How Much Has Art Affected Video Games?

Now,  I am in no way good at art. I have tried many times to draw something, from dragons to unicorns and failed at all of the in between. I have recently realized how much art within video games should be commended and have been studying them more while I play them. Most recently I have been playing the Final Fantasy series (Well 7, 10 and 15), which you can really tell the difference in art between all three games.

Despite being released in 1997, the art of Final Fantasy 7 is pretty amazing. It has a large amount of detail. For example in the picture above of Midgar, you can see how much detail has been put in to this concept drawing of it. It's something I think gamers can appreciate. Final Fantasy 7 was massively successful when it was released and is currently in the process of being remade by Square Enix which I can't wait for as some of the art coming out to tease the remake looks graphically stunning.

Of course art comes in many forms. Music is an integral part of gaming and all of the soundtracks to any Final Fantasy game I have played has been truly brilliant. Me or Dr Mango will be covering soundtracks in a lot more detail very soon.

Then the PlayStation 2 came out. Better console generally means the capacity to have better graphics in a game due to the technological changes in the console. Now I will be slightly biased towards Final Fantasy 10 due to it being my favourite game released on any console. I think that the Final Fantasy 10 art is amazing considering it came only 7 years after Final Fantasy 7. No longer were there the block characters of Final Fantasy 7 (I know that changed in Final Fantasy 8, but I didn't play enough of it to really comment on it), instead we had well made, graphically beautiful 3-D models as characters. Now, in the art above, you can see the amount of detail put in to every inch of the scenery the characters are standing in.

Once again, the music in this game is amazing. By far my favourite soundtrack ever to exist (Although I do have to commend Final Fantasy 15 for having every Final Fantasy soundtrack in the same game). Be sure to read the soundtrack articles coming soon to read about me sucking up to Square Enix.

Final Fantasy 15 will be looked at in much more detail by Dr Mango but I will say that it is one of the most graphically advanced games I have ever played. Games like Skyrim have amazing art and graphics, but Final Fantasy 15 is the only game ever to make me get a little bit of a chill by entering a place from how amazing it looked.

I feel that as the art improves in video games, the community grows. Artists will see games for what they are: beautiful pieces of art, meaning more talented artists will want to be involved in making more attractive games. Of course I love playing a retro game every now and then and I'm sure there are a lot of gamers that would agree with me. I remember not too long ago I played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Of course it isn't Pac-Man retro, but it was released almost 20 years ago now. (In fact Final Fantasy 7 was released 20 years ago, so happy birthday to that!)

Art in terms of gaming has come a long way, mostly due to the fact that consoles and PCs can now handle better art and better graphics with the graphics cards and processors being produced. The fact we now have Blu-ray discs that can hold more information instead of needing 3 or 4 to hold all of the information wanted in a game (Like Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 9. Each multi-disc games).

I genuinely cannot wait to see how much amazing art can be put in to games in the future if right now the art is already at this level. Comment what you guys think.

Wait, Are They Breaking Through The Door?!

Survival games are an interesting genre when it comes to gaming, because people seem to either love them or hate them. I enjoy a good survival game, but I can also understand why people think they're a bit boring. You don't have that level up boost of excitement, or a story-line to follow through the game. The objective is simply: Survive as long as possible. Personally I love story-driven, graphically detailed games with a soundtrack to match. The three games I am going to use to explain the survival genre can be a lot more simplistic in these ways, which makes sense in a game that is more about creating a place to safely hold off monsters, instead of finding the best weapons and having the best stats to kill the final boss and finish the game.

