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Is Gaming Interfering With Schooling?

By Allen Stith
Black College Wire

Allen Stith

A few students are so into the video game craze, it interferes with their matriculation and can yield some negative results. Others feel that video games are very beneficial to a student's education.

Playing video games can act as a way for someone to relieve everyday stress. For others, they are a hobby for leisure time. Some are affected by the games because a few students would much rather spend time playing video games than going to class or completing assignments.

With recent video game releases of the highly anticipated Madden 08 , and anticipated Halo 3, some students attending Morgan spend an extensive amount of time playing games. A few of these students can actually be seen in the back of the game room of the Student Center, spending nearly the whole day on their laptops playing online games.

"Video games develop a lack of interest in school," explains nutritional science major Kemi Faturoti, while watching television. "I know this for a fact because a guy at my church cut school and went back home to play video games." This is an arguable opinion, as spending too much time playing video games has both pros and cons.

Games like the NCAA Football series now require that a created athlete attend simulated class sessions. Players must maintain an eligible grade point average in order to be used on the football team. Several questions are then given to the gamer which must be answered correctly. The eligible GPA for the created athlete to play is based on the total number of questions answered correctly. If several questions are correct, the athlete is allowed to play. However, if several of the questions are wrong, that athlete will have to sit out , hindering their athletic career due to the lack of play time.

It seems these games are showing gamers the importance of maintaining good study habits. "You can say video games have both a positive and a negative effect on students," says Morgan State business administration major Antonio Hollowman, while waiting for a class presentation.

"I actually think it affects your schooling for the good because it strengthens someone's memory retention," Hollowman adds. "It seems video games are only harmful when someone allows it to take up much of their time. It helps you with everyday life. For example, if you're a driver, playing games like Midnight Club makes you react quicker to certain driving situations in real life. Also, games like the Ace Combat series are actually used for people flying in the military to prepare their hand and eye coordination."

For those allowing video games to take over most of their time, try to limit playing and learn to work out priorities. Videos games will be there after the schoolwork is completed. Learn to balance out playing time with work time. Don't be the next person spending all day in the dorm room playing Halo 3.

Articles in the "Voices" section represent the opinions of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Black College Wire.

Allen Stith wrote a version of this article for the Morgan State University student newspaper, The Spokesman.

Posted Dec. 17, 2007