Video games and Medical School

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Concubine

Concubine

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Consider it a way to make me a better doctor by increasing my hand-eye coordination or a seductive way for me to fail medical school.
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definitely try "Beat Mania" !!!
 
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Quix said:
Video Games = Time Suck. Damn you, Grand Theft Auto!
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There will be nothing like healing people during the day and sending hundreds of virtual people to the emergency room.
 
I had a cousin (now a second year OB-GYN resident) that got a PS2 to help his hand eye coordination.

My roommate and I play guitar hero on a pretty regular basis.

You can play videogames in med school, just as long as you have the will power to play them in moderation and know the difference between a good study-break and blowing-off studying. (don't know how effective the hand-eye coordination thing is, but couldn't hurt)
 
nothing beats "Taiko Drum Master"
 
Hey, have you guys played, "Dr. Slasher" on PS3? That's the best game I've ever seen. When you play in surgeon mode, though, it can get pretty gory. Well if I'm going to play a video game it's got to be medically related... Oh, another good one I've been hooked on recently is "Med School: Admissions" on the Wi. It's kind of like the Sims, but Med school style. Why apply in real life when you get get your little virtual friends to do it for you?!
 
Depakote said:
I had a cousin (now a second year OB-GYN resident) that got a PS2 to help his hand eye coordination.

My roommate and I play guitar hero on a pretty regular basis.

You can play videogames in med school, just as long as you have the will power to play them in moderation and know the difference between a good study-break and blowing-off studying. (don't know how effective the hand-eye coordination thing is, but couldn't hurt)
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Damn video games. I'm pretty sure it's the culprit of my only "C". I can only hope that playing halo will somehow make me a better doctor. Sounds like a good secondary essay.
 
are u telling us the truth or are you just being sarcastic, P icklesali?
 
actually, it's kinda funny. i read an article a while back talking about how video games helped surgeons make less mistakes than their non-video game playing colleagues.

here's the link.

if this is true, i think we'll all be world famous someday. :laugh:
 
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Metal Gear Solid is sucking up all my free time...wait what free time?
 
I'm pretty sure Halo 3 will keep me busy for a while.
 
Me and a good number of friends just sang to Karaoke Revolution the other night. Amazing, absolutely amazing. I don't play games much, but when I do I find myself on Popcap or downstairs playing the original NES or Sega my roomie brought. Old school is best.
 
Karaoke is 15$/hr in Cali. I don't know about philly though
 
Trauma Center on the DS is fun.


Brain Age is a game that says they help develop your brain. I'm not sure if it's helping or not, but I'll tell you in a few weeks.
 
Concubine said:
I'm pretty sure Halo 3 will keep me busy for a while.
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i can't believe it's coming out in fall right before i start to apply for med school. im going to have no time to work on my essays and keep up the grades.
 
sle3pyguii said:
Trauma Center on the DS is fun.


Brain Age is a game that says they help develop your brain. I'm not sure if it's helping or not, but I'll tell you in a few weeks.
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Whoa... I totally thought you were being facetious like me...until I looked them up.
 
ahaydt said:
Me and a good number of friends just sang to Karaoke Revolution the other night. Amazing, absolutely amazing. I don't play games much, but when I do I find myself on Popcap or downstairs playing the original NES or Sega my roomie brought. Old school is best.
Click to expand...

Karaoke Revolution is one of my favorite games of all time. The American Idol version is really fun! :laugh:

I can't wait for Guitar Hero III and Rock Band coming out in the fall. Hopefully I'll get some sweet new games for Christmas!
 
trauma center on the wii is horrible!!! what are you guys talking about?! the story line is really lame, too.

then again, i have absolutely zero interest in becoming a surgeon...

a good game on the wii is rayman rabid rabbits. where else can you shoot toilet plungers at a screaming rabbit?
 
Concubine said:
I'm pretty sure Halo 3 will keep me busy for a while.
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I believe that halo 3 will not only make me forget about going to med school, i probably wont even graduate college
 
excite truck on the wii,
and on the PC, world of warcrack
 
Concubine said:
Consider it a way to make me a better doctor by increasing my hand-eye coordination or a seductive way for me to fail medical school.
Click to expand...

Mostly the latter. There are some benefits to video games in terms of surgery -- not so much the hand eye coordination, but those handful of games where you end up flying through caverns, sometimes inverted, and have to remember your bearing, are actually a bit helpful in seeing the world the way you need to in laproscopy. But it probably pays to master this during the summer before med school and box it away when classes start.
 
I've given up on videogames, but my all time favourites were strategy, FPS, and real-time strategy.

Any recall (for the PC of course)
Team Fortress Classic / CS / Half Life
C&C / Red Alert / Starcraft
Civ Series / Master of Orion
Sim Cities

Ya wow...I used to play way too many vid games.
 
Does anyone here like PC point-n-click adventure games, like The Longest Journey and Syberia. They are by far my favorite genre of games because it's almost like an interactive movie, but it takes a lot of puzzle solving and exploration to make it to the next step in your journey. :thumbup:
 
hp540 said:
I've given up on videogames, but my all time favourites were strategy, FPS, and real-time strategy.

