How Playing Video Games Can Affect Your Mental Health
Video games are electronic games that provide a player with virtual interaction with an external user interface (computer or gaming console) through the use of motion sensors, audio or graphics. A video game is often referred to as a computer game, a video arcade game, or a video game console. Computer games are increasingly complex and offer players a chance to do things they may not be able to do in real life. Video games can include complex programs like World of Warcraft, augmented reality video games, and racing games.
For many adults playing video games is a past time. There are several genres of video games that adults enjoy playing. They include car games, first person shooters, role playing games, sports, war games, and flight simulator games. Car racing games offers an adrenaline rush that is not available to most adults. Some of the top selling car racing game titles are Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, and The Chronicles Collection.
Playing video games is a great way to relax and de-stress. This can help improve one’s mental health by reducing stress and creating a good environment for learning. People who are suffering from anxiety, depression, and other poor psychological functioning disorders have reported great improvements by playing video games. This can be attributed to the fact that playing any type of media like film, music, or video games creates positive experiences and activates brain cells that produce a feeling of happiness and positive emotions.
Popular video games of the year include Need for Speed, Grand Theft Auto, and World of Warcraft. All three of these games were among the top sellers for their respective categories last year. Need for Speed was sold in just over one hundred and forty thousand units according to comScore. It was the best selling game for the year, and it generated more than twenty-five million dollars in earnings. Grand Theft Auto finished second with almost eleven million units sold. The incredible success of Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed paved the way for this game genre to become popular around the world.
Another area where playing video games can affect one’s mental health is in the category of problem-solving skills. Gamers need to apply their problem-solving skills to overcome challenges in game play to succeed at the game. In order to solve problems within a game and come out as a better player, players need to use their critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. This can be attributed to the fact that the human mind can only remember and execute skills that it is exposed to consistently and successfully. So, if a player is repeatedly exposed to a video game with the same problem, then his brain will eventually develop the ability to solve the problem based on the repeated exposure.
As video games continue to gain popularity among both adults and children, the video game industry will likely continue to grow. This will most certainly impact all facets of our society because we will have more people who are more capable of succeeding in our modern economy than we’ve ever had. Gaming is not just a pastime for teenagers and young adults anymore. Anyone who is interested in getting into the video game industry should be very interested in the potential mental health benefits that playing this type of game can bring. It is no wonder why video games are becoming so popular.
