If you've ever felt aggravated after being told that computer games are a waste of time, you are probably not alone. Not only is the entertainment factor well worthwhile, but there are many basic fundamentals of the games that help tie in aspects of its working to the greater society. While not particularly evident on some of the less involving games, it is all too apparent on the strategy games.
In any set of games, even the minor forms serve the purpose of a basic fundamental of hand-to-eye coordination and limited intrinsic logical value. If they really break the rule and it is impossible to see any value at all, at least they introduce one to the video game ladder that will take them to higher formats. It is on this ladder of the basics to the highly interactive that the great journey begins.
Starting at the bottom, the most elementary games are usually the same on a new PC, Solitaire, Minesweeper, FreeCell, and another form of card game varying between Hearts, Spades, or Backgammon. Newer PCs tend to have more games, but these were the basics for a number of years. Beginning the evaluation with Solitaire, nearly any person is well acquainted and easily addicted to this game in the early stage of gaming. It is simple, it is involving, and it can provide a challenge due to the random card order. This minor challenge is vital, because once frustration is put aside; one develops a hunger for the more complicated.
After Solitaire, the first step is usually another of the card games, where different strategies are involved and gets the brain functioning at higher levels. All the starter games are simple, basic, and mildly entertaining; it's just that the card games are the most familiar because they are playable off the screen first. It isn't until one graduates from the card games that they move onto the first true computer game they may encounter (unless they skip it, of course), Minesweeper. Minesweeper represents the first test of logic and possibility. To start there is a grid of varying size with a set amount of "land mines" beneath the gray squares. To clear the grid you have to figure out where the mines are based on the number sequences you uncover. It is a really addicting and fun game once learned, and one that continues to trip up everyone going back to it.
Although there are more details to the basic games, those are best discovered on one's own. Now that the curiosity is engaged, people move to the moderate level games or straight to the more complicated. If going in an order, they'd start with the much more diverse and large spectrum games that the mid-level contains. Here people find the puzzles, the arcades, the logic, the early strategy. At this level minds are expanded and the benefit derived is true hand-eye coordination and quick thinking skills. The quick thinking is important because it'll advance one towards the more advanced strategy games or they will end up following single set character games to the world of role playing. Once at that level, the players have moved towards the top of the ladder.
At the top (or close enough) one starts to really learn things. Gone mostly are the days when one system was isolated to one player. Now, people of all ages learn how to network with others to form larger playing grounds. With networking skill, one can launch into business or communication networks later on in life, a vital tool to making it in the current world of today. Also, with Real Time Strategy (RTS) games, people learn the base principles of money handling, micro-management, investment, buying, spending, and other disciplines that will carry on to real living. Still others in the Role Playing Games (RPG) will become their own person and know how to handle themselves among others in a group where teamwork becomes the theme. Life strategy and teamwork are highly sought talents and it only makes sense to encourage their development, no matter how abstract it starts.
The thirst for knowledge, the interaction with technology, the development of life skills and a sense for business are not things that should be discouraged. These are all important factors in the development of any mind, and if it can be done under the pretense of satisfaction and enjoyment then all the better. With all the fun and knowledge they provide, how can anyone justify computer games as a legitimate waste of time? They can't.