Has anyone ever told you not to play MMORPGs because they can make you dumb? Well, you can counter with this: Dr. Constance Steinkuehler, assistant professor in the Educational Communication & Technology program for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has argued that MMOs are, in fact, educational.

How so? Find out after the jump!

We're all too familiar with opinions on gaming that tend to swing toward the negative side; and although we can't say that those are entirely true, well, they're not entirely false either. However, there are also people who look at the positive side of gaming, that eventually led to research findings which showed that "games can help improve hand-eye coordination, and 'exertainment' can aid overweight individuals in shedding pounds."

Now, another research conducted by Constance Steinkuehler, a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Dmitri Williams, a professor of speech communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, showed that MMOs can "promote sociability and new worldviews."

People who play MMOs get to meet a lot of people from various cultures, pretty much like how pubs functioned before. "By providing places for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have the capacity to function much like the hangouts of old," said Steinkuehler and Williams.

Moreover, not only do players get to meet various people, they also get to team up with them, thus enhancing cooperation within groups, even if you've just met each other. And I guess that's true. I remember instances when I'd team up with people not necessarily from my guild to do quests and missions. I've never met them in real life, nor have I met them prior to the mission we undertook, but I do remember having lots of fun. We'd kid around and stuff, and still get the mission done which is just awesome.

The duo studied Asheron's Call I and II and Lineage I and II, and showed that MMOs can also expose gamers to ideas, world views and cultures they might not otherwise get a chance to experience. "Spending time in these social games helps people meet others not like them, even if it doesn't always lead to strong friendships. That kind of social horizon-broadening has been sorely lacking in American society for decades," explained Steinkuehler and Williams.

HOWEVER, both researchers admit that games can be unhealthy if done excessively. "It's really a question of what kind of balance the person has in their life," Williams said. "For that reason, online spaces are not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon that can simply be labeled 'good' or 'bad.' "