Newzoo, the leading provider of market intelligence covering the global game, reported there were 2.67 billion gamers in the world at the end of 2019 (Louis, 2020). Besides, videogame branches reported increases in the number of players and copies sold of their flagship videogames such as “The Sims 4”, in which people can create a new virtual life, go to the university, manage to pay bills and get money, have a family, and form complex relationships; League of Legends, a competitive and cooperative strategy game, which motivates gamers to create well-structured strategies with their gaming groups to defeat their enemies; and “Minecraft”, the most famous survival, multiplayer, crafting videogame, takes all its players to unknown worlds, in which they have to collect natural resources, build refuges and survive as much as they can till they can manage to reach the end of the game. Taking this information into account, it is easy to notice videogames’ educative possibilities, content, and social influence in today’s society. However, many adults still believe videogames must be erased, arguing they are a waste of time and form violent and asocial habits in children and teenagers’ behavior. This negative one-sided perspective prevents adults to see how playing videogames is beneficial for society since it improves people’s cognitive and social skills.
To begin with, it has been proved that people who play videogames have better solving-problem skills. Due to videogames’ complex challenges, players must put into practice different strategies and ways to get out of different problems, which can leave their characters out of the resources they might need to survive or to keep going to the end of the game. As Granic et al (2014) said in their investigation about videogames and their benefits in people’s lives, “problem-solving seems central to all genres of video games (…) In-game puzzles range in complexity from finding the quickest route from A to B to discovering complex action sequences based on memorization and analytical skills” (p. 69). Indeed, videogames need a challenging factor to keep the players, not only engaged to the game, but to keep them thinking about the ways they can get out of a specific hard stage that puzzles their mind. On top of it, videogames commonly allow players to cooperate with their gaming group and, together, move forward the victory. As a result of all of the above, the perfect scenario is created to test and improve cognitive skills, while discovering new strategies for problem-solving, supported by the cooperative work of groups of players in the game.
Furthermore, thanks to the challenging factor mentioned before, and the possibility to cooperate with others, gamers have created big gaming communities from all over the world. Nowadays, most of the videogames offered are multiplayer, which allows gamers to be competitive within each other, to cooperate and unlock achievements, or to do both depending on the game. Thanks to the different situation players can be involved in through the games, they would rather have to decide how and with the support of whom they would fight someone in the game, or discuss with the others whether or not would be the right decision to keep the game going in the best way. These kinds of decisions are complex and lead them to develop important social skills, such as leadership, relationship management, verbal and written communication, and so, which can help them to distribute the different missions that fit better to everyone playing (Granic et al, 2014). As an illustration of all of this, the communities of gamers that Minecraft and League of Legends have created round over the 80 and 200 million players from all continents. This fact has made different videogame branches, such as Riot Games and Mojang, create big events and contests in which players and their gaming groups meet and play to win expensive prizes and global recognition in their respective gaming community.
Notwithstanding, playing videogames uncontrollably can develop gaming disorders. The International Classification of Diseases 11th (2019) defined gaming disorders as a “pattern of gaming behavior characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline”. This metal disorder does not allow people to live normally because their time, concerns, and effort are focused only on videogames. Besides, they cannot control the amount of time they spend playing, which can lead to significant negative results in other aspects of their life, such as educational, work, and personal relations environments. However, this can be prevented if a controlled gaming schedule is set, and if the person schedules time to do healthy activities, such as working out, playing musical instruments, reading books, playing sports, and so on (WebMD Health Corporation, 2019). By doing this, people would not only take advantage of the benefits of video games, but could also find other entertainment alternatives that, in the same way, can be beneficial for their lives.
Videogames are part of today’s’ society and there is nothing to do about it. Therefore, it is time for everyone to realize that both video games and new technologies can be beneficial. if people take advantage of these benefits and give a good usage of the things they are given, they will be able to develop important skills to survive in the contemporary world, such as the cognitive and social ones. Of course, as everything that exists in this world, excesses are wrong, and everyone must be concerned about the amount of time they expend doing something under no control. In the case of videogames, when someone starts concerning too much about them and does not care about the amount of time they spent playing, they are the ones that are not taking care of their mental health and personal life. Considering the above, it is time to ask people against videogames: are videogames responsible for peoples’ behavior, or people just give a wrong usage of them?
Bibliography
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034857
Louis, A. (2020). Finances Online. Number of Gamers Worldwide 2020: Demographics, Statistics, and Predictions. Retrieved from https://financesonline.com/number-of-gamers-worldwide/
Minotti, M. (January 30, 2020, 1:30 PM). Games Beat Summit. The Sims 4 has reached 20 million players. Retrieved from: https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/30/the-sims-4-has-reached-20-million-players/
Heimer, R. (2019). How Many People Play League Of Legends [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.unrankedsmurfs.com/blog/players-2017.
Gilbert, B. (September 14, 2019, 8:20Am). Business Insider. ‘Minecraft’ has been quietly dominating for over 10 years, and now has 112 million players every month. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/minecraft-monthly-player-number-microsoft-2019-9
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (11th ed,; ICD-11; World Health Organization, 2019).
WebMD Health Corporation. (March 19, 2019). Video Game Addiction. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/video-game-addiction#2
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