• Question: Does playing video games increase your reactions or any other skills?

    Asked by Joe to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 4 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Oli Wilson

      Oli Wilson answered on 4 Nov 2017:

      It definitely can speed up your reactions! I just had a quick google and a couple of studies came up straight away. One, by scientists in the US, found that gamers make decisions quicker (and just as accurately) as non-gamers. Another (done last year by researchers in Leicester) gave people a confusing task to do, and gave them 10 days of action games, a different game, or no games as preparation. It turned out the action gamers were much quicker than the others! Video games might also improve your dexterity (how good you are at controlling your fingers etc) or chill you out, but they can also make you stressed or affect your sleep… they definitely do have benefits, but they’re not 100% good for you!

    • Photo: Kerrianne Harrington

      Kerrianne Harrington answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I think playing video games are like problem solving or solving puzzles, so there’s definitely lots of useful skills there! Most people I know who play games love any kind of puzzle to solve. This can help you to think about things or make decisions.

      I’m not sure about reaction times. I’ve seen differing opinions. Interestingly, I’ve seen opinions in the fighting game community argue that reaction times don’t actually give you as much of an advantage as you’d like to think, and rather it’s better to be logistical about your fighting moves. This was pretty surprising to me, as I assumed the faster you react to something, the better at any game you would be!

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