My first example is a game that can actually be completed, but I would still consider a survival game. Minecraft is a very simplistic, easy to understand game. I mean it's in the name. You mine and craft better things to help you survive. The sound track is just as simple. Why was a game like this successful? It was different. When you begin Minecraft, you are put in a random world and are left to fend for yourself against monsters like creepers, zombies and spiders. How are you supposed to do that? Well you start by punching down a tree (I know, unrealistic but it is a video game) and using the wood to make things like a wooden sword and pickaxe to go mining with. It's not the most graphically advanced game (although it can look very nice with texture packs), but it is a game all about surviving and building up your resources. It's also great for people that don't want to have to deal with worrying about whether a zombie is behind that corner with its creative mode. Children and adults alike can go into a creative mode world and spend their time creating a beautiful castle, or recreating their favourite city from their favourite movies (Believe me, some of them are amazing). I think both aspects are great for different types of people. I used to play, but I never touched creative because I enjoyed the danger of losing everything if  I wasn't quick or smart enough to take on the monsters. Generally I would play in hardcore mode, which was a mode where if you died once, you would have to delete your save. One wrong move, mining the wrong block and falling into lava and that was the end of that. All of the work put into that save was gone. It made me work harder and make the smartest decisions I could in terms of whether I should be discovering mines, or going into the wilderness in search for food. Minecraft is a rare survival game that has an end goal; going deep underground, looking for diamonds and obsidian and defeating the ender dragon after finding the end portal. I think Minecraft is a great example of a survival game for people new to the genre.

My second example of a good survival game is Ark: Survival Evolved. A much more graphically intricate game when compared to Minecraft, Ark has much less in terms of an end goal. You can't cut trees down with your fists either. You have to collect wood scraps and work from there, picking up stones and things to create an axe that then lets you chop at trees and collect logs and such. Oh and I forgot to mention, you are stranded on an island inhabited by dinosaurs. Yep, dinosaurs. The herbivores are obviously nothing to be afraid of and you can continue collecting berries and wood to build a house around them, but the carnivores? Run. Run fast. Unless you can take them on, which isn't easy, or you can tame them (yes, you can have dinosaur pets you can ride), don't get near them. This game is much more focused on food and water for survival and the possibility of dinosaurs turning up and attacking you as you explore (although most of them you can see from a mile away).

The only other survival game I have really played is Don't Starve. I had about a 3 week period where I would play it on stream with a few friends, and since then I haven't really played. Don't starve is quite unique in its 2-Dimensional, kind of pop-up book style graphics. You start off stranded on an island with nothing to hand. Collecting sticks from dead bushes and stones lying on the ground can give you an axe, which you will need. The biggest danger from Don't Starve is at night. Monsters lurk in the darkness and unless you can create a fire with wood, the darkness will engulf your screen, pretty much ending that game there.

My personal opinion on survival games is if you enjoy the feeling of surviving that extra day against all the odds (monsters, starving and thirst), then you will enjoy these. I have played my fair share of the three games mentioned, I enjoyed them, and I would happily try another. Until then I think I will stick to RPGs, card games and MMOs. Comment your opinions on survival games below.

ARTICLE - Back In My Day: A Brief Look at One Mans Gaming Origins

I don't remember pestering my mum for my first console. What a fantastic start to a retrospective look at my long gaming "career". More importantly, though, I don't remember much about what I did for fun before I unboxed my SEGA Master System II. Probably a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine on VHS. (Have I used enough phrases to indicate how very old I am I wonder.)

Look at it in all its glory!

It was Christmas 1993 and I took to gaming like a fish takes to walking. I wish I was kidding. I was terrified of playing either of the two games (Sonic the Hedgehog and Micky Mouse: Land of Illusion) I had for the MSII. Watching danger crawl/jump/race/dive towards me and risking my very precious lives stopped me playing anywhere past the first couple of levels. I was familiar with the two games "Game Over" screens to say the least. Thankfully my mum was close to hand. The controller would be quickly passed to her and I would see parts of the game that I could only dream of reaching myself. New stage themes, new enemies and bosses. I had no idea how she could brave these trials with only a muttered (or not so muttered) curse whenever she died. It must have been witnessing this determination against the odds that fortified my nerves. Or not, I remember defaulting to "Muuuum, play Sonic/Micky Mouse pleeeeeeease!" a lot. So she did what any good parent would do. She eventually told me to play it myself or it went in the bin. Fear of losing one's joy is greater than fear of losing one's precious lives let me tell you.

