Video Games and How They Are Good

Video games, they've been popular for decades, but became more popular during the lockdown in 2020. With popular games such as Minecraft, GTA and Fortnite, video games seem to get a bad reputation due to them being addictive, and people playing for hours, or maybe because of the negative impact it can have on your mental health. But I feel like they have more of a negative stereotype amongst the older generation and also parents. But what if I told you that certain video games can have a direct and positive impact on people in all ages. However, I don't want to take away whilst I am going to talk about how video games can have a positive impact on people, they can still effect people negatively, so make sure to play games in moderation.

One of the first things I want to talk about on how video games can be good for you, is how they can help with the following: mood regulation, social connections and identity building. I am going to break down the three and explain how video games can be used for good. I will also be using different websites to help with how I word things.

Mood regulation

Some ways video games can be great for mood regulation, it's been known that video games are a great way to help boost your mood. Whilst it has been shown that video games help boost mood more than cooking, reading or listening to music, video games are a great way for a mood regulation outlet. Games such as Mortal Kombat and Animal Crossing are great games that can help with mood regulation. These are some great ways on how games can help regulate your mood due to them having different effects. Mortal Kombat is a great game to help with the possiblity of more an angry mood, where as a game like Animal Crossing is a great game for a more cozy, comfy mood and can help with relaxation. However, even though games can be a really great way to help you with your mood and helping to regulate it, video games shouldn't be your only source to helping regulate your mood.

Social Connections

Whilst a lot of games are built for the story and are usually single player games, a lot of games such as Minecraft and GTA offer a range where you can play with others. Other games such as Fortnite and Overwatch offer the ability to play with others, allowing for a connection to be made socially, and can be great if someone has anxiety or trouble making friends in person. Another way video games allows social connection are online forums and by simply being online. This allows people to connect on a deeper level and find more people with an interest in the same game as you, which can allow friends to be made. This is why video games can be great for people. Because it allows them to make friends, especially when it involves a game they both like. However, when it comes to younger children, parents should regulate on who your child is talking to, especially with the high rise of predators that are online.

Identity

Finally, identity. Video games can help with identity building, in which gaming is able to help you do that. With the amount of games there are across all the different consoles that have been released, there is going to be one that helps you build a virtual identity. Games like Minecraft and Slime Rancher offer the explorer identity, the only difference is Minecraft offers more to than just being an explorer. It allows you to be a builder, having you use your imagination for build or a miner, which not only has you use your exploration skills, but your hand eye coordination. On the other hand, Slime Rancher, you're an explorer, trying to find new slimes as well as a rancher. Games like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, player vs player games allow you to compete in a way where it's a little more fun for you, but also add in the skills as well. But you have games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2, games where you play as criminals and has a sense of action behind it. But then you have games such as Gran Turismo puts you behind the wheel as you become a racer.

However, there are other ways video games are great, and that's how they can be good for both the memory and the brain. Whilst video games can be a great mood booster, or a great way to help with the social aspect, they have other amazing effects on the brain, and they can be really great for the mind and helping to strengthen the brain. Whilst phyical activites are great for your physical health, but it can be great for your mental health, there are certain video games that help to keep your mind both active and healthy, almost as if you're doing physical activities.

There was a research done that had 88 young adults, in which half of the participants played video games regularly for more than seven hours a day. The study showed three things that the participants did, and they were the following: a simple reaction time test, one where they switched between responding to combinations of numbers and letters to evaluate their executive function (which was including flexible thinking and self-control) and working memory and also a maze-based test, in which it was used to assess visuospatial memory (which was to test the ability to retain and process an object's identity and spatial location). By the end of it, the study ended up showing that throughout the three tasks, those who played games performed better in the number letter task and the maze based test, in which the gamers completed the tasks 12.7% and 17.4% quicker than the non gamers.

Whilst video games can be a great way for things like cognative skills or memory retention, board and card games are another great way for critical thinking, communication, skill building, memory retentions reading/spelling and much more, with games such as Monopoly, crosswords, Guess Who, wordsearches, chess and many more board and card games that are a great way to help the mind, but also you as well, and they can be very benificial on how you may think.

Some other ways video games can be great because of the following:

Reading
Visual-spacial awareness
Problem solving

These are ways that video games aren't all that bad, and can be benificial for children who are still developing. However, I am going to talk more about these point.

