Chess has always been the ultimate war of wills and ultimately of brain power. People view it as a test and an honor, but as it turns out, Starcraft may well be surpassing chess as the “drosphila of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence. Starcraft 2 represents a new era in kids and a new set of expectations in how to compare smarts.
Of course, most schools haven’t gotten involved in this yet, but Starcraft 2 has attracted many men and the attention of the scientific community at large. We have even seen an entire blog dedicated to the “science” behind a video game and its imaginary creatures.
According to Mark Blair, a cognitive scientist at Simon Fraser University, “It’s working memory. It’s decision making. It involves very precise motor skills. Everything is important and everything needs to work together.”
He later adds details such as “What we’ve got is satellite view of expertise that no one was able to get before. We have hundreds of players at the basic levels, then hundreds more at slightly better, and so on, in eight hundred categories of players.”
While Starcraft 2 has been demonized for its addictive tendencies for some and the problems that arise according to some from too much play, this kind of research is meant to give some sort of credibility to the game. We cannot say for sure how that will turn out of course. There are many who will continue to believe that this game has no innate value.
However, whether gamers err on one side or another, millions of gamers all over the world will continue to play Starcraft 2 for various purposes. What we do know for sure is that at the very least, video games like Starcraft 2 have been known to help children with ADD or ADHD to focus in life in general.