Cover Sheet
1. What is the purpose of your argument?
The purpose of this paper is to explain that playing video games can actually provide and cause positive health benefits.
2. Who is your target audience?
My target audience is anyone who has played video games. Also anyone who has criticized someone else for playing too much video games out of the belief that it's unhealthy.
3. What is your thesis statement?
“with the implementation of new technologies, can videogames actually cause good health?”
4. Did you learn/try anything new while growing this composition?
I learned more benefits of playing games other than hand eye coordination.
5. What do you like best about your composition?
I feel the examples that I provide supporting my thesis statements are believable enough that it would persuade someone who thought that games were unhealthy to have a second thought.
6. Of the feedback you garnered in our workshop, what piece of information was most valuable/helpful?
7. Where would you like to see the most feedback/advice on your final draft?
I would like to know if the sentence structures are laid out in a way that they make sense and seem to be in order. I would also like to know if I need to add more or take a little away on my supporting paragraphs
Class WorkShop Copy
Playing videogames have long been linked to a myriad of negative connotations. Video games cause violence. Videogames cause childhood obesity. Videogames cause vision problems. These are just some of the claims that have been researched and printed in many publications ranging from The St. Petersburg Times to Times Magazine. However, with the implementation of new technologies, can videogames actually cause good health?
With the introduction of exergaming, a mesh of exercising and gaming, playing videogames can promote personal fitness which in turn provides multiple health benefits. There are many types of videogames that promotes different types of health benefits.
Dance Dance Revolution is a video game that has a player or players standing on a platform that has colored arrows and they must hit the colored arrows with their feet based on visual and musical cues. Dance Dance Revolution has varying degrees of difficulty which requires the player to move his/her feet faster depending on what level of expertise they are. The faster the player’s feet are moving, the more oxygen their bodies require. This kind of activity promotes aerobic fitness and exercise. Aerobic fitness increases the amount of oxygen that is delivered to your muscles, which allows them to work longer. Any activity that raises your heart rate and keeps it up for an extended period of time will improve your aerobic fitness. By using Dance Dance Revolution as a tool for aerobic exercise, increases in heart health, increases in blood supply to the heart and muscles, and the bodies efficient use of oxygen become positive byproducts. Dance Dance Revolution has been so successful in promoting aerobic fitness that it used as part of a fitness program to be phased into West Virginia's 765 state schools.
The main benefit of using Dance Dance Revolution is the aerobic fitness benefits which primarily deal with heart health. But what about the other muscles? That’s where strength training plays a role. Strength training involves the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles. Anaerobic exercises are different from aerobic exercises because less oxygen is used and the focus is more on muscle strength and development. The Wii Fit Balance Board is the perfect platform for exergaming focused on strength training. The Wii Balance Board is a wireless peripheral for the Wii console that can be used to perform strength training exercises. The Wii Fit has many different exercises so that all muscles in the body are benefited. For the lower body, you can use the Wii Fit Board to perform a single leg extension, where you’ll stand on one leg and kick the other one backwards while leaning forward and extending an arm. The Balance Board measures how stable your stance is while performing each extension. For upper body development you can perform regular push ups on the board or you can perform a push up with a side plank ( from the raised push up position, swing one arm outward while turning sideways and pressing all your weight onto the arm resting on the balance board), which is much more difficult. After mastering the different strength exercises using the Wii Fit Board, there are additional game modes on the Wii Fit that challenge the player in outperforming the virtual trainer. Doing these exercises on a regular basis definitely has its benefits. Some include, increase in lean muscle and strength, improved balance and posture, increase in metabolic rate which in turn causes weight loss, and even increase in self esteem and self image.
