 |
| (source: http://www.htxt.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Computer-Game-Stats.jpg) |
The largest percentage (most popular) at 38.4% is strategy.
These are the most popular strategy games
PEGI Rating
The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system
was established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying
computer games. It was launched in spring 2003 and replaced a number of
national age rating systems with a single system now used throughout most of
Europe, in 30 countries.
Why
Play Strategy Games
Playing strategy games can be a fun experience. Strategy games can be enjoyable
at a number of different psychological levels. It can be an enjoyable
individual experience. It can be an exhilarating group experience.
It can be an activity that a family can enjoy.
Who doesn’t like to beat an opponent in a game
situation by out-smarting them? Isn’t it gratifying when your planned
strategy works to perfection and produces the winning play? Working
together with partners to reach the strategic game goal can be a rewarding
social interaction.
If you want to learn something about your friends
or your future partner, try playing a strategy game with them. Strategy
games present interesting insights to an individual’s thought processes and
competitive nature. Sometimes these insights can be revealing.
Playing strategy games has been a
part of human nature for a long time. They have been around so long that
perhaps strategy games help humankind by allowing competition and the
resolution of a conflict in an environment that does not end in the tragedy.
Strategy-Based Video Games, Like Starcraft, Improve Brain's 'Cognitive Flexibility'
Strategy-based video games
are good for your brain.
Research
published in the journal PLOS ONE shows
that gamers may benefit from their hobby because it seems to improve brain
agility.
"Our
paper shows that cognitive flexibility, a cornerstone of human intelligence,
is not a static trait but can be trained and improved using fun learning tools
like gaming," study researcher Dr. Brian Glass, of the School of
Biological and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London, said in a
release.
The study, conducted by
Queen Mary and University College London researchers, is based on psychological
tests conducted before and after 72 volunteers played the strategy game
StarCraft or the life-simulation game The Sims for 40 hours over six to eight
weeks. Most of the participants were female, as "the study was unable to
recruit a sufficient number of male volunteers who played video games for less
than two hours a week," the release stated.
Researchers found that the
participants assigned to play StarCraft experienced gains in their performance
on the psychological tests after the study period. They had greater speed and
accuracy in cognitive flexibility tasks -- which were meant to assess the
ability of a person to "switch" from one task to another -- than
those who played The Sims.
Plus, researchers found
that "the volunteers who played the most complex version of the video game
performed the best in the post-game psychological tests," Glass said in
the statement. "We need to understand now what exactly about these games
is leading to these changes, and whether these cognitive boosts are permanent or
if they dwindle over time. Once we have that understanding, it could become
possible to develop clinical interventions for symptoms related to attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder or traumatic brain injuries, for example."
Video
games have been shown to provide brain benefits in other studies, too.
Previously, a study in the journal Current Biology showed that action games
could help kids with dyslexia. Researchers from the University of
Padua found that playing an action game seemed to improve speed and accuracy of reading skills among children
with dyslexia, compared with playing a calmer game. And scientists at
the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found that high-school
gamers did better at virtual surgery than even medical residents.