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Video games can be helpful in life

By Dusty Plunkett
The Times-Journal

Published June 1, 2007

A few days ago I read something that hit me in the gut like a knockout blow to King Hippo on Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.

A column discussed the effects of violent video games on the way a teenager’s brain functions. While I’m not here to dispute these scientific findings, I would like to submit that video games aren’t as bad for you as some would have you think.

Despite what any adult may tell you, it is possible to acquire many skills from growing up to in a Super Mario World.

Take me for example. I grew up playing hours and hours of video games and I turned out perfectly normal. All those years of training even helped prepare me for the career I have today.

Every single day at work I use a camera with 25 different buttons, dials and switches that control it. On some occasions I have to use combinations that reduce the Contra infinite lives code to the same level as a game of Pong.

Of course the advancements in video game technology hasn’t always changed the course of history.

Remember the Power Glove? That was the most over-hyped, unusable piece of gaming equipment known to man. But it hasn’t all been bad as some equipment even allows for a mild form of exercise.

From jumping hurdles on the Power Pad to busting a move on Dance Dance Revolution, the way games are played offer the user a chance to do more than just corrupt their mind with violence.

All first person shooter games won’t lead to a lifetime of violent behavior. No one ever got hurt from using the Nintendo Zapper Light Gun, but thanks to Duck Hunt in the late 80’s, the pixilated fowl population was reduced to a controllable level for the first time in history.

I would even go as far to say that playing video games helps reduce violence on the streets and keeps teens out of harm’s way.

If a young impressionable teen spends all of his time in front of the television playing Tony Hawk’s Underground, then he won’t have any time to run amuck doing kick flips on the streets and cracking his skull on the pavement because he’s too cool to wear a helmet.

Playing video games seems like the smarter choice so I give two calloused thumbs up to anyone who continues to do so.

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