Presently, the majority of kids and teenagers are hooked on playing video games, regardless of their gender. Gaming has become quite a phenomenon, creating an industry which values many, many billions of dollars.

Tuesday, a 76-page report on the impact that playing video games has on teenagers’ social skills was made public, revealing that game playing is actually beneficial to both civic engagement and social interaction.

The study, which was performed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found that teens’ gaming activity has become a substantial part of their overall social experience, online games gaining the upper hand over single-player games.

The report revealed that about 97% of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 play video games, of which 50% are boys and the other 47% are girls. Moreover, results showed that 72% of those surveyed played games with their friends or were part of a gaming group.

Nevertheless, this study starkly contrasts with a gruesome 2005 situation, when a lawsuit against the "Grant Theft Auto" video game providers was filed, the plaintiffs claiming that the software had turned teenager Devin Moore to a life of crime. In 2003, the latter stole both a car and a policeman’s gun, which he used to shoot officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump and also dispatcher Leslie Mealer in Fayette, Alabama. The legal action was filed on behalf of the victims’ families and maintained that the 16-year-old (at that time) boy had been driven to engage in the killing spree because he had obsessively played the GTA series.

In terms of preferred games, „Guitar Hero” seems to be the most popular one, based on data gathered via surveys, followed by racing games such as „Mario Kart” or „Gran Turismo,” „Halo 3,” the „Madden NFL” series and „Dance Dance Revolution.”

On a related topic, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have gained much ground over the past few years, the craze culminating with the widely known „World of Warcraft,” which currently has over 10 million subscribers.

As far as social skills are concerned, WoW is the type of game that enables kids and teenagers to be part of a community, thus teaching them some valuable lessons about interacting with others, even if the socializing occurs in a virtual environment. Moreover, it can even come to encourage people to establish lifelong friendships that have at their core the passion for gaming.

So kids, game on!