Valve playtests the shit out of their games. A lot of <i>Portal</i>'s theming is based on their extensive testing culture and the ways they've developed to manipulate the player through testing. For example, the Weighted Companion Cube came about because they wanted a level where you solve puzzles while carrying an object. But the playtesters kept leaving the damn object behind. So Valve's solution was to tell them it was a "character" they had to care for.
I wish they did this test with people who played the Quake series (Quake / Quake II / Quake 3 / Quake Live). They were arguably one of the most popular non-realism based FPS games of their time (they spanned ~25 years).<p>The big difference between Portal is, Quake is a multiplayer game where you're playing against a human in real time and there's no backup plan of being able to Google an answer if you get stuck. You either practice and get better or get utterly destroyed. It's really a good case for overcoming challenges and persistence.<p>There's 1v1 matches where you need to memorize maps to such a degree that you can almost navigate them blind folded. You're also dealing with timing multiple items down to the second, predicting where a human opponent will go, mastering each weapon in every scenario to maximize damage output while minimizing damage input and also generally having a high level overview of how the match is going to figure out when it's worth taking risks or play it safe.<p>That's just the mental side of it too. Then there's needing very good reaction times and dexterity to aim quickly and precisely and each weapon has its own style of aiming (flick shots, precise tracking, projectile prediction, instant hit scan weapons, etc.).<p>And then there's other variants of the game like 4v4 TDM or capture the flag that share similar challenges as above but now it's amplified because you're playing with a lot of people and you need to make very interesting decisions with powerups.<p>All of this happens within seconds and becomes second nature once you've played long enough. It's actually almost unbelievable that a human brain can react so quickly and become so well adjusted to navigating a high speed virtual world under pressure. A lot of these Quake games were played at live events with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line before e-sports became as huge as it is today.
I still maintain Portal 2 has the greatest narrative in all of video games - it’s expressed purely in gameplay, it’s funny as hell, and has a surprisingly deep emotional core.
So carefully selected video games are the real brain training. Who would have thought..<p>The following finding also continues to be interesting:
“More remarkably, we found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate this gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity in mental rotation ability, a higher-level process in spatial cognition.”
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17894600/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17894600/</a>
Anecdotal, but I completely agree that Portal supercharges your brain, and I've believed this for years. Back around 2011 when portal 2 came out we had a family reunion. I had been playing a lot of Portal at the time. One of my uncles broke out one of those brain teaser type metal ring puzzles where you have to pull the rings apart.<p>It made it's way around the room as we talked and no one could figure it out. As soon as it came to me, I saw clearly exactly what needed to happen to solve it, and within seconds it was solved. I still think it must have been all the Portal 2 I had been playing.
So to make <i>real</i> genius kids, throw away those Baby Einstein videos, ditch the "brain training" apps, and just <i>play</i>.<p>What would the play curriculum be?<p><pre><code> Minecraft
Portal 1 & 2
The Talos Principle
Infinifactory
</code></pre>
What else? I'm thinking something that involves a fourth spatial dimension or causality manipulation would also be good. I'd recommend Spellbreaker if I thought kids would tolerate text-only games these days.
A neuroscientist friend of mine says Lumosity is not just junk science, but junk implementation of junk science. I would imagine just about any real puzzle solving task would have a greater impact on cognitive ability than the specific case of Lumosity.
Not surprised by this as Portals puzzles combine so many different abilities like abstract reasoning, planning, dexterity and reflexes. Now, the question is of course if other 3D video games (e.g. DOOM) have similar health benefits. I'd say Portal is a pretty "intellectual" game compared to most shooters, so I'd expect the overall effect to vary. Navigation in three-dimensional environments seems to be quite a complex task in itself though, so maybe that's already where most of the effect is coming from?
I don't know any of those but could it be that Lumosity is just harder on your brain making you more tired and mentally exhausted? I mean, if a group relaxes for 8 hours and other group does lumosity for 8 hrs, why should the second group do better after exhausting their brains for so long?
The tests for problem solving used were:<p>Raven's progressive matrices,
Insight Test,
Remote Association Test<p>Spatial cognition:<p>Mental rotation test,
Spatial Orientation Test,
Virtual spatial navigation assessment
Could it be that Portal players felt they were more successful in their games than Lumosity players felt?<p>I know that successfully completing a task(s) just before a test will result in better performance on tests, and failing will result in poorer performance.
I wonder if any of this boost, or even a significant portion, comes from just being happier and relaxing after playing a game for 8 hours. Rather than some perceived brain training.
People who have played a funny, pretty looking and relaxing puzzle game prior to solving skill based questions perform well. What have we learned? Was it the puzzles or GlaDOS?
The idea of rounding up a bunch of test subjects and having them play Portal to collect data on them is hilarious to me.<p><i>Hello and welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center.</i><p>I wonder if there was cake at the end.