The myths and misconceptions surrounding video games and gamers are not new. There are many common myths that have been here for ages. Many see video games as a bad influence on children as well as adults saying that they have a bad impact on the person’s lifestyle and behaviour.
Let us debunk some of the common myths that have been revolving around video games.
Common Myths About Video Games
- Video Games are only for Kids
Video games are only for kids might be a true statement a few decades back as games are mostly played by kids. But these kids grew up and they never abandoned their craze for video games. They continued playing games as adults and even some went to build their own video games. In today’s scenario, you can see people of all ages and genders playing video games.
Moreover, there are games like GTA, God of War, Witcher, Call of Duty, etc., specifically made by game development studio for mature audiences as they have content that is not suitable for children. A study shows that 79% of American gamers are adults and among them, 64% are daily active gamers.
Also with the rise of mobile users, video games became accessible to all mobile users and there are many great free-to-play games available on mobile games. Thus, playing video games became a favorite pass time from kids to older adults.
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Video Games will make you violent over time
‘Video games will make players exhibit violent behavior’ is one of the strong arguments that has been revolving around video games for many years now. Multiple researchers were conducted and discussions were conducted by social scientists and psychologists concerning the above mentioned statement. Studies showed that there is no correlation between violent behavior and video games. Furthermore, some researchers said that playing video games has the same effect as watching a violent or horror movie.
Even with all these evidences, people are not ready to let go of the misconception. Maybe it might take some time or a while for them to abandon this misconception.
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Video Games are a waste of time
Every passionate gamer would have been advised by someone (maybe parents or relatives or even friends) ‘Don’t waste your time on video games’. But it is an actual misconception in many cases.
If you are a casual gamer or a professional gamer, you are not wasting your time playing games, you gain a lot back in return. Video games help gamers to de-stress. It also helps to build coping mechanisms and problem-solving abilities. Moreover, nowadays many multiplayer games facilitate communication among gamers all over the world.
Professional gamers do earn money playing games. The recent boom in the internet has opened up many possibilities to earn revenue for skilled gamers. Esports competition, content creation, and Twitch streaming are some of the ways in which gamers can turn their passion into income.
Moreover video gamers can be hired in a video game development company, for playtesting their games to detect any bugs and issues with the game.
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Only Boys Play Video games
Here is a shocking myth that is still believed by many people: Girls do not play video and it is strictly for boys. Years ago, this might be true. Earlier video games were played mostly by boys all around the world. But now the gaming demographics have changed drastically over the years. The number of female gamers has increased largely, even so, they are more or less equal to the number of male gamers.
Not only that female gamers play all genres of games from violent battle royale games to simple puzzle games. Many female gamers own gaming PCs and consoles for playing their favorite games.
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Video Gamers Do Not Care About Their Health
This is one of the most common misconceptions that video gamers are always sitting in front of the screen and they don’t care about their health. Many think that they do not do any physical activity and always eat junk food while playing games. This might be true in some cases where it’s the person’s personal habits.
But this is not true. Many hardcore gamers maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle. They do adequate exercise and eat healthy foods like any other human.
You might not believe but there are professional gamers who keep their body fit to play efficiently in video game tournaments. Exercise helps to maintain a good mental state, improving gaming abilities and player’s cognitive functioning. There is a study, that even proves that 15 mins of cardio can effectively improve the player’s performance in video games.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have debunked some of the common myths and misconceptions about video games and gamers.
To sum up, there are many myths about video games that do not seem to fade away. Many researches that have been conducted regarding these misconceptions and have proved to have no adequate data to backup them up. With all these proofs, let us hope that with more time there is a chance these myths will fade away.