THE BENEFITS OF GAMING CULTURE
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ideo games have become a massive part of pop culture worldwide, with their adoration growing exponentially over time and surging during quarantine. From video gaming’s humble beginnings in the 40s and 50s as a niche interest of scientists and technicians who wanted to test the limits of the devices they built or worked on, to arcades where friends and families could go to spend some coins and have a good afternoon, all the way up to now where it is a common household passtime. A survey taken by WAHS students shows that 40.7 percent of students would describe themselves as gamers. With gaming being so popular, it’s important to ask, is that healthy? Well as it turns out, gaming and its culture as a whole can have many benefits for casual players and diehard fans alike. Online connections One obvious benefit in the online age is social interaction. With the internet giving greater access to communication, it makes socializing with anyone from home just a few button clicks away. A research paper by Radboud University Nijmegen presents studies that show that playing cooperative games online with friends or even strangers can increase social aptitude among those who play. It is also surprising that even cooperative violent games show a noticeable increase in social skills and desire to be helpful in day to day life among their player bases. These games with group dynamics are especially effective in helping those who feel like outsiders find communities that they can feel accepted in, and gain emotional support from where it may be lacking in other aspects of life. Prior to the revolution of online gaming, you generally had a group of friends provided by life circumstances. You lived in the same area, you liked the same kind of things, so you got along. It was a matter of convenience rather than choice. Now we live in a world where you can befriend people from other cities, states, and even different countries. There is no longer a confinement to a community of nearby peers. You get to pick your community, near or far, based on the things you enjoy, and you can all do those things together.
CALLISTA CWMCWLAMARE FRESHMAN “When my dad let me play as his character for the first time, [...] I died within 10 seconds, but that was amazing”
T H E W H I R LW I N D
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By Ethan Biersdorff
This sense of community is a large part of gaming culture. Many people find themselves bonding over TV shows, movies, or sports they like. With video games you are bonding over both an interest and a potential shared experience. Watching something with a friend has nothing on exploring fictional worlds with those you find community with. From inside jokes among gaming communities to shared likes and dislikes that are perfect to talk about and, at times, even debate. It makes for good distraction, entertainment, conversation topic, and so much more. So, games have an incredibly positive impact on social capabilities, but what else do they have to offer? Gaming On The Brain According to the same research paper by Radboud, several studies have shown that video games, especially action games, can increase people’s cognitive abilities, including their attention allocation, spatial reasoning, and neural processing, all incredibly sought after aspects of people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Put simply, many games are shown to functionally grow the cognitive strengths that we value in our best and brightest. Obviously this doesn’t mean gaming creates geniuses, but for a leisure activity, an increase in brain function is definitely a welcome benefit. The Fun And The Future Outside of the mental aspect, video games are also fun destressors. People from around the world can escape their stress in a world that they can call their own. Fun stories for us to internalize or share. A huge variety of games that we can all experience differently. From casual gamers to those who can make functional careers either streaming or playing professionally, gamer culture brings so much positivity into their lives that they just can’t find anywhere else. Gaming at large is only going to grow more and more, and as the world of gaming continues to evolve, only time will tell how much better it will get. For now, just game on.
ANDREW CRAIG SENIOR “My best gaming memory would probably be Lego Rock Band, or Beatles Rock Band, and just putting on concerts home alone”
AIDEN HOWARD SOPHOMORE “Being able to go online and just play with anyone around the world in nearly any game you can think of, I just think that’s really fun”
