Video gaming is becoming more and more popular as technology and software improve. Anyone who plays video games already knows that there is far more than simply wiling away the hours pressing the same few buttons over and over again. Video gaming can improve your life in many ways, from forcing you to engage your brain in ways you are not used to, to focusing and dealing with loss to overcome a challenging task. There are also some great benefits to your mental health and well-being too. Games are becoming more and more complicated, and immersive games are now really testing the boundaries between real life and the computer world. In some cases, they blur, and although some may argue against this, there are some benefits that gamers are privy to. So, let’s take a look at a few ways video gaming can enhance your life.
Your Ability to Express Yourself
To many people, the real world can be rather limiting. We live in a controlled society where we have to adhere to certain rules, social rules, and cultural rules. We have to be aware of all the different types of people in soccer and kerb our enthusiasm as such. However, in the video gaming world, normal rules do not apply. Indeed you can become very creative when creating a character or avatar to play with. These characters can allow you to express part of your personality that you would never dream of doing in the real world. In that sense, it definitely has its place in escapism. Additionally, playing games is becoming more and more a social thing, and you play games with people all over the world who hold a similar outlook to you. In this sense, it can be quite freeing as you may say things, express ideas, desires, etc., that you wouldn’t dream of doing in your everyday life. This can help you be who you really are and feel less isolated and lonely. There are many people out there who feel and think like you do. You just may not have met any (or not been aware of any) in your normal day to day existence.
Enhance Your Brain Power
Whether or not playing video games can make you more intelligent or increase your IQ is a matter of debate, but there is a lot of evidence that shows that video gaming can stimulate your brain in many different areas. Areas that are particularly active are to do with strategic planning, spatial awareness and navigation, memory and muscle control, and these areas are shown to actually become larger. You can also enhance your multi-tasking ability too, and by playing games often, these areas are ever more strengthened. All this means that you are enhancing your ability to do these things, adding more dimensions to your mental ability and developing more advanced problem-solving and general thinking skills. In fact, some of the games within these games are pure problem-solving tasks. They also test your reading comprehension and critical thinking all the time too. So, you are bound to get better at these things. Also, new evidence has come out that video games have the power to prevent and even treat some brain disorders. Perhaps, in the future, there will be specially created games for people with dementia, offering hope to millions of people, who knows? Games definitely enhance your ability to spot patterns too. All these skills can be translated into your everyday life and make you a much better candidate for certain job roles. It may even make you better in the financial world too. Things such as investing can require a lot of pattern spotting and critical thinking, you may even find exchange betting far easier.
Develops Your People Skills
A modern gamer generally interacts with a lot of different people online. Whether you are working together as a team to overcome the challenges that the game has created or working against each other head to head, you will learn a lot about other people, how they behave and what motivates them. Playing with other people in the game environment will help you in your real-life interactions with people. You may even learn a lot more about yourself through his medium than you would in real life too. Gamers need to communicate succinctly and quickly in order to get their point across, be understood and achieve the results they want to in the game. You will need to adapt your style of communication depending on who you are talking to as well, and this can help you make quick decisions and decide how best to be understood. Communication is key to getting on in the world, and if you become adept at this skill, you may have a lot more opportunities than someone who struggles to communicate.
Personal Accountability
There is a lot of personal accountability associated with playing video games. You are in control of a character who does exactly what you command of them, and many games are very challenging, like Metroid Dread, and push the boundaries of what you can do. Because you are in control of your character, you have to take responsibility for what happens. You will be required to face hard challenges head-on, and your response is the variable that matters. If you fail, you need to try again. A game, therefore, can increase your ability to persevere and get through something very difficult. It heightens your focus, and you need to start motivated and not give up to achieve something. Only you can affect the outcome. The translation of these skills into the real world are pretty clear. With dogged determination and focus, you can achieve a degree and strive toward that dream job you want, for example. In the game, you have control over the character, and in real life, you have control over your choices, focus and determination. You will need to develop your introspection skills to figure out where you went wrong, and this is another skill that can help you in life too.