Posted on 05/11/2005 3:07:30 AM PDT by qam1
At the Charles Schwab company's call-center headquarters in Phoenix, human resources vice president Chip Luman has learned a secret about financial services technology and the employees who operate it:
Video-game players often display exceptional business skills.
``The people who play games are into technology, can handle more information, can synthesize more complex data, solve operational design problems, lead change and bring organizations through change,'' said Luman, 38.
Luman is among a host of professionals -- in fields including business, medicine and education -- who have noticed a surprising number of social benefits from the increasing time that Americans are spending with ``Super Mario,'' ``Rise of Nations'' and ``The Sims.''
Moreover, almost all the games they cite are mainstream hits from an industry that often is vilified as brainless and exploitative. Some of the games that have the most positive potential are either famously controversial or rated Mature because of violent or provocative content.
The industry heads into its annual convention next week -- E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles -- as anti-game forces in numerous states are pushing for governmental intervention. In California, for example, the Assembly is preparing to vote on a bill that would prohibit the sale of certain violent games to anyone under 17.
But at the same time there's a growing wave of research and firsthand reports about children, parents, workers, corporations and even medical patients experiencing notable benefits from computer or video games. There's also a push to change the mindset of people who dismiss video games as dangerous or worthless.
``I'm extremely interested in scientific validation of gaming for good,'' said Dr. James Rosser, director of the Advanced Medical Technology Institute at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.
Rosser, also the director of minimally invasive surgery, is a gamer who oversaw research indicating that surgeons adept at video games were less likely to make mistakes during certain forms of operations and suturing. The study, which used games that included sniper shooting (``Silent Scope'') and futuristic racing (``Star Wars Racer Revenge''), generated major publicity for games as possible teaching tools.
The potential teaching value is a key area of research for linguistics professor James Paul Gee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gee has studied a wide range of games, including ``Deus Ex,'' ``The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind,'' the ``Splinter Cell'' series, ``Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando'' and ``Fable.'' He concluded that numerous popular games, including many with a Mature rating, are designed with cutting-edge teaching principles that could be adapted for schoolwork or employee training.
For instance, Gee noted that some games, such as the historical-strategy game ``Rise of Nations,'' can be partly customized to suit each player. In choosing different ways to play, the gamer learns how to succeed in whatever manner is best for him or her personally.
But he also believes that some may have inherent educational value, including the seemingly lightweight ``Pokémon'' and ``Yu-Gi-Oh!'' video games. Those games, said Gee, feature such intricate jargon that children who are encouraged to discuss them can build crucial vocabulary skills.
``They're absorbing a tremendous amount of complicated language,'' Gee said.
The standard complaints about most video games are legion: Games make kids sedentary. They're violent and salacious. They're routinely sexist and often racist. They're shallow and addictive.
And all of these allegations have gotten considerable support from a loose coalition of politicians, educators, health officials, law enforcement officers and religious leaders.
The inventory of rebuttals, however, is expanding.
• There's a growing interest in the workout value of dance games that require strenuous activity to perform the fast-paced steps indicated on the screen. The hallmark games are from Konami's ``Dance Dance Revolution'' series, and a PlayStation 2 and Xbox version of the arcade hit ``Pump It Up'' is scheduled for release in August.
One of a number of intriguing projects involves the West Virginia Public Insurance Agency, which is trying out DDR as a health and fitness tool in conjunction with schools, juvenile detention facilities and work-site wellness programs.
• Physicians are studying games as treatment aids. The Associated Press reported in December on research indicating that playing with a Game Boy machine before surgery could relax children more than tranquilizers.
• Luman, the vice president at Schwab, has held other human resources jobs, but also worked as a game company executive. He began to think more deeply about the connections between gaming and other work after reading ``Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever,'' by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade.
Beck, president of the North Star Leadership Group, said in an e-mail interview that he and Wade surveyed 2,500 U.S. business professionals, turning up a powerful correlation between managerial behavior and playing video games.
Among the findings: Gamers are better risk-takers, show particular confidence in their abilities, place a high value on relationships and employee input and think in terms of ``winning'' when pursuing objectives.
Beck said the findings are proving helpful to baby boomer-generation managers who lead teams of younger, gamer employees.
``They learn that they have to develop the teams, structure the tasks and build rewards in very different ways than they might have naturally,'' Beck said.
