We’ve all been playing games for a while now, or at least, most of us have. If you are new to Table Top Gaming, then welcome, it’s nice to see you here. Grab a chair and scooch up to the table. We’ve got lots to talk about. Most of us know the basic advantages face-to-face gaming has over gaming on your PC or game console. Even for us experienced experts though, there are some hidden advantages you may not be aware of yet. Things that are, if you play fairly regularly, having an effect on your life even as we speak. That’s right, games are making you better, right now.
Children and gaming are a pretty obvious mix, and developing Social Skills are enhanced by playing games with family and friends. Kids learn how to get along with each other and interact with people who have different goals or expectations. They learn communication skills and more. Scholastic has an article that briefly outlines a few of the key developmental benefits of gaming.
Most games can teach color and number recognition at a minimum in addition to Social Skills. We’re all familiar with Candy Land and it’s color matching movement system, but other games can help children learn to sort like shapes together, identify who owns what playing piece by color and, in games like Hi-Ho Cherry-O children learn to count the numbers up to 10 in order to figure out who is winning.
They also point out that by playing on a bounded field, in this case the game board, children also get an early introduction to boundaries and limits of activity. The idea being that a child learns that certain activities are okay in certain, specific places and not okay in others. If you have a kid that has trouble knowing when and where it’s okay to take all the legos out of the box, or scatter all the crayons around, he can develop a sense of the appropriateness of these activities by playing games and acquiring, through parental guidance, the idea that this works here, but not over here. In other words, you don’t play checkers on an Uncle Wiggily board.
Winning teaches important skills as well, as does losing. While there is some discussion to be had about ‘letting’ your kid win, both Scholastic and The University of Oregon (PDF) point out that winning a game can help build your child’s self-confidence. While it is important not to give the child a false sense of confidence, building a reasonable level of self-confidence is crucial for helping your child realize they can succeed in unfamiliar environments and under conditions they may not have encountered before. Board Games help your kid do this by allowing them to feel successful at relatively simple things so they can transfer that feeling to more real world situations.
Adults can benefit, too. And well past their developmental years to boot. In fact, a study reported on by CBS News, indicated that engaging in regular game play, among other activities, can help reduce and even prevent Dementia in Senior Citizens.
The idea is that mental challenges of any sort help to ‘exercise’ the brain cells and keep them healthy. Board Games and other Table Top Games, especially those of the Euro or German Style, are excellent sources of mental challenge as anyone who has played Power Grid or done a marathon session of Dungeons and Dragons can tell you. Even idle time game related activity, such as building Magic decks, can help stimulate otherwise dormant brain cells. And any one of those beats the lack of stimulation generally found on prime time television. (See Jersey Shore. Or don’t.)
If you’ve had a bad day at work or things just don’t go smooth some days, Table Top Games can be an excellent way to destress and relax. Sitting down to a casual game with friends and family allows your mind an opportunity to focus elsewhere rather than on all the problems of the day. In fact, it’s hard to play well if you aren’t focused on the game at hand and this gives your subconscious mind time to mull over your troubles and pop out interesting solutions later on. Just the benefits of not dwelling on your current difficulties can measurably affect things like blood pressure and stress and help your mind gain balance again.
Family time is increasingly a rarity. Sitting in front of a TV generally does not count as quality time but sitting around a game board or set of miniatures does. If you find your family scattered to the far ends of the Earth more frequently than you would like, a Family Game Night can be a good way to reconnect with everyone. As PFAdvice points out, board games especially are relatively inexpensive forms of group entertainment and can provide many hours of fun and family interaction with very little initial investment.
PFAdvice also suggests that many games are good at teaching money management. Life, Monopoly and Pay Day are good initial examples (if you play Monopoly strictly by the printed rules) of managing money. Some of these have even been ‘converted’ to use make believe credit cards which can help teach about managing credit. As your game play develops and family members get older though, you’ll need more solid and deep games to really begin getting some good lessons out of them. This is especially true if you want to help folks understand stocks and bonds and some of the more sophisticated financial instruments.
Acquire is a particularly good game for teaching about shares and holding stock in a company with its (depending on version) hotel buying, building and selling. Imperial teaches the concept of maximizing Return On Investment, and Goldbrau teaches supply and demand in a Beer Garden setting. Many other games can teach various other aspects of business, finance and economics that would otherwise be difficult to learn independently.
You knew Table Top Games were good for you from a social perspective and now you know what else they can do for you. The next time someone gives you a hard time about playing games as an adult, feel free to trot out this article and show them why they form an important part of your healthy, happy life. What other benefits have you experienced because of table top gaming? Share them below.