Hand eye coordination is another function that can be improved by use of playing video games. Hand eye coordination is the use of the eyes to direct attention to execute a specific task. People take hand eye coordination for granted but the fact of the matter is that we use it everyday. Pouring a cup of coffee, writing between the lines on a piece of paper, avoiding obstacles on the road while driving, these are just some examples of how important eye coordination is but how little we think about it. There are a variety of different games that can be played that can greatly improve hand eye coordination. First person shooters like Halo and Counter Strike are just a couple of examples. While playing Halo or any first person shooter for that matter, the player must scan the screen for enemies and other points of interest, use their thumbs to move the analog sticks with the right amount of pressure in order to move the playable character, and move their thumbs off of the analog stick to hit other buttons in order to do another functions like throw a grenade or activate a shield, and many other small hand adjustments depending on what you want the character to do all while still looking at the screen. Sounds complicated but that’s what gamers do when they pick up a controller and just play.
(Conclusion Under Construction)
FeedBack
Reflections on FeedBack
Final Draft
Earl Babista
Dr. Trey Conner
ENC3310
25 March 2009
“Kids, get in the house and play your videogames!”
Playing videogames have long been linked to a myriad of negative connotations. Video games cause violence. Videogames cause childhood obesity. Videogames cause vision problems. These are just some of the claims that have been researched and printed in many publications ranging from The St. Petersburg Times to Times Magazine. However, with the implementation of new technologies, can videogames actually cause good health?
With the introduction of exergaming, a mesh of exercising and gaming (“Exergaming”), playing videogames can promote personal fitness which in turn provides multiple health benefits. There are many types of videogames that promotes different types of health benefits.
One of the main health benefits is aerobic fitness. Aerobic fitness is a measure of how well the body transports oxygen around the body, and how well your muscles utilize the oxygen (“Fitness - Aerobic Fitness”). Oxygen efficiency is especially important in regards to aerobic fitness. Our muscles are like engines that require fuel but instead of gas, we fill up on carbohydrates and fats. Once oxygen is introduced to the muscles, it’s used to burn the consumed fats and carbohydrates to keep the engines running (Weil). The more oxygen that is introduced to the muscles, the longer they’ll work. Any activity that raises your heart rate for an extended period of time will improve aerobic fitness (“Fitness - Aerobic Fitness”).
Dance Dance Revolution is a video game that has a player or players standing on a platform that has colored arrows and they must hit the colored arrows with their feet based on visual and musical cues. Dance Dance Revolution has varying degrees of difficulty which requires the player to move his/her feet faster depending on what level of expertise they are (“Dance Dance Revolution”). The faster and longer the player’s feet are moving, the more oxygen their bodies require. Wii Boxing is a video game that requires a player to box against a computer opponent in the same fashion as fighting in a ring. The player for an extended period of time throws punches, blocks, and counters at their opponent until someone wins. These kinds of activities promote aerobic fitness and exercise because the player is engaged in an activity for an extended period of time which also requires mass amounts of oxygen consumption. By using Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Boxing as a tool for aerobic exercise, increases in heart health, increases in blood supply and efficiency to the heart and muscles, lowered blood pressure, and reduced body fat have become positive byproducts (Weil). In fact, Dance Dance Revolution has been so successful in promoting aerobic fitness that it is being used as part of a fitness program to be phased into some public schools in West Virginia and other states to follow (Schiesel).
Most people think the aerobic fitness is all you need to maximize fat loss and overall health. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Overall personal fitness also involves anaerobic fitness. Anaerobic exercises are different from aerobic exercises because less oxygen is used and the focus is more on muscle strength and development. Some examples of anaerobic exercise are lifting weights and sprinting for short periods of time (" Anaerobic exercise: energy without oxygen").
The Wii Fit Balance Board is the perfect platform for exergaming focused on strength training and anaerobic fitness. The Wii Balance Board is a wireless peripheral for the Wii console that can be used to perform strength training exercises. The Wii Fit has many different exercises so that all muscles in the body are benefited. For the lower body, you can use the Wii Fit Board to perform a single leg extension, where you’ll stand on one leg and kick the other one backwards while leaning forward and extending an arm. The Balance Board measures how stable your stance is while performing each extension. For upper body development you can perform regular push ups on the board or you can perform a push up with a side plank ( from the raised push up position, swing one arm outward while turning sideways and pressing all your weight onto the arm resting on the balance board), which is much more difficult. After mastering the different strength exercises using the Wii Fit Board, there are additional game modes on the Wii Fit that challenge the player in outperforming the virtual trainer (Amer). Doing these exercises on a regular basis definitely has its benefits. Some include, increase in lean muscle and strength, improved balance and posture, increase in metabolic rate which in turn causes weight loss, increase in bone strength, and even increase in self esteem and self image (Van Slooten).