One of the longest-running debates about video games focuses on whether their action and plots contain much sophisticated content, intellectually or emotionally. The most obvious examples of ``useful'' content are simulation games -- railroad-building, zoo-management and civilization-making games -- that include challenges involving economics, physics and political concepts.
But Henry Jenkins, director of the comparative media studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also points to the down-home lessons delivered by games such as ``The Sims.''
In the virtual world of ``The Sims,'' where game players experiment with living alternative everyday lives through character avatars, Jenkins' young adult son discovered he was having personal money-management problems that reminded him of his real life. Except the consequences were more drastic.
``He realized his mistake,'' said Jenkins, ``but his character died of starvation in the back yard just as the pizza he ordered was being delivered to the front door.''
Isn't Paul Denton the Character from Deus Ex?
Thanks for the advice.
It just mimics what my husband tells him (hubby has weight trained for years.)
We're constantly pushing protein shakes and protein bars at him to eat between meals.
But it's hard to force a 17 year old to eat, LOL, and he doesn't seem too concerned about being "skinny."
I like my mech-unit with its 40mm Autocannon with HEDP rounds paired with a 60mm Guided Mortar Unit and a 48-tube 82mm Artillery Rocket System, protected 71mm of carbon nanotube armor.
Yep.
Winning is a good principle in sports, but dodgeball is just moronic and obnoxious.
bump for mark
I'd say winning is far more important in life than in sports. Dodgeball (which I think is great fun) was just an example of the things govt schools remove which relate to competition. Can't have anyone losing "self esteem" cause they just got beaned in the head with the giant red ball.
There's competition that encourages people to get better and to excel, and there's competition which is brainless, rewards people for stuff that is not easily improved, and makes people who are doing poorly into the center of attention. The Darwinian stuff can be constructive and destructive.
Competition is the greatest gift humanity and America have going for them, but dodgeball is as useful as having students guess what number the coach is thinking of.
WHAT is "DDR?"
That's not teaching, it's training. If you want to say repetitive simulated problem solving at high speeds helps train someone to think and act quickly, I'll buy it. It'd be interesting to see the data on that. And also on how transferable that is. But any activity that requires quick thinking, planning and processing would do the same thing.
feminists will immediatly state that playing video games is a mandatory requirement that ritalin be perscribed for players.
I'm pretty sure Forza is XBox only. I have a PS2 and enjoy my Gran Turismo 3. Plan to move up to GT4 soon.
As to PS2/XBox, I don't which is better or has more games. I got the PS2 before XBox came out and have just stuck with that. My cousin swears by XBox, and he has both. But then he is a Halo junkie and I'm not a big shooter game fan.
Race games are my thing. And they are cheaper than going to the track...
Pretty sure DDR is Dance Dance Revolution. You have a footpad, and the screen shows you what moves you are supposed to do, and your score is reflected by you actually doing it. Hard to get a top score without working up a good sweat.
Dodgeball strategy kind of mirrors socialism: you're constantly going after the better players on the other team while leaving the fat, slow kids alone for the end when the athletic kids have been eliminated.
It's kind of like the American tax system.
Yep, Bettis has it right.
It's a game called Dance Dance Revolution.
It started out as an arcade game (I believe).
Then they customized for home use.
A pad goes on the floor with arrows on it. The screen displays music and arrows that follow the rhythm (you can pick the music and the skill level), and then you follow the arrows by placing your feet on which ever arrows are indicated on the screen.
We leave the DDR set up on a PS2 in one room. It's really popular when kids stop by, the girls seem to like it more than the boys. But we have adult guests who enjoy it too.
"I found that the experience was very useful for understanding the importance of planning, of pacing yourself, of managing multiple projects, and most importantly, how budgets work and how to balance debt and investment."
My parents taught me all that before I was out of grammer school plus starting at 3 I was taught to use all manner of tools to fix and build things.
Kids today don't know squat and not only can't think and make decisions but bulding and fixing something they couldn't do if you put a gun to their head.
Kids are a lot less likely to know how to fix things and work with their hands, granted, but I'll tell you this--today's kids are way more involved in extra-curricular sports and clubs and societies than their parents were, and they're all looking for leadership positions. It's what you need in order to get into college and get a good job. They're much better equipped to manage their time and to run big projects as a result.
Heh, maybe they should start playing dodgeball in civics class, if civics class hasn't been replaced by tolerance camp or something.
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