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On September 14 2011 02:20 Ownos wrote:I insist that my parent play video games.  Actually, aren't the elderly encouraged to socialize and play games to keep their minds sharp? Checkers and card games not uncommon in senior centers. Or the Wii.
They are, and you make a good point. Coincidentally, I was recently contacted by someone interested in Aging and Cognition. We may collaborate on project that assesses benefits of SC2 on aging.
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Yay for science! I wish it was interdisciplinary enough of a topic to collaborate with. However, my doctoral research is based on cellulosic bioenergy. If you think of a way to combine cognition research with mine, I'll gladly try to help! Hah! Good luck on your academic journey with this! I love it.
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Very interesting project you guys are working on. Just please don't solve the game or anything.... its too much fun ^_^
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SoCal8910 Posts
"But we need to realize that our vision clashes with most people’s understanding of gaming. If you walk around my neighborhood at 4pm you can hear cacophony of poorly tuned pianos making their way, in fits and starts, through the Harry Potter theme. Parents pay $1000 a year per child for piano lessons, and will encourage, cajole, badger and berate their kids into practicing for an hour a day, or more. Why aren’t parents bugging their kids to memorize TvT builds, or practice their 4-gate, or watch replays from their mandatory daily laddering session, or write an essay about how they can improve their game? Diligently mastering StarCraft 2 develops fine motor skills and strategic thinking, it trains both planning and time critical decision-making, it helps develop mental toughness, it encourages reflection and analysis, and it offers the myriad benefits of any serious pursuit; yet these rational, caring parents diligently limit their kids “screen time” to an hour a week."
i thought this paragraph was particularly intriguing. as someone with ADHD i can safely say that playing starcraft has improved my ability to concentrate on multiple things without distraction. hyperfocus is still an issue (that im working out) but overall, i'd be totally interested in hearing what this study has to say about developing minds and not a mind thats already been through the developmental phase.
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Italy12246 Posts
As a fellow science student, this is fascinating. Where will the results of your study be published?
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Hello,
i would like to help, but i think my actual skill is higher than my league. On 'paper' i am mid gold with only 4 wins this season because i rarely play 1v1, but rather watch tournaments and play team games with my bronze/silver reallife friends who really don't care about buildorders and things like this. This kind of replay would rather hurt than help, wouln't it?
Grüße aus Deutschland
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Cool study, gaming in general needs a lot more of this.
If you compare any game to a pure theory based game such as poker, you will notice that pretty much every e-sport is way behind. I Am not the worlds biggest day 9 fan, but I love the fact that he's actually trying to make gamers understand how important game theory is.
I've answered the survey, and I'm hope you'll be able to provide nice results from your research in the future!
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On September 14 2011 04:49 stevorino wrote:
i would like to help, but i think my actual skill is higher than my league. This kind of replay would rather hurt than help, wouln't it?
It would be helpful if you could submit your replay. I expect there will be some variability based on 1v1 not being everyone's thing, so it won't hurt the study at all.
Please be sure to encourage your friends to submit, we really could use more lower level players.
Best,
Mark.
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This is excellent! GL!!
Should maybe also check out research data (if publicly available) Korea has done on BW professional gamers. There has definitely been research and publications, just not sure if its made public.
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I'll participate once I get out of class.
Also, I'd say it's a sure bet that learning to play Starcraft well helps in other areas. Anything that requires you to focus on something trains your executive attention. Learning to play a musical instrument is good for you because you have to focus on creating the sound at a tempo. Starcraft requires you to pay attention in this exact same way with the idea of macro. Not only that, but in the process of learning to play Starcraft well, you also learn to prioritize well.
There's also a big difference, however, between actually learning to play Starcraft well and playing Starcraft like you play any other video game. Some people play Starcraft and portrait farm, or just do custom games or whatever. I think there might be some self improvement that happens as a result of playing video games in general, but there are ways to play Starcraft that just absorb time more than they do anything else.
I think though, if you wanted to influence your kid to grow up intellectually, it would benefit him much more to encourage him to learn to play Starcraft well than it would to teach him to spend his free time doing something like watching TV. If Starcraft were also something that taught you social skills it would be the perfect game for learning to be successful. Unfortunately it does not ): Lol
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This community never ceases to amaze me.
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Really well written, I hope to see much from this.
You had me at sample size.
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On September 14 2011 04:04 immortlone wrote:Show nested quote +"But we need to realize that our vision clashes with most people’s understanding of gaming. If you walk around my neighborhood at 4pm you can hear cacophony of poorly tuned pianos making their way, in fits and starts, through the Harry Potter theme. Parents pay $1000 a year per child for piano lessons, and will encourage, cajole, badger and berate their kids into practicing for an hour a day, or more. Why aren’t parents bugging their kids to memorize TvT builds, or practice their 4-gate, or watch replays from their mandatory daily laddering session, or write an essay about how they can improve their game? Diligently mastering StarCraft 2 develops fine motor skills and strategic thinking, it trains both planning and time critical decision-making, it helps develop mental toughness, it encourages reflection and analysis, and it offers the myriad benefits of any serious pursuit; yet these rational, caring parents diligently limit their kids “screen time” to an hour a week." i thought this paragraph was particularly intriguing. as someone with ADHD i can safely say that playing starcraft has improved my ability to concentrate on multiple things without distraction. hyperfocus is still an issue (that im working out) but overall, i'd be totally interested in hearing what this study has to say about developing minds and not a mind thats already been through the developmental phase.
This is interesting to me because I too suffer from ADHD. I am curious how you managed to overcome the initial "shock" (not really the right word but) of trying to multitask in a game like SC2. Basically, I can get myself to focus really well for the first 5-7 minutes of the game, I can get a build order down like clockwork. But as soon as multiple things happen at once, I start to feel overwhelmed by it, and then normal macro starts to slip (pretty common for players in general, but I am having a particularly hard time overcoming the multitasking of the mid-late game).
Anyways, this thread is pretty awesome, and I hope we get some interesting findings going forward.
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Replays submitted FOR SCIENCE!
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For those interested in StarCraft related research:
There is a substantial work currently being done all around the world with respect to game AI using BW as a proving ground. A key hot area in current study is the challenges in applying machine learning/data mining algorithms to brood war AIs which often involves analysis of large replay data sets. What we learn from these studies is often sufficiently general that we can apply our findings to writing computer controlled opponents to other games, or even different problems altogether.
Some interesting places to go visit to get your feet wet:
http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftAICompetition
AIIDE 2010 Starcraft: Brood War AI Competition/Results/Links
An interesting paper for those with any background in data mining/machine learning/computer science & Starcraft by Ben Weber/Michael Mateas:
http://eis.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/cig_2009.pdf
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Submitted my most recent ladder game and filled out survey, was quite interesting trying to estimate number of hours spent. I think I estimated pretty accurately for sc2 at least, sc1 was much harder!
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got nerd chillls several timeso.o
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This project is really great. Last I heard they needed a ton more top (gm) players to add their replays, so spam everybody you know and help out.
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Submitted. I look forward to the results.
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EPT
