Since Space Invaders were first released, people have been debating as to if video games are good for us or terrible for us. Do video games have benefits? Or do video games actually make us violent, impair our physical health, and impede our ability to learn?
The fact of the matter is that the majority of researchers are coming to the conclusion that games can be beneficial to us, even though there is not yet enough data to make a firm conclusion.
Is There Something Called a Good Impact of Video Games?
Yes, playing video games can have incredibly beneficial impacts. People with addictions or cravings may find that playing video games helps to lessen the intensity of their cravings. Additionally, they could be able to assist multiple sclerosis patients with balance and enhanced cognitive function. The advantages of gaming include encouraging a healthier life, increasing social interaction, delaying the ageing process, and improving decision-making.
What are the benefits of video games? Because of how they deal with various aspects of our daily life, video games are valuable. The advantages include social, psychological, and physical ones. Contrary to popular assumption, they can encourage more social interaction and good living through a variety of techniques.
Multiplayer modes in games like Dota 2 and Call of Duty (eSports standouts and standouts at online bookies offering eSports markets, like betting sites in Iceland) can aid in creating relationships and friendships that last a lifetime. Gadgets like the Wii Fit can encourage a better way of life, keep a person moving, and help them daily with their dietary goals.
This article outlines 10 specific benefits of video games for your health. But, please be aware that too much of anything might be damaging before continuing to look through. No video game advantage will allow for, say, 10 or more hours of daily play. No matter how challenging it may be, it is your obligation to determine how long you ought to play before setting down the controller and doing something else.
Improved Eyesight
There are not many gamer kids who did not hear their parents warn them as children not to stare at screens all day. They appeared to have a point for a while because we have a tendency to blink significantly less frequently when we are playing video games. Serious issues like dry eye syndrome and ocular strain may result from this.
The University of Rochester group of researchers looked into whether playing video games actually made our vision worse. A set of seasoned first-person shooter players who played Unreal Tournament 2004 and Call of Duty were included in the 2009 study, whereas more casual players played leisurely games like The Sims 2.
After testing, first-person shooter players appeared to have a better perspective than the others. The study found that playing action games enhances an ability called contrast sensitivity. This ability is especially useful while driving at night since it allows us to discern changes in grayscale against a coloured background.
Enhanced Hand-eye Coordination
Numerous occupations demand greater hand-eye correlation than the ordinary individual. Of course, surgeons rely on them to guarantee that their procedures are effective as well as that no crucial organs or arteries are accidentally punctured. For training purposes, many aspiring surgeons are now required to carry out virtual procedures.
Medical Branch scientists from the University of Texas assembled a group of high school students, graduates, and medical trainees to see who might perform better in these virtual procedures. The scientists were shocked to see that the high school pupils performed best after assessing the three categories to see who would perform better than the others.
How come? Simply put, while medical trainees seldom ever had time to play, high school students would spend at least two hours a day playing video games. The study is one of several that shows how our preferred games can help us get better at hand-eye coordination, even though it was clear that the trainees would still succeed better in real surgery.
Greater Attention and Clarity
One of the main worries of modern parents is that their children are not paying attention in class because they are too busy playing Minecraft for instance.
A researcher by the name of Vikranth Bejjanki and a few colleagues ran a few trials to investigate if games instead helped kids pay more attention by enhancing cognition and perception. Two groups of novice and experienced players in these studies had to first complete several perceptual tasks, like pattern discrimination.
The video game players outperformed the other sample that played video games infrequently or never before the investigation in the end. The paper came to the conclusion that engaging in action video games can have a significant impact on one’s performance in the areas of attentiveness, cognition, and perception through increased learning of the consistency and structure of settings.
Playing video games, in other words, enhances a wide range of skills, including paying enough attention.
Keeping You Active in Terms of Fitness
This is the benefit that most people are already aware of among all the advantages of gameplay on this list. This might largely be due to Nintendo’s Wii system, which gave gamers all around the world access to motion control gaming. Even now, hospitals and retirement communities still have Wii Sports and Wii Fit systems.
Recently, experts at the Health Sciences Center of the University of Oklahoma tested how much more beneficial physical games are for kids than passive pursuits like browsing the Internet and watching TV. Children between the ages of 10 to 13 years old underwent tests that included measuring their self-reported activity, heart rates, and energy intake while engaging in three distinct activities. The research team discovered that practising motion-control games had similar health benefits to 3.5 mph treadmill jogging. The kids burnt the same number of calories during both exercises, which was about three times higher than the kids who just watched Netflix.
