By Amna Ejaz
Have you ever logged in to Facebook or any other social site just to play online games? Have you ever noticed how you connect to the people around the globe by just connecting to any online game such as the Sims, poker or 8-pool? This is all because people are addictive to such games and these games are not only for fun, but these games also affect their cognitive thinking.
Games are not only for the purpose of fun but they are also a good source of learning. You know when you are playing counterstrike or tekken you are continuously using your cognitive skills to think critically for the next move.
There are different types of games which are being played and practiced in professional fields also. Such games are called “serious games” specially designed for learning purposes. Fields such as military, medicine, corporate education and other departments have made serious games a part of their training because it helps them to learn more effectively about natural and virtual environment. These serious games, due to their graphics and 2D/3D effects help to learn better and effectively. Nintendo Wii can be taken as the best example of serious game as it not only helps the player to think critically but it also allows him to move and play physically as it works with senses.
Different sites such as EVE online, America’s army, habbo.com etc offer these serious games. As the trend of these games is getting more, the need of such game designers is taking hype. As making a game requires a team of different people specializing in graphics, designing, layouts, paper and documentation work, so it is very important to have train learners in such field of technology.
In UK, England’ North West Learning grid has launched DIDA diploma which offers 4000 learning objects and 300 serious games. They train their students about skilled programs like adobe suites so that not only professionally but people with lesser compatibility can also be able to use these programs.
The way how the trend of serious games is coming in, and the way serious games are becoming a part of people’s life, it is very important to have students to get admission in these fields and to study JavaScript, C programming, arts, animations, story-telling and other designing software’s so that more and more serious games should be launched and more and more techniques of learning should be introduced.
Think, Analyze & Share 
One of the main purpose the online games or video games serves is that they involve us in the game mentally which effects our cognitive level and make us a critical thinker and a good problem solver as well as physically also because they prepare us how to tackle in different situations………
There are also serious games that aim to educate or train the user. These types of video games basically tend to promote education, science, social change, health care or even the military. By playing such games you can learn a real life lesson. So, one should know that every video game has its own purpose. However, gathering information on the purpose of video games will help you to know more about online video games and its additional benefits. Entertain and educate yourself by playing online video games.
The games do help us improve our thinking and problem solving skills, that’s for sure, but more so there are games which only help you to increase the amount of time you waste, like you just play them to kill the time, there is no constructive in them, that thing should be avoided, like these days there is a hype of Candy Crush Saga on Facebook, I don’t know what is constructive or how it helps to give you knowledge, while others like making words by watching pictures do improve your diction but the essence is that how you decide to kill your time by serious i.e constructive games or wasting it by playing junk.
Well… Candy Crush is not an information gaining game, but I think it do involve critical thinking… I might be wrong but its my perception that this game makes your thinking critical in terms of how you find ways of mixing different candies… that it comes to you even unconsciously… And as in group 4 post, it was mentioned that such games makes you tolerant toward the situations. Right now, I am at level 87 and i believe that this game teaches me tolerance and to keep on trying or working until you get successful.
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Yes… I agree with the post that the evolution in games genre as ‘serious games’ has come out to be very productive in educational context. I just want to add that this genre needs to work more on things that are related to what the textbooks want the students to learn. So, that it would make them proficient in the school academics as well. Obviously, it won’t cover each and every thing but many technical skills like vocabulary, grammar, language etc can be covered efficiently through such games. And, it would also help learners think and act beyond their age level as Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development suggests.
Ammm… I agree with the post till serious games. These type of games are usually usually enhance the critical and cognitive thinking of students. These are also helpful in exploring new ways and ideas about any particular problem. But wait…. addiction of online games also include time wastage and pay bad health impact on an individual. Long term online game addiction can have lasting negative effects on the gamer’s health. Gamer becomes depressed because the virtual world and real world don’t match and they feel mixed about it. Gamer can often have suicidal thoughts with the blurred line between real world and virtual world. Gamer tends not to reach out for help because their ashamed. They are ashamed the game has so much control over them. Maybe ashamed of their weight gain caused by sitting at a computer all day. Ashamed their life is out of control due to an online game. So, with good impacts of online games, bad affects are also counter.
games are really very important . Good games can always help you improve in some ways, they develop you mentally , make you alert , make you use your brain and can also prove to be a good time pass. There are many positives aspects of online games through which students can learn as well as grow cognitively. But there are also other games which are of no use I mean they only make you addictive, like you feel like as if you are glued to your computer screens for hours doing nothing but wasting time. Of course our mind needs break to much of work is not good and in that case games can refresh you in a good way but just sitting with your laptop for hours playing silly facebook games is nothing but just “time killing” . Good games should be promoted but there are categories in which they are divided ,not every game can help you some can also distract you .
The development in games genre is actually a good thing, it proves to be beneficial as it helps in developing your cognitive skills, such as functioning skills, perceiving skills as well as problem solving and decision making skills. But at the same time online games, and video games can also have a negative impact, such as it can cause addiction, and it effects your health too depending on the amount of exposure one is receiving to the games. It can also have a negative effect an individuals behavior A certain balance should be maintained like I am in favor of the usage of video games for learning but the exposure to gaming should be restricted to a certain time period to avoid addiction and health issues.