The multiplication of theme parks, the explosion of video games, the spread of TV games, the boom in life-size role-playing groups, the popularity of scooters and rollerblades… Over the past ten years, games seem to have expanded beyond toy stores and children’s bedrooms and into the serious world of adults. Studies, which we have summarized here, show that playing is beneficial. After reading this article, you light want to play so feel free to visit leovegas for a good play time!
Games and psychological functions:
When we say “game”, it can include a huge variety of things but not all games have the same benefits. We can classify them into four categories:
– The “competition” (races, wrestling, billiards, soccer, chess, interactive video games, etc.). These games allow you to express your personal resources in an environment where everyone starts on an equal footing, which is not the case in real life. Psychological benefits: surpassing oneself and, in case of victory, personal valorization.
– Chance” (roulettes, dice, lotteries, some card games). Games of chance are projective: they allow you to dream, because they show the possibility of becoming rich while doing without work. They also force us to let go, since we have to accept the idea of losing everything on a simple roll of the dice. Finally, they abolish social inequalities, because the chances are the same for all.
– The “simulacrum” (carnival, masks, disguise, life-size role-playing games, theater, adventure video games). Paradoxically, dressing up and temporarily stripping oneself of one’s personality to adopt another allows one to free one’s true personality.
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– Vertigo” (fairground rides, skiing, aerobatics, rollerblading). These games, some of which take place in competitions, provoke a physiological disorder, a kind of trance that erases reality. Associated with a certain physical enjoyment, this trance allows to get in touch with other dimensions of one’s personality.
Is playing a natural function?
It is even a fundamental need for mental health and creativity, says psychiatrist Hubert Jaoui. If you don’t play, your mind becomes mechanized and your emotions dry up. But playing is a real source of energy, full of positive emotions. That’s why comic therapy, clown therapy and creativity workshops, where people play a lot, are so successful in the United States. According to psychologists is crucial for self-affirmation, because it is a means of structuring the personality, learning about life, discovering others, developing the faculties of imagination, logic, physical skill.
Playing makes you more productive
People who consider their job as a game are more successful than those who are locked into a routine job, explains Lenore Terr, professor of psychiatry at the University of California: “This is what I discovered when I conducted a study with hundreds of people on the psychological conditions that promote work. Gamblers look happier, manage to focus better and are more productive than others.” It’s exactly the opposite of the “anti-gambling” beliefs, dating back to the early factory sirens that turned farmers’ sons into laborers.
A little history
Chariot races, sports competitions, theater among the Greeks and Romans, voice games among the Eskimos or kite flying among the Chinese: we too often forget that, throughout the history of mankind, playing was considered an activity so serious that it was reserved for adults! And, as far back as we can remember, children have had very few toys – the same ones all over the world: ball, rag doll, jacks, hopscotch, etc. Historians who have studied the evolution of play affirm that the playful spirit is one of the main sources, for societies, of the highest manifestations of their culture; and for individuals, of their intellectual progress.