“You’re gonna rot your brain playing those games.”
Almost every gamer has heard that phrase before. However, after growing up on consoles and online gaming with friends, we started to wonder if games were a waste of time, not attributing to anything outside of just entertainment. After doing some research, though, it might be surprising to find out that they have some benefits to them. Reaction time, anticipation, and decision making skills can all be improved by playing games. Fast-paced games often require players to think quickly under pressure, multiplayer games make players rely on teamwork and communication, while survival games on the other hand require strategy and creativity.
Video games have always been a part of our lives. One thing we know for sure is that video games shaped our childhoods. Whether it was racing friends in Mario Kart, surviving endless rounds of zombies in Black Ops 3 Zombies, or even making memories in Minecraft with family and friends. For many people, video games are not just for entertainment; they are a way for people to connect with others, escape stress, and express their creativity. Looking back now, video games could’ve affected us in more ways than we could ever imagine.
If you have ever played games like Valorant, CSGO (Counter Strike Global Offensive), and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, you would know that they are all “hyper-competitive” games: the kind where if you have faster reaction time your probability of winning is greatly increased. These types of games constantly help you improve your reaction times. According to a study from the PsyPost, “They are better at preparing to time their reactions in tasks that require quick reactions and they do it automatically without consciously working on it.” From this study, researchers have noticed that gamers tend to have faster reaction times than non-gamers, even when they are not consciously thinking about it. A study by the National Library of Medicine ran an experiment where they had Video Game Players (VGPs) and Non Video Game Players (NVGPs) all go through the same reaction time based tests. After all participants finished, a graph was created with all of the times, and it was seen that VGPs had an 11% faster reaction time than NVGPs. After the trials, similar accuracy was seen between all of the VGPs that ruled out simple speed-accuracy trade off. “The action-trained group demonstrated a 13% decrease in their RTs, whereas the control-trained group exhibited only a 6% decrease.” Training regimes that include small doses of action games are very beneficial for reaction times.
Additionally, video games have proven to help people better predict and anticipate what will happen. A study conducted by the PsyPost says, “The study shows that people playing action video games have better abilities to anticipate when they should expect to see something particular.” When researchers put gamers through countless tests, they discovered that a lot of gamers have an increased ability to anticipate what is coming up. Another study by the National Library of Medicine says, “VGPs did not compensate for their faster RTs by making more anticipatory errors than NVGPs.” Through playing video games many people have developed skills that aid their responsibilities outside of gaming.
Developing skills that we can use for sports or daily life is not the only thing that video games provide. They also create meaningful memories and relationships. For us, staying up late and laughing with friends about stupid decisions we make and the amount of time we spent trying to get proficient at a game ultimately shaped the people we are today. Games are not just entertainment. They are a way for people to express themselves, vent their frustrations, and eliminate stress. The importance of video games is that they provide more than just enjoyment.
It is obvious that playing games all the time and ignoring responsibilities outside of just playing games isn’t healthy. But saying that video games are going to “rot your brain” just isn’t true. It can improve reaction time, focus, anticipation, and social connections for some people. For a lot of people they are stressed after a long day. For us, gaming became more than just entertainment. It gave us our childhood and memories with siblings, cousins, and friends. The development of skills are just the +1 that carries over to sports and everyday life. Maybe video games aren’t ruining our brains after all. Maybe we were just training them.
