Get Smarter - Play Video Games!

Guy Kawasaki quoted Dr. Richard Restak on ten tips for improving your brain. See http://adjix.com/35yg. I like the first one, myself:

Take up video-gaming. Action video games improve eye-hand coordination, improve spatial visualization skills, and increase the number of things that you can visually attend to simultaneously.

In my view, video games, especially the immersive MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, should be standard in every seniors facility. Not only do they provide the brain stimulation as mentioned by Restak above, but they are opportunities for social interaction, personal challenge and achievement, and provide a rich virtual environment in which to play and learn.

Players in WoW and other similar games interact with others of all ages, cultures and nationalities through the course of the game. They are continually given problems to solve (quests) and confronted with situations that require collaboration (dungeons) or research (what gear should I choose?). These activities tie into #2 and #8 in the article quoted above.

We didn't really need excuses to play video games, but it's good to have expert support for this fun activity. And if you can't visit great-grandma as often as you like, at least make sure her subscription to WoW is up to date.

Heroic Effort

Here's something I wrote to help a young man get a job at a very prominent gaming company:

HERO CLASS: Customer Service Rep

• Increased strength, stamina, agility and intellect
• Arsenal of powers and spells including inspired trouble-shooting, with greater effect against undead technologies such as unliving CPUs, routers and modems
• Equipped with unique weapons of mitigation, designed to cleave through service issues, pacify targets, and deal high levels of satisfaction per second (SPS)
• Skilled in dual-wielding monitors for greater visibility of issues
• Core ability to summon and control electrical energy over wireless and land-based lines
• Innate ability to communicate effectively with all factions, races, classes and levels
• Intuitive Presence: invoked whenever the CSR encounters mind-numbing issues or immobilizing hardware/software effects – grants the ability to quickly discern solutions and bring swift resolution.

Yeah, it was successful in getting him some attention. He's been working there for a few weeks now. Without his own abilities, he never would have landed this dream job. This blurb simply helped float his resume to the top of the pile of thousands of competitors.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the company copied it and passed it around, or hung it on the wall.