LAN Games

Rat- Tat- Tat, Fire in the Hole!, Cover Me Team, Man Down... Kaboom!

Counter Strike

No this isn't World War II or a movie depicting a war or Chuck Norris. It’s the warfare "played' by young guns over LAN in many a forms like Counter Strike, Halo, call of duty, etc.

Except for teaching hardcore violence, profanity and all the blood n gore, these games have some pros too.

Empathy: Which path will those scumbags take next? Which path should i chose to fry them?

These are the few questions that i find myself pondering over while playing FPS games.

One of the big things about many games is you’re interacting with other people in such a way that you have to actively think about what the other people are doing or thinking in order to either play against them or play them cooperatively. Either way you've got to be engaged in trying to think of how is this person learning and what’s this person going to be doing next.

Better cognitive health: Playing video games have shown to have positive effects on cognitive health. It is no wonder why, because the majority of games require players to follow rules, one has to juggle an arsenal of guns and grenades, strategically use them, think tactically, make fast decisions and fulfill numerous objectives to win. So leaving the game room with a truck load of bodies and a higher IQ... not bad!

Teamwork: one of the great points about these LAN games is team work . We have to strategize (and often sacrifice) in order to take the other team down. Sometimes one has to take the fall for the team (that being me though).

Stress busters: well i don't think i need to elaborate this one. Putting a few animated bullets through ones digital skull can be fun.

There are also media reports about hospitals using video games to help patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Dexterity: A study of 303 laparoscopic surgeons (82 percent men; 18 percent women)  showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not the play video games first. It’s hard to believe, but not playing games could even lead to someone’s death!

Sharper imaging: Avid action video game players are found to localize a peripheral target in a field of distracting objects more accurately than non-action video game players, as well as to process a visual stream of briefly presented objects more efficiently and to track more objects at once than [non-action video game players] (provided you have corrective glasses).

Lastly, it is great for 'killing' time and bonding with friends and I never feel low if my death count is lower than kills. All I do is change my user name to "got castrated" and everybody goes ROFL when the little notification displays _____ got castrated (i.e. when  my death toll rises). 
Where is the fun with bots anyways? They can't bunny hop or crouch walk (or add fun commentary to every kill). Besides I fire some lucky shots too but the end of the day feels less stressed and definitely more fun.