Grand Theft Auto is good for you!

18
Jul
2005
By Adriaan | 18th Jul 2005 at 14:06 GMT in General | 11 Comments

<img src="http://thegtaplace.com/images/news/mariodoctor.gif" width="125" height="236" border="0" align="right">With all the negative news this past few weeks on games and especially Grand Theft Auto I think it's good to know that video games are actually very good for humans. In the book "Everything Bad is Good For You" by Steven Johnson he writes about how movies, tv shows and especialy video games are actualy making you smarter.

A video game will never replace a book, Johnson admits, but latter-day games ranging from Tetris to SimCity to Grand Theft Auto have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities.

He says this kind of education you get is not coming from classrooms or museums, but it's happening in living rooms and basements, on PCs and television screens.

Further research also shows that children who play video games have more confidence in themselves and will easily participate in classrooms, ask questions and can stand up more for themselves, as they learned inside the video game world.

If you are interested in this book you can buy it from Amazon for around .

Comments

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chris82's photo
chris82 18th July, 2005 @ 14:56 - Permalink

Of course everything "bad" is good for you. If the worlds average IQ has risen 17 points since 1950, it is not because all of the bad, lazy schools that have almost no money, right. I've learned a lot of things about world history when playing GTA, I also have to do some math when playing and there are plenty of signs to read in the interiors. You see, what these people don't realize is how games/mods work. They never play the games but see the ads and think it's a bad game just because it's M.

smallpancake's photo
smallpancake 18th July, 2005 @ 16:07 - Permalink
Of course everything "bad" is good for you.

Wouldn't go that far.

OT: I defidently agree. Especially with strategy games that make you think...Like Age of Empires.

888ball's photo
888ball 18th July, 2005 @ 16:20 - Permalink

There was something about that in the LCS preview in OP2M

Yeah its believable, my dad says the game fries my brain, yeah right, well maybe just a bit...

;)

smallpancake's photo
smallpancake 18th July, 2005 @ 17:04 - Permalink
There was something about that in the LCS preview in OP2M

Yeah its believable, my dad says the game fries my brain, yeah right, well maybe just a bit...

;)

It wouldn't 'fry' it, But it would defidently change your personality.

Spaz The Great's photo
Spaz The Great 18th July, 2005 @ 17:15 - Permalink

Definetly true. Fast paced driving and shooting games((which includes GTA in both areas!)) also helps hand-eye coordination, and it raises reflex. I think there was a study about that. But those are pretty much common sense if you think about it. You have to get faster and faster at responding to whatever happens in the game, so your reflex gets faster. Especially in shooting games, mostly FPS, probably. Driving games I would bet helps your coordination.

Sherman's photo
Sherman 18th July, 2005 @ 17:17 - Permalink

*Looks for an excuse..*

That's pretty cool.. seeing I play games most of my day :mellow:

Adriaan's photo
Adriaan 18th July, 2005 @ 18:08 - Permalink

yeah its certainly a article to show your parents if they say you should stop playing games ;)

UWEIUCFW's photo
UWEIUCFW 18th July, 2005 @ 18:52 - Permalink
yeah its certainly a article to show your parents if they say you should stop playing games  ;)

Lol, Im prinitng this out now.

Adriaan's photo
Adriaan 18th July, 2005 @ 19:27 - Permalink

now there's something you don't see everyday :drool:

Oscar's photo
Oscar 19th July, 2005 @ 05:18 - Permalink

And games like GTA are proven to be relaxing games, wich can help you to concentrate and get rid of stress, now you see, videogames are good (unless you abuse and do nothing else)

nickchico's photo
nickchico 26th August, 2005 @ 11:27 - Permalink

I need to spend more time playing video games! lol : )


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