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From: TEDxYouth
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  • Gabe, your claim that gaming explains the Flynn effect is unsupported by the facts. Flynn himself has argued that recent _declines_ in IQ observed in the UK and elsewhere could be explained by the increased emphasis on games in youth culture and decrease in reading. It's not definitive, and I suspect one could make a more convincing argument that gaming can increase IQ, but you have not quite done that.

  • Being a parent and coming from a gaming back ground (I've grown up with video games my entire life including years of my adult life immersed in online gaming) I'm not so sure it's all gonna be OK... You see, the better you get at online gaming, the worse you become in real life! From your health to social interaction... If you truly love your children, limit there video game playing! Get them outside, get them to read a book... Don't let your laziness be the reason for your child's inactivity!

  • @Birdishi I think you're right. But most kids don't really need to be thrown out, they do it by themselves if they socialize at school. I myself didn't really like most people in highschool and I was a really dependant player, I think. But then, I realized at some point it was a little pointless to play this much and I played less and it turned out I now have a "normal" social life, I believe. People who play games (non violent oriented games) aren't bound to be unable to socialize IMO.

  • @Birdishi im conflicted on your idea. I use to play WoW allot around its first 2-3 years of its release. I had one friend at school that played with me as well. Here is the difference between me and him. I was in band. band was my social outlet, and i had many friend. my friend however had only me, and the game and it consumed his life. his grades fell and he ended up dropping out. i think kids will be ok, as long as the have at least one extra-curricular activity, and everything in moderation

  • I got mw3 and i suked at it, later i learned to aim first before aiming again with the scope, then aligning my view before coming out of a corner, even violent games have an indepth learning process

  • So much nonsense

  • Gabe is awesome.

  • This reminds me of the 'foldit'-project. Google "Gamers Unlock Protein Mystery That Baffled AIDS Researchers For Years."

  • Great talk. We've learned a lot from Gabe in implementing our mobile app, launching in March. SixSaw.com

  • Bad camera-human is bad.

  • fellow gamers: we have just been freed!

  • anyone know the song at the end?

  • You're wrong about todays kids not sitting down with a cup of tea and reading... I just got done with exactly that. Well not exactly, I had coffee instead of tea.

  • The idea that in the future 40-year-olds with kids won't want to relax and read after a hard week at work is total nonsense.

  • @murrayallan why relax and read if you can relax and skyrim? ;)

  • Reminds me of a Popeye episode, Popeye was in the future, his babys' toy was a chemicals kit :D

  • this guy is amazing!!

  • IQ rates stopped in Denmark and Norway, what does this have to do with the subject? I liked this guy until he decided to fuck over two of the smartest and richest countries pr gdp in the world.

  • I just lost The Game. Like. 20 times.

  • Did he say he's spent 8-10 thousand hours playing civilization.. good lord that's a long time.

  • the "Arrow to the knee" Jokes are DOA you faggots.. on topic,this dude is awesome!. :)- 

  • IQ in america iq is going up? "RIGHT" I thought it would be going down thay are so thick or at least the goverment is!

  • @letiger42 Europeans, gotta love their sense of superiority even when their entire continent is collapsing.

  • and also in the future we will all be 100 pounds heavier because of this!We will be learning on our asses:D

  • Does the guy editing the video here have ADD or something? Dude doesn't know when to show the footage of things Gabe is actually TALKING about.

  • Resistance is futile, parents.

  • Fahrenheit 451

    just sayin'

  • Clan PMS|Asterisk* led me here!

  • rts games . this guy mean :P

  • smart guy

  • i used to be smart...... then i took an arrow in the knee

  • @Taimoorabdullah I love you sir/ma'am.

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  • Playing RPGs on the N64, Playstation and on my PC got me into reading fiction way more than any other influence in my life.

    Ico got me into puzzles. WoW got me into cooperative and collaborative project creation.

    My mom often asks me where I get my great memory and analytical brain from, and I tell her to play more games.

  • Well spoken

  • As much as I like video games, it will be a tragic day when people don't read proper actual books (Novels, not manuals).

  • press 7.

    you get it?

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  • This guy needs to slow down. He's talking to fast, his message is not being received or heard as clear as it could be if he just talked a little bit slower.

  • I lost ...

