The Benefits and Drawbacks to Playing Video Games By: Garrett Wildt

Topic

Topic Benefits/Drawbacks to playing video games

Driving Question

Driving Question What are some of the benefits players receive from playing video games? What are its drawbacks?

Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement Players who play video games can improve their visual skills, hand-eye coordination, fitness, and other improvements to real-life skills. Some drawbacks however, are possible addiction, decrease of fitness, and an increase of aggression.

Interesting Facts-Benefits

Interesting Facts-Benefits Enhance visual skills Improve hand/foot eye coordination Lose weight-Dance Dance Revolution Cope with distractions, i.e. pain Better understanding of history-Age of Empires, creativity-The Sims, economics-most strategy games, literature-Halo, Dante’s Inferno Gives people who join the army, an overview of what they can expect during combat-Modern Warfare, Battlefield: Bad Company Encourages cooperation and teamwork Simple gaming could end up giving you a job.

Interesting Facts-Drawbacks

Interesting Facts-Drawbacks Cause addiction to the player Gain weight Slight or major gain in aggression

Product-What I Did

Product-What I Did Prove that video games can help improve visual skills. Created a Wikispace about my experiment as well as teaching a class about my findings.

When

When On February 11, 2010, Craven Community College’s Student Center hosted a video game expo.

How I Did It

How I Did It Made eight people read an eye chart I then made them play Modern Warfare 2 for five minutes. I then made the eight players read the eye chart again to find out if any improvements were made.

Data

Data For the Non-Gamers on the first try, the average number of letters said correct was 92%. For the Gamers on the first try, the average number of letters said correct was 93% On the second try for Non-Gamers, they got a 99% average of correct letters On the second try for Gamers, they got a 99% average of correct letters.

My Mentor

My Mentor My mentor was Coach Barr, I believe he was the best person for me because he is a teacher and I was planning on teaching a class about my experiment.

Connection Between Paper and Product

Connection Between Paper and Product My paper says that video games can enhance vision, I decided to put that to the test and found that is does in fact, enhance vision.

Successes and Challenges

Successes and Challenges Successes: I created an experiment along with leading through the whole process, I also created my own website from scratch, I finished all assignments on time, I found a lot of facts. Challenges: It was difficult trying to think of a product for my project.

Future Plans

Future Plans Just like I had planned my whole life, I plan to work for a large video game company after I get a four year degree.