It's come to my attention that despite the overwhelming mainstream attention games are getting nowadays, there still seems to be this view that they are "bad" for us. We're taught to consider them a treat, much like devouring a cheeky dessert or watching a bit of telly; acceptable in small doses but too much and you'll be in trouble!
Sitting on the "good" side of this debate are the all-powerful books; this medium has found itself in a position envied by other forms of entertainment: consume these and all manner of wonderful benefits enter your life. In fact, just holding a book makes you feel smarter doesn’t it? Well, more-so than holding a Nintendo DS would anyway!
Before I give my take on this subject I’d first like to say that I consider myself a “gamer” and a “reader” - how these terms are defined is anyone's guess but needless to say, I have both completed a game and read a book in the last two weeks if that’s any measure to use.
I don’t think one is better than the other; rather, I prefer a balance of the two. However, while we’re all too-aware of the positives of reading, the benefits of gaming rarely ever get any limelight. It might surprise you then that there are unique advantages offered up by this medium that can’t be found anywhere else.
Two-way interaction
When you read a book, that is all you’re doing with it; you are simply consuming it - you have no impact or influence on the outcome of that book. It has a predetermined path that you as the reader are following. As long as you keep consuming those pages, it will come to an end as planned by the author. That’s a strictly one-way interaction.
Games on the other-hand, only work when you interact with them; your actions have a consequence. You’re forced to think about what to do, how to do it and what the outcome will be. These are good life lessons that should be embraced! Dare I say it, kids could learn and probably do learn a lot from this form of interaction. Books do a lot, but they don’t do this.
Winning and losing
When was the last time you won in a book? Or lost for that matter? Chances are, never - you can’t win or lose when there’s no interaction. Games by their very nature consist of winning and losing, that's why they’re games after all. Losing, is an essential lesson to be learnt: if you’re not good enough, you lose. Simple.
In these politically correct times where such phrases as “everyone’s a winner” and "deferred success" are used more often than they should be, how refreshing it is to have a medium that plainly says: You lost, you weren't good enough, get better, try again and you might win next time. Firm, but fair.
Perseverance is rewarded
Games on the surface are a rip-off; you buy them with your hard earned cash but they come locked up, only giving you access to a small portion despite you paying the full price - harsh!
Games drip-feed you content as you progress depending on your gaming prowess. That’s the equivalent of buying a book, only to find at the end of chapter one, there’s a quiz you have to pass to progress to chapter two! Surely books win here right? Well to some degree, yes, but having to work hard to unlock content, regularly failing along the way, encourages you to keep trying; persevere and you will be rewarded! As any gamer will testify, when you have tried and failed so many times, and you finally succeed... oh how sweet that victory feels! Can’t say I’ve ever felt that reading a book...
A brainy gamer
So... you’ve had some two-way interaction, you’ve won and lost but you persevered and were rewarded. What a journey!
Well guess what? You’ve likely developed some skills along the way! Shocking I know, because you had so much fun and it’s just a game after all... games aren’t supposed to be good for you!
The further you get in a game, the better you get at it relative to when you first started. You can deduce then, you’ve developed a skill specific to that game; nice but not much use outside the realms of that particular game and genre. But did you know, numerous scientific studies suggest regular gamers have better hand-eye co-ordination and reflexes than their non-gaming counterparts? Even better, cognitive abilities such as memory, spatial manipulation, and reasoning are said to be some of the many positive effects of gaming. One quick search on the web will reveal plenty of these studies - unfortunately they tend not to make the mainstream press. Scaremongering negative headlines are more likely to grab your attention than a study outlining the benefits of playing Mario or Angry Birds.
To conclude...
And there you have it... a slightly different view on the gaming debate. Pitting games against the mighty books will no doubt brush some bookworms up the wrong way so in an attempt to smooth things over, I’ll say this:
I’m very much aware of the positive effects of reading, but so is everyone; that’s why so many of us read! This wasn’t intended to be a balanced argument as the current state of the debate is very unbalanced and needs addressing. That’s what this post is: a tiny step towards redressing the balance... it’s a long road ahead but I'm sure we'll get there!
