Whether online or singleplayer, FPS or MOBA, or played via PC or consoles, video games are a popular hobby for many remote workers, including me. It allows us to unwind after work and enjoy our free time.
Related article: 15 Games to Play While Working from Home & Staying Productive
But did you know there are other benefits of gaming to remote workers besides entertainment? There are plenty of transferable skills from video games that you can apply to your online work.
Do you want to know what these hidden benefits of video games are? Then you’re in luck. Here are just five benefits of gaming that may come in handy:
Gaming Helps You Unwind from Work.
Perhaps the most evident benefit of gaming in the remote workplace is that it’s a great way to relax after work. Playing your favorite video games allows your mind to take a break during your after-work hours. Besides being fun, gaming helps maintain the boundaries between work and home life.
According to a study by the US National Center For Biotechnology Information, playing video games even for a short time can help refresh your abilities. It also improves your mood and your ability to handle stress. This, in turn, helps reduce your risk of experiencing burnout in your online job.
Playing Video Games Improves Your Problem-solving Skills.
In every video game, there is a task that you must accomplish to win the game. For some, it’s navigating an obstacle course and enemies to reach the end of a level. For others, it’s taking out all the other players in an ever-shortening map.
One of the main benefits of gaming is that it helps train one’s problem-solving skills. It helps you become more creative in finding ways to solve your problems at work. And it hones your mind to make quick yet well-thought-out decisions when encountering a problem.
Additionally, gaming teaches you that you will experience many failures on the road to achieving your goals. But what matters most is that you don’t give up and continue persevering.
Improves Your Coordination and Communication Skills.
I know what you’re thinking, but no. I’m not talking about yelling into your mic about how incompetent your teammates are when something wrong happens. That’s precisely how not to communicate with people around you.
Contrary to what many believe, playing multiplayer games, especially with friends or co-workers, improves how you interact with them. Here, you need to be able to communicate what you want to say to them as clearly as possible.
Many online games require excellent coordination between players to win, making them the perfect teambuilding activity. So if you and your team are tired of the same old teambuilding activities, try holding a gaming night with them.
That said, if you and your friends and co-workers aren’t competitive, there are plenty of online games that pit you against bots. Or, you could just play amongst yourselves to get to know each other better.
Video Games Help You Become More Adaptable at Work.
Just like at work, there will be times when things don’t go as planned for you in a game. Maybe one of your teammates picked the character you wanted to use. Or perhaps you’re playing a real-time strategy (RTS) game, and your opponent does something that catches you off-guard.
Whatever the situation you may find yourself in, you’re now forced to adapt to it if you want to succeed. So another transferable skill from video games you can apply in your work is adaptability. With it, you can quickly adjust to any changes you encounter at work.
Gaming Improves Your Memory.
Gaming isn’t just about pressing or clicking buttons. You also have to be able to memorize information to become more efficient at it. This information could be the layout of a dungeon, fighting game frame data, or what unit to build and when for an RTS.
This ability to quickly absorb and retain information will be a great asset in your work. This is especially important if you’re doing several projects simultaneously. It will also allow you to learn new information quickly, which is handy when expanding your current skill set.
Ready, Player One?
Despite what our parents may think, playing video games isn’t a bad influence nor a total waste of our time. There are plenty of benefits of gaming that we could apply to our lives, such as the examples above.
So, are you ready to start your epic quest to climb up the career ladder? Then head to Remote Staff’s job portal and start your journey! We have various job openings available you can apply for. And it’s regularly updated with new ones everyday. Good luck, and have fun!
