was extremely impressed and I started
programming again.
Over the next decade, I witnessed
the video game grow from a relatively
small industry to one that would rival
(and in many ways, parallel) Holly-
wood. The video game industry had
come into it’s own, but not without its
share of difficulties.
Through their rise in popular-
ity, video games have been placed in
a negative light for various reasons.
In the 90’s, one of the most popular
video game genres was the first person
shooter, or FPS. Many of these games
were graphically violent and at one
point, received some amount of blame
for a terrible incident that occurred
at a school in Columbine, Colorado,
where two students opened fire on
their teachers and fellow classmates.
Video games have also received
much attention for their addictive
potential. Without a healthy balance of
real life activities, repetitious playing
of video games can result in everything
from physical problems like fatigue and
sleeplessness to emotional problems
like depression or aggression.
While the primary focus in the
media has been on the darker side of
gaming, there is a more positive side to
video games and the gaming commu-
nity at large that most people are un-
aware of. There are “serious” games that
combine the fun of games with subject
matter that isn’t typically associated
with entertainment. These include
education, scientific research, defense,
medical simulation, civil engineering
and city planning, to name only a few.
There have been an increasing
number of studies researching the cog-
nitive benefits of video games. Aside
from the countless studies on hand eye
coordination, video games have also
been shown to improve motor skills
of preschoolers, improve attention
skills, improve processing speed, and
even help to overcome dyslexia. We
can see recognition—outside of the
entertainment industry—of the ben-
efits of video games and gamification
of certain ideas and concepts. And
with the advent of virtual and aug-
mented reality, there is vast potential
for new applications in the educa-
tional, therapeutic and entertainment
games genre.
In education, virtual reality
games can be used to provide an
avenue for young children to explore
career paths and interests. Imagine,
as a child, being able to ‘test drive’ a
career as a scientist or lab technician
through virtual reality. You could
explore the deep ocean as an ocean-
ographer, or try your hand at auto
repair, without having to have any in
depth education of a subject or prior
experience—all of this with content
that is engaging and fun!
In the field of medical therapy,
virtual reality is being used to help
paralysis victims regain partial feel-
ing and muscle control by stimulating
the nervous system through simula-
tion. Patients are fitted with a special
suit that mimic the sensations of
muscle movement, stimulating areas
of the brain associated with walk-
ing and feeling, helping to stimulate
surviving nerve tissue.
In addition to potential benefits
achieved from playing video games or
game based simulations, the gaming
community has a socially conscious
side to it. There are companies that
create games for cultural awareness
such as Never Alone, a game based
on the “Kunuuksaayuka” a traditional
Iñupiaq story, and games that assist
in the medical healing process like
Remission and Remission-2 a game
where “...players blast away cancer
cells in scenarios that parallel real-
world strategies for fighting cancer”.
There are also communities of
gamers getting together for positive
causes. Websites like Gaming for
Good (gamingforgood.net) where us-
ers can watch a livestream of gamers
playing video games for donations to
their favorite charities, or organiza-
tions like Games for Change (games-
forchange.org) that empower game
creators and social innovators to drive
real world change with video games.
Like so many other things in life,
video games are a tool that can pro-
vide either positive or negative results,
determined primarily by our choice
of how we use them. The potential for
experimentation through simulation
is vast and limited only by our imagi-
nation. For creators and developers,
video games provide an almost unlim-
ited platform for delivering entertain-
ment content, teaching in new, engag-
ing and intuitive ways, or providing
new forms of cognitive and physical
therapy. For the consumer, video
games can be a new way to learn, be
engaged in peaceful endeavors, a way
to overcome disability or adversity, or
just a way to blow off some steam and
have fun for a couple of hours.
Shawn Green is a former game industry veteran
who began his career in 1990. He spent the
majority of his career working in the first person
shooter genre and is known for titles like DOOM,
Quake, and Halo PC. In 2007 he started his own
company working on non-violent games before
finally exiting from the industry in 2013. Shawn
currently lives in Maryland and spends his time
meditating and working on software of a more
enlightened nature.
IMAGINE
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