Tank Rush Beats Dementia: RTS Gaming Combats Senility

News has reached us from the University of Illinois via gamepolitics that playing real-time strategy games can improve cognitive function. I thought that after my previous article about negative attitudes towards gaming from the psychiatric community, the negative gamers might like some good news.

It seems that in a range of tests performed before and after a game of Rise Of Nations, senior citizens showed improvements in their planning skills. The original article from Physorg states,

Those who did well in the game also improved the most on switching between tasks. They also tended to do better on tests of working memory.

Professor Arthur Kramer who conducted the study also commented that “[i]n medical terminology, these would be dose-response effects. The more drug ‘“ or in this case the more training on the video game ‘“ the more benefit.”

This news really couldn’t reach us at a better time. I for one find conversation with my elderly relative quite difficult at Christmas. So on Christmas Eve when we’re all together I’ll just set up a LAN party and tank-rush their wrinkly asses. It’s for their own good after all.