Video Games Save Lives
I like video games. I’ve played them my whole life. I’m not what you’d consider a “gamer” by any means, but I’ll definitely play a bit when I have some free time. I’ve always been against those who condemn video games, saying they are a bad influence on kids. These are usually the same types of people who blame murders on the messages found in popular music.
I’m not going to get into the social aspects behind all of this, but I recently came across a couple of articles that talk about people saving lives because of what they learned in video games.
The first incident involved a young boy from Norway, who “feigned death” to prevent a moose from attacking him and his sister. He learned this technique from playing World of Warcraft. I don’t know anything about WoW (thankfully), but apparently this is a skill used in the game to pretend you’re dead so you aren’t bothered by enemies.
The second event involved a man who witnessed a car crash and was able to treat the passenger’s injuries based on what he’d learned playing America’s Army. The man reportedly stated “I have received no prior medical training and can honestly say that because of the training and presentations within America’s Army, I was able to help and possibly save the injured men.”
That’s interesting stuff, and I think it helps show that video games aren’t all bad, and can actually have a positive effect on people.
Spencer "comment machine" McCormack says:
A couple of months ago Tamarra gave me a thing to read; It was by somebody we went to high school with. He was trying to get into journalism school and it was a little opinion piece on how video games aren’t that bad. But the thing is it was horrible and long. You’re blog article while much smaller was much more informative and altogether good read. Great job Rob!
Robmaeder.com has gone semi-pro.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Chris "high britches" Erwin says:
Apparently video games also have healing abilities:
http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=753
January 24th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Rob says:
Thanks for saying nice things, Spencer. Maybe I should go to journalism school.
That’s an interesting article. I used to think Guitar Hero was dumb, but after playing it, I realized it’s pretty cool. If it can help people regain the use of their arms and hands in a fun way, that’s even better.
January 24th, 2008 at 4:59 pm