First Person Shooters Still Good For Improving Vision

from the well,-that's-a-relief dept

Wed, Feb 7th 2007 12:14pm — Mike Masnick

Three and a half years ago we had a post about a study claiming that video gaming was good for your vision. This was one of many recent studies that points out some of the positive aspects of playing video games. However, it looks like the researchers on that first study didn't want to give up that line of research (or, perhaps, they just wanted an excuse to get grant money that would let them keep playing video games). The same researchers have now come out with a second study that also notes video games can be good for your eyesight. In this case, they were specifically testing first person shooters, and how it impacted the ability of people to pick a letter out of a clutter of letters (not exactly your standard eye chart). However, the research did show that after just 30 hours of gaming (we assume, not consecutively), the ability to pick out letters showed a substantial improvement. So, the next time someone (parents, spouse, etc.) suggest that you're wasting too much time on that first person shooter, just tell them you're improving your eyesight.

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19 Comments

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Boris Jacobsen, 7 Feb 2007 @ 12:54pm

Radiation
Hmmm... maybe, for those of us still using CRT monitors, this eyesight improvement is cancelled out by the radiation we're absorbing....
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:08pm
  
  Re: Radiation
  first person shooters don't necessarily have to be played on pc though. theres always televisions. :-) halo 2 for example is a huge console first person game. of course im sure some ppl still have crt, but not nearly as many as people that have other screen types to play on
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:12pm

Vision
Yeah, that's why I stay up till 3 am killing bad guys... To improve my vision...
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Jeff, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:17pm

Eye Pwn!
I can just hear the excuses now:
"It's my stigmatism...waaah!"
"I'm far-sighted and the enemy was too close....waaaah!"
"I haxx cus I wear an eye patch...yar!"

LOLS!
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PhysicsGuy, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:20pm

Re: Radiation
references to the radiation being damaging to your eyes please... what? there isn't any? shucks...
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hexjones, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:21pm

They also improve your ability to solve complex puzzles as well as qualitative learning like map-reading.

Because of video games I am very good at navigating in cities because I am used to memorizing and using maps.
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Anonymous brave person, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:26pm

Good...
This will balance out the blood clot my buddy just got in his leg from sitting in one position for hours on end playing video games...
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Sanguine Dream, 7 Feb 2007 @ 1:59pm

Two sides to every coin...
Im just in one of those moods where I'm seeing the bad side to everything so work with me:

Another school shooting happens. In an effort to prove that the blame rests solely on video games someone who is wishes to "protect the children" will use this study to "prove" that the shooter used first person shooters to practice before the real deal.
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- Evil, 7 Feb 2007 @ 4:50pm
  
  Re: Two sides to every coin...
  in the famous words of Dennis Miller "guns dont kill people OJ kills people"
  blaming games for violence and de-sensitising people is just BS and for saying so makes you just as retarded as any one else claiming the same...
  COLUMBINE those parents dint notice the sawed off shotguns in thier home????
  what about the kids torturing them and teasing them kids are brutal and hazing them..
  not to justify what they did it was totally wrong but maybee some of these kids picking on others might think twice before fucking with someone else and picking on them because they dont wear the clothes that they feel is "trendy"
  what side of the coin is where someone gets tortured everyday for four years????
  yeah blame it on video games retard...
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2007 @ 2:35pm

Hm. Interesting

If FPS games improve my eyesight... that must mean why i still have 20-20 vision after doing what I do with the OTHER half of my computer facetime...

*fap, Bang, fap, bang*
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Hans, 7 Feb 2007 @ 2:38pm

This is Good News
Now I can keep masturbating. When I start going blind, I'll just fire up the PS2 for a few hours.

Cool.
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Happy Gamer, 7 Feb 2007 @ 3:27pm

Now all they need to do is prove that WoW improves your eyesight and all is well in my world.
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2007 @ 3:32pm
  
  Re:
  lol yea ive stopped playing all my fps games cuz of wow, and i wonder if its only for fps games and not for third person shooters. tps? i guess heh
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|333173|3|_||3, 7 Feb 2007 @ 4:25pm

processing
I would imagine that what is improving is not the eyesight as tested by, say, an opticians chart, but the brains ability to process images to spot shapes and patterns. Think about when you first played FPSs, and you didn't see the enemies in the distance, or who were well camoflaged (this only applies to younger players, older players who started out with Wolfenstien 3D and progressed from there would have gradually developed the skills). You would have gotten killed a lot. Far more important than being able to aim is the ability to realise that the shadow in the distance has a man in it. It would be interesting to compare the skills of those who like SoF II rather than games with more open maps like COD. I should think that SOF II players would generally have faster reactions, able to shoot those who come round the corners or pop out from behind a crate, whereas a COD player would be better at spotting people in the distance, and so would do better in this sort of test. in a tps, I should think that he skills which would be developed would be more tracking skills, especially in games where the mian fight are close-range meles, in order fo players to follow thier charecter, thier allies, and enemies.
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PhysicsGuy, 7 Feb 2007 @ 8:15pm

Re: Re: Two sides to every coin...
wow... sorry the other kids in school make fun of your hello kitty backpack, but you should take your rant elsewhere...
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PhysicsGuy, 7 Feb 2007 @ 8:17pm

Re: processing
ahh... but here comes the real question: do our eyes see or does our brain see?
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|333173|3|_||3, 8 Feb 2007 @ 8:20pm

Re: Re: processing
I was basing my comment on the fact that the eyes resolution does not ever improve with age/training, but that you can learn new skills. I think that physicists (and physics students) should let the pshrinks argue that one out though.
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susan allport, 29 Feb 2008 @ 6:18am

short omega-3 video
Thought you'd be interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIgNpsbvcVM
--
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Sep 2012 @ 5:58pm

second link is dead
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