Better social skills
See, it is good to talk. Sometimes.
Despite the age old stereotype of anti-social teens locked up in their parents’ basement playing games alone all day, gaming is now a more social hobby than ever. Online communities have exploded within games over the past five years, with the average MMO guild or competitive FPS community offering just as much social interaction as the average hobby or sport club.
Fun
Forget lithium, this is the real cure for the blues.
Day to day living can have its stresses, and increased stress can lead to all sorts of heart problems and anxiety disorders. Though games may just be considered frivolous fun, it’s important not to underestimate the impact that simple enjoyment can have on reducing stress and maintaining good mental health.
Help dealing with illness and injury
There’s nothing like creaming someone in a virtual world to distract you from real life pain.
I will always remember in my school days, whenever I was too ill to attend classes, being comforted by games. No matter how crappy I felt, interacting with a virtual world kept my mind distracted from my own physical ailments. Academic research has begun to note this quality of interactive entertainment, with the psychology department at Wheeling Jesuit University discovering that competitive sports titles in particular can keep people’s mind off incredible discomfort and pain. Considering this particular experiment involved having body parts immersed in freezing water, this says a lot about the therapeutic power of gaming.
Better eyesight
Forget the opticians, a healthy dose of gaming is what you need!
I was always told that playing games too much would ruin my eyesight, but modern research has, in fact, proven exactly the opposite. Not only has a study in Nature Neuroscience proven that gaming improves ocular contrast sensitivity, but the University of Rochester also conducted a study that showed those who played games regularly saw a 20% increase on standard eye chart test accuracy over a control group. I wish I knew that when I was kid.
