Take Aim! FPS vs. RTS: Which Gaming Genre Boosts Cognitive Abilities?

Dear friends,

welcome to episode #83 of Gaming Science. Many scientific studies have show that gamers, compared to non-gamers, are better equipped in aspects of cognitive abilities. However, it is unclear whether—and if so, which—gaming genres are the main drivers; this is what we'll be looking at in this episode.

🧠 Cognitive Abilities of Gamers

If you have ever played against one of your buddies who doesn't usually play, you should have easily beaten them. The reason is that you have 'trained' and specialized in a specific video game (genre). Along with that, you have picked up skills that are useful in the virtual world. Science has found the same pattern, and it's now a well-established fact that video game players outperform non-video game players in a wide range of cognitive abilities. For instance, gamers have better visual attention, cognitive control, visual short-term memory, and general processing speed.

However, studies attempting to replicate these findings have encountered challenges. One suspect behind this inconsistency is the video game genre. If you take a sample of 100 LoL (MOBA) players, the results may differ from a sample of 100 CS2 (FPS) players because both genres require and train different skills and abilities.

To address this potential problem, the authors of the study compared the cognitive functioning of FPS (first-person shooter) and RTS (real-time strategy) players.

"We propose that the differences in game mechanics found between FPS and RTS games will be reflected in cognitive performance [1]."

The authors chose the RTS and FPS genres because of their fundamentally different settings:

• RTS Games: RTS games can have a higher number of moving objects, such as 200 different units in StarCraft 2 (unless you play Zerg, then you get to cheat).
• FPS Games: RTS games require greater task switching, like switching between different "screen states" or map viewpoints. For instance, in CS2, you rarely need to switch screens, whereas RTS players may constantly shift their attention between their base (to gather resources or produce an army), the front line (to control attacking units), or the enemy base (to gather information). All of this switching can measure mental flexibility.

👥 Study Participants

To see if game genres actually influence differences between players and non-players, the authors divided the 86 study participants into three groups: 28 FPS players, 28 RTS players, and 30 non-gamers.

📊 Which Gaming Genre Dominates?

"Overall our results suggest that players of RTS games have greater cognitive abilities, in particular their object tracking abilities, than do FPS players given similar amounts of playtime [1]."

Let's unpack the findings, starting with RTS players. They outperformed non-gamers across the board, showing superior performance in accuracy, task switching, and tracking moving objects. FPS players also fell short of RTS players in object tracking performance.

"... both gamer groups [RTS and non-gamers] had comparable switch costs and it therefore cannot be said that RTS gameplay enhances mental flexibility more than FPS gameplay. It instead appears that the advantage of RTS players lies in their quicker overall reaction times [...], suggesting superior speed of processing [1]."

The marginally better perceptual sensitivity among RTS players, the authors argue, stems at least partially from their advantages in early perceptual processing—quicker reactions to visual information.

FPS players, on the other hand, had advantages in switch costs and performed similarly to non-gamers in tracking moving objects. This finding is unusual, as one would expect CS2 players, who constantly flick and aim, to be better at tracking moving objects on a screen than non-gamers.

"Since FPS games also place heavy emphasis on quick responding it seems unlikely that RTS games are somehow especially well-suited to improving processing speed, but no determinations can be made based on our data [1]."

It appears that both RTS and FPS games improve certain cognitive abilities, though one may not be universally superior to the other, as the authors pointed out.

Read y'all next week. Best,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Dobrowolski et al., 2015