Video games are apparently good for you. Of course, kids have been touting the benefits of Medal of Honor and Space Fortress for years, but who knew that students in the Israeli Air Force who actually played Space Fortress regularly, had better rankings in their pilot training than those who did not.

“People that play these fast-paced games have better vision, better attention and better cognition,” said Daphne Bavelier, an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester.

Some fear that because the games are so violent, kids will become hardened to killing and not feel human emotion. Others feel that it will instead give kids a better understanding of what it means to be harassed and they will go out of their way in real life to help someone in need.

Video games are here to stay, no matter what your feelings are on the matter. And I would say that eventually on job applications for brain surgeons, fighter pilots, crane operators and the like, there will be a section that requests the candidate to “list the video games you are proficient in.”

Ms. Bavelier did admit that perhaps some of the violence could be too much for women. “As you know, most of us females just hate these action video games” she said. “You don’t have to use shooting. You can use, for example, a princess which has a magic wand and whenever she touches something, it turns into a butterfly and sparkles.”

I’d venture to guess the kid who aces THAT video game would be a great candidate to play TInkerbell in a Broadway play of Peter Pan.