Gamer Life: The Benefits of Embracing the Gamer Lifestyle
There was a time, long ago, when gamers were thought of as one stereotypical kind of person. The rest of the world assumed that gamers were always men, usually boys, who probably had poor personal hygiene, very little in the way of social skills, and a love for junk food. Now, although there are certainly still gamers who fit one or more of these criteria, we understand that it is not because they are gamers but because that’s just how they are. The gamer lifestyle is very different to the way we previously understood it to be.
Of the billions of people who play millions of different games all across the world, there are some who play mobile slots, some who play first-person shooters, and some who play side scrollers. There are men, women, boys, girls, and non-binary individuals. There are people who have full-time corporate jobs, some who like to hike, some who love to eat French cuisine, and some who enjoy watching NASCAR. The gamer lifestyle is not one single thing, and the people who populate the gaming world are multifaceted beings who came to gaming for their own reasons.
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The benefits of playing video games have been documented time and time again over the last decade, as we came out of the misconception that gamers might be lazy or antisocial. Maybe some of the benefits of the gaming life are something you’re lacking in your own day-to-day, maybe not. The best way to find out is to check out our list of the many benefits that games and the gaming lifestyle can offer you and decide for yourself.
Benefits of Gaming and the Gamer Lifestyle
Making Friends
Yes, Grandma and Grandpa, you really can make friends online! While the days of physical LANs are mostly gone (a LAN is an event where many gamers would all bring their PCs to one location to game together), there are literally billions of people playing games online every single day. There are many ways to make friends through gaming: you might watch a game steamer and get chatting to someone in the comments, you might play on a team with someone you don’t know and get to talking about your mutual interests, or you might go to a game convention and meet new people in real life. Thankfully, the days when internet friends were considered not to be “real friends” have long passed us by. If you’re a gamer, you automatically have common ground with billions of other gamers worldwide who are all potential friends waiting to be made.
Developing Social Skills
The one thing you need to make friends is basic social skills. The gaming world is an excellent way for people who lack social skills or have social anxiety to manage these issues or improve their skills where they can. Though some people may always be more comfortable socialising remotely, there’s no rule written down anywhere in the world that says there’s anything wrong with that! Gaming eases you into social situations if you play team games and allows you to interact as much or as little as you prefer.
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Improved Decision-Making Skills
If you play games where you are required to make ‘life or death” decisions in seconds, you will have to sharpen up your cognitive and decision-making abilities. If you sharpen these abilities in one area, that bleeds over into other areas where you might need to use these skills. That automatically improves your overall decision-making and cognitive abilities. Improvement in these areas can help you be a better gamer, help you in time crunches at work, and help you deal with complicated situations in your home life.
Improved Teamwork Skills
If you play team games or games in which you have to consult with at least one other person before taking action, you’re improving your teamwork skills without even knowing it. Working with others can be difficult, especially in a high-pressure situation and especially if they aren’t people that you know very well. It’s times like these when it helps to keep a cool head and apply all the skills you have at your disposal to secure a win for you and your team.
Doing this regularly will sharpen those skills, which, just like our previous point, will spill over into other areas of your life.
Better Multitasking
Have you ever met one of those people who can listen to a song, watch a movie, chat on a chat app and listen to you at the same time? Probably. Have you ever been one? Probably not! Gamers are exposed to multiple stimuli when playing games: music and sounds within the game, vibrations from controllers, and probably several stimuli like music or a TV show from outside of the game as well. To be able to take in all this information at once and respond correctly to each separate stimulus is a true gift and can help you a lot in everyday life and keep you productive.
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Wrap Up
The gamer lifestyle can enrich your day-to-day life in many ways. Give it a try, and you’ll see that it’s the best!
