Image by Andrzej Rembowski from Pixabay

Video games and computer games can often get a bad reputation, people worry that they lead to children into violence, they cause kids to become obese and they have a negative effect on social skills. However, this isn’t always the case and there are in fact a lot of benefits to playing video games and particularly simulation games. So, what are these benefits?

They Help Players Retain Information

Simulation games are often used in education and this is because learning this way can help you to retain information better than learning in a lecture or reading. You can retain 75% of what you learn when you actually practice what you’ve learned so simulation games are a great way to do this. There are of course lots of different types of simulation games and while you might not learn much from NASCAR Racing, simulation games can develop children’s soft skills and actually improve socialization skills, leadership skills, and team building.

Gaming Is Social

Despite people thinking that gaming is an anti-social activity, it is actually a very social one. Gaming encourages people to play together, work together in teams to achieve goals or to compete against each other. This is great for communication skills and helps to improve relationships. This works for both simulation games and any other games.

Gaming improves critical thinking

Gaming often requires critical thinking, resilience, and creative problem solving to win and when you are using these skills in an alternate universe then it’s even better and far more fun.

Help With Difficult Concepts

When kids play simulation games, they are usually of things like driving cars or planes. In real life, this would require training and education whereas when you can play a simulation game straight away and enjoy a simplified experience, it not only makes things very fun but it also takes away the difficult elements of these concepts. However, if you want to make them difficult then the option is there because pilots do use simulation in training and have to land the plane and work the controls similar to those they would in a real aircraft.

Impossible Experiences

As mentioned, simulation games allow kids to fly planes! When does that happen? Exactly, with simulation games you can do the impossible, so where it’s flying a spaceship in space, fighting in a historic war, or racing around a famous race track in Formula One. Playing these games allows players to enjoy these impossible situations which all helps with their imagination. It allows them to expand their mind, go to places they didn’t know they could, and enjoy the world in a different way.

Video Games Can Encourage Exercise

Today, playing video games isn’t just about sitting in a dark room and not moving for hours. They are far more interactive and simulation games can actually encourage kids to get moving. Not only do some of them require them to move but they encourage kids to go and try out new sports or new moves they have seen or learnt through the game.