California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State), students and faculty have various hobbies to help them unwind when the semester stress gets the best of them, one of which involves playing video games.

During the early years of video games, they were looked down upon because the games cause the players, gamers, stays at home and caused them to have poor time management skills.

Nowadays there are studies being done that show the benefits gamer can gain from playing video games.

“Finally, video games seem to be associated with an additional cognitive benefit: enhanced creativity,” a Radboud University Nijmegen study states.  “New evidence is emerging that playing any kind of video game, regardless of whether or not it is violent, enhances children’s creative capacities.”

Manuel Souza (sophomore, Computer Science) understands how he benefits from playing video games.

“It improves my mood, and I can socialize with and meet new people, especially in the game room,” Souza said about the positive aspects of video games.

For Alex Lomeli (senior, Chemistry), video games serve as a fun escape from the stress in his life.

“It is a stress reliever, I get to kick back and relax,” Lomeli said. “I don’t have to think about homework or exams.”

However, there are aspects of video games that are not as positive like Communication Studies Lecturer, Dr. Daniel Horvath mentions.

“There are problematic aspects of gaming that are negative in how they portray violence, gender, and race,” Dr. Horvath said. “One way I intervene is that I talk about the games during my classes and as a consumer I buy games that don’t have those issues.”

A video game has the abaility to summerge a player into the storyline, allowing them to live whatever fantasy they desire.

“I view it (video games) as a book or a movie, but I get to play as the character,” Lomeli said.

Video games also share some characteristics with other entertainment mediums.
“Like any other media artifacts, they’re fun, enjoyable, complex, complicated and problematic,” Horvath said.