I'm pretty sure this is burnt into my retinas.

Road Runner, Populous, Shinobi, MM: Castle of Illusion, Wonder Boy/Alex Kidd. These are a few examples of the games I collected over the years. I had hours of gameplay from these titles. Not because they were particularly long but because failure was no longer a hurdle I shied away from. I received Shinobi for my 6th birthday from one of my best friends. Here was a true education in hardship. By this point, however, I had managed to defeat Dr Robotnik in his little glass cylinder inside his floating fortress, oh yes! I had fought ghosts and toy soldiers and climbed beanstalks to cloud castles to save Minnie Mouse. If gaming skillz was a currency I was well on my way to affording a pack of Space Raiders and a Freddo. Shinobi was a different animal. Cartoon violence was replaced with men with katanas and guns. Bonus levels had you throwing ninja stars in the first person at side scrolling ninjas before they got too close to you instead of collecting rings and emeralds. Both my mum and I spent two weeks getting to the first boss and failing repeatedly. Nothing would work. He was a massive wall of a man. Eventually, with a slight chortle, my friend's dad revealed you had to hit the boss in the eyes. Boom, one boss down! Oh, there's more? A helicopter? No problem for a ninja. A seemingly never-ending wall of statues that crush you if you don't kill them fast enough? I have met my match, good sir! To this day, 22 years on, I have not defeated that boss or gone on to complete Shinobi for the SEGA Master System II. On long winter nights, I hear the game mocking me from a bag somewhere in the house.

Aim for the eyes they said. It would be fun they said.

I often wonder what would have happened if I never asked for the MSII. Or worse, getting it and never getting over the fear of failure that gripped me at such a young age. I have dedicated innumerable hours of my life and more money than I care to remember in the pursuit of the princess or world domination or galaxy salvation. I don't think a single second/penny of that has been wasted. Don't get me wrong, I've played some real howlers. Games so bad I traded them in! But that's a bag of snakes for another time. For now, let's end on a positive note. Without the Master System II and Sonic, I wouldn't be who I am today. (A crazed shut-in with the social graces of a strung out gibbon? {Quiet you!}) Gaming has brought me closer to my friends, helped me through tough situations and given me something to be passionate about. It only took me 23 years to figure that last one out.

Pro-Gamers Just Play Games All Day. It's So Easy

There are so many ways that the title of this article is wrong. When I look at a pro-gaming team, I see people that have devoted their lives to become the best at something, just like an expert of any field devotes their life to knowing everything there is to know about that field. Pro-gaming is not easy, nor will it ever be easy. I always wanted to be a pro-gamer, but never had the patience, the mindset or really the time.

The first thing I will say about it is that professional gamers do not just sit around all day doing nothing, or "being lazy". They spend every minute of every game analyzing their plays, or the plays of enemy teams. The pro gaming scene is like a battlefield of the mind. In the most well-known E-Sport (Or electronic sport) League of Legends, scouting out the enemy teams can be the difference between winning and losing a game. Since you can ban champions in that game, if you know what the enemy is best at, you can stop them from playing it by banning it (League of Legends has a pick and ban phase). Also pro-gamers tend to try to get outside as much as they can. People tend to view it as they chose to just stay inside and play games, but they did more than that. Just like an athlete learns the ins-and-outs of the track and the best way to run or jump, a professional gamer learns the ins-and-outs of the game, and train their mechanics to the best they can be, to outplay the other team.

E-Sports are getting bigger and bigger. I watch it sometimes myself whether it be League of Legends, Call of Duty or Overwatch (There are many more E-Sport games, I just don't tend to watch them as much). In all of these games there tends to be a moment when I think "How did they even do that?". That's because I haven't dedicated my time to learn the perfect measurements and timing to land a certain skill on the enemy. E-Sports are a mental challenge with every game that is played. Different teams use different strategies. The best teams from different regions come together to see who is the best. The longer that gaming rises as a large part of peoples lives, the bigger E-Sports will become.

