Fact or Fiction: Are Video Games Beneficial?

Throughout my childhood, my parents have always claimed that video games have never helped anyone. In their eyes, they strongly believe that video games are only a waste of time and more importantly, a waste of money. While in some cases, that may be true, but as a gamer, I don’t agree with them. As a matter of fact, video games can be beneficial for people of all ages. First of all, video games promote a heightened and improved sense of imagination. Many video games are designed with both elements of the real world with the essence of imaginary people and alternate dimensions. For example, my sister is a poetess. Many of her works actually are inspired by the video games she has played. In addition, she has a friend who is a writer. After talking to him, he too says that video games such as Zelda and the Final Fantasy series have inspired many of the books he has written. Although these ‘mere’ games may only look simple, it requires much imagination, which in turn, works the brain, to create the video games we all enjoy today.
Next, not only do they improve the imagination, they also teach everyone about the basics of life- good versus evil and the such. As a gamer myself, I’ve learned to see that video games are a very good example on how we should act as a person. For instance, in the Kingdom Hearts series, the main protagonist is faced with many challenges we face in real life. In the game, Sora, the main character, has to decide whether to choose the path to the light or fall to the darkness. This isn’t easy though. His best friend Riku fell into the darkness due to bad emotions such as jealously and greed. In the real world, we have the decisions to be either a good person or a bad one and games like these provide access to children with concepts of morality.
Video games also encourage basic motor skills and coordination for people. Many popular games like Cooking Mama and Mario Kart demonstrate the basics in cooking and how to drive a car. Also there are stimulators for older people who want to relearn how to drive since the DMV stated that they are more likely to get into accidents. Lastly, games like Just Dance and Dance Central teach people how to dance and improve body coordination.
Basically, these points are shown to disprove the myth that video games are only…just video games when there is just more to what meets the eye. They aren’t a waste of time at all. It provides us with a simulating imagination, the gist of morality, and can help numerous people learn a new skill through a simple video game.