Motion-Controlled Video Games Improve Real World Skills

Some video games may actually help with real life skills, when it comes to sports.

Motion-controlled video games, like games on the WII actually seem to better your skills, compared to push-button games, or no video games at all.

A study by Penn State found that people who played 18 rounds of a motion-controlled video golf game that simulated putting did significantly better at real-world putting.

"What we can infer from this is that the putting motion in the game maps onto a real putting behavior closely enough that people who had 18 holes of practice putting with the motion controllers actually putt better than the group that spent 45 minutes or so, using the push-button controller to make putts," said Edward Downs, former doctoral student in mass communications, Penn State, and currently associate professor of communication, University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The researchers believe that motion-controlled games have changed the way we look at video gaming.

"It seems to us that we've crossed an evolutionary line in game history where video games are no longer just video games any more, they've become simulators," said Downs.

"These games are getting people up and physically rehearsing, or simulating motion, so we were trying to see if gaming goes beyond symbolic rehearsal and physically simulates an action closely enough that it will change or modify someone's behavior."

When the golfers took to the real life greens, people who played push-button games, like Xbox did worse than those who didn’t play any video games, and those who played WII.

Downs believed they did worse because they had to translate the previous 45 minutes of pushing buttons into real life, where the others had a clean slate.

The study saw 161 people get divided into three groups, motion-controlled gamers, push-button gamers, and non-gamers. After the groups who played the video games were finished all three groups were asked to putt balls from three different distances.

"In this particular study we are talking about an action that would be considered a fine motor coordination. Putting doesn't use major muscle groups," said Downs. "But, going beyond this study, I think one of the areas we need to be looking at is to find to what extent consoles with motion controllers can be used as simulation devices to improve large-motor coordination."