There is one more maybe not so well-known game that is played professionally is Magic: The Gathering. Yes, the card game.As someone who started playing Magic just over a week ago, I have realised I started playing a game that takes a lot of thought and preparation. Every deck needs to be thought out precisely and there's a theme to every deck played. The professionals in this game spend every day trying to improve and perfect their deck. They travel to different events, whether it be a Grand Prix or the Pro Tour. Just like video games, these professionals have to do just as much hard work trying to predict the opponents moves and what cards they may have in their hand to counter or destroy a creature.

My personal feelings about professional gaming, if it wasn't already clear, is that it is just as difficult to achieve greatness in that field as any other. To not give up with it and keep pushing yourself to achieve the thing you want, isn't that the same with anything? We all in life want to achieve a certain thing, or a set of things. Some may include working in a more physical job, some may include a more mentally stimulating one. Gaming is massively mentally stimulating. It's not for the unintelligent, lazy people that cannot be bothered with trying in school or college etc. It takes a lot of skill and knowledge to be even relatively good at a video game, so think about how much a professionals mind must be working to think about all possible situations at all times for a best of 3 with 45 minute games.

Gaming Psychologists are now being employed by teams to keep players minds completely focused. I think that in itself shows how much effort and determination is put in to their dreams. They also make sure the players get off the game and spend time doing other things and have more than just the game controlling their lives (I might go in to if in extreme cases the game is controlling us, but that's for another time). Professional gamers tend to go out, whether it be to the gym or out for dinner with their team.

Let me pose a question. People work in offices all the time, using word or excel to input information about their company or their clients. Should we be pushing negative press onto gaming? Is that not where your home is the office, and instead of inputting information on word or something, they are using a mentally stimulating application, pushing them to the best of their mental capability. Surely we should be happy for that. If these people can be in a job where their minds and skills are constantly being pushed to the best of their ability, that's something everyone would enjoy.

People tend to talk about how boring their job is and how much they want to leave and just find something they would enjoy more. This is already happening from my knowledge, but if we had a way of developing our companies to keep people mentally stimulated, I think that everyone would enjoy their jobs a lot more than right now. What I find is when I am busiest, I feel the least bored when I'm working, so maybe we need to work out a way to make it so everyone can keep busy at all times, instead of sitting there trying to find work to do because they are so bored. We can develop ways to make anything relatively stimulating to the brain.

So here's what I think. The only thing that professional gamers have that is easier than us is the enjoyment of being pushed to their limits almost all the time that they are working. Yes, they are not outside picking up crates or anything physical like that, but they are learning new tactics, scouting out other teams and learning new characters to play. They are working just as hard as everyone else, they just have a more fun time doing it.

LIST - The Start of Something Beautiful

I may have previously mentioned a little in what I feel makes a good opening to a game. I thought I would elaborate and give a few shiny examples. I don't think any of these games have the "perfect" opening, let's just get that out there now. BUT they do what they do very well, some so well I remember them from over a decade ago.

• Black

It was 2006. I had just become old enough to legally drink vote. What better way to celebrate than to play this exciting new game for PS2 and Xbox. 11 years later I'm using its first level as an example of good first levels. It made an impression, to say the least.

You start in a crumbling office building. Gunfire and explosives can be heard outside. Your first objective is "Find the Shotgun". Basic. But from the direction you start at, you have to move the right analogue stick to see the shotgun. From where you are in the room you have to use the left analogue stick to get to it. As a person with two thumbs and a brain somewhere between them the game leaves you to sort that much out yourself.

You're instructed on how to pick up the shotgun, then fire it. There is a locked door that you are told the shotgun can open. Now, this is communicated via text on the screen. I know I said this was crap but it was the mid-00s. It was a simpler time.

Up ahead is an enemy who fires at you in some kind of attempt to end your game. When you're hit for the first time the game explains that the reticule that appears not only indicates damage, but also the direction the damage came from. A few more creeps ensue and your ammo depletes into them and the surrounding scenery. Now the game tells you to reload. A sane person would find cover to do this. Stay in the open like a renegade maverick and you'll discover that the camera focuses on the gun and blurs out the rest of the screen. I thought this was a clever way of making the player think about the use of cover and being aware of their environment. You then have to take into account how long it takes a certain gun to reload. You can be blind and in the open for life-threatening seconds.

