There has always been a misconception about gamers being introverts and self-centric. At the same time, the non-gaming persons do not realize that there is a life-size community on the other side of the screen. “Gamers aren’t antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes; they’re highly social people,” said Nick Taylor, lead author of “Public Displays of Play: Studying Online Games in Physical Settings” and an assistant professor of communication at North Carolina State. “This won’t be a surprise to the gaming community, but it’s worth telling everyone else. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm.” In fact, he added, a player could be “ruthless in a game and still socialize normally offline.”
According to new research supported by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, online gaming expands players’ social lives. The study was jointly conducted by participants from North Carolina State University, Canada’s York University, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. They found that online social behavior doesn’t replace offline social behavior in the gaming community. The research team traveled to 20+ public gaming events in Canada and the United Kingdom, attending public events on “EVE Online” and “World of Warcraft” that varied from 20 people in a bar to 2,500 people playing side by side in convention centers.
Busting the myths and misconceptions, in this article, we will talk about how gaming can evolve someone’s life like never before. And how games help in socializing and developing interpersonal skills.
What are the Learning & Development Benefits of Video Games
Online video games actuate as many mental, social, and interpersonal skills, so we will be talking about the key points only.
Social Skills:
- Become a Confident Team-player
Working as a team is a requirement for most organizations, but many candidates lack these qualities due to micro-family culture, never doing sports, or being introverts. Multiplayer games are designed to be played as a team and to win, and teamwork is more necessary than skills. Personally, I have won countless matches in Counter-Strike, Valorant against superior opponents just because of nice teamwork on our side.
Online games allow children to take on a number of roles that allow them to learn how to manage a team and also how to follow a leader in a virtual life scenario. In the end, when they win by doing so, it creates a positive vibe in their mind about the nice work they just did, and it boosts confidence.
2. Develop Compassion
By playing together and sharing some fun moments with others, the players start developing compassion for their teammates. Helping them in-game later ends up being a real friendship, and there are countless examples of that. Empathizing with someone’s fault or anger issues is something everyone should learn, but in real life, we get a very small amount of chance to learn those. Online games are the virtual world where children face emotional problems when they lose a game and learn how to deal with that to start again doing better.
3. Reduce Introversion
Communication skills are needed everywhere in real-life scenarios, but many people there grew up being introverts. Online games are a perfect way to deal with this as it allows them to meet new people and share their worries in a virtual context. Children who are more emotionally fragile can have a safe space to express themselves.
4. Trust Building
While playing games with other teammates, you have to opt for teamwork with other players you might not have seen in your life, where trust starts building. When you see your teammate is under fire (in-game) and you opt to risk your life (in-game) to save them, it adds another spark of trust. This is how children learn to trust their teammates and friends without even seeing them, which helps them to accomplish bigger things in the game. Such quality not only helps one become more socially acceptable but also helps achieve bigger goals in real life.
Mental Skills:
- Enhances Memory, Decision Making & Concentration
Most online games are competitive and immersive and require an understanding of non-linear strategic movements. Unlike Offline AAA games, where most of the levels are designed to be played linearly, online gaming is just the opposite. As your opponents are real players as well, it is more of a battle of strategies among those players, improving problem-solving skills and enhancing quick decision-making capability. Truth be told, no offline training or grooming course can teach you these skills.
There are thousands of in-game elements in online games that gamers need to remember to play well and develop a better strategy. Practicing such games will eventually start improving not only your child’s short-term but also long-term memory capabilities. To understand each of the elements and components in-game within those fast-paced environments, you have to be attentive and focused. From this particular point, many studies have already shown how gamers have a very positive effect on their concentration capabilities.
2. Improved Multitasking Skills
Even in the professional space, most employers keep asking the interviewees if they are ok with multitasking or not. People start feeling overloaded with pressure when they face multiple problems simultaneously. Here competitive gamers can teach you a thing or two. However, real lives are not at stake while gaming; achieving the goal is at stake. That’s why most skilled gamers practice keeping calm at the point of challenges. Online Battle Royal games like PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Warzone require players to find items & weapons while fighting off other opponents simultaneously. This calls for diverted attention to details and quick reactions. Studies have shown how skilled players develop multitasking focus by practicing the same type of games repeatedly.

How To Counter The Cons in Gaming:
Gaming is not only about good things; it has downsides too.
- Playing competitive online games continuously can damage the eyes.
- Also, frustration and anger are some common issues while playing video games.
- Gaming addiction is also a huge concern, where children and students waste their valuable time playing games and destroying their normal routine.
How to handle these, you might ask, as there are actually ways how you can overcome these problems.
If you love playing games for long hours, you should opt for displays that have brighter and better natural light generation. This is typically being measured in Nits (a unit that measures brightness in terms of area). Also, anti-glare properties are a must for this purpose, protecting your eyes from the harmful UV & gamma rays emissions from the display. Normally an anti-glare display with 250-300 nits is considered safe for the eyes and good for gaming. You can check out the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptops 15-ec2048AX powered by Ryzen 5 5600H (6 Cores, 12 Threads, 4.2 GHz) & Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and comes with a 1080p 15.6″ IPS anti-glare 250 nits 144 Hz display.
On the other hand, the frustration games typically face in-game is mostly caused by inferior hardware and poor network connection. If playing games on WiFi, it is strongly recommended to opt for Wifi 6.0 (X2) for the best loss-less performance. Also, a superior device is needed for smooth gameplay performance, and these all can be achieved just by choosing the perfect device for gaming. For this purpose, you should check out the Omen 16 Gaming Laptop by HP, which comes with variants of both Intel i9 12400F and Ryzen 9 6900 HX CPU. With AMD Ryzen 9, you will get the AMD Radeon RX 6650 (8 GB GDDR6) GPU and 32 GB 4800 MHz DDR5 RAM. At the same time, you can also opt for the Intel i9 version, which comes with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8 GB GDDR6) to give you the smoothest performance in any game. It also comes with an HP Vector Gaming mouse and Bluetooth headphones to get you started with your gaming in no time.
How to Control Online Gaming Addiction
If you are worried about your children being addicted to games, I recommend you keep a regular check on them to make sure they are not addicted to them. Addiction is terrible, and it can produce severe results, no matter what kind of addiction it is. Regardless of how good a habit is, if you are addicted to it, it will do less good and more harm. This is where your children need parental guidance and some restrictions.

As a parent, you can opt for a gaming desktop instead of a laptop so that you can keep an eye on them while they are playing and how long they are investing in it. Also, a desktop lets you put parental control on the device to moderate your child’s gaming sessions and timings positively. Check out the OMEN by HP 25L Gaming Desktop GT15-0004in, which is a great gaming device and provides smooth performance. Such gaming desktops are a future-proof investment and a scalable device so that you can use them for many years.
Check out the HP Online store to find such suitable OMEN gaming laptops at a fair price.
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