Video games have been around for ages – they’ve morphed into various forms, shapes and sizes and merged with emerging and existing technologies; they’ve been based on almost every theme under the sun and then some; and they’ve provided immense joy to some people even as they rain frustration and troubles on others.

Video games are not all bad however, as these studies prove; and when used with discretion and responsibility, they bring you a host of benefits, including:

1.    Boosting your ability to multitask and make faster and more accurate decisions:  A study conducted by cognitive scientists at the University of Rochester suggests that fast- moving video games like Call of Duty or Unreal Tournament help you make faster and more accurate decisions. Gamers develop an enhanced sensitivity to all the different things that are going on around them, and this helps them multitask efficiently and aids with activities like driving, reading small print, and keeping track of friends and children in a crowd. Also, such gamers were more likely to make accurate decisions in less time under pressure situations.

2.    Enabling your ability to play a sport: The jocks are becoming gamers as well – what with games like Madden NFL helping professional sports players to learn plays, defenses, calls and all other technical aspects of football, video games are no longer tools to just learn the basics; they also allow players and coaches to change the way the game is played. And here you thought video games were just for geeks!

3.    Enhancing kids’ social lives: Before you shoo your child away from his/her computer, read this first – it is estimated that 97 percent of kids play video games, and 65 percent play with/against others. This makes gaming a sociable experience; and even though violent and unhealthy games do exist, the most popular games were linked to racing, sports, and puzzles.

4.    Improving reflexes: While parents worry about the violence in most video games, they fail to see that video games are great ways to improve your reflexes. Dr. Lorenza Colzata of Leiden University’s Psychology Department says that games help reflexes, facilitate quick switching between tasks, and improve response time. And just because they’re violent, they don’t necessarily promote violent thoughts or behavior.

5.    Combating depression: Video games are not just for nerds and kids, says this study from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. It states that games that combine game play with exercise can reduce symptoms of subsyndromal depression in seniors. Over a third of seniors who took part in the study found a 50 percent or greater reduction in their symptoms and many improved their mental-health related quality of life and increased cognitive stimulation.

6.    Boosting community skills and improving the ability to make tactical maneuvers: If you thought games like Counter-Strike  which pits terrorists against counter-terrorists and involves a whole lot of shooting were altogether bad, think again – according to Professor Talmadge Wright and his colleagues at the Loyola University, Chicago, games that rely on trust and cooperation give rise to strong communities and good friendships. Players learn good tactics, and are more likely to use moves and tricks that are elegant and well executed by exploiting the quirks of the game.

7.    Promoting pro-social behavior: A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who played pro-social games like Lemmings were more likely to engage in helpful behaviour (like stepping in to support someone who is a part of their group even though they are relative strangers or helping someone pick up a box of pencils) than gamers who played neutral games like Tetris. The theory being tested here was that if anti-social games promoted anti-social behavior, then pro-social games should promote pro-social behavior as well.

8.    Training your brain and boosting your IQ: Think Nintendo and you automatically think Wii if you’re a gamer; however, this Japanese giant is also famous for its series of brain training games designed and developed by brain expert Dr. Kawashima. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training comprises a variety of mini games designed to give brains a workout and keep you in good mental health.

9.    Improving knowledge through collective intelligence: Now this is one that’s a real brain game if ever there was one – if you’ve never heard of Foldit, you probably don’t have a scientific bent. It incorporates problems in molecular biology into a game like Tetris and challenges players to stack protein as they would bricks. Of course, the proteins must be stacked according to the laws of Physics and points are awarded based on the internal energy of the 3-D protein structure. Tens of thousands of players are taking the challenge, and they’re proving better than computers at a class of problems that require intuitive leaps or major shifts in strategy. Future work will aim to combine the strengths of experts, computers and thousands of game players in what is termed as collective intelligence.

10.    Helping to cope with the demands of modern life: Researchers in Netherland have gratifying news for those of you who enjoy a bit of violence and gore in your games; according to a study, shoot-to-kill video games improve quick thinking and make players better equipped to cope with the demands of modern life.
11.    Boosting visual skills: A study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, says that regular gamers are fast and accurate information processors in game play and in real-life situations as well. Gamers don’t lose accuracy as they get faster because of their improved visual cognition. Video games enhance performance on mental rotation skills, visual and spatial memory, and tasks requiring divided attention.

This guest post is contributed by Patricia Duggan, she writes on the topic of Psychology Degree . She welcomes your comments.  You can also contact her directly via email.

While we could use the extra money and it would make things easier financially for us, I cautioned him not to go too far and to make sure he was betting with someone we could trust. He told me he had gone online and found a website for sportsbook reviews that rated all the best online sports gambling sites. I asked him what he learned and he talked about how the best and most reputable sites had very good security and paid out bets quickly. He also mentioned that a lot of people who had bet with the sites also gave their comments, so he felt like he could place a bet and not worry about being ripped off. I told him to go for it and bet about twenty dollars to start off with.

You’d think he found a whole new hobby! He did research on teams, calculated returns on odds and everything, and went for it. He bet twenty dollars and won over a hundred dollars! After I kissed him, I told him the money would help out with Christmas this year, or at least afford us a nice night out.

The Farm Frenzy trial is available as a free download from the Nokia Ovi store.

The chickens produce eggs, which is then turned into cakes, the sheep produce wool and cows produce milk, all of which is then sent off to be sold at the market.

All of the animals need to be fed well and protected from the dreaded bears before they are eaten and all your hard work is undone.

Once you have enough money in the bank you have the choice of upgrades, a new car to get your goods to market quicker, a bigger warehouse to store your produce and contain your caged bears, a new bigger bakery allowing you to make more cakes to sell at the market and increasing your income etc.

This game constantly keeps you on your toes as you work to keep your farm running efficiently and move on to the next level.  Farm Frenzy rewards you for each section that you complete until you’ve built yourself an entirely self-sufficient working business, great fun.

You can try the Farm Frenzy Trial game for free before you decide whether you want to purchase the whole game but once you’ve tried it you’ll be hooked.

You have been warned!

OnLive is a technology some seven years in the making that promises to do for gaming what cloud computing is doing for work and offices. The idea is simple, but already enough to get doubters complaining it will never work: in essence, instead of playing the game through your console or PC, you play it on a server many miles away, and a video feed comes back to your screen making it feel like it’s in the same room. If successful, it would mean that any PC – even several year old models – could run the latest games like Crysis with the top end graphic settings enabled, as all they would be doing is playing the video feed.

Just think of all the advantages: no more installation required, no more online cheaters, no more waiting to try demos, no more needing to upgrade, and most importantly for publishers: no more piracy. This is why OnLive has already attracted support from big names like EA, Epic and Take Two. No sign of Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony though – that’s to be expected from a box that could challenge their console share.

Because for what it is, OnLive is said to be very cheap indeed. It’ll be a subscription service that undercuts Xbox Live in terms of costs. All you’ll need is a computer or TV set and a broadband connection – 1.5mbps for Standard Definiton TVs and 5.5mbps for high definition. Can it be done? We’ll have to wait and see how it fares with millions of users, rather than the handful of beta testers but if it does, it will dramatically change the gaming landscape forever.

We’ll find out before the end of the year. Exciting times.

We are looking to add to the Buzzin Games blog team which is currently Mr Game and myself.  Mr Game is a young gamer where I am a seasoned gamer!

We will be reviewing games for all consoles, so please get in touch and let us know what you think.

Buzzin Games is the latest blog to join the fastest growing UK blog network – Buzzin Fly Media.