Video Games—Play On
Zachary Felton
1Video games pull players into worlds they could never imagine. In these worlds, players become top athletes, animated characters, alien commanders, and so on. So, if video games use so much imagination, why do people look down on them? News reports today often talk about the bad effects of video games. For example, some blame video games for making children more violent. Others blame them for causing children to sit in front of the television, instead of getting exercise. While such claims may hold some truth, not all video games are bad. In fact, some actually have great benefits.

2Playing video games on every platform, from large computer displays to handheld devices or even cell phones, improves thinking skills, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination.

3Research has shown that playing video games is good for players' minds. Video games improve players' thinking skills. A researcher from one study said, "It's difficult to find kids who earn poor grades but who do well in video games." Video games challenge players to recognize patterns and think to survive in the game. Players must use their brains to plan their next move to avoid losing the game.

4Even simple games seem to boost brainpower. For example, the goal of one popular game is to arrange falling blocks into a solid wall. When the game begins, the blocks drop at a slow pace, giving the player plenty of time to put them in the correct place. As the player gets better at arranging the blocks, the game starts dropping them at a faster rate. The player must speed up his or her thinking to reach the next level of the game.

5Video games help to improve players' reaction time. Reaction time is the time it takes for a person's body to respond to something. It is important in many sports and day-to-day activities. For example, suppose your mom makes you a cup of hot chocolate. You touch the hot cup and pull your hand away quickly. That is reaction time—the time it takes your mind to tell your hand to pull away from the hot cup. Because video games move at such a fast pace, people who play them improve their reaction times. In video games involving car races, for example, players face obstacles as they speed toward the finish line. Players must rely on reaction time to avoid hitting anything so they can make it to the end.

6Video games also help hand-eye coordination. This coordination involves turning what our eyes see into physical responses, such as guessing where a ball will fall so we can catch it. People with unusually high hand-eye coordination can go into professions where using their hands is important. A recent study of surgeons found that doctors who played video games were a lot faster at performing difficult operations. In addition, surgeons who played video games made fewer mistakes in operations than those surgeons who did not play video games.

7Many people are starting to take notice of the benefits of video games. For example, educational computer games are becoming more common in schools as teaching tools. Teachers have found that students enjoy learning through video games. They find the games both fun and educational. This has led to the rise in "edu-tainment," or using educational video games in the classroom to make learning fun. In addition, the U. S. military is now using video games to prepare soldiers for the decision-making skills they will need during combat.

8On average, children spend one hour per day playing in video game worlds. It is good to know that this time will help them in the future.

A persuasive argument may appeal to a reader's emotions (pathos) or reason (logos), but another important part of an argument's ability to persuade is the authority and expertise of the speaker (his or her ethical identity or ethos). Move the following statements into the column that describes the type of appeal made in each one, whether it be ethos, pathos, or logos appeal.