The Benefits of Gaming

Gaming is often a highly frowned upon form of entertainment associated with heaps of negative social stigma and stereotypes built around the industry. Gamers often feel the need to shy away from sharing that they do enjoy playing games as gaming may tend to be referred to as being uncool or geeky. It brought about the assumption that if one plays lots of video games, he/she probably isn't a very sociable person in real life.

Well, what if we told you that gaming actually does more good than harm to you? We’re here to help shed some light on gaming and normalise e-sports by sharing the benefits of gaming.



1. Improving hand-eye coordination and muscle dexterity.

Driving games, flight simulators, and controller-based games such as Mario Kart, Grand Theft Auto or Crash Bandicoot can be great for your muscle memory and swift reflexes. In fact, a study done on a group of surgeons showed that those who played video games were quick to perform tougher procedures and showed 37% less mistakes than those who did not. Not to mention, these games can also act as a safe practice ground for new and aspiring drivers to build confidence, train and pass their license exams with ease.

2. Keeping you mentally youthful and holds potential to slow down aging.

Just as we would maintain a good exercise routine for the body, we should also have our own set of brain stimulating exercises to promote healthy brain activity. Studies done on participants aged 50 and above displayed that 10 hours of video games across the span of 5 weeks, proved to have significant improvements in their brain activity. Who knew gaming had the ability to slow down age decline by a minimum of 1 to 6 years?

3. Inspiring you to be more persistent and goal oriented.

Aside from being a fun way to get trickled into learning, gaming also incites competition. With games, you either win or keep trying in order to level up, conquer a boss stage or rank higher in the leadership board. Further promoting the satisfaction of winning, it encourages you to learn from your mistakes and progress until you complete your missions or quests. It teaches you to be more confident in working towards your goals and regarding every misstep as a learning opportunity instead of a discouraging failure.

4. Improving social skills and building better relationships.

Gamers in real-life are not the stereotypical antisocial “otaku” portrayed by pop culture and the media today. Students who played more video games resulted in having faster learning abilities and good social skills. They were also able to build better relationships with other students due to the social and collaborative components to some genres of games such as the massive-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like Runescape and World of Warcraft.