How Video Games Help to Exercise and Educate

Video games as education? That was foolish talk back in the day. In fact, video games had been stigmatized as being a brain-washing, empty, and some times violent form of entertainment. But as we've progressed in many ways, it's been shown that video games can be used to supplement education in ways people, and parents, didn't even realize.

Physical Fitness - Video Games That are More Than Button Mashing

One facet of video games that just recently came into the realm of gaming are physical fitness games and games that require gamers to move their bodies in certain motions. If you were to have asked me 5-10 years ago if video games would ever be used to supplement fitness, I would have shot you a glare (if I could have pull my eyes off of my television at the time, that is).

But physical fitness through video games are becoming a prevalent reality with the introduction of the Nintendo Wii and it's motion sensing controls. The initial game that came with the popular video game system, Wii Sports, was an instant favorite - gamers lined stood for hours on end to get their gaming grip on the system itself.

I can remember, and I hate to admit this, being sore the first time I played bowling on the Nintendo Wii. Maybe it was because we played for hours, but it was the most exercise I had ever gotten from a video game machine.

Later introduced was a myriad of other fitness games, such as Wii Fit. Another game that helped burn calories and made my shoulder burn, although not well known, is Pong Toss - a game that resembles a beer pong-like setup. For those of you who don't know how beer pong works, here's how it's played:

There's ten cups on each side of the table in a bowling pin-like setup. Players throw the ball and try to get it in the cup. When the ball successfully lands in the cup then that cup is taken away. The player that eliminates all cups on the other side of the table is the winner. That's the fundamental setup.

Nintendo Wii is even being used in certain gym classes now for Physical Education. So, instead of going outside and playing that awesome game of softball or football, children in some schools can now stand behind a television and whisk that magical Wiimote around, all in the name of PE.

Reading Comprehension and Writing - Yes, Games Have Stories, Too

I know for a fact that a lot of the general anti-video gaming crowd thinks that all video games are like Grand Theft Auto games - full of violence and gore, and nothing more (rhyming slightly not intentional).

But that's clearly not true. Video games can, and do, easily supplement education in reading and writing. Video games in the genres of role-playing games (also known as "RPGs) and adventure have stories. Most of these games have dialogue attached to these stories. Back in the day voice acting was non-existent for games, so players had to read the dialogue to understand the story. Hence, reading was forced upon these games. Practice makes perfect, and since you're essentially reading a book in a video game, your reading skills increase.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI, help gamers learn how to write better. I remember being in high school and playing Final Fantasy XI on a daily basis - my writing had to become better. The gaming society, at least then, basically frowned upon extremely poor spelling and/or grammar. Plus, all of the professionally written dialogue helped me refine my sentence structures and increased my vocabulary exorbitantly (see?!).

Art and Graphic Design - While It's No Mona Lisa, It's Still Art

Art and graphic design is a huge part of video games. From the general graphics and design to the creation of menus, it's all art.

I learned some graphic design back in high school. While a regular person may deem a menu not "art", I beg to differ. Some menus, even basic ones, take time to create. There's layers, and then actions that need to be linked to these arts, and so on. Learning how to blend colors and use fancy, yet fitting, text in certain areas in a whole other facet of graphic design implemented in video games. Imagine if every video game had a white background with black lettering in Times New Roman font - it's be monotonous and incredibly boring. Hence, creativity is needed in the creation of menus.

Graphics are another area that show that video games truly are a work of art. Anyone that has played games like Shadow of Colossus or Chrono Cross know this already.

While this area may take the education a little further (students need to learn the programs hands-on and do more studying), it's still a viable way to show that video games do help educate people of all ages.

Rules and Regulations of Real Life Games

Imagine you've never played tennis before. You don't know the scoring, how the boundaries of the court work, or even what a "fault" is. Playing a tennis video game, such as Top Spin, can help gamers learn the rules and regulations of such a game, and then implement these rules into real life tennis.

Music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, while they may not show players how to literally play the guitar, show the fundamentals of music - correlating sounds with strums on a guitar, musical timing, and so on.

Ending Credits

These are only a few ways in which video games can help educate, and there are plenty more. There are even games that are meant to educate - and these are obvious to find and utilize.

In the future I foresee video games being utilized to supplement education in a myriad of ways - on top of the ways they are already being used today. From simulators for driving and firefighting, to basic games for mathematical education and physical education, they will be used.