by Sarah Parrish

Created on: March 28, 2009

Stereotypically, video-game players are considered a little bit geeky, maybe a little bit lazy, and not very productive because it's a common view that people who play video games end up wasting their time on it rather than spending their time doing something more worthwhile (which, some might say, is anything else).

We've certainly come a long way from a game as mindlessly simple (and fun) as Atari's Pong. Now we can learn, improve reflexes, work on social skills, and lessen decision-making times, all as a result of playing selected video games.

All video games have a couple of things in common. First, they rely on reading comprehension as game manuals are written as well as text, oftentimes accompanying spoken dialogue by characters throughout the game (although the vocabulary in games is at a grade school level). Video games also rely on the ability to focus attention. One could argue you use both of those skills in most aspects of your life and putting them to use in video games doesn't provide a strong argument for how video games are any more beneficial than any other experience you could have. Reading and attention, however, are just two skill sets video games rely on and as for benefits, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Video games offer particular skill set enhancements based on the kinds of games you play.

Adventure video games like Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, Lord of the Rings, and Dungeons and Dragons benefit three main categories of skills including mental mapping skills, problem solving skills, and a great deal of patience and dedication. You oftentimes need to keep a mental map in place for navigating your way around a game. If you need to free a princess from a tower, first you need to get to that tower. Then you need to figure out how to unlock it (problem solving), then you need to fight the beast guarding the mythical princess, which might take many attempts (patience and dedication).

Multiplayer games like World of Warcraft and Ultima Online provide an online setting to work on social skills with peers as well as to work with them in joint efforts, focusing on teamwork. In-game guilds are a great example of how people come together in online games, making real life friends in the process. This can also lead to exposure to other cultures as oftentimes you end up making friends who might live in another country or have a completely different socio-economic background than yourself.

In the case of action video games like Medal of Honor,

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