Playing Video Games Can Improve Your Office Productivity

How many times did you hear parents saying video games are bad for children’s health? While this is quite a popular opinion among people with kids, the studies and evidence gathered by scientists across years seem to suggest otherwise. Check out how video games can actually better your performance and even help you at the office.

Train Your Brain

Like our bodies, the brain also requires regular maintenance and exercise to stay in shape. Several studies about video games have shown that our brain can change the way it performs. They state that collaborative video games will improve your sustained attention and selective attention, as the candidates have shown an enlarged hippocampus after playing video games such as Reactoonz during the training program.

Researchers have demonstrated that playing video games cooperatively with other team members will increase your visuospatial skills, including attention. When coworkers get to connect through video game environments, they develop a sense of comradeship, thus paving the road to stronger friendships and relationships.

Collective Video Games

When it comes to bonding teammates, playing video games together has been proven to increase productivity, and titles like Powerspin can help you achieve that team tightness that you have always dreamed about. Because in most multiplayer video games, you are not limited to creating teams or groups, you have the freedom of enticing the members to perform better every time they play.

According to a recent study from the Brigham Young University researchers, playing video games with coworkers for at least 45 minutes can improve your performance and productivity by 20%. That is an impressive percentage and proof that the social stigma that video games carried all these years was wrong, and there are limitless opportunities that have yet to be discovered.

Another aspect that is worth sharing is regarding teammates who already know each other. Researchers have found instances where some negative side effects appeared, as in this case, video games might reinforce some negative relationships that were previously developed between them.

Social Impacts

After implementing video games for training purposes, you might notice some changes that led to prosocial behavior. Research has shown that if you focus on the positively-developed video games that require teamwork efforts, you will improve your cognitive behavior. Video games have proved to have an influence both in the short and long run.

Coworkers who have been playing video games for a long time will exhibit cognitive behaviors that demonstrate help and assistance towards others. You might say that games are mostly violent and will promote aggression for sure. Well, let us tell you that violent video games don’t do that at all. As a matter of fact, team members have demonstrated positive behaviors and a tendency to help others, both outside and inside the gaming world.

They have proven to increase your decision-making skills, especially under pressure, as sometimes you have 1 second to assess everything that is going on on your screen and make the right decision. Reflexes that you use in your day-to-day life can be improved by your gaming experience and help you better react in stressful situations without losing your cool.

Cognitive Impacts

Those familiar with video games know the importance of critical thinking in some situations, where you have to be fast and effective when calculating your moves. This brings us to another useful research done by FMRI, as they have found something exciting about gamers. They tend to use less controlled attention than all the other non-gamers who have participated in the test.
That has led the researchers to an important conclusion: players filter out all the irrelevant information, keeping only the relevant data in their brain. This leads to a more efficient assessment of their current situation. Thus, they can complete a task with almost the same precision as experts.
This begs a fair question: „Is team video gaming a viable alternative for team building?” It doesn’t matter if you are an avid gamer or just a novice, as the power of team games can bring together anyone. Fun fact: researchers have observed newbies establishing working relationships with gamers even faster, being eager to learn all the nuances of the gameplay.

Conclusion

Video games have come a long way since they have been invented, and the world is just finding out about all the positive aspects that they bring to the table. In an office space, where 20 years ago you got fired for playing games, now they became a part of training programs. Although it sounds like fun, choosing the correct methods of implementing them in your working space is what you should focus on. You have to take into account the current relationship between coworkers and other important factors.
What video games would you implement in your working area, and what do you think the results will be? What is your favorite one? We would love to hear your stories and experiences.