There is a natural sensation we all humans search for during our lives: realization.
Some of us want to be better professionals, others to have a perfect family, or there are those who seek a social status like to be popular or a reference among friends or to their internet followers. The thing is: we all have a moment when we stop and ask ourselves "how is the path to realize my dream?".
The answer to this question is never an easy one and sometimes we see people who never fought it during their life. However, what is really recommendable is to never stop seeking it, because when you are searching for your dreams, the path will always be the answer and when you reach it, you will see you never needed to ask, just needed to keep going forward. It is a day-by-day resilience task where body and mind need to work together.
Talking about that we see a lot of tools and activities which could help a person to construct that strong mind, a resilient body, and a progressive culture. And by this last one we start to enumerate factors from one of those tools we consider fundamental for a human being's educational process.
Develop a productive culture
Games are always about failure. It could sound terrible, but it's the truth.
To play a game is an exercise of overcoming. Overcoming your frustration of failing, overcoming yourself into getting better in some skill, overcoming the challenge that presents itself to you every time.
After a rough beginning, when the player starts to understand the rules of play, the mechanics, and the core features, it all changes into a feel of a comfortable world for them in which every step is just shorter than before. This is an amazing moment not because of the player's progression inside the game, but because it is inside their head.
From this moment, they will always think that every problem can be solved, even in real life. When this sensation is achieved, they grow.
Teaches how to control emotions
Progression is not all about winning or surpassing every obstacle, but also how you control yourself when you fight against something just stronger than you.
To recover from a failure where you could just give up, or to burn out, is an important learning for life in general aspects. To live in a society in which everyone is connected, and the velocity of information is almost instant, one mistake could be a tag for a person for all their life.
Videogames are an excellent field for training this soup of emotions that a person could feel in different moments. This opportunity is true because of the variety of situations a game presents during its gameplay. The player comes across encounters that generate different stimulus and need different reactions, and all of this is in a safe environment to practice those behaviors. To know how to act when times come is vital for real life, where failures and judgement are more severe.
Generates social connections
Games are naturally a point of convergence in terms of people socialization.
Nowadays with the growth of internet speed and mobile technology, a multitude of multiplayer games are skyrocketing into expressive numbers. To be alone at your home, or on a bus, metro or wherever, and at the same time connected to your friends doing something is almost a must do thing.
People are always searching for a reason to be a part of a social group. Games offer equal possibilities and prepare their players in the same way. This means that everyone can reach their objectives what means they all can have points in common.
Those stimuluses and those goals are more than a full plate to start a connection with someone. As if it were not enough, games develop body and mind skills which prepare for many real necessities.
Body motor control, reflex, and perception
To play videogames requires a minimum of body and brain skills. Therefore, there are different archetypes of games for distinct types of players.
When a player starts a game, even a Souls-like, they must be introduced to the core mechanics and to the core experience of game feel. After learning that, they can start their journey.
This tutorial exercise is not simply good for the gameplay experience but also for real life. Harvard has studies which prove that videogames also help surgeons, musicians, artists etc. to have better coordination to improve their quality at work.
You can see some Jane McGonigal searches here. I also invite you to navigate through other researchers to get a deep knowing about the theme.
Brain exercise and mind relief
"The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use, we feel very good. Understanding is joyous."
Carl Sagan
Real life is not always a good thing for the brain. Sometimes we are stuck in a routine which we can't avoid or even change. That is why entertainment is so necessary. The difference between games and other kinds of entertainment is interaction. That means that you need to be active for everything to happen. Even though you are relaxing your brain entertaining itself, you are exercising it by the necessity of solving tasks, progressing in story, and developing your body skills.
Even playing a game what you are a dominant player, what usually happens to games like MOBAs, classic sports, Battle Royales, Shooters etc. where you do not have to think too much elaborate to do things, where your actions are more naturally mechanicals than minimal thought out how to do. Your brain is still working while relaxing.
Increase problem solving skills
By the necessity to solve an uncountable number of tasks in videogames, a player starts to do it naturally in their daily activities.
When solving things is inserted into a routine, this is not a headache when suddenly something shows up in real life. Some people even treat those events like a challenge, and they get motivated to figure out how to complete those life riddles.
Nowadays, companies all around the world are searching for people who can do multitasks activities and to know how to behavior themselves when they face daily problems. Videogames enable people to deal with real-life issues and make them capable of finding different perspectives for resolutions of the same problem.
Gamers develop a better memory and cognitive capacity
Gamers are known for good memory development, and this is related to their game experience.
This fact is true because of the constant necessity a game demands from players to explore their capacity to memorize things. Whether it's a mechanic or a goal, players are always pending of something they knew before. To improve this memory status even more, they are forced to correlation in-game skills to replicate new manners to overcome challenges.
This exercise charges a necessity of search for different perspectives. A good example of this is the Nemesis system in Middle-earth: Shadow of War where you can see detailed here and here. In resume, their IA learns the player's combat behavior and adapts itself to the next encounter.
Games are fun
Finally, games are fun.
Yes, that simple. We do not need to go deep into what fun means to every person to know that everyone in the world just wants to be happy.
All observations above are from my anthropological, philosophical, sociological, and gaming study. They are not absolute truth, and they do not have to be. If you agree or if you disagree, write a commentary, and let me know your opinion. This is an awesome way to learn things and I would be glad to share our thoughts.
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