☆The Absolute Beauty Of Positivity Towards Video Games☆ @ejwillingham #GamersUnite #Retrogaming

As I look back over my childhood I remember with immense fondness all those hours spent with my best friends playing Video Games and creating great memories.

 

I feel that the feeling towards Video Games is maybe swaying towards the positive arguments but there's still a massive way to go before Video Games are as acceptable as Films as a genuinely valid way to spend time whether you are 5 or 55.

 

The positives for me greatly outweigh the negatives and I feel the positives are more widely publicised now than ever before 

(Although as I write this post, the lazy journalists at The Daily Mail are trying to drag Video Games under again 

READ THE GAMESPOT FORUM POST >>HERE<< )

 

The reason I started to write this post is because I came across a great short piece on FORBES by 

Emily Willingham   

(READ IT >>HERE<<)

 
The article details how MineCraft is being seen and heralded as a great educational tool that gives Children planning and collaboration skills and exposure like no other game or medium can. 

Minecraft is a great example of how a creative video game can truly feed the mind and allow for artistic expression to be nurtured in a way that means you have fun along the way.

What other medium or activity can do this in such an imaginative way?
 
What about Pre Minecraft days, what is there to be said for the games of yesteryear, how did they manage to allow for the creative side of youth to be expressed, what great life lessons did we learn from these games?

When I think back to the BBC Micro in our Primary school and I remember the excitement that would come about when we were told it was our turn to use it my main memory would be how my best mate and I would sit at the BBC and try and work together to solve on screen puzzles. 

This was the 80's and no one really knew the power of the mighty computer but everyone knew that "educational games" must be a good thing.....right? 

Thinking back now, the games were pretty poor but the excitement that my friend and I shared just sitting at the BBC Micro to tap away at the keys was something to behold - two youngsters totally lost in a fantasy world trying to solve the age old puzzle of 47 divided by 7!

From these days of classroom tomfoolery a generation of potential bedroom coders were created, the kind of dudes who didn't just want to be given a game in a box, they actually wanted to use BASIC to create their own games, to make their own creations in their mind a reality......

Now think of today and the Raspberry Pi, just think how many people are using the Pi to create so many wonderful things and I think that the majority of those pi-oneers probably had their first taste of computers through Video Games.

Even if you've never coded before, Computer Games will have taught a few lessons just through sheer playing time...

 
I think back to how a game like StreetFighter2 taught us the reward for hard graft and dedication…..
 
Dedication to learn such a complex set of moves meant that you were able to perform against your friends at a higher level. 

The same kind of dedication that an athlete puts into their sports training can be seen in Video Games. 

Dexterity of the mind is required in order to perform a block, followed by an Hadouken! , followed by a Hurricane Kick finished off with a ShoRyuKen! And that’s just one characters set of 3 moves. 

Imagine the kind of planning that you had to go through in order to play a season of Championship Manager and recall the powerful experience that was a 2 player session. These kind of experiences can shape the way your mind deals with problems in real life.

Then there's the social skills that you can learn from playing games....

The typical view of a gamer is a lonely dude sitting in his room just toiling away at World Of Warcraft or such like. 90% of the time this is not the case. 

Even the guy who's in his room grinding in WOW is usually talking to his mates at the same time in the same world.

Then what about the amazing communities of like minded people that spring up to support the gaming obsessions of these wonderful groups of dudes and dudettes.... 

The conversations that take place and the marvellous sharing of knowledge and news between these groups of people makes for fun and vibrant communities on Google +, Forums, Twitter and Facebook.

All of the above leads us to believe that....
 

Video Games are powerful and rewarding for those who use them in a positive way and long may the positivity continue...