Online gaming is big business. Successful games can see millions of people from all over the world log in over the course of a day. Some of those gamers do not pay anything – otherwise known as “Free to Play” or “F2P.” Others will pay either monthly subscriptions or what is known as micro-transactions, where they can pay a small amount to get a certain item or a larger amount to get more useful items.
While these games can have a certain impact on the players’ wallets, it can also affect their brains. There are some possible negative effects on their personal lives. This article, however, will focus more on the positive aspects of online gaming on people’s brains.
Certain Games Can Help Senior People With Their Memories
It is thought that these types of games can help these seniors gain memory functions like they had when they were younger. In effect, it could reverse certain parts of aging in their brains. They may not even have to play the games for a long time to be able to reap the benefits of the games.
The older brain is not as stiff and resistant to learning new things as people may have thought. This sort of gaming could help those who are in nursing homes and other places regain a sense of their youth. This could be a good market for online games.
3D is The Way
When these seniors played the games, they were in 3-D. That played a part in how well they did. When others did a 2-D version, they did not fare as well.
It seems that the 3-D aspect helps them with their memories. This might be because they also need to do things like spatial judgment, which the 2-D version is lacking.
Strategy Is The Thing
There’s another aspect of gaming that could help people of all ages with memory. Strategy games, which require a lot of thinking and planning could be a big help. It keeps the brain active and could possibly do things like help stave off or prevent conditions like Alzheimer’s. This is because the brain is not being passive. You are not merely reacting – you are also trying to think of what your opponent could be doing next … or you could be trying to anticipate several moves ahead. It could be a very fun way to keep yourself occupied.
Please Direct Your Attention To…
Another possible benefit of playing games online is that it can help you focus on things. If you have a task in a game, you will likely play until you accomplish that task. The same could then go to doing a real-life task. You could just do the task in its entirety.
One way that this could work is if you have a series of tasks to do. You could do things like in the game and break those tasks down and do each of them. Once you have done each of those, then you could say that you have had a very productive day, indeed. The game can also help you identify and prioritize the tasks from the most important to the least important. It’s just another way to allow you to use it as the tool you want it to be.
Science can be conflicting on many topics, not just gaming. There are some studies that would seem to indicate that online gaming could be harmful, while others, like the ones above, could be used to show that there could be tangible results. Like many other things, it could be a result of massaging statistics … or the people who were involved in the studies had atypical results. If there is anything that can be said about science is that it can be inexact.
Overall, online games can have a range of benefits for people of all ages – especially those who are older. It could help a lot if incorporated with other things to help engage the brain, like reading. This is still something that is relatively new, and as the technology continues to improve, then more gaming companies can create games that will foster these gains.
Even though the Internet is over two decades old, there are still a lot of things that need to be learned about how it affects people’s brains and memories. The researchers and game creators need to focus on how to continue helping people rather than just make money. Then you will see society truly benefit.
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