Throughout the level is at least one example of each of the games side missions. Blueprints, Intel, and enemy munitions to name a few. These are set in plain sight to familiarise the player so that in later levels the game can challenge you more by hiding them in a bush, or the back of a truck. The list goes on...

• Bioshock

It's 1960! A plane crash has me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Through the smoke of the burning wreckage, I can make out a lighthouse. A beacon of hope and potential safety. I remember swimming past the flames, getting to the top of the stairs and turning to look around. Aside from the burning waves, I had just emerged from there was nothing. I was alone.

Bioshock does a fantastic job making you feel alone. You are in frequent contact with people in the city of Rapture but meetings are rare and almost always violent. Before you even leave the relative safety of the bathysphere (think underwater elevator) you witness the murder of an unknown person at the hands (or hooks) of a mutated monster. Being unarmed and with no obvious help in sight, you are then instructed to venture through the dark hallways until you come across a wrench to defend yourself with.

An initial survey of the environment reveals the city itself isn't passing any health checks. Every corner of Rapture is a shadow. Every glass corridor and window threaten to unleash the ocean on top of you. Electricity and fire are common hazards from broken pipes and wires. Every person you meet face-to-face in the first 30 minutes has a tendency to whack first and ask questions never. You have one instruction: find Andrew Ryan (creator of Rapture) and kill him. Only a few miles of buildings and glass tubing filled with murderous crazies between you and him.

Sebastian the crab, of The Little Mermaid fame, was wrong. It is NOT "better down where it's wetter".

• Chrono Trigger

Cause and effect is a tricky thing. Time travel is difficult to write about unless you have an understanding of cause and effect. Luckily enough the writers of Chrono Trigger knew what they were doing.

Chrono Trigger was a 1995 release for Super Nintendo. Its opening hour of gameplay is perhaps one of the best of any RPG I've played. I've played a few so that's quite high praise indeed.
Your hero starts as he does in any good RPG; asleep. You are awoken by your mum and told to head on over to the Millennial Fair in town to meet your friend. So far, so normal.

Leaving the house sets you on the world map. You are free to go anywhere you can walk to but the game makes a good point of repeatedly pointing you towards the fair. Once your adventurous curiosity is sated you head to the fair. Now here is where the game sneaks a tutorial on playing the game right past you. Almost every aspect of the fair teaches you something about the game, from combat to timed responses to events that will happen despite your participation.

Probably the first thing you'll notice is a group of people running in a circle. These racers are people you can bet on to win. Now the clever thing about them is the race will run whether you've placed a bet or not. The game is showing you that there will be events in the game that will occur without your direct input. Elsewhere there's a "Test Your Strength" mini-game. No strength is required however, this is an example of time-sensitive button prompts. (Quick-time events before they were overused and intrusive) That's two quick and easy tutorials done and dusted and with the minimum amount of text. There's a robot that eases you into the basics of combat. The area is sprinkled with additional, seemingly innocuous events; a lost cat, a free lunch, a dropped medallion. You don't know it yet, but the game is giving you just enough rope...

For the prosecutor of your trial to hang you with! See that, I butchered grammar for dramatic effect. It's not big or clever but there you go. So yeah, at some point you will find yourself on trial for kidnapping. Heavy stuff. During the trial, the prosecutor calls forward a few character witnesses (I've watched The Good Wife, I know all the technical terms) and they will testify to your actions from the day of the fair. Did you help find the cat? Did you steal the lunch? Did you give the medallion back straight away? The trap is sprung. You are at the mercy of your own choices. Cause and effect baby!

• Batman Arkham Asylum

I'll try and keep this brief as possible. It might develop into a thesis on my love for The Dark Knight. Batman Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady makes me grin. Your introduction the Caped Crusader sees him racing through the streets of Gotham with his captive, The Joker. You're on your way to the titular Arkham Asylum. Woo!

