Top 7... ways games can transform you into a superior human being

If when you look around, you aren’t instantly checking your six, looking for exits, cover opportunities, medical supplies, save points and possible sniper positions then perhaps gaming can help. From video games you learn to pay attention to your surroundings so that you instantly pick up on all the necessary information to prolong your survival.

A veteran gamer doesn’t look at a screen of Modern Warfare 2 and just see a pretty picture of a gun and some greenery. He sees a Famas equipped with ACOG scope, mounted grenade launcher and blue tiger detail. He knows instantly his ammo status, equipped perks, killstreaks, team score, grenade type, equipment, enemy positions and where the nearest ammo drop is.

Gaming teaches you to pay attention to these details and all whilst saving your own skin and shooting the face off of the opposition.

1. Gaming increases determination

Without determination we can't achieve anything let alone get all 1000 gamerpoints or platinum trophies on our favourite games. Playing games will train you to increase your levels of determination to that of beyond a regular human being.

As gamers, sometimes we play games to relax, other times we play games for fun, more often than not we do it for the love of the medium, but sometimes, just sometimes we do it when we don’t even want to, when we could think of nothing less appealing than heading back into that virtual world that we’d spent the last three months inhabiting.

Why do we do it? To find the last few collectables in order to hit the elusive 100% completion mark. Whether it’s collecting audio logs, shooting pigeons or finding each and every last coin, something within us pushes us on as we strive for perfection whether we like it or not. This is determination. Video games, we are forever in your debt.

March 8, 2010

Actually playing games is the easy bit

Gaming's supreme species, stereotyped and rated

They drive us insane