  • I don't think sitting in the window with a good book will ever completely go away. It'll just become like going out square dancing or something, a niche activity. Deus Ex and Bioshock should have already taught us that game experiences can be just as introspectively art as a book.

  • I'm a veteran WoW player (BWD 5/6 BoT 4/5 before disband in Mar 2011) as well as a college student who is graduating with a BS in env. science and a minor in math a few weeks from today. Playing WoW taught me basic LUA programing through add-ons which gave me an understanding of visual basics for my current job. I have a friend who plays Halo in the top 0.5% tier who is currently working on UAV's for NAVAIR in Ridgecrest, CA. It's been my experience that gaming can present a positive influence.

  • I'm really not sure WoW was the best example to bring up in this presentation.

  • @TitoZ14 Why wouldn't it be? If you say "well most people who play it are hermits" then you need to see the computer gaming community at Auburn University. They are some of the more interconnected people I have ever seen who meet up each day for lunch on campus to hang out and talk. They are also some of the smartest on campus, able to balance playing and studying perfectly. The stigma associated with WoW is, in my opinion, just as much a stereotype as any other and just as incorrect.

  • @2913auburnman I was indeed referring to the stigma and stereotype of WoW. Sadly my personal experience with the game wasn't far off from it, but you're right that still doesn't make it true.

  • @TitoZ14 How is it not? How many aspects of learning are there in WoW?

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  • @Jegoutclubberdig

    There have been studies showing it. Doctors who regularly play games were shown to have 33% LESS errors, and did thr work faster. There have been no studies showing how experiencing a terrorist attack or reading a magazine increases performance.

    I see what you did, now do what I did - and give me an example of a study. I gave you one, I have many more.

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  • Also, it's not the act of playing a game as much as gaming, almost everyday long term. I'm sure there will be some noticable changes in the brain if we were blown up, everyday.

  • dude you know, ive always felt smart and logical. even tho i dont have that good of grades in school (because i dont try) i can do everything in all my classes no problem.

  • @skatedistrict238 bro thats same with me, i can do all the work no problem its just not interesting.

  • Increase in grey matter doesn't actually directly correlate to intelligence at all - it sounds to me like it was merely an increase in spatial awareness (particularly with juggling). In essence, increasing grey matter only really means your nervous system has expanded slightly more -and we all know intelligence is much more complicated than that!

  • Hes not saying video games will make you smart. but it sparks knowledge and brain growth so that you can learn more.

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  • Same

  • gix brought me here :D !!!!!

  • A third of of high-school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives, and neither do 42 percent of college graduates. In 2007, 80 percent of the families in the United States did not buy or read a book.”

    Empire of Illusion:

    The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

    By Chris Hedges

  • “Functional illiteracy in North America is epidemic. There are 7 million illiterate Americans. Another 27 million are unable to read well enough to complete a job application, and 30 million can’t read a simple sentence. There are some 50 million who read at a fourth- or fifth-grade level.

    Nearly a third of USA’s population is illiterate or barely literate — figure that is growing by more than 2 million a year.

  • Ungovernable ignorance

    Perhaps large segments of the American population have become so astoundingly ignorant of basic principles of economics, science and politics that the most powerful nation on Earth has become virtually ungovernable. Consider this:

  • I disagree, as an old man I wanna look boring and wise all the time. But then at night...

  • @finalfatasyfreak49 Im sure you could explain in about 480 characters.

  • @finalfatasyfreak49 Whats so wrong about people that are fat, or jews?

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  • Thumbs up if Gix brought you here.

  • I doubt people that play Call of Duty all day are very smart.

  • @GraydonW I think he meant good games. Not conformist shovelware.

  • @GraydonW

    I bet people who play strategy games like StarCraft2 online successfully are.

  • @GraydonW Doesn't Call of Duty have loads of multitasking objectives

  • @viewtifuljoe93 COD has more 12 year olds screaming into their microphones than actual, meaningful gameplay.

  • @GraydonW I would be careful about saying that, while there are a lot of annoying 12 year olds on Call of Duty, there are a lot of smart players. I play a lot of Call of Duty a lot, and I'm top of my class, a senior in high school, going to college for engineering. It requires lots of teamwork, multitasking, and using tactics to outsmart your opponent. A dumb player fails in CoD.

