The Benefits of Gaming

By Finn W.

There are around 2.77 billion gamers in the world, and you’ve probably heard from your parents or teachers that video games aren’t good for your brain; when you play video games you become stupid, and your brain processes slower.  However, that is most definitely false.  Video games have been proven to significantly improve brain function and productivity.  Not only that, but video games have many more benefits to not only your brain but physical parts of your body, for instance, your arms and legs.  Video games shouldn’t be an alternative to activities like sports, hiking, or climbing.  Instead, they should be equally practiced.  If you don’t play video games, you should start, because you too could be getting these benefits.

           One physical benefit of playing video games is that it can increase gray matter in the brain.  Gray matter helps with things like muscle control, memories, and spatial navigation.  Studies show that people who play video games almost every day increase their gray matter.  Also, there was once a study conducted to see if surgeons who played video games were more accurate and precise with their procedures.  “In a study involving a group of surgeons, researchers found that those who played video games were faster at performing advanced procedures and made 37 percent fewer mistakes than those who didn’t.” 

Another physical benefit is that video games may provide exercise.  Games like Pokemon Go, Beat Saber, and Pikmin Bloom all require movement to be played.  There are also heaps of fitness and exercising apps on Oculus.  One of these is the app Supernatural.  It’s a guided workout program hosted by real people training in amazing places all over the globe; you don’t need to lift weights or run or elliptical for exercise.  You can have fun while exercising at the same time.  When people have fun playing video games like Madden and FIFA, it can get them interested in practicing skills in real life to become like their favorite player in the game.

Video games could also prepare you for catastrophes.  Many games out there in the world are based on the idea of surviving a natural disaster, or extinction.  For example, in 2013, Klei Entertainment released the game Don’t Starve.  The basis of the game is to fend off supernatural monsters, all while trying to not starve.  Another game like this is World Without Oil.  It was released in 2007 by The Institute for the Future.  While in-game, you try to survive a ginormous oil shortage.  But the amazing fact is that you put in your location, and it gives you real-time updates on oil where you live.

Did you know that video games could also increase your attention span and improve your vision?  “In another experiment, subjects were asked to track the colors of the ‘sad faces’ (the happy faces remained yellow). The faces were constantly moving around on the screen.”  The results demonstrate that people who play 6 to 17 hours worth of video games every week were able to track all of the sad faces on the screen.  What’s more is that video games can improve your vision.  A study was conducted on people’s eyesight; half did play video games and half didn’t.  The results showed that the gamers could assess and discern between different shades of gray in just a matter of weeks.  Imagine the abundant amount that your eyesight could improve.

Video games, believe it or not, can improve your decision-making skills!  “Because new information is constantly being displayed during play, players are forced to adapt quickly.”  The outcome proposed that gamers who regularly play fast-action games were 25% quicker to answer a question about a place or scenario from moments ago. 

Video games also improve balance and coordination.  Multiple sclerosis patients have trouble balancing because multiple sclerosis affects the nerves.  “One study showed that M.S. patients who played games requiring physical interaction while standing on a balance board displayed improvement afterward.”  Playing a healthy dose of video games could also help autistic patients (patients with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD).  Autistic gamers that play games incorporating the entire body are more likely to celebrate victories with their friends.  Another study showed that, “sharing space with multiple players can also lead to increased social interaction.”

Video games can prevent people from smoking, vaping, doing drugs, or other illegal/harmful bodily activities.  One study conducted by a university made known that smokers' craving for cigarettes or cigars came down by 24%.  In addition, video games could potentially “slow down” the aging process.  Games that involve using your brain, strategy, and possibly math skills have shown a positive impact on older people.  Those who are 50 years of age and older who play games like Wordle, Wordscapes, Minesweeper, Skip-Bo, and many other games showed increased cognitive functioning.  Those improvements lasted several years.  Finally, games that involve history and past events can trick kids into learning.  Those who played games that tie into history and past events ended up having a lifelong appreciation for history.

One predicament right now in the world is jobs.  There were so many people who went homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the main cause was people losing their jobs, but gaming could fix this problem easily.  Because the gaming industry keeps growing, more jobs in gaming are opening.  Whether it’s being a coach, or hosting gaming events, we could fix the job situation in America.  While chances are very slim, there is more of a chance of becoming a professional gamer.  Also, professional gamers can get paid a pretty decent salary.  The winner of the Fortnite world cup won 3 million dollars, with the other competitors winning anywhere from 1.8 million dollars to 50K.

Video games, as well as having physical health benefits, also have many mental health benefits.  One of which is that gamers could potentially have better social skills than non-gamers.  Studies show that students who play video games have better social skills than those who don’t.  It means those who play games have a better social status, keeping their relationships strong and having them longer.  They’re also able to connect better with people because they have relatable topics that they can talk about in certain games.

While video games are thought to induce stress, especially when you lose for the hundredth time, that information is false.  A study was conducted over six months tracking players and measuring their heart rates.  The results come to show that certain video games reduced their adrenaline response by 50%.  Also, video games can teach people how to build resilience.  When a gamer finds defeat or failure in a video game, they could take it on as a challenge, and persevere to meet a goal they want to achieve in video games.  It helps build up something called “emotional resilience.”  Learning to cope with their failures in video games could teach them to cope with failures and challenges in their own lives.

In a TED Talk by Jane McGonigal, the number of hours playing video games every week by every human on earth who played video games combined in 2010 was 3 billion hours a week.  She believed that by the end of the decade, we needed to invest 21 billion hours of video games every week.  The reason she believes is this idea of an “epic win.”  In her TED Talk, she shows a picture of a player that looks like he is about to win an online game like Fortnite.  She believes that an epic win is something you didn’t know was possible to achieve until you got there, to that moment.  Jane believes that for humanity to survive and thrive, we need to have more epic wins in the world.

In another TED Talk by Karoliina Korppoo, she explains a game created with her team called Cities: Skylines.  In the game, you can design your own city and even share it with your friends.  But there were a couple of designs that she found that intrigued her.  One of those was called Tiered City, and it is by a player named CONFLICTNERD.  He designed a city with three tiers, where on the very top were services like banks, malls, grocery stores, and dining.  The people lived on the outer rings of the city.  She finds the design very interesting, but also extremely smart.  On the outside, there’s less noise and pollution to bother the citizens, but if someone got injured, the hospital is only two to three minutes away because of the roads connecting to each ring.  The game taught him how to make a city, but it also taught him how to make everything accessible.  Also, when this TED Talk came out in 2017, a city in Finland had a contest to design a new part of the city.  So the city government decided to create a template with the rest of the city and a blank spot for the new part.  So, people could load the template and design a new part of the city and submit it to the council.  The city of Hameenlinna, which held the competition, selected 12 finalists.  According to Rappler, the victor was selected based on the originality, novelty, and feasibility of the design.

So, what should we take from this?  That video games are only fun and a relaxing break from reality?  No.  Instead, we should defy those who don’t approve of our stance.  We should show them that it is greatly more healthy than unhealthy to play video games. The problem is that many adults didn’t have video games growing up, so they don’t know that video games have benefits. More people around the world should play video games because of the benefits that they provide.  If more people around the world play video games, we could put those benefits to good use and apply them to the real world.  If we do that, society could no longer be frivolous; if we’re going to fix this chaotic planet, we’re going to have to use the skills that we incorporate into video games and incorporate them into the real world.