Reading

Whilst it is recommended that children develop their reading skill from books, or sharing stories from picture books, there has been a study that when children play video games, they're actually being able to develop their reading skills, or even children who may struggle to read. This is because researchers believe that due to the games, it's because of the text instructions and dialogue that are able to prove that helps provide something that children can read. Another thing can be said when they research their favourite game, and are able to read what they've found online or on forums. However, playing games, websites and forums shouldn't be the only source of reading that your child gets, especially when they have access to books.

Visual-Spacial Awareness

Next is the visual-spacial awareness side of things when it comes to gaming. With games such as Minecraft and other sandbox games that are similar to Minecraft, they help with the visual-spacial awareness side of things as they usually don't provide any sort of gps/mapping system. Whilst Minecraft does have maps, it's not something that a lot of people, especially younger children, tend to use, which can really help with how they percieve spacing and distance. This means it can help their brain develop in a way where when it comes to being spacially aware in their home, it will be that little bit easier due to having played games such as Minecraft. With other games like Sims it can help with more of a house visual on how spacially aware a child needs to be in their home.

Problem Solving

Finally, problem solving. A lot of games can be mind numbing and endless, however, a lot of games, such as puzzle based games, mystery based games or even empire based games, which have you managing it, they require you to solve problems and also makes you think of solutions based on previous outcomes. Another way video games can help enhance problem solving is the multiple choice aspect that most story driven games give you, mostly because depending on the choice you pick will depend on the outcome later in the game. In this istance, it makes you think of other ways that a certain problem could have a different outcome later in the game. But there is the aspect that having open ended scenarios that will have different outcomes and can change the outcome of the game.

Did you know that video games are designed for rewards? The reward system that are in most video games are designed to help motivate players. Alongside this, you have things such as achievements, milestones, and even in game rewards, such as free items, skins or attributes to help your character. This allows the player, especially children, to feel encouraged to keep playing the game, hoping to be rewarded again later in the game and it's encouraging for goal directed behaviour and intrinsic motivation. This can be implemented with parents as well as they can further help a child set goals, show persistence and also can help rewarding the effort. Being rewarded, even as simple as gold stars, could greatly help improve a child's mood and mental health, especially when it comes to tasks they find big such as homework or tidying and can greatly help them understand both consequenses and how a reward system can work. As for teens and adults, being rewarded in games can be helpful as it can lead to the improvement of motivation in both acedemic, work and personal life.

Another way video games is great is the way it can help reduce stress that may be caused in your daily life. Games that are immersive, such as puzzle based games or games that are strategy based, has been found to help provide a sense of distraction through the structure a game has, which allows you to become distracted from the real world and the stress. Also, if you are a parent, gaming with your child could help with a bond to bring you closer, as gaming allowes you to create a shared sense of relaxation from both the parent and the child, and can also create a more calming environment.

There was a study done by the University of Toronto, and it was shown that the those who tend to play action based games such as Call of Duty and Assasin's Creed, are able to learn sensoriometer tasks and also improve their hand eye coordination, compared to those who don't regularly play video games. This means that in the research, it's suggested that with the results, video games, especially action based video games, could be used as part of treatments to help people who struggle with their hand eye coordination or those who struggle with their sensorimotor skills. During the same test, they had 26 people, 18 gamers and 18 non gamers, and they all participated in a study where their computer mouses were tracked as they tracked a white square, in which they had to keep the mouse inside the square. By the end of the task, the gamers had improved significantly, doing better than the non gamers despite them doing roughly the same at the start of the task. This does suggest that doesn't give an immediate boost, it does show an improvement of sensorimotor skills overtime.

Another way video games can help with hand-eye coordination is from a different study done by the Frontiers in Human Sciences, and they found out that during the systemic review of the 116 studies they did, they found out that video games can impact the structure and activity of the brain, which ultimately leads to it helping to improve different types of attention, which is including sustained attention and selective attention.

In the same study, it states that certain regions of the brain have a more positive effect when you play video games, which means that those regions that controls attention span are more efficient in gamers than non gamers. Which, in this case, in certain aspects of playing video games, it can help the brain performance a lot better, which means it has transferable skills to other activities such as working or studying. In this study as well, it was found that video games can increase the size (and competence) of certain parts of the brain that are responsible for visuospatial skills. These skills are essential for things we do in real life, such as driving, sports or dancing.

My take on this is that whilst video games are great in some aspects, they can also be harmful if not played in moderation. Whilst this is all about video games and how they're good and trying to help break the negative stereotype of gaming, I feel like gaming shouldn't be something you revolve your life around, unless it's something you do as a job, such as content creation.