Communication Prof. Justine Cassell recently bought Dance Dance Revolution, a video game where players dance to synchronized music, for her Ph.D. students to study how social behavior is influenced by technology.

“I bought it so we can all play it together, and I think it’s the single most popular thing I’ve done,” Cassell said. “We can get some exercise in the lab, and we also decided we should stay up on the latest trends in technology and social behavior.”

Cassell is so committed to keeping up with the newest technologies that she plans to buy her students a Nintendo Wii, too.

While college students perceive video games as a release from the pressures of schoolwork, researchers like Cassell and Sean Zehnder have recognized that students are beginning to blur the line between work and play, and are turning video games into a legitimate science.

Zehnder, a Northwestern research associate completing his doctorate in communication, studies how players behave on various game levels in response to specific game designs.

Scholars have taken a closer look at the way video games can help gamers develop their visual-spatial and thought-processing skills, he said.

Zehnder said Cassell and School of Communication Dean Barbara O’Keefe are on the “cutting edge” of interactive entertainment media.

“There are a lot of people around here interested in video games or virtual worlds,” Zehnder said.

In Class

NU’s “Fundamentals of Computer Programming” course is a popular place for students to start if they are interested in learning about computer science and, more specifically, the science of video games. Taught by Prof. Ian Horswill, the class lets students study graphics and animations programs. Ultimately they create a simple 2-D or 3-D video game.

This class has caught the attention of students who need to fill computer science distribution requirements, as well as those who are passionate about computer animation and video game design.

“I like programming, and it’s a lot more fun to play video games that you programmed because it’s like your brainchild,” Weinberg sophomore James Griffith said.

Weinberg sophomore Sam Rubinstein, who took the class last year, said that although making the video games in class was not directly applicable to his concentration in physics, the experience was good practice in learning computer structures and functions.

“Programming can be very mundane or it can be creating experiences that people really enjoy,” Zehnder said. “A lot of people become interested in computer science because of video games that they played when they were younger, and then the thought of ‘I can make something like that’ is very enticing for a lot of people.”

In Research

Zehnder said many professionals focus their research on the effects of video games, but added that these effects cannot be studied fully unless researchers also look at the impact of the video game’s design.

In a study done by the University of Rochester published in the May 2003 issue of Nature, a science journal, people who played action video games were able to process visual information faster than non-video game players.

“They had one group play ‘Tetris’ and the other playing a game based on World War II (‘Medal of Honor’), and those who played Medal of Honor were able to more accurately and more quickly identify shapes,” Zehnder said.

But there is still speculation as to why people can follow spatial tasks better after playing video games.

“We know that card games cannot have the same effect as playing Medal of Honor or ‘Halo 3,’ but we’re trying to tease apart individual characteristics of these games and add them up,” he said.

Rubinstein said he thought he learned better logic skills from Nintendo 64 games such as “Legend of Zelda” and “Starcraft” than he did in his elementary school classes.

“For a child who’s intellectually inclined, it’s refreshing to play games that are actually useful, and a lot of video games are like that,” Rubinstein said.

For Money

According to Zehnder, video games are also being used in economics classes at some other universities, where professors teach online multiplayer games such as “World of Warcraft” to help students develop transaction skills. In these online games, students can create an account and play as a character who accumulates money as the game progresses.

As the character earns “experience points” and kills monsters, players can buy and sell weapons within the game. In addition, the weapons players wield, such as power axes, can have an actual dollar value in the “real world,” and can be traded, bought and sold among players.

“People interested in the dynamics of currency exchange are starting to look at games as models of the real world,” Zehnder said.

At Play

Aside from using video games toward academic pursuits, college students still play video games for recreation and develop lasting friendships as a result.

McCormick freshmen and roommates Steve Jaconette and Ian Charles enjoy playing challenging video games, and they said they struggle to beat a Japanese game, “Ikaruga,” which is difficult for even a seasoned gamer like Charles.

“It’s the hardest game I’ve ever played,” Charles said. “Our goal is to beat it at least once before the end of the year.

While students use video games to unwind, challenge themselves and further explore their chosen fields of study, Zehnder said he feels that more work needs to be done to expand video game research.

“The video game is like the Wild West right now: No one knows how to break into new territory,” Zehnder said. “Everybody is scrambling to do something new, and it’s a very exciting time in the industry.”

Reach Corinne Lestch at [email protected].