  • @GraydonW I have played Call of Duty since MW2 and have played their past products as well. By the time I retire one of the games for good, I have put around a days worth of play time with my friends online on the game. I am about to be accepted into pharmacy school. One of the people I play with is an Engineering Student. I missed the part where we aren't very smart. The stereotypes associated with games are the same as any other stereotype.

  • @GraydonW studying tatctics and thinking how to win cannot be done by a dumb person

  • @GraydonW

    Call of duty isn't a very good game

    IMO, i think games that make you think like portal or minecraft make you smarter

  • @ubunthero i agree about portal but minecraft is stupid

  • @zerorida i highly doubt a game that allows you to build an effective four-function calculator, castle and intricate mining and transportation can possibly make you stupid

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  • @GraydonW it helps reflex/multitask, BUT ur right CoD is just a shooter-multiplayer. there is no conflict you have to solve(unless you count-"one guy jumping out from a corner at you and you shoot him"-as conflict solving)

  • @GraydonW it does depend of the game obviously

  • @GraydonW As much as I agree with this statement I play Call of Duty. So I take offense to it. Only people that aimlessly run into combat to try and spray down as many people as possible. The inverse to that (people like me) (Yeah, I'm cocky, so what?) know that it requires much more thinking than that. For instance, if you're playing a game of demolition you need to be aware of.

  • @GraydonW 1) Where your teammates are and where they're headed. 2) Where the spawn points are and how they will transition if your team moves to the predicted locations and

  • @GraydonW 3) You will need to be when the spawns swap. 4) You will need to know the tendencies of the players on the other team and where hotzones are located on the map for these given play styles.

  • @GraydonW 5) How to stay out of high-traffic locations to avoid the occasional random explosive device 6) always being attentive to the announcer calling out UAV or Advanced UAV

  • @GraydonW 7) Knowing how to minimize your surface area when peeking out of cover and how to react if you take fire. 8) How to navigate around the map you are playing on... There's a shit-ton more that goes on in the game that you have to think of in contrast to playing... Say, a non-MMO game such as Skyrim.

  • @GraydonW You'd be surprised.

  • @GraydonW doubt again then

  • @GraydonW it will make you smart but not intelligent

  • you won.

    you won the internet.

    all of it.

    this is awesome.

  • 03:49 - I disagree, but otherwise this is a GREAT argument.

    I read all the time. ATM I'm reading through the Silmarillion as my friend showed it to me. I only got into watching LOTR, and then reading the Hobbit and now Silmarillion, from the LOTR GAMES.

    Kids don't not read any more... it's just that nobody notices it because it's not a common occurence.

  • If Gabe Newell and Steve Jobs's charisma had a child, this would be the outcome.

  • Shogun 2 raised my IQ!!

  • but i'm still pretty dumb. =/.

  • I playA LOT videogames and study in the video game field, but I also read tons of books every month. It all depends in what environnement you were raised in I guess.

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  • 11:11 LOL

  • Whew, and I was just about to stop playing Saint's Row: The Third to pick up my copy of Plato's Republic. Thank god this guy told me to play Saint's Row rather than waste of bunch of wacking-people-with-dildo time to read some boring ass book about caves or some shit.

    Seriously though, if people actually believe this drivel then, despite his advice, I am indeed quite fearful of a future where everyone has a high I.Q. and nobody knows anything.

  • @gangusx i believe you missed the point. he was trying to say that games are the best tool we currently have to LEARN. It's not that Modern Warfare 3 is going to teach you much, but the very principle of games can be used for instance to teach math or language, physics (image actually seeing the environment your equations are affecting in real-time), chemistry, ...

  • @jancheck I believe he also said that games such as Call of Duty do have an educational element to them, as they improve hand-eye co-ordination, develop teamplaying and competitive skills. Would you learn as many 'facts' as more traditional learning methods? Doubt it. Do you learn nothing? Certainly not.

    At the end of the day its a far better way for kids to be entertained than sitting in front of the telly like older generations.

  • WTF is this guy talking about I game all the time but I read almost as much..

