Kamis, 26 Mei 2016

Are Video Games A Waste of Time? Not Really

video games
   “Why are you wasting your time playing something useless like video games? Jeez… get a life!”. I think every single one of us ever heard irritating remarks like that.
Why do people keep on disturbing others’ hobby? Why are they disturbed by something they are not interested to? In fact, there are so many things we can learn through video games. Video games are actually good for you. They can help you in so many aspect of life. Teaching you many life skills, and even giving you better life lessons than the books do are at least two benefits you can get from playing video games.

    Video games can help you do things better in real life better than ever. First example, and the most obvious benefit is hand-eye coordination. Lots of video games require a quick reflex action. The first person shooter games such as ‘counter strike’, ‘battle field’, ‘modern warfare’, etc train you to sharpen your senses. While some strategy-based games help you to think in so many ways. First, they train you to manage your resources wisely whether they are gold, coins, minerals, banana, or whatever. Second, they train you about micromanagement. When you have a bunch of units, you can’t just make them do some auto attacks. You must assign different units to do different things. Each unit has its own specialty. You must micromanage each person with their specific purpose. That’s what we call efficiency. Third, they teach biology. Yes, video games teach that too! We know from shooting-based games, we will hit harder when we shoot our enemies in the head, than the rest of the body. It seems pretty weird, because we learn about it from video games.

    The next, we can learn many life lessons from video games. First, we learn about problem solving. If you don’t run into some difficult problems, then you are not really playing a video game. And that’s just like in real life : “if your life has no problems, than you are not really living it”. In both real life and video games, you will run into problems. And yes, a true gamer never gives up. We solve problems until we reach the ultimate goal. Try to look at surroundings, look for pattern, keep on trying until you get better and better. In the real life, for example, if you take a calculus class and you keep on failing, you keep on trying it like in video games. Try to solve problems and never give up. And eventually, you will succeed. Second, we learn about camping. Don’t be a camper. Basically, a camper is a player who stays in his position, and waits for the other player to come to his attack range. They just sit on the same place in the whole play through, and do not play the actual game. This is such an important life lessons. Yes that’s true. You can be a camper and enjoy the safe route. Hide and wait until the opportunity comes in. But if you want an exciting and challenging life, don’t just hide. The reason is simple : it’s lame. You get out there and you get it. Go after what you really want in life. Third one, we learn how to be hackers. Sure, you can be a hacker and cheat your way to the top. But when a game master catches you, you will get banned. Your ID is simply gone. Just like in real life. You may cheat but when you get caught, get ready to lose everything. And some time, just like in video games, you will stop progress any further because there is no one there to help you due to one little mistake you did in the past. Fourth, we learn about people who are quitters. You know the person who ragequits the games out of his frustration. Sometimes you get so upset, then you have to stop. When you are so angry and disappointed on how everything runs in your life, take a break. Take some time to cool off and then come back even stronger.

    And the last yet the most important thing that we can learn from video games is : multi player. Most but not all current video games have a multiplayer feature. Multiplayer teaches you if you have a bad team with bad teamwork, you will most likely to lose. You can’t always do things by yourself. You need others. And yes, other people also need your help. There is no ‘I’ in team. Just like there is no ‘me’ in multiplayer. And as soon as we learn that, the sooner we can team up like a multiplayer unit, to convince people that video games are not wasting of time.

    In short, video games are important to teach people on how to live a life - by not setting up camp, but going after things we really want, without having to cheat our way to get it. This is done even if they have to ragequit now and then. Learn to solve problems, and never give up until they get there. And when they do, they already pass the problems they encounter in the quickest reflex actions. Gaming is more than just a game- it is life.  


By : Anvare Rahmadan

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar