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GameSpotting

Ryan Mac Donald
Executive Producer, GameSpot Live

Recent Favorites: Command & Conquer: Generals (PC), Soul Calibur II (Xbox)
Most Wanted: Doom 3 (PC), Half-Life 2 (PC)

Warning: Excessive Gaming May Be Bad (or Good) for You

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No time to waste, must have constant action!
We've all at one point or another read or heard about a news report concerning some study done by scientists in some faraway land that found video games to be harmful or helpful in some way. Some of the studies, both positive and negative, that I can recall off the top of my head pointed to improved eye-hand coordination, a tendency toward aggressive behavior, and even enhanced critical thinking.

Most of the news reports cite a college or institute that is behind the study, but why do we get so little information about the people behind the study, how they came to their conclusion, or the test subjects they used? The reason I'm raising these questions is simply because I want to know more, since I suspect that I may be the world's most eye-hand-coordinated guy on the planet, thanks to the countless hours I've devoted to gaming.

This past weekend I found myself playing Counter-Strike on my computer--not an odd thing. But what made it seem unusual this time was the fact that in between rounds I was pulling off my earphones, picking up a PlayStation 2 controller, and unpausing my game of ESPN NFL Football. When the new round of CS was about to start, I'd pause my football game and get back to playing on my PC. After about three quarters of football and countless rounds of CS, I stopped for a moment and had to almost literally catch my breath. My first thought, at this point, was that this nonstop gaming action was awesome--why didn't I do this more often? My second thought, however, was that this was insane. Shortly after my stunning realization, I came to terms with the fact that I more or less play games for a living, and while these two games weren't necessarily a part of a project I was currently working on, I was simply building on my expertise.

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With multitasking skills like these, perhaps I should've run for governor.
In any event, I decided to look up some topics on the Internet, like video game studies, game research, and video game psychology. I suggest you do the same--it's amazing what comes up and how many individual studies have been done. But, once again, most simply did not have a lot to back their conclusions up. Also among them are the thoroughly entertaining stories about Internet gambling gone awry that come up with these search topics, but that's an entirely different story.

Through my limited research, which I did in between rounds of Counter-Strike and football, I learned that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot in the way of definitive answers out there. One of the best papers I found pretty much said that games are like everything else: Enjoyed in moderation, gaming is perfectly fine, but in excess they could have negative effects. (Mind you, there was no mention of the effects of playing two games almost simultaneously, which I'll just assume is a sign that I am super leet.)

While I don't expect to develop ESP, telekinesis, or anything of the sort through excessive game playing, I really don't think I am causing any sort of permanent damage to myself. I could do with some exercise, since I seem to be getting a little soft around the belly, but I imagine that has something to do with sitting in a chair drinking soda all day at work, followed by more sitting and soda drinking at home. I guess that's more soda- and chair-related than video-game-related, since I could conceivably stand and drink water while playing games.


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