  • He is so much an american, adrenaline pumped to push efficiency talking about things we know for years. And by all that talk it seems he is only trying to justify games as a normal activity - again, a thing we know for years. The thematic is solid for 30 years, but the driving force and goal are just selfish - captain obvious. And he blew his authenticity by trying to put a backward Atari console from US in front of game tech progress in the '80. I didn't know ignorants are allowed on TED.

  • i watched this in english class lol

  • bw average age is taken both by mist if us lying about our age online to remove age restrictions and most surveys would be taken by those older than us .

    on an unrelated note

    If your funny James, I'm a pretzel. Drop dead :D

  • YEA CIV III!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 15:20

    hey guess what?

    you just lost...

  • @106zilch

    There's a difference between enyoing a game and getting "addicted".

    The ammount spent on games is irrelevant. It's the mindset that matters.

  • So does this mean I can drop out of uni and just play games?

  • @2601andrew yes mate.

  • @sbrook129 Thank God, History is so boring...

  • Amen!

  • OK. What about social awkwardness?

  • @Shchvova What if social awkwardness is not the point where the people at when they play games all day, maybe they so much evolved as a human beeing that the other "normal" people social awkward and can not think the way they can? only because a group of people claming the fact that it is not normal it doesn't have to be right.

  • one of the best explanations i ever heard for my generation ^^

    the speed trap is a very good example want one of them here to ^^

  • At first I found the speach very interesting, but when GZ gets a fact wrong, how can I trust that the rest of the facts in the speach is correct?

  • @helledrach1 The whole basis of TED is an idea worth talking about, not all of them are right. It's to make you think more than anything else. Every fact could be wrong, but if it makes you process it and come up with your own opinion instead of blindly thinking something. It was worth it.

  • Good talk, but he's presuming too much.

    "Things are going faster", fair enough, this has been the trend for the last couple of thousand years, and is probably speeding up.. But this gives more time for reflection and drinking by the window.

  • sooooooooooo...we need more portal like games?

    

  • He just made a 16 minute video watchable

  • I just lost the game, like every 3 minutes ...

  • @MrKain134 just lost it now

  • I would love to see this guy and Nicholas Carr having a discussion as Carr wrote The Shallows, arguing that the internet and constant need to be entertained inhabits our creative processes and thus our problem solving ability.

  • This is the proof that we are actually living in a world of Zombies!

    I feel an urgent need to watch "Fahrenheit 451" right now....

  • @cantanto999 So you're not a zombie by just assuming that Ray Bradbury was right about everything? You do realize his book was fiction, right?

  • @helloimtom100 @ThiagosbbBR I'm not saying video games are not a medium to express one's artistic creativity, nor is it completely bad. . Video games are tools that can assist learning, but the speaker criticizes traditional learning as boring, and how the rest of society needs to "catch up". Learning isn't just about speed and instant gratification. He doesn't discuss how too much video games can be detrimental.

  • Does the concept of Gamification scare anybody else? Seriously, I'm an 18 year old who grew up as a gamer, but I don't want games to work their way into my everyday life. I play them to escape from reality and all the drama associated with it.

  • @MoltenMustafa its more like a way of thinking and solving problems. especially prelavant in childhood development

  • oregon trail ?

  • @iamrawrface Your daughter has dysentery.

  • You know what is the funniest thing about it?

    Is that we, the firsts of the Millenium Generation, will have a huge connection with our kids. We are going to THERE with them more than, for exemple, my father was.

    Great TED!

  • There are certain skills that require heavy critical thinking, that cannot be accomplished through the limited confines of a video game. Sure "gamefication" can alter how we think about simple problems, but video games can not foster original, creative thinking that is limited in a virtual reality. For instance, how could a video game teach you to enjoy painting? Or enjoy literature? Can you score points on that?

  • @dtran288 Firstly, the word "limited" do not go with Virtual.

    A Video Game CAN teach you to enjoy painting or literature.

    Let`s think outside the box for a while. What is video game Character/Environment/Design if not Art itself, for example?

    In Literature, will say what happened to me. I have always played Rolling Playing Games and this Kind of game started in me a will to read Fantasy books...so I read the Lord Of The Rings. Today, I have a passion for variety of books.

  • @dtran288 Also, this Gamification goes beyond a Zombie Killing Video Game. As said on this video, you can make video games for actually potentially increase the learning process. You can stimulate in a positive and efficient way all the process learning, going way beyond the normal process trying to stick information into your head.

