5 Reasons Why Video Games Are Beneficial For Everyone!

For those who thinks video games are useless and shouldn’t exist in our lives.

1. Forget About Your Stress and Carry On!

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Playing video games allow a person to escape into a different dimension and forget about the real world problems everyone goes through and that answer is stress! According to Leonard Reinecke who states that “In everyday life, especially in the context of work, people are confronted with numerous demands that make it necessary to allocate mental and physical resources to a task at hand. This exertion of resources and energy leads to strain reactions, which are associated with psychological and physiological fatigue and low positive affect.” (Reinecke, 2009, p.4) For everyone that goes through a stressful situation such as tackling university papers and dealing with a stressful office environment requires a way of escape and forgetting about these problems that arises in everyday life. Playing games is a great way to detach yourself from the struggles of life because it is classified as leisure in which Reinecke stated that “leisure time and recreational activities are crucial for a successful recovery process” (Reinecke, 2009, p.5) and he supports this statement by referencing his fellow colleagues who stated that “successful psychological detachment is related to positive affect, lower fatigue, and lower psychological activation.” (Reinecke, 2009, p.6)

Therefore, playing games allows you to escape reality thus allowing you to forget

about stress.

Reference:

Reinecke, L. (2009). Games and recovery: The use of video and computer games to

recuperate from stress and strain. Journal of Media Psychology, 21(3), 126-142.

Retrieved from ResearchGate.org

2. It Is Actually Beneficial For Health Care Professionals!

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The use of video games in hospitals is beneficial for health care professionals because it can be used as a motivational tool. According to Pamela Kato from the University Medical Center Utrecht, pediatric cancer patients often suffers from “side effects including nausea, vomiting, anxiety, and pain associated with chemotherapy or radiation treatments.” (Kato, 2010, p.114) Upon hearing these side effects it can be unpleasant especially if the person is a cancer patient. According to Kato, she referenced an experiment in 1987 where “young patients (age range 11–20 years in Experiment 1; age range 9 –18 years in Experiment 2) in pediatric oncology who played a video game for 10 min during chemotherapy induction showed significant decreases in reported nausea compared with control patients.” (Kato, 2010, p.114) Based on the results of this experiment, it shows us how video games can be beneficial for health care professionals who has to deal with patients that are going through hardships such as pain from surgery down to going through cancer treatment. It can also be a cost saving measure as well because training therapists is expensive. As a cost saving measure, health care professionals can rely on video games which “are less expensive over time, readily available, and considered acceptable therapies by the patients, making them ideal for interventions for conditioned nausea in young patients with cancer.” (Kato, 2010, p.114)

Reference:

Kato, P. M. (2010). Video games in health care: Closing the gap. Review of General

Psychology, 14(2), 113 - 121. Retrieved from: psychnet.apa.org

3. You Can Actually Get Job Training From Playing Video Games!

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A lot of people say that playing games is a waste of time but the truth is when you do anything for a prolonged amount of time, you actually get something out of it. In the medical field and depending on the type of game you play “skills in playing certain video games are also crucial in performing surgery (e.g., visual-spatial performance, eye–hand coordination, fine motor control, and reaction time).” (Kato, 2010, p.117) Kato reinforces this by referencing a study that compared the “surgical skills of avid video game players (>3 hr/week) with their less avid counterparts found that the avid players made 37% fewer errors and were 27% faster in completing a simulated laparoscopic procedure and suturing.” (Kato, 2010, p.118)

Therefore, playing certain video games can help with improving spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination.

Reference:

Kato, P. M. (2010). Video games in health care: Closing the gap. Review of General

Psychology, 14(2), 113 - 121. Retrieved from: psychnet.apa.org

4. You Can Get Fit From Playing Video Games!

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Nowadays there exists video games where you don’t sit on a coach and play. With the existence of wireless technology and specially tailored gaming peripherals allow for new games to be created. A strong example of this would be Nintendo and Konami who developed the Wii Fit games and Dance Dance Revolution which requires human movement in some way. According to Kato, “these video games provide alternative activities for individuals concerned about video games as a sedentary activity. In fact, these games are among the most popular video games on the market. The Nintendo Wii Fit game, in which players engage in strength, balance, and aerobic activities, has topped the charts as the best-selling console game while Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution have been shown to significantly increase energy expenditure among players.” (Kato, 2010, p.115)

Reference:

Kato, P. M. (2010). Video games in health care: Closing the gap. Review of General

Psychology, 14(2), 113 - 121. Retrieved from: psychnet.apa.org

5. It is an Excellent Tool for Developing Friendships and Forming Social Communities

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With the existence of MMORPG’s people can now play together in an online world from anywhere on the globe. In an experiment conducted by Helena Cole and Mark Griffiths from a sample that consists of “912 self-selected MMORPG players from 45 countries where 70% of the participants were male and 29% were female.” (Cole & Griffiths, 2007, p.576) It is revealed that through the use of an online questionnaire revealed that, “approximately three-quarters of both males (76.2%) and females (74.7%) said they had made good friends within the game.” (Cole & Griffiths, 2007, p.577) The questionnaire also revealed that “over one-quarter of the sample (26.3%) played MMORPG’s with family and real-life friends. Female gamers (33.2%) were significantly more likely than male gamers (23.6%) to play with both family members and real-life friends.” (Cole & Griffiths, 2007, p.578)

So, not only is video games a great way to make friends and form digital communities but it can also be used for social bonding with friends with friends you already have. Therefore, after reading this and you don’t play MMORPG’s, I would suggest that you give it a try.

Reference:

Cole, H., & Griffiths, M. D. (2007). Social interactions in massively multiplayer online

role-playing gamers. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(4), 575-583. Retrieved from:

academia.edu