“Important research has already been conducted for decades on the negative effects of gaming, including addiction, depression and aggression, and we are certainly not suggesting that this should be ignored,” said lead author Isabela Granic, PhD, of Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands.

Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children’s learning, health and social skills, according to a review of research on the positive effects of video game play to be published by the American Psychological Association.

For many people, playing video games is much-needed downtime. The psychological benefits of playing video games can carry over into real life when they relieve stress and anxiety. Some studies have shown immersive games can even treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hi Riley - what about the movie 'Wall-E'? Could that be useful as a possible way that humans could live their lives?

WARNING SPOILER-In a movie called “Ready Player One” the setting is a completely urban, people wouldn’t leave their houses most of the time (BTW: their houses were the size of shipping containers + they were stacked on top of one another). In “Ready Player One” the city or world was completely revolved around VR. The way people would get their food was through delivery drones, unless they chose to go out to the centre street market.

While shooting furiously at virtual enemies it’s quite important to know how much ammo you have left so that you can get more or retreat. In real life counting ammo as it leaves your gun is difficult, because human beings get distracted, lost in the moment or count wrong.

Now inventor Michael Ciuffo has created a real-life ammo counter. This is a tiny computer that attaches to an automatic weapon, runs on AAA batteries and uses an accelerometer to measure the recoil of each shot. You can view a test video of the ammo counter here. Unfortunately this is not for sale, but if you search a little further you’ll see that many manufacturers have come up with similar products that are available for purchase.

You know those in-game statistics displayed on your screen that show you where you are on a map, the contents of your inventory, your health, and so on? That is called a heads-up display (HUD), and its development in real life has been very successful so far. You may recognize the qualities of an HUD as the same technology seen in Google Glass.

Engineers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea are improving upon the Google Glass idea through creation of soft contact lenses that have the same benefits as Google Glass but without the partial obstruction of vision.

One piece of technology has already changed so much in every day life, if you don’t know what it is read this. Google Glass is a wearable computer featuring a head-mounted display in the form of eyeglasses. The Google glasses function as a hands-free smartphone, letting users access the mobile internet browser, camera, maps, calendar, and other apps by voice commands.

A medpac (also spelt medpack or medipack) is a first-aid kit that video game characters can walk over while playing to heal any injuries or improve health. Scientists have begun developing medical items that closely resemble a virtual medpac.

A college student named Joe Landolina has invented a gel that can be squirted directly onto a wound to immediately stop it bleeding. It binds cells together and triggers the body’s natural clotting mechanism.

Scientists from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have also been hard at work creating a foam that stabilizes internal bleeding. It doesn’t completely heal a wound, but helps to buy time until the injured person can receive proper medical attention by dramatically slowing down bleeding. The fact that the foam is easy to remove means it doesn’t hinder any surgery that later needs to be performed.