The Benefits of Video Games Both for Children and Adults

Ever since the 1970s the video game industry has grown quite a lot in popularity and has become the largest market in the world. There have been a lot of changes to how video games are made not only in the different genres for people to play but also in developers being more capable to tell much more complex stories and get the player more engaged in the game. As video games have become more popular people start to realize that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to researching what video games do to the human body and mind. This is starting to become more apparent in this day and age as technology starts to become more influential in our lives as benefits are being tested and researched upon video games which is something that should be taken more seriously as there are a lot of benefits to video games. The main issue is that as much evidence there is for it there seems to be a barrier to getting that information out there even with the internet as some people especially in the United States have attacked the industry by saying false information about it and blaming them for serious issues. Things that should be talked about are the benefits of video games for the body, social activity, and brain skills for the individual and society.

Now there isn't a big amount of body benefits of video games due to most video games still limited in technology and not keeping up with the expectation for the ideas but so far the games that have tried to invoke the body in some way, shape, or form are huge leaps for the industry and to what video games can do for individuals and fighting against one of the biggest issues in gaming obesity. A lot of action games have a lot of mechanics to increase reflexes quick time events which is to keep the individual on guard which makes them have much more focus and be much more aware of the surroundings. That’s not all as within this decade of video games there has been a lot more incentive of games that make you use your body more such as Wii Fit a fitness game that encourages exercising with a board that is put beneath the feet and tracks the movement and weight of the individual so they can know how much process they are doing for their body or Pokemon GO which is giving people more motivation to go outside and explore the world and have their bodies more active plus going outside is beneficial for us to get more vitamin D from the sun and eventually The Pokemon Company plan to release an accessory in 2020 that goes by Pokemon Sleep an expansion of Pokemon GO that encourages players to have better-sleeping patterns and rewards them with in-game items and Pokemon. Motivation is a key component for these games to work that’s why they are so popular because it’s giving people more of a purpose to go make their lives healthier and giving more incentives for exercising instead for one thing makes people more interested in exercising. Now some games have been able to be used for medical research and treatment. Puzzle games such as Tetris are capable of helping the lazy eye which is a condition in which your vision becomes blurry or reduced vision and can cause major damage such as loss of depth perception. How this works is that the lazy eye will be looking at a screen of the Tetris pieces falling down while the normal eye is viewing another screen on where to place the Tetris block which will provide cooperation between the two eyes and help give much more power and better vision to the lazy eye according to Joseph Nordqvist on https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/259547.php

where the research was tested and published at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre by a group of scientists. Now while there isn’t a lot for the body these benefits are helpful and go really well with the next subject being the mind benefits of video games.

The mind is one of the most influential parts when it comes to video games. The mind is how players would progress through the game, their understanding of what it provokes or tells about its themes, the mechanics, controls, so many different factors for them, and every one of those are powerful enough to make better people. A lot of strategy games influence players to make plans and multitask decisions that will determine how they will progress through the game and how their decisions would change the game. Games such as Civilization, Plants vs Zombies, Fire Emblem, or Pikmin all have a strategy system like what type of characters or weapons to use, how to deploy them, if they have only this set amount of time to get work done, and if players know how to be elite strategists they can use that knowledge to become great generals, managers or even something so minor like a planning a reservation for a get together with friends they have to learn how to be at the very least good strategists. Puzzle games require a lot of problem-solving which is given due to the genre being puzzled it's supposed to give puzzles but it's more about how will people solve this puzzle and whether they succeed, that's what makes puzzle games shine. Then we have the rest of the games what do they help with? Well new words for their vocabulary, being able to memorize maps, being able to make friends, sportsmanship, better social behavior, and then there are those games that fully bring out the creative essence of that individual. Minecraft with its ability to make things out of blocks of scale models of a house or vehicle or a full-on reconstruction of a city, Super Mario Maker is a game all about making your own Mario levels with so much creative freedom of how to get from point A to point B. Not only that but video games are amazing for learning, especially for children. Pokemon is great at teaching children about real-life things such as fire burns grass, water isn’t so great with electricity even with rocks being weak to grass telling them about phenomenons that happen in nature. There are so many things that video games can do to make a stronger better human mind and yet it seems to have one issue that is brought up whenever this is made a discussion about.

Video games have gotten a lot more social throughout the years. The majority of games within this decade have been a lot more focused on the social aspect of playing with friends and others than in previous decades such as Minecraft a game that is primarily focused on the creativity of the players and what they are able to work together on or Fortnite a battle royale game where 100 players fight until the last person standing. A lot of games have built themselves communities to call their own and have brought a lot of people together. Then there´s the competitive side of the community that has hundreds of thousands even millions watching professional players play on the big stages like Las Vegas or Los Angeles and play fighting games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros, or other genres like Online Battle Arenas like League of Legends. Youtube and Twitch have a lot of gamers within their platforms and there are a lot of events to raise money for charity for either children, food, or medical treatment. When it comes to the companies themselves a lot of them are passionate about working on games for their consumers and some do take things further to have more connections between the gamers. The biggest thing at this moment is cross-platforming a new way to connect with people because now as long as this game is on multiple platforms a person who plays on Xbox can play with someone on Playstation without needing to buy another console just to play with that person on their system. Even the special needs are being given support such as Microsoft producing an adaptive controller for the disabled. Now, why does this industry get attacked in the media?

To sum up, instead of trying to attack the industry of games people can try to be much more understanding of it or even better try to be taught more about it as most seem to be finding a scapegoat for a big issue that even people seem to ignore how to fix those big issues as well. These benefits could be taught in a classroom from kindergarten all the way to college making people more aware of the benefits. Make it a class or even better make it be more of a career path in schools they aren't just entertainment they are much more meaningful than people realized. Yeah, there are some negative aspects such as obesity but that is being countered as well. There really isn't any downfall to video games and that's a good thing. Try to be more involved as this is the biggest thing humans can socialize about. There is always a place for the casuals and for the hardcore and even for those who only watch. Everyone can benefit that´s the best thing about games no one is left out and no one is being disregarded for it just a lack of understanding is what barriers this but one day those barriers will be gone.