It is not a waste of time.

    Games are often viewed as a waste of time, something that does not contribute any real meaning to the user.  Some people even call it plain stupid.  What’s worse than spending seven hours or more of your life each week indulged in Tetris, Angry Birds or Halo?  After all, it is impossible to get those hours back.  Others claim that games do benefit the user in many ways intellectually and socially.  From my experience, when I was still a child playing Tetris and Pokemon on the Nintendo Gameboy, I did not become smarter.  Neither did I improve my social skills.  Instead it appeared to be the opposite as I reflect.  I was more antisocial as my eyes glued into the small screen and I studied less.  All this only lead my parents to hate games which is now understandable.

    To hold the same view today would be incorrect though.  Games have developed far beyond the small screen Nintendo Gameboy into complex machines that enables the player to play with many others around the world if desire.  Designers also incorporate social features into games today to further involve the player with physical movements besides sitting down.  The Wii and the Xbox Kinect clearly demonstrated this well.  The Wii senses your movement with the remote(s) you hold in your hand while the Xbox excel beyond using something like a webcam combined with motion sensing to detect the user’s movements eliminating the use of a controller.  In addition, it takes voice command from the user.  

    All these innovative features open up new realms of gaming beyond the first consoles and Gameboy.  Sports and dance games incorporate these new capabilities into them which allow users to physically move to control their character.  With multi-player and challenge mode everyone in the family can get involve from all ages without feeling too old.  Online games allow players to connect and talk with others from anywhere.

    All these new features of gaming enable the player to develop his/her social and cooperation skills.  My cousins and friends love Halo.  They have to play it almost every night and each time they play lasts for at least three hours .  At times I observe them play and see them all very engaged; even yelling at each others when someone cheated or gets upset.  I do see teamwork and communication skills develop through this game though.  Each player in a team has some skills that he is great at and they work together to conquer the enemy through talking to, trusting, and working with each other.  If they do not encompass teamwork, they will lose to their opponents and this further push them to develop better communication and teamwork among each other.  Other games such as “Dance Central” for the Xbox Kinect keeps the player in shape by requiring the player to move constantly.  It also permits the player to challenge others adding a social aspect to it.We also need to keep in mind that games are not exclusive to game consoles game only.  There are also board games and social word games that develop the player(s) intellectually.

video belongs to IGNentertainment

Who knows what the future beholds for games.  It may even become more social and and interactive to reach a larger audience because solo games do not appeal to light gamers.  But what I do know is that some games are not a waste of time.  I am not claiming that games are the best method for an individual to develop nor do I encourage playing games for a long time.  Other activities exist that possess more capability for an individual to develop, but not everything works for everyone.