The Video Game Club: An Interview By Shazain Niazi
What happens when you give a group of mastermind players a controller?
I am Shazain Niazi of Class 11-B, and I interviewed the Head, Bilal Ahmed of the school’s videogame club. Here are a few questions he answered.
Why do you think this may be important for students?
“I believe any sort of games that require you to interact and problem solve and think about where you are, what your environment is important. I believe all of that is important as it builds up that problem solving skill and that you want to, you know, look at a problem, look at a challenge and want to overcome it. Besides that, an overwhelming want to do something like video games, frame problems in an interactive, fun sort of way that other mediums mental challengement cannot. Moreover, video games help your hand eye coordination and they help your reaction speeds as well.”
Could this potentially have a negative impact on a student's academics?
“Speaking of academics, it's a really good question, right? Because if video games, obviously, if you spend too much time doing anything, right, it becomes a question of balance. If you spend too much time doing anything, then your academics can be impaired.
Even if you spend too much time reading, while it may help you in some subjects, if you're reading all day, it cuts down on your study time and can lead to declining grades. I think the important thing is when you're running a tournament, right, you ensure that it's not cutting into class time.”
Why did you choose Mario-Kart specifically for this event?
“A lot of things went into the choice for Mario kart. Firstly, it's an easy game to run, right? On the logistical side of running Mario Kart, you can run Mario Kart Double Dash, which is a game for the GameCube.
Right now, the GameCube is slightly older hardware. So emulating it on a computer, as we did, is much, much easier and leads to higher performance in the game. Another reason is that Mario-Kart is easy to understand for people that are new to video games or people who haven't played Mario-Kart before.
You intuitively grasp the controller design, which is A for acceleration and left and right for moving through a joystick and drifting and using items just comes naturally once you've done that.”
What could students be gaining from this event?
“I think as for gain, if you look at the material side, there's going to be either a certificate or a trophy for the winner, but if you look at the deeper, more skillful side, right? It breeds healthy competition between the students, right?
And that healthy competition can be a drive and a motivator for other factors in life, like in studies or maybe in athleticism, and another thing, students gain, as I said in a previous answer, it sharpens your problem-solving skill, which is incredibly important, especially in today's job market as well as it improves your physical abilities like your hand eye coordination and reaction speed.”
Bilal Ahmed
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