Sajal Baral
Ms. Knudson
UWRT 1104
08 November 2017
Hey! You should go outside, it is going to ruin your eyes!. It is going to melt your
brain. It is because of that thing you are turning into a violent person!. If you are a kid, teen,
or maybe even an adult, these are common criticisms that you probably come across. Those
criticisms are often thrown out by parents or loved ones to make gaming look like it is causing
While playing an excessive amount of video game can create lots of concerns about ones
physiological and psychological health, there are ample amount evidence that supports the claim
of playing a reasonable amount video game can improves ones sense of self-worth, improve
brain function, enrich social skills, and even contribute benefits for those that are undergoing
How could video games improve ones sense of self-worth? To answer that, we first have
to talk about depression. Depression? Why talk about depression? What does this have to do with
self-worth and video games? When someone is depressed, two parts of the brain get under
stimulated. The hippocampus, which is associated with memory and learning, and the reward
pathways, which is associated with goal-orientation and motivation. With the hippocampus
under stimulated, it makes it harder to develop new skills and coping strategies which makes it
harder to improve at anything, let alone depression. When the reward pathways gets under
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stimulated, you feel discouraged and barely have any motivation to do anything. But when
gaming, you are presented with puzzles, hidden objectives, etc. that create a sense of
determination and motivation which in turn hyperactivates the hippocampus and the reward
pathways. Therefore, the player experiencing a stronger self-worth, along with the feeling of
In addition, video games can improve the players overall brain function. A study
conducted at University College London and Queen Mary University of London showed that
some video games can improve a persons brain flexibility. They recruited 72 volunteers that
split into three groups. Two groups played two different versions of a high paced strategy game
called Starcraft and the third group played The Sims which was a life simulator for forty
hours over six to eight weeks. They found that the two groups that were designated to play
Starcraft showed signs of improvement in their psychological tests and finished cognitive
flexibility task swiftly and more accurately. A scientist from QMUL states that Previous
research has demonstrated that action video games, such as Halo, can speed up decision making
but the current work finds that real-time strategy games can promote our ability to think on the
improving the players brain function. They asked 23 adults, mean age of 24, to play
Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 3DS XL for 30 minutes a day over a two month period while
a control group did not play the game. Using a MRI scan, they found an increased amount of
grey matter in the right hippocampus, cerebellum, and the right prefrontal cortex in comparison
to the control group. Those regions of the brain deal with memory formation, spatial navigation,
strategic planning, and fine motor skills in the hand. A senior scientist at the Center of Lifespan
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Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development states that This proves that
Equally important, video games can enrich a players social skills. Over 70% of gamers
play their games with a friend, either cooperatively or competitively (Engels, 73). Many
multiplayer games have become social communities. In MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online
role-playing game) like World of Warcraft and DC Universe Online, the player needs to figure
out how to lead a team on top of finding out who they need to trust or reject. For example, when
doing raids, a type of mission where there are a large amount of players that need to gather
together to succeed at a common goal, the player needs to put together a team of players that can
accomplish the goal. This involves finding players they get along with, finding the correct player
that can play a certain role in the group (mainly damage, healer, and tank), and being able to lead
everyone throughout the raid to reach the end goal. Multiplayer games encourages social
Video games can help with physiological or psychological damage. With video games
causing positive changes in the brain, investigators from Max Planck Institute for Human
Development state that video game training might be therapeutically useful for patients with
neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's dementia, in which brain regions are altered or
reduced in size. Amputees can also benefit with games. Sometimes, amputees feel pain on the
part of the limb that is missing but researchers are using augmented reality to trick the brain into
thinking that their limb is back. A PhD candidate Max Ortiz - Catalan is working on a probe that
attaches to the missing limb to detect muscle movement. The data gathered from the probe is
then fed into a computer that uses the data create a CGI of the missing limb.
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While these positives shines a different light on gaming, there are still negatives. Too
much gaming can turn into an addiction. Like an addictive drug, the player feels like games is a
way they can escape from life. "The person is trying to change the way they feel by taking
something outside of themselves. The cocaine addict learns, 'I don't like the way I feel, I take a
line of cocaine.' For gamers, it's the fantasy world that makes them feel better." (Bakker). Just
like, but not in the same magnitude as a drug overdose, too much can be harmful. The player will
start ditching homework, jeopardize relationships, or even lose their job. Health can also be
affected. Skipping meals to play or skipping physical activity can lead to obesity. It can also lead
to the player being desensitized to certain situations. In a study conducted to test this, researchers
had players play two different version of the same game. One group played as the moral group
(United Nation soldier) and the other as the immoral (terrorists). The researchers concluded
that over time, repeated violent gaming and lead to emotional desensitization over time.
People like to connect aggressive behavior/violence and video games but there is no
correlation between the two. The APA (American Psychological Association) like to claim that
there is a connection, they lack evidence to link criminal violence to video games.
Thus, while playing an excessive amount of video game can affect ones physiological
and psychological health, there are evidence that supports the claim of playing a reasonable
amount video game can improves ones sense of self-worth, improve brain function, enrich
social skills, and even contribute benefits for those that are undergoing psychological or physical
traumas.
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McGonigal, Jane. How Video Games Can Teach Your Brain to Fight Depression. Slate
www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/11/how_video_games_can_teach_
your_brain_to_fight_depression.html.
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Playing Video Games Can Boost Brain Power. Queen Mary University of London,
www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/112578.html.
KurzweilAI | Accelerating Intelligence. KurzweilAI Video Game Playing Found Beneficial for
brain.
Granic, Isabela, et al. Video Games Play May Provide Learning, Health, Social Benefits,
Association, www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/video-games.aspx
Franceschini, Sandro, et al. Action Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better. Current
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213000791.
Crecente, Brian. How Video Games and Augmented Reality Could Cure Phantom Pain.
video-game-treatment.
The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games. Raise Smart Kid, 24 Oct. 2017,
www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-
video-games.
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