What Are The Positive Effects Of Playing Games

Playing games, whether on a console, via mobile device, or on a PC, has never been more popular. Thanks to technology giving developers and studios incredible build environments and the population having access to better internet and better devices to play on, there has never been a better time to game.

And while spending time playing games got a bad rap for many years, it is now one of the ways that almost everyone spends some time. Ultra-casual gamers playing games like Farmville on Facebook, or games like Candy Crush, or ‘serious’ gamers who spend multiple hours building, selling, finding or fighting – there is room for everyone when it comes to gaming. 

Everything from World of Warcraft to card games on Spider Solitaire and Call of Duty to Civilisation is on offer—strategy, puzzles, adventure, exploration, shooters, and more. 

Years on from the bad rap, there have been many studies done into gaming and what, if anything, are the benefits for the gamer. And, unsurprisingly, to gamers, there are a lot of benefits. 

What are the positive effects of gaming? 

Not every game will offer every benefit, but that is a good reason to play plenty of different things! Here are some of the benefits that gamers get from doing the thing they love the most. 

Task Completion Accuracy

If you spend your free time following orders, seeking out characters, coordinating raids, and following tactics – it makes sense that your general ability for task completion accuracy would be higher. 

Gaming, for almost all games, requires the player to follow instructions, make decisions, and do it quickly. Get it wrong, and you won’t complete the quest – or for strategy games, you’re going to lose the match. 

A study done on surgeons who played games and those who didn’t found that just three hours a week of gaming means they complete tasks 27% faster. 

Teamwork 

Teamwork makes the dream work – and that is certainly the case when you have a team of 25 people and need to get everyone on task to bring down a boss at speed. Any game that involves communication, leadership, and teamwork helps people to be better at it. 

The goal that each player has will be the same, which means they will work together – even with people they never normally play with. 

Gaming, and being forced to communicate with people means that you just get better at it – because you have to. It can also mean that you become clearer with directions, because efficiency matters when you are trying to achieve an in-game objective at speed. 

Decision Making

For those people who often find themselves standing in the grocery store stunned with choice, gamers probably don’t have the same problem. Most of achieving things in-game will revolve around making choices to move the storyline forward; this is even more true for RPGs and MMORPGs. Every decision counts, and in some cases, it can lock the player out of other choices. 

A study at Rochester University found that people who played video games were more likely to make more accurate and faster decisions than those who didn’t. It also broke it down into categories – so gamers who played action games were even faster than those who played slower-paced games. Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games – PMC.

Multitasking  

We know that there are many drawbacks to multitasking – it causes us to lose track of what we are doing, and it takes about 25 minutes to get back on track. However, those who game are usually better at it in general. When playing a game, they will need to do a few things at the same time, and keep track of it all in their head as they do it. Stats, quest lines, rares, fighting, switching weapons, gear, ammo, and communicating it all at the same time. 

It sounds like a lot, but when you do it often, you naturally become better at it. 

Social 

For those who aren’t naturally outgoing, when was the last time you went up to someone and asked for help? When it comes to gaming, some games will require you to work as a team, and if you play solo, you’re going to have to get used to asking people for help. 

Arranging groups, trading, selling, making money in-game, and finding people outside of the game with the same interest, like the chatrooms and forums for the game! 

Gaming has a lot of positive benefits, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking for a new game to try out, here are some genres to choose from: Video Games: Genres And Titles.