Hand eye coordination is another function that can be improved by use of playing video games. Hand eye coordination is the use of the eyes to direct attention to execute a specific task (Doll). People take hand eye coordination for granted but the fact of the matter is that we use it everyday. Pouring a cup of coffee, writing between the lines on a piece of paper, avoiding obstacles on the road while driving, these are just some examples of how important eye coordination is but how little we think about it.
There are a variety of different games that can be played that can greatly improve hand eye coordination. First person shooters like Halo and Counter Strike are just a couple of examples. While playing Halo or any first person shooter for that matter, the player must scan the screen for enemies and other points of interest, use their thumbs to move the analog sticks with the right amount of pressure in order to move the playable character, and move their thumbs off of the analog stick to hit other buttons in order to do another functions like throw a grenade or activate a shield, and many other small hand adjustments depending on what you want the character to do all while still looking at the screen. Sounds complicated and involved but that’s what gamers do when they pick up a controller and just play.
One of the most overlooked benefits of playing video games is reading. A lot of video games today require the player to read text in order to learn how to play the game, follow the plot, or finish a mission (Thorpe). Some of these texts crawl, scroll, or stay on the screen and disappear. For some who don’t read very often, they could miss some very important clues within those texts that could give them advantages while playing the game. This forces players to adjust and read faster so they can read and retain game text. This kind of reading supports cognitive health. Cognitive health involves learning, thinking, knowing, and judging (“Definition of Cognitive”). Games like World of War Craft and Everquest require heavy reading in order for the gamer to understand the world they are playing in (Thorpe). In fact these games have so much reading in them, that novels based on these games have been published to promote even more reading.
I believe video games are a fun way to pass the time and have fun. Some people believe that playing videogames are pointless and unhealthy. Like all thing in life, videogames should not be used in excess. But while playing videogames, why not have it be not just entertaining but also healthy at the same time. Benefits like aerobic and anaerobic health, improved hand eye coordination, and cognitive improvement are definitely some good reasons to grab a controller and play.
Works Cited
Amer, N . "Wii Fit Review." Game Zone. 21 May. 2008. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://wii.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r33035.htm>.
" Anaerobic exercise: energy without oxygen." University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. 30 Sep. 2008. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/exercisefitness/exer3098.html>.
"Dance Dance Revolution." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Mar 2009, 18:40 UTC. 26 Mar 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dance_Dance_Revolution&oldid=279636420>.
"Definition of Cognitive." MedicineNet. 12 Oct. 2004. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=15297>.
Doll, Aaron . "Do Videogames Improve Hand-Eye Coordination More Than Sports?." Associated Content. 20 Feb. 2009. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1445882/do_videogames_improve_handeye_coordination.html?cat=19>.
"Exergaming." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 18 Mar 2009, 19:56 UTC. 26 Mar 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Exergaming&oldid=278177410>.
"Fitness - Aerobic Fitness." WebMD. 26 Aug. 2008. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/tc/fitness-aerobic-fitness?>.
Schiesel, Seth . "P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs ." The New York Times. 30 Apr. 2007. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/health/30exer.html>.
Thorpe, Jen . "Benefits of playing video games ." Helium. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.helium.com/items/315478-benefits-of-playing-video-games? >.
Van Slooten, Travis . "The Health Benefits of Anaerobic Exercises." Mens Total Fitness. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.mens-total-fitness.com/anaerobic-exercises.html>.
Weil, MEd, CDE, Richard . "Aerobic Exercise." MedicineNet. 25 Mar. 2009. <http://www.medicinenet.com/aerobic_exercise/article.htm>.
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