’Postponing’ Aging
All people, whether they are male or female, young adults or middle-aged, have one factor in common: they are all ageing. And while becoming older and more mature has its benefits, there are certain inherent issues that crop up as well. E.g. despite the fact that the maximum speed is 45 MPH, seniors frequently drive at 25 MPH. But our brains can be kept in shape much as keeping a decent exercise routine may make your body feel 50 while you are 60.
Research from the University of Iowa has demonstrated that engaging in video games can have that effect. Ten hours of a specific video game played over the course of between five and eight weeks by 681 healthy participants in the study was found to be sufficient to delay cognitive impairment by several years. They saw a range of improvement or recuperation in all of their testings from at minimum one and a half years to roughly six and a half years. That is a significant improvement from just 10 to 14 hours of training.
It seems that playing video games and undertaking any work that requires mental practice can keep you sharp. You are already familiar with the advantages of gaming if you have ever completed a crossword puzzle or sudoku. Playing video games can help you develop new thought processes and maintain mental acuity.
Better Decision-making
University of Rochester researcher C.Shawn Green was interested in how games affected our capacity for decision-making. His objective was to determine whether playing games that demand us to watch and monitor moving peripheral pictures enhances our capacity to process sensory information and, as a result, enables us to make more precise decisions
An action game was played for 50 hours by a group of adolescents in the study who had never played before. Another set that was the same age engaged in a lengthy strategic game in its place. After doing the study, Green reached the conclusion that action games move quickly and feature side pictures and events that suddenly emerge and vanish. These video games train players to record sensory information more accurately and turn it into wise decisions.
Making You Less Antisocial, Not More
One of the greatest misconceptions about people who play online games is that they constitute awkward social outcasts. No matter if there are enough video games in the basement, not all gamers have trouble mingling with others and establishing friends
To determine how prevalent antisocial behaviour is among gamers, researchers from three separate institutions in Canada and the UK recently undertook their own studies. Everyone learned that the most talkative and sociable individuals there are those who engage in live social circumstances for gaming.
One of the investigators claimed that gamers are very social people and are not the solitary basement dwellers portrayed in popular culture clichés after attending more than twenty gaming events. He even acknowledged that, based on his observations of gamers, they had developed stronger bonds than non-gamers due to their shared love of video games.
Helping You Learn More
UK researchers discovered that some video games can boost our mental flexibility, debunking the myth that playing video games makes you a terrible student.
Seventy-two participants participated in the study, which was carried out at Queen Mary and University College London. They played two distinct games for 40 hours over a period of six to eight weeks. The games were The Sims, a leisurely life simulation game, and Starcraft, a quick real-time strategy game.
This conclusion, according to the researchers, supports the theory that manipulating the game in StarCraft allowed players to handle more resources while playing, which enhanced cognitive flexibility. In other words, because Starcraft demands ongoing thought and interaction from the player, those who have played it have superior cognitive flexibility.
Treating Depression
Researchers in New Zealand investigated the possibility of using video games to treat mental illnesses like depression a few years ago. This was accomplished using SPARX, a game created especially for teens that makes treatment more engaging and enjoyable than traditional counselling.
Each of the more than 168 youths who took part had previously displayed signs of sadness, with an age range of 15. A part of the participants got SPARX, while the other half received conventional counselling. In the game, players create avatars to defeat adversaries who stand in for gloomy, bad thoughts in the virtual world. Additionally, each step provided general information regarding depression, such as techniques for stress relief and mood management.
After discovering that SPARX participants recovered from depression more quickly than the control group, researchers came to the following conclusion: SPARX is a potential substitute for standard care for adolescents exhibiting symptoms of depression in primary healthcare and can be utilized to identify some of the inefficiencies for treatment.
Helping Couples Re-bond
Even though there are many methods for couples to unwind and enjoy themselves, psychologists from the University of Denver wondered if playing video games together was one of them. This study is fascinating because it demonstrates that men value this aspect of a relationship more than women do. In addition, it is well recognized that most boys prefer to play games or hang out with their male buddies rather than their girlfriends, wives, etc.
The study, which really started in 1996, observed 200 spouses in the second year of their marital life choosing the most significant component of their union. Their responses demonstrated a significant association between the value of engaging in enjoyable, exciting activities with a partner and a healthy relationship.
According to Howard Markman, one of the psychiatrists participating in the study, a relationship will eventually become happier if you put more effort into making friends and having fun while also being there for your partner. Therefore, even though video games were not a part of the investigation, it nevertheless serves as evidence that partners who play video games together tend to have better, more fulfilling relationships.
