Video Game Playing Enhances Creativity in Youth

[Mal12345]

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/creative-mind/2012/02/playing-video-games-and-your-creative-mind/

'The study found that “boys played video games more than girls, and that boys favored games of violence and sports while girls favored games involving interaction with others (human or nonhuman). Yet, regardless of gender, race or type of game played, greater video game playing was the only technology to be associated with greater creativity.”'

 

[acronach]

this sounds pretty right on actually

 

[Ivy]

Good, I won't feel too guilty about letting my kid play Minecraft until he wets himself then.

 

[scantilyclad]

My son is almost 5 and I get a lot of crap from my friends and family for letting him play video games, but I really do think that a lot of them enhance his creativity, especially Minecraft. He builds these big amazing buildings, breeds animals and has a whole little fantasy world, and it is extremely adorable. He also likes to play Starcraft 2 against computers on the Special Forces: Elite map. He may not be awesome at it, but he loves getting minerals, and stuff.

Bonus: Video of him playing Minecraft when he was 3

 

[Anonymous]

I hate to be "that guy", but unless they tested for causality, we can only say that it's related to enhanced creativity. It could be that more creative kids are more interested in playing video games, which would actually make a lot of sense.

 

[Rasofy]

http://www.nextnature.net/2010/05/n...m-moose-attack-with-world-of-warcraft-skills/

Norwegian Boy saves Sister from Moose Attack using World of Warcraft Skills

Hans Jørgen Olsen, a 12-year-old Norwegian boy, saved himself and his sister from a moose attack using skills he picked up playing the online role playing game World of Warcraft.

Hans and his sister got into trouble after they had trespassed the territory of the moose during a walk in the forest near their home. When the moose attacked them, Hans knew the first thing he had to do was ‘taunt’ and provoke the animal so that it would leave his sister alone and she could run to safety. ‘Taunting’ is a move one uses in World of Warcraft to get monsters off of the less-well-armored team members.

Once Hans was a target, he remembered another skill he had picked up at level 30 in ‘World of Warcraft’ – he feigned death. The moose lost interest in the inanimate boy and wandered off into the woods. When he was safely alone Hans ran back home to share his tale of video game-inspired survival.

Via Nettavisen.no.

I hate to be "that guy", but unless they tested for causality, we can only say that it's related to enhanced creativity. It could be that more creative kids are more interested in playing video games, which would actually make a lot of sense.

^Party pooper INTP.

 

[sprinkles]

I agree to some extent but I think different games do different things.

For example, Portal is probably good for thinking outside the box. Minecraft is good for eliminating the box all together. COD is probably good for learning new strategies, awareness, and reflexes, but I don't think it teaches much creativity.

Me solving a portal map while trying to not walk:

 

[RaptorWizard]

Video games are a great metaphor for the embodiment of my central philosophy of hacking the Universe and programming it anew and hence controlling it and having ultimate power over it making the world unleashed into the unlimited level, video games being like a little Universe!

 

[rhinosaur]

Yeah, I don't buy it. Video games are by their very nature limited. No matter how creative you want to be, you're still bounded by the program itself.

Why not try real life? Where creativity is not limited by the scope of the developers' intent. The graphics are awesome, too.

Don't get me wrong, games are a relevant source of inspiration for a lot of people.

 

[sprinkles]

Yeah, I don't buy it. Video games are by their very nature limited. No matter how creative you want to be, you're still bounded by the program itself.

Why not try real life? Where creativity is not limited by the scope of the developers' intent. The graphics are awesome, too.

Don't get me wrong, games are a relevant source of inspiration for a lot of people.

Creativity is limited by physics. And stuff that kills you for real. These are two things that you can change in the game world so therefore I say it is still less limiting.

Sounds like you don't really play them.

 

[Rasofy]

Can't understand why so many people like Minecraft.
Boring, illogical, and the graphics suck.

 

[sprinkles]

Can't understand why so many people like Minecraft.
Boring, illogical, and the graphics suck.

That's three of the best things about it! Whatchu talkin bout

This is like saying a box of watercolors is boring because they don't leap out by themselves and make a Rembrandt painting on your canvas.

 

[rhinosaur]

Little blocks on a hillside
little blocks made out of ticky tacky
little blocks, little blocks
and they all look just the same

 

[Ivy]

Little blocks on a hillside
little blocks made out of ticky tacky
little blocks, little blocks
and they all look just the same

There's redstone, and moss stone, and coal ore and cobblestone
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

The creatures in the blocks all came from Creative mode
Where they were made of blocks, and they came out just the same
There's chickens and villagers and a wolf and a zombie pigman
And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.