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People will think what they want to think. The psychological effect mostly depends on what age at which one plays video games, and of course the duration. If someone plays games in his/her early childhood then that person will develop a higher recognition for patterns, as that is what most games are. Just patterns over and over and over again.

So a kid getting better at a variety of video games is actually his mind recognizing different patterns quicker and applying them to solve the problem, or the game itself. Such pattern recognition can be applied to anything and everything in the rest of the kid's life. From taking tests to eventually becoming wise in the ways of life by recognizing everything around him/her. His/her mind has changed and become accustomed to observing things differently and finding different methods and easily deducing the most effective method of doing whatever the current task may be.

The effect of video games of course varies per each individual person. Some play games every now and then as a simple pass-time, and just for pure fun. Others, however, take them more seriously, almost to the extent that one could call it a sort of religion. In that case each game could have its different effects on the player. Say if a guy did nothing but play Mario games: his subconscious would have flashes of images from that game and that would be the extent of the effects. But then say if someone did nothing but devote his life to Metal Gear games: First of all, the player would probably start smoking, then might buy a tranquilizer gun, and maybe even some night vision goggles and face paint and start sneaking around in the night.

The player of a video game could as well become addicted and mindless, and completely lose any sense of reality and meaning (most of the time) (not saying any game names, but mostly Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Games[MMORPG]). This is of course the worst and most commonly seen effect on a player. Most kids these days grow up with video games and are always exposed to them, and are completely immersed in their specific microcosm of the time that they might have rented from blockbuster, or if they're lucky, that their parents bought them. They just sort of disregard anything that isn't the game or doesn't have anything to do with it, and just pushes everything or everyone away from them as a sacrifice for their holy god-box of gaming.

People are very influenced by whatever can take their attention the easiest. Video games are made to do this most of the time, and do it very well. It is however still up to the player whether they want to be influenced by pixels on a screen or not. Whether they are aware that such a decision, or even a such influence, exists or not.

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