Today I want to talk about a hobby of mine which does receive some flack and a bit of controversary, this is gaming. Now, whatever you might think of gaming this past time of mine has helped me in more ways than I know, through the dark times and also the good, gaming has always been there for me.
My first gaming console was a Sega Megadrive, this might give you an idea as to my age ha. But this was when I kind of got hooked on gaming, graduating to a Playstation then up to current day a gaming PC, obviously a lot has changed during that time thankfully the graphics have had a massive improvement.
What people don't realise is how much gaming can actually help you in your day to day life as found in the following studies:
A study by the University of Glasgow found that gaming improves communication skills, resourcefulness, and adaptability.
Research from the American Psychological Association indicated that gaming can enhance cognitive functions such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory, and perception.
A study published in the journal "Computers in Human Behaviour" demonstrated that gamers have better attention allocation and higher visual processing capabilities.
As you can see the benefits are there when playing a game or two, I know speaking for myself that I am able to determine situations better through experiences from gaming, target tracking being one of them. I can remember when I went to a shooting range for the first time, a few friends invited me to clay pigeon shooting and on one of the ranges the target wasn't following it's proper course due to a issue with the system used to fire the clays, however I was able to track, predict and fire the shotgun in order to the hit the target, at the time the instructor asked if I had been shooting before because that level of skill isn't normally seen before from beginners.
Personally I am convinced that from playing first person shooters this helped me hit the target. Gaming for me has always been a great escape from things that might be going off around me or to even just chill, for me it is no different to watching TV. I've had some amazing experiences through gaming from making friends all the way across the pond to some outright balling laughs with my Dad when playing Battlefield.
I know that from the news articles that gaming supposedly causes violence but look at the millions of other gamers that haven't gone out there and done something violent, it isn't the game it's the person and how they perceive their reality. I know a lot of people that still scoff at this subject because it is seen as childish but if it is then shit I am not growing up any time soon.
The other benefits that us gamers benefit from are improvements in problem-solving skills, hand eye co-ordination, teamwork and collaboration and resilience and perseverance. The last one doesn't shock me as you encounter more losses than you do wins when gaming, especially online, so to build a skillset like that is invaluable throughout life.
Now I'm not saying you can go ahead and start whacking on your CV that you've spent 1000 hours on COD performing 4 squad raids and tactical decisions to overcome situations, no. What I am saying is that by having a session or two doing something that you enjoy is more beneficial for you than what you think so don't feel guilty in enjoying a game!
This leads me into a story, one evening I was at a service call for broadband speed issues, when I arrived a lady answered the door and I did the usual greet etc, once inside I asked what the issue was and here in lies a problem for me, she goes “well the big child of the house can’t play his little FIFA game properly because it’s laggy or something, personally I think he needs to grow up!” In my head I thought she was on about her child, but I clocked just pictures of just her and her partner, I could tell she resented her partner having a gaming session due to her comments.
As I set about resolving the issue which was fairly simple, a couple port forwards and a Ethernet run later and my guy was ready to rock and roll, of course the fun sponge was about and immediately retorted, “oh great so his little toy is fixed then” Now, I don’t normally judge people because frankly I don’t give a fuck, I’ve got my own shit to contend with but this struck a cord with me in that this lad had clearly wanted a decent game and couldn’t get one in, now I’ve sorted it and he’s happy she still couldn’t crack a smile.
If there are any ladies reading this and your partner is a gamer, cut ‘em some slack, it really helps us destress, unless of course they’re bellowing from the other room like a foul mouthed Billy Connelly then have at it and tell them to shut the fuck up, but if they’re in their own little world having bants with the lads leave em to it that’s our down time, that’s our break from everything we’ve got going on.
I’m gonna wrap this up so ladies and gents, GAME ON!
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