TED Talk about gaming

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain?language=en

In the TED talk “7 Ways Gaming Rewards the Brain” Tom Chattfield explains how we gain knowledge from playing video games. The first method is through gaining experience points in a game. This establishes the idea that each and every single objective that you do adds up to you reaching your goal. Next gaming teaches you how to multitask. In some games you can progress through multiple quests at the same time causing your brain to stay focused on certain goals. In video games you get rewarded for every task you accomplish no matter how big or small, creating a feeling of importance to players. Gaming also shows players how their actions change the world in which they are playing in. The element of uncertainty is very strong within games, it drives players to complete quests not knowing what the reward or outcome will be. Another lesson gained from gaming is having an enhanced attention span. Becoming dedicated to one objective helps you gain a better attention span. Finally the final reward to your brain for gaming is being around other people. The world is a big place and there are many gamers out there.

Since I am a gamer myself I can really relate to what Tom talked about. I completely agree that gaming gives you a better ability to multitask and it gives you a greater attention span.  However there were some things that he talked about which I didn’t wholeheartedly agree with. One of which is that he titled this “7 Ways Gaming Rewards the Brain”. I expected this to be more about knowledge gained, rather than about fulfilling people’s emotions. An example would be the game Assassin’s Creed. In this series players travel back in time to many locations such as: Israel, to Rome, and even the US during the revolutionary war. What makes this series so special is that, unlike most games it teaches you stuff as you play. For example the game includes many famous people from those times such as: Leonardo Da Vinci and George Washington. The game even goes as far as having a data base telling you everything you could possibly want to know about these people of history and many iconic buildings which the player encounters. During the TED talk Tom talked about some abilities gained, but I thought he would’ve gone into more detail about them than what he did. It seemed like he had only scratched the surface of special abilities gained. Myself personally I started playing video games when I was really young. When I was little I spent much time in the hospital and at home sick. The best way for me to keep my mind off of the pain was to play video games. By playing games it helped my mind stay focused on other things. This is by far one of the greatest uses for video games and I was really disappointed that he did not discuss it.