Any recall (for the PC of course)
Team Fortress Classic / CS / Half Life
C&C / Red Alert / Starcraft
Civ Series / Master of Orion
Sim Cities

Ya wow...I used to play way too many vid games.
Click to expand...

these are some classic games

I guess you shouldn't start playing starcraft II when it comes out.
 
chad5871 said:
Karaoke Revolution is one of my favorite games of all time. The American Idol version is really fun! :laugh:

I can't wait for Guitar Hero III and Rock Band coming out in the fall. Hopefully I'll get some sweet new games for Christmas!
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Rock band I'm stoked for. A regular drumset doesn't fit into my apartment very well. My game list is kind of odd, I go through strange kicks. On 360 I had a surprisngly fun time with Rainbow Six Vegas, Guitar Hero II, NBA Street Homecourt, and even the bigs (as a rental). I return to "Oblivion" a lot too. The newest Forza is great if you like racing. Drunken uno and geometry wars on xbox 360 arcade are also pretty darn fun....and god of war II on ps2.
 
Oh man...pray that none of you discover World of Warcraft...or as some call it World of Warcrack...
 
kronickm said:
Oh man...pray that none of you discover World of Warcraft...or as some call it World of Warcrack...
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Yea. I have read a ton of studies on that, and interviewed a few serious addicts...massive multiplayer is just a bad idea in general. Any game that you can't win is bad. One of the guys I interviewed had a 0.5 gpa freshman year and put on 45 lbs. He realized he was a serious addict and eventually sold all his accounts (for like 5,000 dollars) and got his life back together.
 
MossPoh said:
Yea. I have read a ton of studies on that, and interviewed a few serious addicts...massive multiplayer is just a bad idea in general. Any game that you can't win is bad. One of the guys I interviewed had a 0.5 gpa freshman year and put on 45 lbs. He realized he was a serious addict and eventually sold all his accounts (for like 5,000 dollars) and got his life back together.
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I don't think MMORPGs are a bad idea persay....its just a different world.
You essentially live two lives, if your not good at this one, you can still gain fulfillment from the online one. I think its a good escape.
 
artaxerxes said:
I don't think MMORPGs are a bad idea persay....its just a different world.
You essentially live two lives, if your not good at this one, you can still gain fulfillment from the online one. I think its a good escape.
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I think social isolation in video games is not a good thing. For me, the enjoyment comes from playing with real people...like sitting down to a classic game of four-player mario kart or halo with my friends. I do enjoy an occasional single player game, but I think this is where the danger comes in. Virtual socialization should never be a subsitute for real and meaningfull socialization.
 
artaxerxes said:
I don't think MMORPGs are a bad idea persay....its just a different world.
You essentially live two lives, if your not good at this one, you can still gain fulfillment from the online one. I think its a good escape.
Click to expand...

MMORPGs are a drug. Medicine needs to realize it. Few people escape. All while Blizzard laughs to the bank.

Crappy PC. My MMORPG anti-drug. :laugh:
 
Concubine said:
I think social isolation in video games is not a good thing. For me, the enjoyment comes from playing with real people...like sitting down to a classic game of four-player mario kart or halo with my friends. I do enjoy an occasional single player game, but I think this is where the danger comes in. Virtual socialization should never be a subsitute for real and meaningfull socialization.
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MMORPG is hardly single player, in fact its the exact opposite, you get to meet thousands of people from distant lands that you would otherwise never get the chance to interact with. To these people, it obviously is meaningful, otherwise why would they spend so much time doing it? By the same token you can say SDN members and mods especially are wasting their time because we are essentially a virtual network of similarily inclined (professionally/academically) people.
 
The two opposing views above should be further discussed. Lets say we agree that MMORPG is as good as real life. Who are other people to tell you what's 'real' and what's meaningful? I wondered recently if one could take it a step further and say play single player rpgs like final fantasy but bond with the characters just as well. After all how are you sure that the players on the online games are real or just AI, or does it really matter as long as you are enjoying yourself?
 
I agree, SDN is just like a fantasy online roleplaying game. Pretty damn addicting.
 
thank god i dont play anymore video games. in highschool i was a real addict and never got anywork done
 
artaxerxes said:
I don't think MMORPGs are a bad idea persay....its just a different world.
You essentially live two lives, if your not good at this one, you can still gain fulfillment from the online one. I think its a good escape.
Click to expand...

I don't think it is evil or anything, but you have to learn moderation and control. There are people that become very very very very disconnected from their daily lives. Relationships end, jobs gone, grades down the tubes, health drops off, etc. The people that have these problems have a little more than a small problem. The distinguishing characteristic is that it almost always involves gams where you create a character and play with no true ending. There are some other interesting social issues that go on. Over 80% of players choose their own gender character to play with, and even in the videogame female characters are treated differently than male. Also, many of these games (the study comes from the MUD days) have developed their own set of rules and guidelines. They will even punish a person who violates these rules in the virtual world. The famous example involved a virtual rape and sexual assault.

While there are always kids that have a difficult time rationing videogames, I hardly see the night up playing halo or guitar hero quite the same as disconnecting from daily society and developa completley new social network.
 
Get bioshock, it feels like crack. I think I'm going to box my video game playing during medical school. I just cannot handle the impulse to play.
 
I'm surprised that none of us remembered to mention one of the best new games in the market,


GEARS OF WAR.
 
I remember hearing a news story about some surgical programs encouraging General Surgery residents to play video games to improve hand-eye coordination. With that said, I'd probably hold off on the x-box and PS-3 until I'm actually done with med school and into a residency somewhere. From what I've read in the MD forums, you don't really have much time to do anything else in residency except study and work, but I'd think some sort of pass-time like music, chess, video games would be necessary to keep you from totally burning out.
 
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