The Game On exhibition, currently being held at London's Science Museum, examines the history of video games to see if the world's fastest growing entertainment industry is a blessing or a curse to humanity. Do games contribute to sedentary lifestyles leading to obesity? Are there any long-term psychological effects? Can they be addicting? In short, yes (just like other media), anyone's guess, and of course. More importantly, while the adults pondered the question, kids ran rampant getting their game on. "Yeah, mom and dad. You solve the world's problems while I score 500,000 on Pac-Man. I'm the future!"
The following is the exhibition's attempt at arguing both sides:
A blessing
- New York study shows that nimble-fingered surgeons who played video games were 30 percent more accurate and faster than their non-gaming colleagues.
- Video games are now used in training Air Force pilots.
- Californian researchers have developed a game for kids with cancer that has a nano-robotic heroine called Roxxi who seeks out and destroys malignant cells.
- British kids, for example, now spend an estimated two months of the year staring at a screen in a country where child obesity and lack of exercise is a major health concern.
- And Amsterdam has a clinic for video game addicts -- an eight-week gaming detox which offers group therapy and counseling.
- World of Warcraft (our comedic addition)
