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First Person Shooters Still Good For Improving Vision
from the well,-that's-a-relief dept
Three and a half years ago we had a post about a study claiming that video gaming was good for your vision. This was one of many recent studies that points out some of the positive aspects of playing video games. However, it looks like the researchers on that first study didn't want to give up that line of research (or, perhaps, they just wanted an excuse to get grant money that would let them keep playing video games). The same researchers have now come out with a second study that also notes video games can be good for your eyesight. In this case, they were specifically testing first person shooters, and how it impacted the ability of people to pick a letter out of a clutter of letters (not exactly your standard eye chart). However, the research did show that after just 30 hours of gaming (we assume, not consecutively), the ability to pick out letters showed a substantial improvement. So, the next time someone (parents, spouse, etc.) suggest that you're wasting too much time on that first person shooter, just tell them you're improving your eyesight.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
Radiation
Hmmm... maybe, for those of us still using CRT monitors, this eyesight improvement is cancelled out by the radiation we're absorbing....
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Re: Radiation
first person shooters don't necessarily have to be played on pc though. theres always televisions. :-) halo 2 for example is a huge console first person game. of course im sure some ppl still have crt, but not nearly as many as people that have other screen types to play on
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Vision
Yeah, that's why I stay up till 3 am killing bad guys... To improve my vision...
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Eye Pwn!
I can just hear the excuses now:
"It's my stigmatism...waaah!"
"I'm far-sighted and the enemy was too close....waaaah!"
"I haxx cus I wear an eye patch...yar!"
LOLS!
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Re: Radiation
references to the radiation being damaging to your eyes please... what? there isn't any? shucks...
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They also improve your ability to solve complex puzzles as well as qualitative learning like map-reading.
Because of video games I am very good at navigating in cities because I am used to memorizing and using maps.
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Good...
This will balance out the blood clot my buddy just got in his leg from sitting in one position for hours on end playing video games...
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Two sides to every coin...
Im just in one of those moods where I'm seeing the bad side to everything so work with me:
Another school shooting happens. In an effort to prove that the blame rests solely on video games someone who is wishes to "protect the children" will use this study to "prove" that the shooter used first person shooters to practice before the real deal.
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Re: Two sides to every coin...
in the famous words of Dennis Miller "guns dont kill people OJ kills people"
blaming games for violence and de-sensitising people is just BS and for saying so makes you just as retarded as any one else claiming the same...
COLUMBINE those parents dint notice the sawed off shotguns in thier home????
what about the kids torturing them and teasing them kids are brutal and hazing them..
not to justify what they did it was totally wrong but maybee some of these kids picking on others might think twice before fucking with someone else and picking on them because they dont wear the clothes that they feel is "trendy"
what side of the coin is where someone gets tortured everyday for four years????
yeah blame it on video games retard...
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Hm. Interesting
If FPS games improve my eyesight... that must mean why i still have 20-20 vision after doing what I do with the OTHER half of my computer facetime...
*fap, Bang, fap, bang*
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This is Good News
Now I can keep masturbating. When I start going blind, I'll just fire up the PS2 for a few hours.
Cool.
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Now all they need to do is prove that WoW improves your eyesight and all is well in my world.
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Re:
lol yea ive stopped playing all my fps games cuz of wow, and i wonder if its only for fps games and not for third person shooters. tps? i guess heh
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processing
I would imagine that what is improving is not the eyesight as tested by, say, an opticians chart, but the brains ability to process images to spot shapes and patterns. Think about when you first played FPSs, and you didn't see the enemies in the distance, or who were well camoflaged (this only applies to younger players, older players who started out with Wolfenstien 3D and progressed from there would have gradually developed the skills). You would have gotten killed a lot. Far more important than being able to aim is the ability to realise that the shadow in the distance has a man in it. It would be interesting to compare the skills of those who like SoF II rather than games with more open maps like COD. I should think that SOF II players would generally have faster reactions, able to shoot those who come round the corners or pop out from behind a crate, whereas a COD player would be better at spotting people in the distance, and so would do better in this sort of test. in a tps, I should think that he skills which would be developed would be more tracking skills, especially in games where the mian fight are close-range meles, in order fo players to follow thier charecter, thier allies, and enemies.
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Re: Re: Two sides to every coin...
wow... sorry the other kids in school make fun of your hello kitty backpack, but you should take your rant elsewhere...
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Re: processing
ahh... but here comes the real question: do our eyes see or does our brain see?
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Re: Re: processing
I was basing my comment on the fact that the eyes resolution does not ever improve with age/training, but that you can learn new skills. I think that physicists (and physics students) should let the pshrinks argue that one out though.
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short omega-3 video
Thought you'd be interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIgNpsbvcVM
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