  • @dtran288 what about minecraft, that certainly inspires crativity, although certainly liminted with the tools its uses, but non the less a world which you shape and will to your own

  • Friggin awesome!!

  • I disagree, I am an avid gamer and I love sitting by the window, reading a book and drinking tea while I wait for the installation to finish.

  • @superhamzah85 I completely agree with you. Recently I got the newest eragon book inheritence. When i get a book i put it above all else because i love to read. I love to game but i dont let it get in the way of my work or my reading. I read the 857 page book in 2 days because i love to read.

  • @superhamzah85 You are a kid who does that?

  • @Enots5987

    The average age of a gamer is in the early 30s.

    Does what? Read? Sit down? Drink hot drinks?

  • @superhamzah85 funny, I do the exact same thing, right down to the tea (I prefer a sweet milky earl grey.)

  • I was always thinking I'm wasting my time but as it turns out I worked on my fluid intelligence. Thank god I'm not stupid!!

  • one of the best ones on TED.com .. really good talk ....

  • Also reward system is not that good, because in real life you don’t get reward for every good thing and sometimes you have to wait for the reward. This reward system will create a mentality that when you do something right there is a reward, Which Is Not True.

  • @106zilch In real life, you also get paid for your day of work and companies only accept the best applicants based on their resume, should we emulate that at schools too? Also, Games as with anything else in real life, you don't always get rewarded immediately for doing what's right, a lot of it depends on the coordination of others, completeness and luck

  • And also kids today are hardly getting anything good, he talked about future generation that how their life will be much different but not how kids are struggling TODAY because they find school uninteresting. School system is probably will be same next 10 years, until then it’s a huge loss for kids. No one in real life is that fast pace TODAY so until the world catches up them these kids are stuck, for them real life is not interesting. This is hardly good news.

  • @106zilch Actually schools are changing as well, new curriculum that better harness multimedia technologies for the pursuit of learning are continually being implemented in classrooms.

    Technological progress is speeding up the rate of societal change, It's up to the school curriculum to accommodate to remain relevant to their society, not the other way around

  • I don't get his talk.

    He said playing games is good but it develops skills like multitasking and others but how these can be beneficial? When a child is all day playing video games where else can he benefit from these skills? He completely ignored the reason why parents try to stop their kids from playing because all they do is play ‘IT IS ADDICTIVE’.

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  • @106zilch

    Games are not addictive in themselves. It's an underlying cause that makes a person addicted to games. I can be just as easily hooked by a game as I can a book, but if I have to lay said book or game aside, I can easily drop it.

    I've been through periods of "game addictions" and it was NOT the games themselves that were the reason for me taking shelter behind them, I can tell you that.

    A shelter is a shelter, wether it'd be a game or a cardboard box.

  • @yodokodo I'd say that cause is the fact that the world sucks so much and nobody seems to give a shit.

  • @yodokodo Exactly. My game addictions were not due to the game itself, but because I was trying to escape whatever my real life was presenting me at the time.

    Thats what games are for me, an escape, but I like to think that being able to be good at games requires a sort of mind multitasking, and it has really helped me in the real world. I consider myself an amazing multi tasker.

  • I made it until about 15:35 before I lost the game.

  • @Raffra damn so true

  • Actually, this is about ALL of us. Keep in mind that brain plasticity is very real for people of all ages. Which means it is never too late to train your brain. Video games is one highly effective approach.

  • Love this prescription - get into the game with your kids, stop fighting the trend and understand the dynamics of the games and how your kids think.

  • I'm a 22 year old gamer, currently working at an office and I still don't get it how is that supposed to help me. I can also hardly imagine my 62 year old mother playing video games with me. I find this lecture a little bit irrelevant.

  • @HojoAmasuke

    that's because it's not about you (or me, I am 37). It's about the next Generations...

    If Kids can learn language or math in 35 % of the normal time with, it's a revolution.

  • If this guy doesn't stop waving his right arm around, I'm going to break it off.

  • Great talk, just discovered Gabe at Google Tech Talks which is a must see.. Totally digg this story as well!

  • This is such an awesome talk!! Why has TED.com not picked it up?!

    He drills down so well into the basics of why Games work for influencing a population of people.

  • Gabe is awesome!