What benefits, if any, do people get out of playing video games? Most of the writing on this is highly speculative. That being said, I’m going to take another crack at some of the main books on the topic. Here’s my current reading list:
What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (2nd edition)
Got game
How computer games help children learn
The gaming life
Don’t bother me Mom–I’m learning
Everything bad for you is good for you
I’ll come back later and let you know what I find.
I have also found a few really interesting papers lately, that are based on empirical research rather than speculation, suggesting some limitations on the claims in the above books. I’ll be back later with some discussion of these papers as well.
Papyrus News 
Check out http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu, too