The introduction has you walking in a straight line listening to (excellent) dialogue. Big whoop, you say. Big whoop, I say. The corridor you're being lead down is a dilapidated wreck. One cursory glance around shows exposed leaking pipes, flimsy wire fences and bad lighting. Not the expert and secure psychiatric hospital you would hope to contain dangerous criminals. Are you feeling apprehensive at all? You can bet The Joker isn't. You're stopped for a moment to allow Killer Croc to be transported to his cell. This interaction, despite the fact you are Batman and all the guards around, is pretty tense. Croc comes in at around 2ft. taller and 200lb heavier than you. Not a showdown you should be looking forward to. (Probably the tensest part of the game) 

I think this game looks gorgeous. The character design is excellent (concept art by Jim Lee). You are placed in an environment that you have little control and fewer friends. Events transpire and you are placed in a combat situation. The tutorial is pretty standard. You're introduced to two button prompts, attack and counter. Later you get shown how to utilise gadgets in and out of combat as you get them but these are simple button taps. The game makes an easy job of putting you in the role of Batman without you having to have trained with the League of Assassins beforehand.

• Timesplitters 2

Timesplitters 2 is in my top 5 games of all time. It doesn't take itself too seriously, it has solid controls and enough replayability (That'stotallyawordshutup) to keep you entertained until the year 2401. (When the game is set)

The opening level sets you in 1990s Siberia. The setup for the level shows two soldiers discovering and being attacked by a zombie. You are at the fictional Oblask Dam and are given instructions to retrieve a time crystal from somewhere within. You start in a secluded spot with a silenced pistol and sniper rifle placed in front of you. It has given you a scope with which to survey the immediate area. From your position, you can see a few patrolling guards and a number of cameras, depending on difficulty. You are advised to avoid cameras in the mission briefing but at no point are you explicitly told to use stealth to take down the guards. The game nudges you in the direction of stealth with its choice of starting weapons. I love that even on the hardest difficulty there is no "Set off an alarm and FAIL" criteria at this early stage of the game.

Timesplitters 2 is an objective based game. Plot-wise it keeps it short, limiting most of the story to short cutscenes and mission briefings. This doesn't harm the game in any way, however. In the first level, you understand that you will be facing soldiers and zombies. From the first 2 minutes you know you should use stealth from the guns you're given and your starting location. Your objectives are clear and simple; deactivate the communications dish, investigate the secret digging site, retrieve the Time Crystal, access the top of the dam, burn all evidence in the filing cabinets, restore power, destroy the biohazard container, don't allow any mutants to survive, destroy the gunship, escape through the Time Portal. All of these are straightforward, involving the player to investigate the immediate area or follow an enemy-packed pathway to the next goal. Yes, other games do this. But fewer games (more specifically FPSs) make it so fun.


These are a few of the games I think do an excellent job of easing a player into the rest of their game. I have more that could be examined at another time. If there's a game close to your heart that opened with a bang you can't get over please leave a comment.

The Hidden Talent of Video Games

This may sound weird, but gaming isn't all just fun and games. I'm sure you already have your mouse over the close tab button, but just bear with me for a minute. Gaming is more than just fun and games, it can improve the fundamentals needed to cope with situations in real life. Something that people don't even realize could be improving their social skills and attitude could be doing so in big strides.

Really think about gaming from a different perspective. One example I am going to use massively is World of Warcraft. This game has taken over my life before, I'll be the first to admit that. I stopped playing just as Legion hit and even now I feel the need to play it sometimes. But when I look back, especially as I used to run a guild and at the same time I was raid leader for our raid team at the end of the Warlords of Draenor expansion, who ended up 13/13 normal and 13/13 heroic (We were a casual guild so never touched mythic, the hardest difficulty in the game. I did however raid mythic with another guild). I look back at it and think about the amount of organization that was involved, the amount of teamwork that went in to every boss. Analyzing when things went wrong, talking to people about how they could improve and unfortunately asking people to sit out when they continually were not performing at the level we needed them to.

