Can Playing Online Video Games Make Us Healthier? Here’s What You Need to Know

Playing video games has always been seen as bad, especially when done too much. But not a lot of people talk about the benefits that playing online video games, even online casino games such as Slotxo has for a player’s health.

Here are some ways how online video games can make us healthier:

1. Video games offer a safe space to relax and hang-out

While COVID stopped the real world, the virtual world of video games continued to offer players a safe space to release stress and socialize, which has a positive impact on one’s mental health. And being able to do this without the risks of exposure is especially helpful at times like this.

By being able to destress through video games, players are less likely to resort to other potentially detrimental habits such as smoking, drinking, or even overeating. Playing can also help in warding off anxiety by improving one’s mood, allowing one to relax, and generally just making people happy. 

2. Video games help stimulate the brain

In the past, video games were thought to rot the brain. But in reality, there are a lot of ways games help improve your mental capacities such as memory, perception, reasoning, and spatial navigation. Games can even help improve players’ problem-solving skills. 

Unknown to most is that keeping our mental function healthy also has an impact on our physical health especially since it influences our behavior and lifestyle, including our eating habits and how often we exercise. 

3. There are video games designed to make us move

Gearing away from traditional game formats that make players sit down for hours at a time, there are now games that encourage players to move. Of course, this started with sports-themed games, or dancing games, which have definitely changed the way playing video games feels. 

There are also mobile games that encourage people to walk around as a key aspect of the game, and this has caused people to go out for a walk while playing. Truly, there are ways in which games can help make players be more active.

4. Console controllers can help in exercising hands and wrists

An interesting take on how video games can help make us healthier is that console controllers effectively engage our wrists and hands so much that there are video games that are designed to help physical therapy patients improve their hand and wrist control. 

5. Video games can help improve your vision

While the contrary is more popular, video games can actually help your sight. Of course, one would have to maintain a safe distance from the screen, and keep playing at a reasonable amount of time, but games can help people see better through improved spatial navigation and resolution. This is especially true in first-person shooting games where players are trained to see smaller details on the screen, which also translates in real-life scenarios.

6. Video games can help improve persistence, even in leading a healthier lifestyle. 

Video games can help motivate you to try and try until you meet your goal in the game. This persistence that games help train also translates to us being more persistent in our real-life goals such as eating healthy or even going to the gym. 

You can actually see a lot of popular video players who are also physically active, and visit the gym regularly. This is video game-trained persistence at play. 

While not usually talked about, video games can have a positive impact on our health. Of course, excessive playing would not yield the desired results as too much of anything is not good. So play a healthy amount of video games and maximize the benefits that playing has on our health.