How video games are changing our world for the better in 2019 (Topic)

Making video games the main scapegoat and blaming all the sins of the world is a popular activity among various media and politicians. Additional reasons for criticism of the gaming industry were added by the WHO, which admitted gambling addiction as a mental illness last year. We admit that excessive enthusiasm for almost any hobby can harm a person, and this rule also applies to games. However, even if we consider the impact of video games only in 2019, it becomes clear that games can provide real benefits to society. They can draw attention to the pressing issues of humanity and find new solutions to age-old problems, making our world a better place.

Video games and education

The games industry is most often criticized for its negative impact on children and adolescents. It is a popular belief that, due to excessive preoccupation with games, children become less socialized, and their academic performance is rapidly declining. There is a grain of truth in this point of view, because, as we said at the beginning of the article, almost any hobbies can be harmful if you pay too much attention to them. But at the same time, games can also serve as an effective tool for enhancing the success of the younger generation, offering an interactive way to get acquainted with various specialties and stimulating creativity.

The most obvious example is Japanese gaming giant Nintendo, which began shipping its Nintendo Labo cardboard kits to American schools in 2019. According to the company, the kits introduce children to the concept of design technology and develop the following brain functions: communication, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving. Judging by the success of a similar Nintendo program in Canadian schools in 2018, it's safe to say that similar success will be achieved in American classrooms.

Also, do not forget about the Minecraft Education Edition and SimCityEdu programs that are still in force, which allow children to familiarize themselves with the basics of programming, economics, management, design and architecture in a playful way. The main feature of these games is the flexibility of the toolkit, which allows students to build a variety of systems in a three-dimensional environment, which significantly increases efficiency in comparison with conventional theory learning and develops spatial thinking.

We should also say about USA. Of course, in comparison with Western and developed Eastern countries, the participation of games in the educational process of universities and schools of the USA Federation remains minimal, but a positive trend has already emerged in this matter. In August, experts from ANO IRI (Institute for Internet Development) proposed adding lessons to the school curriculum in Dota 2, Hearthstone, Dota Underlords, FIFA 19, World of Tanks, Minecraft, StarCraft II and CodinGam, designed to improve cognitive skills, logic, orientation in space, team play.

The proposal was based on major research and the positive experience of foreign schools, but the Ministry of Education of the USA Federation rejected the initiative, citing the congestion of the school curriculum with other subjects.

Video games and environmental coverage

Global warming and rapid environmental pollution are topical global problems that are actively covered by the modern gaming industry. For starters, you can recall a group of scientists called the Climate Fortnite Squad, who during streams on Fortnite discuss global warming, answer user questions and conduct interviews with various significant persons, for example, with the director of the carbon cycle of NASA ecosystems. Climate Fortnite Squad recently launched a Twitch channel and are planning to gradually expand, continuing to educate users on current environmental issues.

The developers of the ECO game, recently released in Early Access on Steam, went even further. ECO is a Survival game, the concept of which is not about rivalry, but about communication between players. In other words, in ECO, gamers create a separate state, can propose bills, draw up tasks for other players and form a real city together with infrastructure and economic system. The concept is large-scale, but behind it is the main idea - to teach players to form a society that will responsibly treat waste emissions and the consumption of natural resources.

If the players in ECO refuse to cooperate with each other, begin to destroy the ecosystem and thoughtlessly exploit nature, then the result is natural - an ecological disaster. And to the developers' credit, we note that in addition to covering environmental issues, Strange Loop Games has also managed to create a high-quality game, judging by the recent very positive reviews of the game on Steam.

Video Games & Charity

The gaming industry has grown from a geeky occupation to a real global phenomenon, whose capitalization exceeds $ 100 billion a year. Given the tremendous attention to the industry from the public, it is not surprising that various companies, public figures and simply groups of caring people use games for charitable purposes. For example, Games Done Quick runs marathons to support their cancer-fighting foundation. Over the past year, the organization has raised over $ 2.4 million.

Other philanthropic organizations include Desert Bus for Hope - a community of people playing Desert Bus streams (perhaps the most boring game in history, which we talked about in our separate material) and regularly collect donations from players for charities goals. This year alone, the gaming community helped raise Desert Bus for Hope $ 864,000. In general, for almost 10 years of activity, the organization managed to raise more than $ 6 million.

The annual Games For Change festival deserves special mention, where cultural figures, public organizations, entrepreneurs, legislators, developers and various gaming companies gather to discuss how the gaming industry can help in socially significant matters. Based on the results of the organization, they outline a further course for the development of the gaming industry and invest funds in charity campaigns.

Video Games and Health

Of course, after the official recognition of games as a form of addiction, WHO cast a shadow on the benefits of video games for human health. But this year there were other medical studies, which, due to their positive message, were much less often covered in the media. One such study was conducted by the University of Montreal, which confirmed that games can improve the cognitive abilities of older people. The experiment involved people over 60 years old who played Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes five days a week for six months. Upon completion of the experiment, all subjects changed the structure of the gray matter, improved short-term memory and ability to concentrate.

"They turned out to be better at low-level cognitive tasks that can be useful in real-life situations, such as memorizing phone numbers and concentrating, or, conversely, ignoring certain things while driving," commented Dr. Benjamin Zendel, Canadian director of the center. on aging and auditory neuroscience.

The research results were supported by the Silver Snipers esports team, which consists of elderly people. Team members are the best evidence of the positive effects of games on the elderly. In interviews, they emphasized that their ability to compete with young people and their participation in European esports promotes healthier and happier life for them as they get older.

Conclusions

Video games are a relatively young, extremely popular and radically different industry from other forms of leisure, so it is not surprising that attacks on interactive entertainment are increasing every year. People are afraid of what they don't understand and in the coming years, fighting prejudice is unlikely to change the opinion of many critics of the gaming industry. At the same time, we will not call the game absolutely good either, any phenomenon has its pros and cons. But in general, we recognize that there are many more positives to the gaming industry, as we can clearly see from the example of how video games make our world a better world year after year.

The Topic of Article: How video games are changing our world for the better in 2019.
Author: Jake Pinkman