There are a lot of things that make videogames special with respect to all sorts of stress relief and recreational activities. I think games are special in ways exercise is not, and we should really appreciate why.
Games are uniquely a tremendous exercise of the mind and body. When compared to a laboratory game designed without violence, Medal of Honor improved the vision of congenitally-handicapped children while the laboratory game did not. The author of the study speculated that the violence in Medal of Honor put kids into more of a neuro-plastic mood, while its emphasis on hand-eye coordination exercised the brain, the eyes and the hands in a way that improved senses.[0]
The game trains your strategic and tactical planning and it helps you socialize through teamwork, but that wasn't tested. Suffice it to say, the same features cannot be said to exist in yoga, television, or cooking.
Games are also universal. Girls and boys, young and old, physically fit and physically infirm, poor and rich: pretty much everyone can enjoy a game.[1] It is a form of entertainment that is capable of demanding zero to full emotional, financial and intellectual engagement.
Compare to sports, where we can barely figure out how to have men compete fairly against women. Or playing music, where an instrument represents a minimum investment that immediately makes it inaccessible to many kids. As the most successful games favor a viral, free, multiplayer and social design, games have evolved in a Darwinian way to be as accessible and entertaining as possible.
I don't think it's bad to exercise or to be outside. I just don't think it's substitutable, and I think it's trivializing just how different Civilization is from canoeing. Without a doubt we ought to do both, but you can't learn diplomacy from an oar.
"Games are also universal. Girls and boys, young and old, physically fit and physically infirm, poor and rich: pretty much everyone can enjoy a game.[1] It is a form of entertainment that is capable of demanding zero to full emotional, financial and intellectual engagement."
Really well put. My wife and I play FPS's as a way to chill out at night. Despite being violent, fast paced and the lobbies are typically full of boys, my wife loves it. As a result we purchased a 1ms response monitor, Scuf controller and new Billion (Broadcom chipset) fiber-ready modem so that we could play more competitively (financial-intellectual-engagement).
Anecdotally, we've both noticed our reflexes to real-world things such as driving, traversing busy sidewalks, making quick decisions, catching objects etc has improved. I guess when the difference between dead or alive is seeing something, forming a strategy of engagement, and pressing a combination of buttons while manoeuvering - all in the space of a second - helps you process unforeseen events a little quicker.
A sport that is uniquely suited for mixed genders is Ultimate Frisbee. As long as men guard men, and women guard women, it works out pretty well. I'd say it works better for mixed play than a sport like tennis, which features a mixed doubles bracket at each of the four major tournaments (Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open, French Open).
By extension Ultimate is also well suited for a wide range of athleticism. For throwers (aka handlers) it is more of a skill sport, involving repeated practice of the throwing motion but not necessarily speed or strength, while receivers (cutters) typically rely on pure athleticism.
It also exercises the mind for me, as do all sports. I spend a lot of time thinking, on the field and off, how to improve my play, conserve energy, what my opponent's tendencies are, etc. If you're not using your mind playing sports, you're not doing it right.
Games are uniquely a tremendous exercise of the mind and body. When compared to a laboratory game designed without violence, Medal of Honor improved the vision of congenitally-handicapped children while the laboratory game did not. The author of the study speculated that the violence in Medal of Honor put kids into more of a neuro-plastic mood, while its emphasis on hand-eye coordination exercised the brain, the eyes and the hands in a way that improved senses.[0]
The game trains your strategic and tactical planning and it helps you socialize through teamwork, but that wasn't tested. Suffice it to say, the same features cannot be said to exist in yoga, television, or cooking.
Games are also universal. Girls and boys, young and old, physically fit and physically infirm, poor and rich: pretty much everyone can enjoy a game.[1] It is a form of entertainment that is capable of demanding zero to full emotional, financial and intellectual engagement.
Compare to sports, where we can barely figure out how to have men compete fairly against women. Or playing music, where an instrument represents a minimum investment that immediately makes it inaccessible to many kids. As the most successful games favor a viral, free, multiplayer and social design, games have evolved in a Darwinian way to be as accessible and entertaining as possible.
I don't think it's bad to exercise or to be outside. I just don't think it's substitutable, and I think it's trivializing just how different Civilization is from canoeing. Without a doubt we ought to do both, but you can't learn diplomacy from an oar.
[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/how-video-games-co...
[1] http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp