussing this week is that of the point or benefit of gaming. It is without any shadow or semblance of a doubt that I am able to state that behind every corner lies a member of the Family Policy Institute, in every alleyway hides a menopausal female columnist and in every classroom rules a teacher, all of whom would tell you the same thing - “gaming is stupid, you're wasting your time and you could be doing something far more beneficial for yourself.”

I believe that many articles which argue in defense of gaming in this regard go about it in completely the wrong way. Instead of attacking the assumptions and implications behind the argument being proposed, they opt instead to try and present some sort of paltry evidence showing that gaming can have benefits – if you make a simple Google search of 'the benefits of gaming', you will see that many of the arguments and proposed benefits are pretty situational and rather inapplicable in most instances.

The reason I believe them to be generally useless defenses is that they focus on over-specific benefits; for example, some games help surgeons with their motor functions, games can help rehabilitate patients recovering from injuries or suffering from pain, games improve one's hand-eye co-ordination and reflexes... the list could go on, but none of them really provide tangible, everyday benefits that apply to the average gamer.

All of what I've mentioned above may well be good and true, but for the most part it applies to other people – if someone accuses you directly of wasting your time on games and you're not a surgeon or in the rehabilitation process from a major injury, those aren't going to give you much in the way of rebuttal.

The reason for this is simple: gaming as a hobby does not provide much in the way of tangible benefits. This does not, however, mean that it is inferior to other hobbies or ways of passing time as the aforementioned attack would suggest.

If you are a casual gamer (we'll get to more hardcore gamers in a minute), then take a moment to think about what you would spend your time on if you didn't game. The chances are that you would simply browse Facebook idly, chat to people on Mxit, maybe do some light reading... who knows. The point is, you aren't really spending that much of your time playing games, and if you aren't spending that much of your time playing games, then if you were to stop playing games and devote your time to something else instead you wouldn't really be able to see yourself gaining any sort of tangible benefit from it, because you simply wouldn't be able to put enough time in to get anything out.

In the case of the casual gamer, gaming usually assumes the role of a relaxation or de-stressing mechanism, which is totally legit. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy... and I'm pretty sure that Jack is a casual gamer.

So, let's stop and just take stock of what I've said so far. If you're following, skip this paragraph. We've established that the criticism of gaming we're addressing is one made using an argument of comparative benefit, which is a really douchey way of saying that people like to criticise us as gamers because we could be doing something better with our time. However, what we've seen in terms of casual gamers is that in the majority of cases they don't actually spend enough time on games that if they were to stop gaming and take up another hobby, which they spent the same amount of time on (guitar, for example), they would not find any sort of tangible benefit, because they simply wouldn't be spending enough time on their new hobby.

Everyone following? Awesome.

Now let's take a look at hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers are characterised by three things: they tend to focus more specifically on a certain game (CoD4, DotA, StarCraft 2, WoW, etc), they tend to spend more time on that game and they tend to specifically try and improve their ability in that game.

The interesting thing about games like the ones mentioned above is that as soon as you start getting into them, playing clan matches and trying to improve your play, tangible benefits begin to pile up. What is even more interesting is that the benefits don't come in the form of over-specific skills (like increased finger dexterity, or something equally retarded), but rather come in the form of lessons which one can apply to almost any situation you find yourself in, in life in general. Too many 'in's in that sentence, but whatever. Moving on.

One such example of a life-applicable benefit is the development of a correlation between effort and reward. Gaming is remarkable in that the more effort you put in, the better you get at what you are trying to do. Any hardcore gamer worth their salt should be able to look at where they started, then look at the point they have reached and realise that it was one thing, and one thing alone that got them there: hard work. Putting in hour upon hour behind your PC, blowing people's faces off. Said gamer would then be able to apply the same logic to their work environment: the harder they work, the further they get.

Other examples come in the form of things like strategic thinking, learning to work well in a team and learning to interact as a member of a team.

In terms of my own experience, I am able to draw direct parallels between what I have learned in my time playing StarCraft 2, and the benefit it has in my life. Foremost among what I have learned, I would say that StarCraft has taught me effective problem solving; when confronted with a problem in StarCraft, one analyses it in a logical, rational manner – if you keep losing to a specific strategy, you man the hell up and figure out how to beat that strategy, by thinking through all of the options at your disposal.

I find more and more that I am applying that same methodical though process to my everyday life, and I really am beginning to see just how tangible the benefit is.

Naturally, this is a topic of truly enormous debate, and I have barely scratched at it's surface. My intention with this column was not to cover every argument and rebuttal in the book – I can see plenty of places where I should do deeper analysis, where my arguments are weak and where I've oversimplified matters – but rather to expose you as the reader to some of the basic thought and argumentation which could go into an issue like this, and ultimately spur your own thoughts in terms of how to defend the point of your chosen hobby.


The end.

Duncan
Out

PS: Posts should be coming in more regularly now, as I'm through the bulk of my work - more on that a bit later, though.