The Health Benefits of Gaming

For a wide variety of individuals around the world from all sorts of demographics, gaming has become the latest big trend to take over as a huge amount interest is growing in gaming for a very wide audience – there’s a huge amount of variety from fully fledged competitive esports titles to more casual games of chance like Wish casinos which have become a favorite for this older audience too. What’s often misunderstood however are the many health benefits that come with gaming for audiences of all ages too, and some may come as a surprise.

A great way to discover creativity and reduce stress – The best-selling game of all time, Minecraft, was able to deliver on something that has been popular with physical toys as old as time – taking simple shapes and using them to build. In the simplest way possible, Minecraft had offered a virtual realization of LEGO with building and crafting in the game. But has also been credited for fostering a lot of creativity amongst players for figuring out new ways to build, with similar games having been emerging in the time since too with creativity being one of the main outlets for plenty of games today and can lead to decreased stress with a creative outlet.

Communication and critical thinking are essential skills for some ­– The growth of esports has also led to the widespread success of team-based games that require some level of decision making and communication amongst other players too and have been a great way to help many players develop critical thinking skills with snap decisions, as well as communication skills whilst talking to other players online. It has been known to help develop healthy relationships and much like creativity reduce the impacts of stress and depression whilst also improving essential skills too.

(Image from Essilor.com)

Gaming can actually improve vision – Many of us heard the warnings when we were younger that too much screen time can be detrimental to vision, and that’s certainly still true as prolonged screen time at too close a distance can cause damage, but there have been many studies that suggest playing options like action video games can improve vision too – with many different aspects of the visual system being challenged during these play sessions can provide longer lasting benefits to vision, and even help those having vision issues start to recover too with the much needed focus and training.

Gaming as a tool for recovery and health benefit is only just being explored and new findings are coming regularly, much of the previous warnings around dangers are going away as newer benefits are being found, leading to a very exciting overlap between gaming and health.