Why Video Games Are Good For You

half life

To the uninitiated, video games may seem like a blatant waste of time and money. But for those of us who grew up with them, video games represent so much more. They represent those precious moments of our childhood that we spent being magically teleported into the game world, completely free of homework and school woes. They represent the never-ending possibilities that are granted to those who choose to partake in the world of games that wouldn’t be the case otherwise. But most of all, they represent freedom.

The positive impact that video games have on younglings is quite well known, and you can read about them in numerous other articles, both scientific and non-scientific. What I’m going to focus on is the impact the games have on our lives in general, and the things they intentionally and unintentionally teach us.

Keep in mind, this is going to an article based entirely on personal experiences, and yours might differ from mine. So if it does, please do feel free to contribute to the point!

1 – Lessons in History and Strategy Building:

As a kid, history lessons were ridiculously easy for me. Why? Because Age of Empires 1 and 2 (and their expansions) taught me pretty much all I needed to know about world history! I also remembered every single date, the people who fought the battles and their political outcomes because I actually remember fighting all the battles myself in Age of Empires and Rise of Nations! Suffice it to say, I aced history every time and I owe it all to gaming. Since you actually play as the commander and the builder of entire civilizations, real time strategy was a key component in the games. This also helps to hone your skills as a leader and helps you think calmly under duress. Granted, the duress was caused by fictional events, but the fear of losing is still the same, I assure you. This often translates very well into real life.

age-of-empires-rise-of-rome

 

2 – Teaches you decision making, strategy and tactical awareness and problem solving skills-

Whether you’re playing the newly released Metal Gear Solid V : Phantom Pain or something like Dishonored, where there are multiple ways to reach an objective, displaying a keen sense of awareness and strategy, along with the ability to improvise and make decisions in real time, can make all the difference. Not surprisingly, such skills translate and carry over well to real life as well. No matter what your goal is, chances are there are multiple ways to achieve it. Video games teach you to think outside the box and find creative solutions to your problem.

big-boss-bionic-arm-metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-wallpaper-hd-desktop

 

3 – That nerds can be cool:

One word. Actually, just a name. Gordon Freeman. A 27 year old Theoretical Physicist straight out of Massachusetts  Institute of Technology, goes from becoming an insignificant research associate at the most prestigious and secretive research lab in the world, to becoming the only remaining hope for mankind who slays intergalactic gargantuas by invading their dimension and smashing their brains in from the inside with a goddamn crowbar! Are you kidding me?

gordon-freeman-half-life-2-21059-1366x768

In fact, this is true for practically every game made by Valve. Except for Left for Dead, I suppose. Zombies aren’t very nerdy, are they? Then there are franchises like Ubisoft’s  Assassin’s Creed, in which the usage of a technology which allows the subject to delve into their ‘genetic’ past and re-live their ancestor’s memory, made possible thanks to a bunch of geeks who also kick ass for a living. Every game that takes place in any sort of futuristic scenario features at least one master hacker of sorts (think Halo, Mass Effect, even Call of Duty and Battlefield series). I suppose that’s the game developer’s little game of glorifying themselves, but it sure does help the general image of the quintessential geek!

assassins-creed-syndicate-et-al

4 – To work hard and smart to achieve a goal:

Pretty much every video game has a primary set of objectives (unless it’s a basic sandbox game) that the player must fulfill in order to proceed further into the game or win it. In campaign mode, the tasks become increasingly more challenging as you go further into the game and you’re usually allowed to repeat that level as many times as you’d like until you succeed. In order to avoid repeating the level, you usually devise a plan which maximizes your chances of fulfilling aforementioned objective (smart thinking. Cool, eh?). This, according to me, is a metaphor for life, actually. Things usually do get harder the deeper you go into playing the game of life, but you don’t get to repeat levels. You get to live with your decisions and move on, because of which you tend to devise a plan to achieve better outcomes.

11280hitman3

5 – Be kind to animals. Under ALL circumstances:

This is a feature that amazes and delights me at the same time. In Skyrim, the bounty levied for killing a human is 40 septims. A guard comes and arrests you. You pay the fine and it’s all cool (except for when you interact with that person’s friend or family). But kill a farm chicken? Ehh, the fine is just about 5 septims, but good lord does the whole town go into a mad frenzy and start attacking you as if you personally set the black plague upon it! It’s utter madness. Assassin’s Creed 3 and its subsequent releases let you PET animals. No kidding. It serves no purpose in the game, but it’s just something you can do.

maxresdefault

Even in games like Call of Duty where animals pose as a threat, putting them down gently is the cleanest and the easiest way to get rid of them. Randomly shooting at them and/or meleeing them makes them more hostile towards you and it makes them that much harder to kill.

 

6 – Makes one appreciate the value of team effort and teaches discipline:

This is something multiplayer video games share with pretty much every other real world game involving teams.

team-fortress-2-5760x3240-tf2-fps-mod-modification-screenshot-4k-6k-3239

 

7 – Helps combat anxiety and depression:

No matter how awesome your life is, it will, inevitably at some point, wear you out. At this point, some resort to spirituality, and yet others resort to substance abuse. Those of us who get lucky, pick up a hobby and achieve nicolas cage-tier status at it. You get the picture. You basically need to get your mind off of whatever’s going down in your life. A lot of people seek refuge in video games to combat depression. There have been countless cases in which people claimed that video games have saved them for the terrible things that they were going through. It teleports you to a world in which you have no need to worry about whatever it is that’s weighing you down. RPG games like TES V : Skyrim grant you the chance to lead a completely alternate life in-game, and people spend countless hours on it, carefully carrying out every task in the game. It’s been observed to be therapeutic in many cases. Others do so by playing games like Manhunt and GTA 5, which allow them to unleash their inner devil through virtual violence. It’s the ultimate stress buster: the modern day alternative to punching your pillow. The point is, video games go a long way in helping with depression and anxiety. Furthermore, when you have such a co-operative and supportive gaming community as a whole, it’s hard not to be touched. (http://kotaku.com/5986364/he-took-refuge-in-skyrim-after-his-sisters-death-bethesda-reached-out-and-sent-him-this)

skyrim

8 – Makes one interested in the magniloquent world of computers:

My very first games were Age of Empires 1 (which I started playing in 1999 at the age of 4) and Half Life (2000, age 5. Yes, I’ve literally been a geek since then.)

7357.SampleGame 2011-05-21 22-32-05-66

I followed the Half Life storyline religiously, buying ever game of that franchise ever released. Along with that, we’d get the developer commentary which explained the process of making the game. At the tender age of 7, that made me really interested in game making and computers in general. That’s when I decided I’d like to study computers when I grow up because making games seemed like the coolest thing to do. Cut to 11 years later, I am indeed studying to work in the field of computers and IT.

7 year-old me would be proud.

 

 

9 – Drive safely and carefully at all times:

NFS-THE-RUN-CRASH

 

Nah, I’m totally kidding about this one.

 

Video games are, primarily, an interactive way of having fun, much like games in real life. Every individual’s game experience is unique. The fact that video games are capable of achieving so much, is a monstrous credit to the game designers and developers who spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours in making a game. To them, it’s art. That’s how you get games that go on to become true masterpieces and live through several generations. And I’m not just talking about in-game time.

 

Cheers!

Rahul Basu and Subhojeet Roy for MTTN

Dedicated to Anubhav Mayank.

Requiescat in Pace, brother.

Leave a Reply

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