Playing games is good?

I was tasked to conduct a plant design project in order to complete my Bachelors of Chemical Engineering. The project requires, of course tremendous amount of technical background on the subject matter. The team which I was in consisted of 5 members of the same discipline. In the initial part of the project, we were required to proposed a site for the production of ammonia and urea plant. Of course there are many references which one can refer to. I am sure you are now thinking how does this relate with the title? Easy!

The task brought me back to my younger years when I was playing SimCity 3000. If you have no idea what is it about, go check it out. The game has taught me a lot on planning and some may not realise that it has also taught some good points of placing plants especially landfills, incinerator and power plants. In order to ensure that the surrounding areas aren't affected so much.

A snapshot of SimCity 3000

That said, I realized that the whole team wasn't aware of other factors. They kept mentioning buyer and raw materials only. With the knowledge learn from the games, I told them that there were many other factors like environmental impacts, flora and fauna, utilities, noise pollution, transportation and etc. They were shocked that there were so many factors.

SimCity 3000

So, do you think games are good for kids (or even adults)? Of course, just don't overplay till one not see the sunlight. :)