I just watched and am reviewing a ted talks subject made by Tom Chatfield and his 7 ways that video games are good for the brain. This subject intrigued me because I personally play a lot of video games and have a great passion for them. No I did not watch it so i could make an excuse to my parents so I can play more video games. I chose it because I want to learn more about the thing that I do so much…. game.
Mr. Chatfield went into a long explanation of the birth of the idea for a stimulation factor to video games. He went into the reward system and how that when in a video game if you get a reward that stimulates your liking for that game and of which motivates you to go further. He said this was important to know because video games trigger a courage outlet that makes it so it can actually change the way you over come Real life situations. The cool thing about this subject is that the evolution part of us was the thing that kept us going all these years. When we were just apes we brought up ideas of, tools, fire and many other things. Finally we got the tools which made our motivation boost, leading us forward into technology. What video games do is takes that evolution success and reenact it into a different subject. Such as, say you make a game where you need to get 5 shards to a key. And to get to these keys you have to fight little monsters that try to kill you. And on the way you collect experience orbs that make your avatar/character more powerful to beat more powerful enemies. You get these items and it makes you feel a feeling of accomplishment, which then activates that evolutionary feeling of success. I personally thought (know a lot about how video games work) That this is very true. Say I manage to get over 10000 dollars in a video game and i get a little achievement down in my screen. I feel a sense in my stomach that motivates me to get 1000000 dollars! That feeling in my stomach is a sign of achievement and an activation of that evolutionary trigger in the brain.
In conclusion he talked about how playing with piers helps this feeling in how video games stimulate the brain. As an example. A game i play the most called Minecraft is a Very VERY fun game. I played it on my own in what they call single player for a very long time which was incredibly fun. But then i started getting interested in the multiplayer. I joined my friends in a online server of the game and started playing. Now you may ask why this is important? This is actually very important. Say me and my friends are fighting off a very powerful player with a lot of stuff on him. We kill him and get all his stuff. Now we see this as currency. I say Hey ill trade you some gold for his armor. We barter then I eventually don’t get it or do get it. If i get it I get that feeling of success and am motivated to go fight more people to get more stuff. loss or no loss. But say he doesn’t want to sell it. That motivates me to either take the dirty road (assassinate him and take it) or continue to find another person to get the same stuff from. So I am very glad i chose this subject because i have learned a lot about the thing that i love so much, and i think that if Tom Chatfield looks into it more he can find much more ways that video games help stimulate the brain in different ways.