Eight Reasons Why You Should Play Games More Often

Play, generally, adds joy to life, but specifically, board game playing brings some unique health and life-improving benefits to your life.

It’s not just an activity that should be enjoyed once in a while, for the best results, it has to be done regularly.

1) Games are good for your brain

This activity is a fantastic workout for your brain. Playing games stimulates brain areas that are responsible for both complex thoughts and memory formation. It assists in practising essential cognitive skills, such as problem-solving and decision making.

Boardgames also reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and helps to keep the mind sharp for elderly people. There are also many benefits for young brains, as well. Boardgames have been shown to be good for kids’ mental growth, and also for helping to make teenagers more intelligent.

2) Games reduce stress

Laughter and having a good time, in general, helps to decrease stress. Therefore, it’s no suprise that studies have found that game board playing can reduce stress. In fact, according to one online survey, stress relief is one of the biggest reasons why people play games.

3) Playing games makes you happier

When you play a game, there will likely be moments where it triggers the release of endorphins. These are the body’s natural “feel-good” chemicals. This is perceived as a feeling of positive emotion, which has the power to improve conscious and unconscious brain functions. As a side effect, they also leave you feeling cheerful, compassionate and ultimately content.

4) Playing together brings people closer and strengthens relationships

Okay, so there are some solo board games (some of them very good), but most of the time you’ll be playing against other people.By playing with those other people, whether against each other in a competitive game, or with them in a co-operative one, you are spending time doing something enjoyable together. This can create new connections, or reinforce existing ones.

5) Tabetop games are (mostly) a real-world activity

While recently a lot of boardgaming has had to be done on Tabletop Simulator, Roll20, Tabletopia, or similar, a lot of the time they’re played in-person. This adds a tactile element that’s totally missing from video games, or watching Netflix. Also, it means not staring at a screen, giving your eyes time to recover, and if you play in the evening you avoid the light from a video screen interfering with your sleep.

6) Gaming can lower blood pressure

As well as reducing stress and increasing “happy hormones”, board games can be useful for maintaining healthy blood pressure. The release of endorphins provokes muscles to relax, which allows blood to circulate much more easily. This in turn, means your blood pressure doesn’t need to be as high to flow at the rate desired. High blood pressure is associated with a artery damage, heart disease and even strokes, so avoiding this is definately a good thing.

7) Games can teach patience and goal setting

Winning takes strategy and patience. Games allow strategic thinking and patience to be learnt in an enjoyable and relatively stress-free environment.

8) Gaming enhances creativity and self-confidence

Playing board games can be the perfect opportunity to connect and open up to people. It can also help people to display a creative side of their personality in a non-intrusive way, which can be very beneficial for “quieter types”. As well as the problem solving and expression through tactics that boardgames and card games offer, RPGs do this on a whole other level. The freedom that role-playing offers can allow those taking part to come up with creative ideas, and express themselves fully in new and exciting ways.

So, there you have it; eight reasons why you should play games more often.

What are you waiting for? Get playing!