What To Expect
Today’s article on how playing games can bring out the best in us digs deeper into how playing any kind of game can make our mind more resilient, overcome failure, and help us live a happier life. I will also discuss how video games have impacted my life and how they can impact yours too.
How Playing Games Can Bring Out The Best In Us
I’ve been playing video games since I was 5 years old from the Nintendo 64 to now the PS4. I have spent countless hours in worlds and enjoyed the most amazing stories that greatly excited my mind.
It also helped me relax after a stressful day, unlocked my competitive side when playing online and helped my brain muscle with problem-solving challenges.
People can look at games in a negative light where children don’t get outdoors enough and they say it damages their brains. Of course, this might be true if you spend 16 hours a day, 7 days a week non -stop playing. You could say the same thing about anything if you overdo it.
I believe there are many positives to gaming that maybe the non-gamers don’t realise which will discuss below.
It’s a great outlet and can be beneficial to professionals too. Formula 1 drivers have a game simulator where they test new and existing tracks with real-life accuracy whilst being incredibly real.
The Evolution Of Gaming
The gaming industry will ever evolve with VR now the next big thing.
Over the coming decades as it develops. One day we might have an experience much like the holodeck in Star Trek where we can create a life-like world which we can explore. How amazing would this be for surgeons, engineers or scientist to experiment without harm to others?
The ideas are endless of the benefits the gaming platform could improve the world.
Today we will focus more on the benefits we can experience today.
What Video Games Can Teach Us
1. Playing Games Teaches You About Failure
Learning how to deal with failure is an important trait to learn. Considering the majority of our life’s consist of failure and mistakes of varying magnitude. When playing video games there is no getting around failing at some point. Especially older games where there is no saving point for long stretches of play.
Imagine spending 30 minutes to only die at the last moment, to then have to start it all again. Now that’s learning to deal with failure painfully.
Learning from failure is crucial to improve and move forward. This lesson can easily transfer to real-life learning. Where you learn you can always try again as long as you learn from your failures.
2. Playing Games Teaches You Strategy
In life or business, you have to develop a strategy or else you will keep going in the wrong direction. Being a good strategist has been important throughout human history. Many great battles have been won or lost based on strategy. Within sport, the mastermind manager winning against all odds to prevail through their strategy is a hallmark of a great manager.
This skill can be learned with strategy games, Minecraft and any RPG when discovering new worlds. Now with multiplayer games, a strategy can go a long way in helping win a FIFA game or on Battlefield making sure you come up with the right strategy to capture the flag.
All these little lessons help your brain to practice coming up with strategies that can help you win. When transferring it into real life this skill can help transform your goal setting and whenever you come against problems you can be in the best place to solve them.
3. Playing Games Teaches You Problem-Solving
Problem-solving is one of the most sought after skills in leadership. Being able to look at a problem and effectively solve it can change everything.
Solving puzzles in games can sometimes be painstaking but the dopamine hit of solving that problem is worth it.
There’s also problem-solving when your up against the final boss in a game where you have to problem solve the best way to kill the boss before it kills you. Has brought out the problem-solving muscle to great effect.
Transferring this into real-life can help you overcome and solve most problems in your life. This skill can be within your subconscious mind waiting to show itself when needed. But its development can definitely be done by solving problems within games.
5. Playing Games Teaches You About Creativity
Playing videos games can definitely help you unlock the creative part of your brain.
Now recently backed by new research has shown when gamers are allowed to explore worlds in any way they want. It created a creativity aspect unique to each user, rather than being instructed to follow a certain path.
With games like The Witcher, Skyrim and MMOGs games. The choice for the gamer to be creative with their own choices, character appearance and who you interact with can lead to a boost in creativity. You can even look behind the scenes and see the creativity it takes to create a game and its story.
Don’t be surprised if you’re working the creative muscle next time you play a game.
6. Playing Games Teaches You Determination
When you fail in life if you don’t have the determination to pick yourself up and carry on, life’s going to keep hitting you with the same problems.
With games, you learn this fast and you have to be determined to persevere, adapt and move forward. I’ve been stuck on certain games for a long period of time, especially when I was young.
Learning to be determined to carry on and prevail.
Has followed into my real life where my determination has helped me overcome many obstacles.
7. Playing Games Teaches You To Focus
Being able to focus is a major part of succeeding at any task. Playing games like Formula 1 you have to focus or when you crash you’re out of the race.
Just like real-life, developing a laser focus allows you to progress within games and especially when online you can really see where your focus level is at.
By playing games, you can greatly improve your focus and understand what it takes to focus on real-life tasks. This has been true when I have to focus on hitting a deadline. The focus level needed is very similar to the one you develop playing video games intensely.
8. Playing Games Teaches You How To Win At Life
One thing games teach you is how to win. Every game you play there’s an outcome of completing a game or winning a duel. Understanding the dynamics that go into this can bring out the winner within you.
Transferring it into real-life you can understand that finding a way to win at everything you do can bring amazing things to your life.
This mentality has helped me greatly to become the person I am today and when I lose focus of this mentality life doesn’t hand me the cards as easily.
It teaches you that you have to go and get it. With action = the results you want.
9. Playing Games Teaches You About Community
Keeping in touch with friends and loved ones can be hard with busy lives and long-distance moves. Playing games together just like sports is a great way to bring people together.
I have countless enjoyable moments playing with and against my uncles. It brings to your attention that having a positive community within your life brings so much happiness that you otherwise might miss out on.
You can even make new friends within the gaming community and develop positive competition with friendly foes.
Overall understanding that community is important more than ever, can be a great boost to mental health.
What Do You Think?
Thank you for reading the article about how playing games can bring out the best in us
Gaming has had a positive impact on my life and now it’s the most consumed media on the planet where it has become a billion if not a trillion-dollar industry.
Looking back at a PS1 console or an Xbox and being shocked at the graphics and gameplay we once thought was the most amazing thing ever. We will do the same with what we are using now no doubt.
Gaming no matter how far into the future will help us in some way.
Subconsciously you will be developing skills under the radar that you will use and develop in your real life. If you can be conscious about your experiences with games and what they teach you. It can really open your mind to understanding and developing yourself too.
So pick up your control pad and get gaming!!
IF YOU LOVED THE ARTICLE PLEASE SHARE BELOW!
