How Video Games Help Students Get Into STEM Fields

Wondering if video games can help students get into STEM fields?

For decades we’ve heard so many psychologists talk about how video games are bad for kids and adults alike. The reality is that video games can have a positive effect on people in a lot of different ways. 

One very big positive is how it can prepare students for working in STEM fields as there are a lot of elements in video games that activate the brain in ways that help. In fact, many STEM fields require a kind of gamification to solve common problems to help them improve their programs. 

In this article, we will go over some of the ways that video games can help you land a STEM job. 

Problem Solving

One of the most obvious ways that video games help people in STEM jobs is that it promotes problem-solving. A complex MMO nation game is especially helpful because there are a lot of strategies involved when trying to get ahead. There are times when diplomacy is needed to solve problems and other times when conflict has to happen.

The best part is how quickly things happen so you have to be able to solve these problems on the fly. All of the skills that get developed during these types of games will all help when working in things like programming, research, and other scientific based jobs.

There are times when there is no precedent for what needs to be done and the people that have a background in playing video games are able to think outside the box and come up with unorthodox solutions. 

It’s Hard, but Fun

Playing a video game is not at all easy. Many of them are actually quite difficult and complex. They are full of failure and mistakes are easy to make. Yet, at the same time, they are fun to play. That’s because it’s a hard type of fun. There is a rush of adrenaline and positive emotion when an achievement is unlocked mainly because of the difficulty in achieving it. 

This lends itself well to the type of mentality that is required to get through the work in a STEM field. You have to like it even though it’s hard and that comes from the way your brain gets trained during play. 

Opportunity for Advancing Skills

Problem-solving isn’t just about trying to work out a solution to a problem using skills or knowledge that you already have. It also requires going above what your concept levels already are. You will have to sometimes learn from some other disciplines to be able to work out a problem. You might have to learn some physics to make an item go in the direction that you want it to go. 

Video Games and a Future in STEM Fields

This means that you have to look for the areas of opportunity to learn something new and apply it to your video game experience. The same thing regularly occurs in STEM fields where you have to look into other disciplines that you might not be familiar with to solve a problem and move a project forward.