Wandering Crosshair

After my morning coffee one bright sunny day I pulled out from the magazine rack an old issue of Wired (May 2005) and eventually got to an article called "Dome Improvement" by Steven Johnson where he speaks of "videogames as brain boosting media". Finally, I said to myself, someone out there understands that all encompassing "pistons/neurons/synapse firing" sensation I get when playing videogames. This relatively new exercise in brain activity has only been around since Pong's lesson of basic hand-eye coordination during the late 70's early 80's right ..???

Anyways Johnson goes on to cover the "visual puzzles" of videogames:

• Spatial geometry: ex.:Tetris
• Engineering riddles: ex.:Myst
• Urban Mapping: ex.:Grand Theft Auto

Although never mentioning the first person shooter, Johnson goes on to state that the immersion into "massively complex gameworlds" implies an" intuitive understanding of shapes [and] environments laced with patterns that can be detected" and in doing so makes all of my gaming feel justified and warranted.

Making the practice of videogaming like going to the gym for our brains. (Hehehe....sigh)




P.S. In the hmmpph that figures category of world events, the following day of publishing this story I found that Worthplaying posted a story on how Gamers have quicker eyes reinforcing yet again the "benefits" of videogaming and the quicker visual processing the hardcore Gamer may enjoy. I especially enjoyed the association made to the split second reaction time advantage a Gamer may have when driving and how videogames may be used in rehabilitation for stroke patients.