Found this insert on gaming and wanted to share it because I have heard this so many times. It was wrote by Paul Rubens an editor of BBC News. Many people assume that video gamers who spend hours in their bedrooms meeting people online must lack social skills when put in real-life situations. At the National Video Game Event in the US Finding a common interest But school or work friendships often revolve around shared interests and experiences, and talking about Master Chief's latest discovery or tactic is no different to discussing the weekend's football results or the comings and goings on The Archers. Games like Halo are part of such a large sub-culture that people who don't play them are likely to be seen as oddballs and excluded from many conversations - in much the same way as people who aren't interested in football or who don't have a television. There's evidence that playing video games can have a positive effect on social life, says Dr Mark Griffiths, a professor in the Psychology Division at Nottingham Trent University. "Research carried out a few years ago found that moderate game players have a bigger circle of friends than non-game players," Dr Griffiths says. Fans with Halo 3 Buy together, play together There's also evidence that playing video games can make the gamer more sporty. "It certainly speeds up reaction times and improves hand to eye co-ordination," he says. And provided children don't play too much, it seems that their academic progress is unlikely to suffer. "School children who play a moderate amount of video games are also more likely to do their homework." Over-40s could be excused for thinking that video games are irrelevant - after all, most companies target their titles at 16 to 30-year-olds. But gaming involves concentration, decision-making and speedy reactions, leading many researchers to believe that intellectual declines that are part of the natural aging process may be slowed by gaming. Perhaps zapping aliens as Master Chief might be just the thing to help combat "senior moments" - for medicinal purposes only, of course.