First off, I am not a parent who bans video games. I have been known to play a few in my 38 years on this earth (starting with kid games on my parent's Atari system). I have read articles touting the positives of kids playing them (hand eye coordination is one) and the negatives (too much screen time, the violence of some games - to name a few). However, last week on vacation I watched my son use his knowledge from a video game in a real life venue, and it amazed me what he has learned.
The game that made a difference: Endless Ocean, Blue World.
For those not familiar with the game, it is a scuba diving based game that has a story line, quests and more. One of the quests is to "collect" fish and other marine life to unlock them in a Marine Encyclopedia and to place them in various tanks at the Aquarium. You can create an avatar the beginning, accept diving requests to take people to see the desired fish or other marine life and take photos of various species to send to publications.
While on vacation, we took a day and visited Newport Aquarium in Kentucky. We had been several times before, but our son was much younger. He has always enjoyed watching fish, sharks, jelly fish, and pretty much anything that swims. (Visits to the Columbus Zoo always meant making a bee line for the aquarium area and spending nearly an hour with the fish, manatees and sting rays). We arrive at Newport and start walking through the exhibits. J was looking at the tanks and started naming off different fish and aquatic life without looking at the pictures and information off to the side. When I asked him about this knowledge, he said it was because of the video game.
Now I know that not all games are going to provide him this level of awareness about a topic, but at this point, I am grateful that he had been able to have fun playing a game that has given him facts about something he is interested in as well.
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