People may not realize it, but running a guild is like running a group of people. You make sure that everything they need is available to them, you replace the people who aren't performing for people that you feel could be capable of helping the team. You work together as a team to take down the toughest creatures and share in the glory and loot that drops off of them. You have to recruit the people to actually start a raid team (Selling your guild to people and why they should join you over other guilds). The amount of thought and organization put in to a guild and raid group is more than people probably think.

Another type of game that can improve someones real life skills are games like Farmville. Remember that game? The game that blew up on Facebook around 2009 and everyone suddenly took up their lives to grow their crops. Well a game like that can become so time consuming because its a game based on time management. Whether you put a crop down that took 30 seconds because you knew you would be there to harvest it, or put grew a crop that would take 12 hours because you were about to go to sleep. There are quite a few of these types of games on mobile and on PC. If you looked at the people that were always harvesting their crops in 2009 you would think they were wasting their lives away. What about if you replaced crops with that essay you have due in this weekend? Would you look at them like they were wasting their time? It's not a huge difference between putting that crop down to grow, and opening the word document to write essays about something you are passionate about. Both of these things can be viewed as fun, and both should be viewed that way. Who doesn't want to have fun when thinking about the things they love? If virtual rewards are something that makes someone keep playing a game, why couldn't it be applied to real life?

What about First Person Shooters? They are just aiming at someone and killing them, right? Well it all depends on how you look at it. Is the person shooting other people just doing it for fun? Probably. But how did they turn and kill someone in one shot after hearing just a few footsteps? Would you notice something like that if you had headphones on? Is this teaching people to have more spatial awareness and improve their hearing? In particular if you think about a game like Counter Strike, a game where you play as either a terrorist or a counter-terrorist. The objective of the terrorists are to blow up one of the two bomb sites and of course the counter-terrorists are trying to stop that from happening. Like World of Warcraft, you need an organized team of people (Even if they can all be strangers that have never met before) to be able to either attack or defend the objectives. On top of that in games like Counter Strike, it creates an environment where decisions have to be made quickly. If someone on your team is killed, maybe you should rotate to the other bomb site, or maybe you should make it seem like you have but instead stay on the same one. The decision has to be made in an instant, which means that if the situation arises in real life, that person will be accustom to making those split-second decisions and therefore have an easier time with it.

There's one more example that I want to use that I feel is important to this subject. This isn't a exactly a video game, although many video games have aspects of this game included. Dungeons and Dragons. The role-playing game. I have played D&D a few times and every time I have enjoyed myself. I feel that a game like this needs a lot of thought and also time (Campaigns can last as long as the dungeon master and players want to keep playing). The dungeon master has to put time and thought into creating a campaign to begin with. It takes creativity and intelligence to create the situations the players will encounter on each adventure they take. Dungeon masters must account for any possible situation the players will want to go in to. If the players run in to a sleeping dragon and attempt to climb over it (Yes, I have suggested this personally. My dungeon master very heavily suggested against it so I ended up not going through with it), then this must be accounted for, and the situation must be ready to be put on to the players. At the other end, the players must also account for every possible outcome and perhaps think of different tactics to tackle a particularly strong monster. Maybe they should attempt to charm the enemy into not attacking, or intimidate to the same effect. They can choose to sneak behind the enemy and stab them in the back for extra blindside damage. Every single possibility can be considered by players and they can choose collectively what is the best course of action. I feel that when deciding on a lot of things in real life, the possible consequences should be considered and any other possible and perhaps less consequential options should be considered too. D&D players do this in their minds every time they play. Maybe it makes it easier to do it outside of the game too.

Maybe, just maybe these games and many more are not just harming people in terms of applying things they learn in games in to real life situations. Maybe it's actually improving them, and maybe if certain aspects of real life were treated more like a video game, it would cause those procrastinators that would prefer to play a game than to do their essay to want to do the essay, because it would feel a bit more like a game.

Make sure you guys comment what you think about this below, lets start this discussion of more positive press toward gaming.