But the students talked through these games as they played.

Two of the games were single-player only. Six of the games in the study included ways for players to work together in the game itself. Portal 2 is a puzzle game that requires creative thinking. Minecraft is a game about gathering resources and constructing a world. Players work together to defeat enemies and collect loot. For example, Borderlands 2 is an action-packed role-playing game. The control group, in contrast, makes no changes. One or more groups will change their behavior. To understand the effect of a change in behavior, scientists must compare at least two groups. They could come and go whenever they wanted to, but each had to play for a total of 14 hours.Īnother group of students did not play any games at the lab. The students played in a computer lab over an eight-week period. So he recruited 16 university students to play eight different video games. Multiplayer games also require good communication among players.īarr wanted to know whether these gaming skills carry over into real life. You have to be able to figure out what to do if you’re just dropped into a situation,” he says. “Games are always keeping you on your toes. He also played a lot of video games while growing up.įrom his own experience, Barr knows that video games demand quick thinking. He studies video games and gamer culture at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “Employers want you to think for yourself and adapt to changing situations,” says Matthew Barr, who conducted the new study. Sharpening those skills can help someone get a job or advance in a career. It also can make them better at adapting to new situations. Researchers in Scotland found that playing video games in a group can improve young adults’ communication skills and resourcefulness. Still, they are likely building skills that will come in handy in the real world, a new study finds. When gamers band together to defeat a three-headed zombie dragon boss, they may not be thinking much about school or work.

Real life video game experience