You avid gamers may be interested in this...

Shoot'em up video games sharpen vision
29 Mar 2009, 2020 hrs IST, AFP

Extract:

"Slaying hordes of bad guys - the more the better - in fast-paced video games improves vision, a study published on Sunday showed for the first time. Far from being harmful to eyesight, as some had feared, action games such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, or Left 4 Dead provide excellent training for what eye doctors call contrast sensitivity, the study found.

Contrast sensitivity is the ability to notice tiny changes in shades of grey against a uniform background, and is critical to everyday activities such as night driving and reading. It often degrades with age. The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, reveal a previously unsuspected adaptability in the brain, and could open the way to new therapies, the researchers said...."

See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Shootem-up-games-sharpen-vision/articleshow/4331266.cms

Cheers!

 

go me! And I will always play twitch shooters to keep my beautiful 20/20

 

i second that. CSS, here i come!

 

wish I could play online out here

 

Old news dude. Video gaming has been sanctioned therapy for me for 9 years now as a chronic pain patient, and they discovered years ago it has therapy applications in many other areas as well, especially those that need rehab with hands/fingers, etc. Personally it's a mental focusing therapy tool for me as it helps me focus my mind off of the pain I have so I don't need to increase my opiate level.

Now, if I could just figure out a way to take it as a tax deduction.....

 

You could always decide to make it a profession and get paid to game..

 

Haha this is awesome. My dad was yelling at me a few years ago for playing too many video games, since my glasses prescription went up by a whole point in each eye, in just 1 year. Next time he tells me to stop killing my eyes when I'm playing a video game, I'll say "ok." and keep playing, since it's good for eyes.

 

Not quite...!

The old news part is where gaming is considered as therapeutic for conditions such as yours and, as you mentioned, for those who need rehad for hands and fingers etc.

The new news part of it is in its specific preceived benefit in slowing down (perhaps even reversing?) optical degeneration and reflex training (though this last part is not directly mentioned in the linked article - though they do refer to night driving etc). As a matter of interest, in some militaries of the world (especially, those of the US and Israel) video war gaming is both a recruitment tool and a training tool. Sometime ago, I think it was Bruce Sterling who wrote an excellent piece on this in Wired. Another person who has written extensively on this is James derDerian in his book, Virtous War.

 

And THAT is precisely NOT the way to read such articles!!! Your dad may have a point...and you are just being juvenile if you point him in the direction of this article and say..."but look what the scientists are saying..."

 

yea, very old news...
I wrote a paper on this 3 years ago.....

 

I am interested in stuff like this...so may I ask...what precisely did you write your paper on? If you have a copy of it, can you share it?

 

It keeps me mentally insane...