Are you ready to sharpen your sword, re-load your Desert Eagle, upgrade your skill level or re-generate your lost health and supplies for this read? That’s perfect – as we are about to take on an adventurous journey into the world of the 21st-century gaming industry. Sounds intriguing, right? Let’s get started.

Getting Facts Straight!

It would not be an exaggeration to say that 21st-century gaming is no more a child’s hobby. In fact, the gaming industry today is providing a wide range of gaming products to over 2.3 billion gamers today. It is estimated that around 48% of gaming studios worldwide work on VR/AR games. Steam – a well-known digital distribution platform for gaming developed by Valve Corporations showcases 25 new games every day on average. Producing a wide range of gaming experiences such as Role Players (RPGs), Arcade or Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOGs), the gaming industry is expected to generate an astounding US$ 90 billion revenue by the year 2020.

Gaming – The Pros!

1) Improves Cognitive Functions:

According to the American Psychological Association, modern gaming adds to human’s cognitive functions such as attention to detail, memory recall and allocation, reasoning and above all perception. All these combined today transforms the cognitive ability into a handy set of skills to cope with the growing demand for improved cognitive functions. Having conducted a meta-analysis into this argument, researches postulated that the positive effects of this brainiac exercises enable a player to process information in different dimensions – hoola!

2) Hand-Eye Coordination:

While the brain processes an enormous amount of information while playing today’sgames, researchers concluded that teens can learn spatial, visual and hand-eye coordination skills from video games. For instance, a shooting game requires a player’s brain to analyze, record, remember and above all anticipate target’s movement to hit it. This seemingly simple back-end process actually adds to the over brain’s ability to process the situation and release instructing commands to both eye and hand nerves to execute a command precisely – Long live this digitally divine coordination and gaming.

3) Decision Making and Accuracy:

Gaming provides a multi-range of scenarios to the player. From escaping and avoiding a dangerous encounter to sneaking in quietly for stealth missions, the modern games enable a player to cope with a variety of unlikely moments which throws a different and modified attention to detail task at the player. This, as a combination, develops the sub-conscious decision-making ability of the brain while perfecting accuracy.

4) Promotes The Theory of Incremental Intelligence:

We all long for that moment of appreciation. Be at work or home, we all do! Gaming adds to the sense of reward. In more technical terms, this digital reward triggers dopamine hormone in our brain, which triggers happiness and excitement. While gamers go on leveling up and accomplishing missions, the brain registers the triumphs as rewards and feels relieved. This in return adds to the Incremental Intelligence Quotient of an individual, enabling the brain to improve at solving puzzles, riddles or any other day-to-day problem which demands brain’s problem-solving ability as it longs for that sub-conscious reward.

5) Gaming Helps in Depression and Anxiety

We all must have played Angry Birds somewhere, somehow, sometime! The game is believed to be a stress reliever. Researches argue that visuals and scenarios which allow the brain to vent out aggression or anger can help avoid an individual indulging into real or physical acts of aggression. It is also believed that colorful games can also help reduce anxiety as the brain starts receiving reward tokens and release dopamine hormones to help fight stress and anxiety.

CONS OF MODERN GAMING

1) Be Warned – It’s Addictive!

With the pros of gaming, cons can turn a gaming experience into a disaster. As a thumb rule applies to every aspect of life which is “moderation” – if gaming is allowed to drive your daily life it sees you off at the other side of addiction. The multi-billion dollar industry is producing such products which force an individual to spend long hours playing. This, as a consequence, affects the fundamental cycle of tasks and priorities of gamers. Health hazards associated with long hours gaming today range from obesity to chronic depression and other mental illness. In more technical terms this aspect of gaming is known by the name of “pathological gaming” which implies to depression, insomnia, social isolation, and anxiety.

2) The Beast of Aggression – Unleashed!

Researchers believe that teens exposed to such high levels of virtual decision and perception making programs literally alter their brain. An uncontrolled and over watched gaming experience is adding aggression and unrest in gamers aged between 16 to 28 years of age. With more and more violence being injected into storylines and gamer’s free will aspect in gaming today, teens’ brainiac and social behavior are sub-consciously altered resulting in real life-threatening scenes reported frequently in news these days.

3) Academics and Social Fabric – Bye Bye!

Researchers are associating a compounding effect of these factors to poor performances of the majority of teens today. Adults, on the other hand, are recorded to have un-balanced and ill-prioritized social and family life coupled with health hazards linked with heart and mental illness. Due to its sheer volume, exposure and addictive nature, this multi-billion dollar industry of gaming is believed to be damaging humans to the core of their DNAs.

So should you play or should you pack it up? Well, you are the best judge to make your pick. We can provide you with a few dos and dont’s to work around it.

a) Prioritize your time for gaming and stick to it.

b) Watch over your child’s choice of gaming. Avoiding violence based games can come handy.

c) Never compromise on your social and family time for gaming and work towards your child to value them as well.

d) Better not install gaming equipment in your or kid’s bedroom – take it as a magic suggestion!

e) Discuss with your child about the learning aspect of gaming in such a way that social uplift norms and collective respect for humans reflect at the end of your brief discussion.

Top Addicting Games You Might Want to Avoid

Fortnite

Minecraft

Lol

Dota 2

GTA

Pubg

Candy Crush

Clash Of Clans