While many people might believe that video games are a waste of time and there are much better things you could spend your life doing, the truth is that video games are actually incredibly beneficial in so many ways, whether that’s stimulating the puzzle-solving parts of your mind, or just entertaining you and helping you destress.
However, video games can do so much more than that. In fact, they can actually teach you some essential life lessons that could stay with you for the rest of your life. In today’s article, we’re going to talk about five of the top lessons you need to know. Sorry parents!
1. Gaming Can Help Build Relationship Skills
There is a huge number of video games these days, which are multiplayer orientated, especially when you consider the huge battle royale games and MOBAs that implement teamwork and communication as primary game mechanics. While many people see video games as rather isolating pastimes, this simply isn’t the case.
From kids to adults, getting involved in video games can help build confidence when talking to other people and making new friends who can then transfer into the real world. Through communication, understanding, and compassion, you can help to really improve your ability to nurture relationships.
2. Improve Strategic and Practical Thinking
In most video games, there are problems that need to be solved. This could be an actual puzzle in a puzzle game, or it could be a situation where a team needs to work together to figure out what to do and how they can win the game. Usually, the latter of these situations mean quick thinking is needed with a time limit.
“Through video games and learning the mechanics, these quick-thinking exercises can help train the brain to think fast and accurately, usually delivering the right result of how to approach a certain situation,” explains Jason Phillips, a web developer writer at OriginWritings and NextCoursework.
3. Video Games Can Save the World
While this may seem like a bold statement, here me out. During Jane McGonigal’s TEDTalk, she explains that real life can be very repetitive and mundane. That’s just how a vast majority of our time in modern-day life can be, and this is a great suppresser of creativity.
Through playing video games, you can transport yourself to other worlds and meet new people and see things you would never see in real life, which can be a huge boost to the creative parts of our brains. When this boost is used in the right way, it can help solve problems in the world or even just make us act differently in our day to day conversations and interactions.
Not only does McGonigal talk about how video games boost creativity, but there are also studies that have proven over and over again that you can boost your self-confidence through playing video games, and can help to enhance your problem-solving skills, all of which are lessons that can bring about positive change in the world.
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4. Invoke Empathy and Compassion
Nowadays, video games are more like interactive movies or journeys where the characters of the video game are far more realistic and relatable than you would find in Hollywood productions. This means a lot of tear-jerking moments and deep dives into emotions and feelings.
“As a player, you go along with these character journeys and narratives and will not only learn to see the world from their perspective but will also learn to empathize more with others, as well as compassion and empathy,” shares Emily Harper, a game writer at AcademicBrits and PhD Kingdom.
5. Improved Hand-Eye Coordination
Of course, perhaps the most well-known benefit of playing video games is dramatically improved hand-eye coordination. The ability to match up the movements of your hands and your eyes, so they are perfectly synchronized is a fantastic skill to have, and is one of the core mechanics you’ll need to master to be good at video games
Transfer the mechanics to real life, and you’ll be able to operate machinery better, play sports games, such as in golf, more accurately, play music instruments more skilfully, and will be able to carry out day to day tasks easier and with better results. This will take practice to master, but anyone who plays video games knows how great the improvements here can be.
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