It’s not the first time we’ve heard about the benefits of playing video games, but every time there is a story we have to mention it to offer defense to all the 12 year olds out there that have to suffer the complaints of their parents screaming, “You’re never going to make anything of your life playing all those video games.” Well, you can shoot back with, “Well, I could be a surgeon.”
The February issue of Archives of Surgery released a study that found a strong correlation between video gamer’s and a surgeon’s twitch skills. The surgeons who played at least 3 hours a week made 37 percent fewer errors and performed 27 percent faster than surgeons who had never played video games before.
Wonder if Quake will soon become a requirement for your residency.
And two stories out of tabloids from the UK. First is the Inquirer is reporting that Microsoft CEO, Steve Balmer, is blaming piracy for the poor sales of Windows Vista. Predictions have been “overly optimistic” and he’s blaming software pirates in China, India, Brazil, and Russia.
And the second story is from The Register about a former IBM employee who was sacked for participating in online sex chat during a ten minute break at a chip plant. Well he’s suing IBM for $5 million dollars for discrimination for his disability, an addiction to sex. He claims he has to visit sex chat rooms to treat post-traumatic stress due to seeing a friend of his die in Vietnam.
I should note there was a similar story here in San Francisco in the late 60s when a woman got hit by a cable car and she claimed it turned her into a nymphomaniac. She sued the city for a half a million dollars and actually settled for $31,000.
Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of Spark Media Solutions.