This article originally appeared at gsa.thegamernation.org
Children and gaming are a pretty obvious mix, and developing Social Skills are enhanced by playing games with family and friends. Kids learn how to get along with each other and interact with people who have different goals or expectations. They learn communication skills and more. Scholastic has an article that briefly outlines a few of the key developmental benefits of gaming.
Most games can teach color and number recognition at a minimum in addition to Social Skills. We’re all familiar with Candy Land and it’s color matching movement system, but other games can help children learn to sort like shapes together, identify who owns what playing piece by color and, in games like Hi-Ho Cherry-O children learn to count the numbers up to 10 in order to figure out who is winning.
They also point out that by playing on a bounded field, in this case the game board, children also get an early introduction to boundaries and limits of activity. The idea being that a child learns that certain activities are okay in certain, specific places and not okay in others. If you have a kid that has trouble knowing when and where it’s okay to take all the legos out of the box, or scatter all the crayons around, he can develop a sense of the appropriateness of these activities by playing games and acquiring, through parental guidance, the idea that this works here, but not over here. In other words, you don’t play checkers on an Uncle Wiggily board.
Winning teaches important skills as well, as does losing. While there is some discussion to be had about ‘letting’ your kid win, both Scholastic and The University of Oregon (PDF) point out that winning a game can help build your child’s self-confidence. While it is important not to give the child a false sense of confidence, building a reasonable level of self-confidence is crucial for helping your child realize they can succeed in unfamiliar environments and under conditions they may not have encountered before. Board Games help your kid do this by allowing them to feel successful at relatively simple things so they can transfer that feeling to more real world situations.
Adults can benefit, too. And well past their developmental years to boot. In fact, a study reported on by CBS News, indicated that engaging in regular game play, among other activities, can help reduce and even prevent Dementia in Senior Citizens.
“They found a reduced incidence of dementia among the people who participated in reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments and dancing. And the researchers found that people who engage in the activities were more frequently less likely to develop dementia.”
The idea is that mental challenges of any sort help to ‘exercise’ the brain cells and keep them healthy. Board Games and other Table Top Games, especially those of the Euro or German Style, are excellent sources of mental challenge as anyone who has played Power Grid or done a marathon session of Dungeons and Dragons can tell you. Even idle time game related activity, such as building Magic decks, can help stimulate otherwise dormant brain cells. And any one of those beats the lack of stimulation generally found on prime time television. (See Jersey Shore. Or don’t.)
If you’ve had a bad day at work or things just don’t go smooth some days, Table Top Games can be an excellent way to destress and relax. Sitting down to a casual game with friends and family allows your mind an opportunity to focus elsewhere rather than on all the problems of the day. In fact, it’s hard to play well if you aren’t focused on the game at hand and this gives your subconscious mind time to mull over your troubles and pop out interesting solutions later on. Just the benefits of not dwelling on your current difficulties can measurably affect things like blood pressure and stress and help your mind gain balance again.
Family time is increasingly a rarity. Sitting in front of a TV generally does not count as quality time but sitting around a game board or set of miniatures does. If you find your family scattered to the far ends of the Earth more frequently than you would like, a Family Game Night can be a good way to reconnect with everyone. As PFAdvice points out, board games especially are relatively inexpensive forms of group entertainment and can provide many hours of fun and family interaction with very little initial investment.
PFAdvice also suggests that many games are good at teaching money management. Life, Monopoly and Pay Day are good initial examples (if you play Monopoly strictly by the printed rules) of managing money. Some of these have even been ‘converted’ to use make believe credit cards which can help teach about managing credit. As your game play develops and family members get older though, you’ll need more solid and deep games to really begin getting some good lessons out of them. This is especially true if you want to help folks understand stocks and bonds and some of the more sophisticated financial instruments.
Acquire is a particularly good game for teaching about shares and holding stock in a company with its (depending on version) hotel buying, building and selling. Imperial teaches the concept of maximizing Return On Investment, and Goldbrau teaches supply and demand in a Beer Garden setting. Many other games can teach various other aspects of business, finance and economics that would otherwise be difficult to learn independently.
You knew Table Top Games were good for you from a social perspective and now you know what else they can do for you. The next time someone gives you a hard time about playing games as an adult, feel free to trot out this article and show them why they form an important part of your healthy, happy life. What other benefits have you experienced because of table top gaming? Share them below.
This article originally appeared at gsa.thegamernation.org
