The influence of video games on our life is a controversial topic. While one half of humanity mainly in the face of the older generation talks about the harmful effect of playing video games, the other half of younger people state about the benefit of games and their positive impact on the development of personality. Let’s settle together on how video games impact our life from the perspective of these two camps…
Video games are divided into genres because a game is a direct continuation and even expansion of our multidimensional life. Different genres suit different types of people: while thoughtful thinkers like puzzles and quests, explosive persons are fond of shooters, and people who consider themselves to be forward-thinking play as kings and presidents.
There are to 1500 kinds of gaming genres. And while some people consider all games to be harmful, regardless of their genre, it is obvious for a playing person that the positive impact of games varies radically because there is no sense in comparing, for example, a shooter and a puzzle game in terms of benefit. So we will divide games by genres and find out how they impact us.
Action-games
Let’s start with, probably, the most popular video game genre – Action. Actions are very dynamic in these games, as a rule, there are enemies and bosses and, also, a storyline, which will explain to you what to do, why you are here, and how to win. This gaming genre is made to try a player’s power, imitating real events.
Shooter games
A shooter game is a game, in which a player has an arsenal of weapons, an objective, and enemies, which he has to kill, and not to be killed. It is the most dynamic and serious gaming genre. Here, you will face blood, kills, dynamics, and, as a result, you will fall out of reality for hours and days. Depending on a particular game, players will be required to work together, create plans and strategies, have a quick reaction, and many others. Despite the positive qualities of this type of games, shooter games cause a negative reaction of the majority of philistines because some scientists have found the connection between the shoting in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the maniac’s playing shooter games and stated that the games of the genre develop violence and aggression in people. However, according to the other scientists, our brain does not connect the action on the screen with reality due to the fact that an alternative world or a far future is used in shooter games.
- Advantages: mastering teamwork skills, tactical thinking, quick reaction.
- Disadvantages: needs a lot of time, a possible growth of the level of aggression, a reduction of sensitivity.
Platformers
A platformer is another subgenre of the most dynamic genre in the gaming industry. Please welcome – jumping on blocks, jumping on enemies, running on platforms, falling, and running again. Traditionally, you jump on platforms, run on 2D (less frequently in 3D) plates, and fight a big number of weak enemies. You have to avoid their bullets and hit with yours (or jump on them, or slice with a sword, or annihilate – there are a lot of options). In fact, a platformer is a simple version of a shooter game where you have to get somewhere, having found a way to jump there and finish your objective. Platformers often include puzzle elements where you have to find something, activate a portal, etc.
- Advantages: solving intelligent puzzles, an opportunity to relax, or test your reaction.
- Disadvantages: the simplified perception obviously does not provide a space for your imagination and it does not give a player difficult objectives that frequently leads a game to become a simple time killer. Also, it can go too far, having made a platformer too difficult, which will destroy your mental state but become an interesting test for your will (which it will crush too, as a result).
Fighting
Blood, gore, crushed skulls, falling bodies, and punches, which are followed by dust and special effects – this is how fighting, the last subgenre of the action genre looks like.
Fighting (from English «fight») is a gaming genre where, as a rule, there are two players or a player with AI (artificial intelligence) face in a hand-to-hand fight where they can use various strikes, with the help of which you can crush the enemy’s skull. In this subgenre, there are even more blood and violence than in a shooter game, so the majority of these games are rated as 18+. However, there are games without blood where enemies just fall on earth.
- Advantages: the development of reaction and memory
- Disadvantages: a lot of violence
So we can conclude that everything is good in moderation and where one becomes addicted, another will find a space for creativity and an opportunity to test himself to use this knowledge in real life. Play wisely!
