Defense Paper

Manuel Lopez II

Moore Instr.

English 121

10 April 2014

Video Games blessing or bane?

For many years the stigma of a person that plays video games is under educated, unemployed, dangerously unhealthy individual that spends most of their waking moments playing games while wasting their life. To be fair the portion of the population that personifies this stereo type has gotten bigger but also is being dispelled at the same time due the fact that a majority of the population has played video games in their formative years. This just another transition not unlike the age of horse and simple pulley systems to the steam age. The age of vast and complex machines and the instinctual learning of the young being able to grasp new concepts then apply these concepts into their thinking. Engines, operating vehicles and basic mechanical understanding are now virtual environments, leveling, avatars universal concepts that carry over from work to play and back. The number of future leaders and professionals that have grown up playing video games is ever increasing. As a result our future Presidents, lawyer, heart surgeons and even bakers are going to come from a culture that has embraced the idea of virtual environments and the concept of leveling up their current skills and gaining achievements for completion can be turned to an educational advantage. This concept of gaining achievements and having levels for skills such math class, increasing one’s fitness level or learning new skills at work are a real and powerful tool for a generation of that has grown up playing video games and are familiar with virtual environments that have embraced these concepts.

We see today’s youth with their faces buried in a hand held video game or some kind of smart device. And one has to wonder why not use the fact that our younger generations are already very familiar and comfortable with virtual environments and the concepts of game such as leveling a skill to become stronger in order to...