Your endless hours of playing Fifa has finally come good 🙂
New research from ESSEC, one of France’s leading business schools, has found that playing sports videogames can increase participation in real sports, especially among young men and boys.
38 per cent of boys under the age of 21 who play sports games on “active” game consoles practice their favourite virtual sport in real life, while 75 per cent of gamers participate in some kind of real sport, according to the study.
“Videogames are frequently demonised. We now know that these fears are unfounded,” said Thierry Lardinoit, ESSEC’s marketing head.
“There is a strong correlation between playing video games and participating in real sports. Watching television is a threat to physical activity. Videogames are not, however,” he added.
TIGA CEO Richard Wilson said: “Videogames have traditionally been developed for entertainment purposes but they can also have positive side effects. The ESSEC’s findings that playing sports video games can increase the likelihood of playing the sport in real life is a case in point.
“More generally, video games can be used for educational and training purposes. A fifth of UK games business make educational or serious games, making an explicit feature of learning. A number of studies suggest that video games may help to promote skills such as visual and motor skills, strategic thinking, relationship building, computer literacy, collaboration, competition, multi-tasking and experiential learning.”
So don’t worry gamers the next time your Mum or girlfriend complains of your gaming side you have this to show off.
News Source: Edge
