Do Video Game Skills Equal Real Life Skills? Microsoft Intends to Find Out!

Video games get a bad rap — from memorizing every key combination for effective battling to navigating 360 degrees of expansive and intricate digital terrain, today’s games take a lot more brainpower than one might think. But can the skills and cognitive functions acquired for games translate over to more productive aspects of learning? Executives at Microsoft think so, and they are shelling out a pretty penny to find out just how it all works.

Microsoft has put up $US1.5 million to start The Games for Learning Institute, a joint venture with New York University and other colleges. The goal of the research is to see whether video games – and not just software specifically designed to be educational – can draw students into math, science and technology-based programs. The institute has begun lining up middle school students to study.

While some cursory research has been done already — University of Wisconsin, for example, observing the enhanced analytical minds of World of Warcraft players — but the vast majority of studies have involved strictly educational video games. (Not exactly favorite sellers among the average students.) A study like this not only has the potential to blow naysayers out of the water, but could have numerous future applications. From in-class aides to distance learning tools, video games still stand poised as the next wave of the educational future–as soon as scientists can unlock exactly what makes us love them so.

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