In recent years, online gaming has become a massive industry. Especially, if you look at the worldwide esports scene, it’s prominent. The majority of the youth living in well-serviced areas are somewhat active in the scene.
Needless to say, the upward trend of online gaming has resulted in a unique community-based approach. Most gamers may not play professionally but they enjoy gaming a lot with their friends. It’s also a great medium to make new friends.
The problem is, that online gaming is not yet well-accepted in India. And understandably so. The career options have not flourished as we’ve seen in the first world countries. As a result, society as a whole thinks gaming is a waste of time and it may lead to anti-social behaviour in the future.
But the paradigm is shifting rapidly. People now have access to more information. New operators holding strong licenses are also entering the country at a rapid pace. If you’re interested in the online gambling scene in India, check out India casino info for the latest trends.
The question we’re asking here is, what does science have to say about online gaming? That’s what we plan to find out in this post.
What Does Science Have to Say About Online Gaming?
Let’s start on a positive note here. Recent research by Oxford has concluded that gaming is not as bad as we think. Of course, the gamers already knew it. The research is more for society. This is the first study of its kind and it can change how we perceive online gaming forever.
Primarily, online gaming is associated with players’ well-being through social connection and competence. Online gaming is a very competitive industry and it’s only going to get more adverse over time. To succeed in this paradigm, one must adopt the necessary communication skills.
The study was conducted based on 2 “social” games. Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Both of them are extremely popular among online gamers and none of the titles are considered “violent”.
The data showed that it’s associated with the players’ mental well-being through social connection. So, during the stressful time of COVID, online gaming has been a viable escape that in return, helped maintain a sound mind.
Interestingly, this is the first study in this area, although the trend of gaming has been around for decades. The study was undertaken by Andrew Przybylski, an Oxford Professor.
The Other Side of a Different Coin
Now that you have somewhat an idea of what modern science has to say about online gaming, let’s explore how gaming can help the progression of science.
There are many instances where gamers as a community have solved complex science problems. For example, Foldit is an online puzzle game. The goal of the game is to fold protein in a very scientific way.
It took about 3 weeks for the online gamers of the world to solve the problem. By solving, we mean creating an enzyme structure that infects monkeys with an AIDS-like disease. It can be phenomenal in the area of AIDS-related research as monkeys and humans have nearly identical biology.
Wondering why that’s fascinating? Because scientists and researchers have been working on this problem for more than 13 years! In retrospect, 3 weeks is nothing!
Foldit is one of the many examples we can procure where online gaming has helped science.
Another interesting study has been conducted for the American Journal of Human Biology where researchers analyzed the positive and negative scores on the psychological health of gamers! This is very important because research in this regard has been very limited up until now.
The study has been a game-changer in figuring out the impact of online gaming on a molecular level. Apparently, our gene expression is influenced by the level of stress in our lives and how connected we are with society.
The study concludes that problematic gaming behaviour such as stressful sessions for longer periods can result in chronic stress and loneliness. It’s categorized as a “gaming disorder”. In fact, the disorder is now recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO)!
From what we can tell, online gaming has a lot more impact on our lives than we give it credit for. If it can alter our genome on a molecular level, just think about what else it can do!
Experts like Professor Przybylski believe it’s still too early to claim anything extremely positive or negative regarding the impacts of online gaming. In the very little study that has been done, they’ve managed to uncover both positive and negative aspects, guided by the gamers’ behaviour.
Needless to say, the positives are so far outweighing the negatives. So, it might be time for the negative stigma surrounding online gaming and gambling to change in India.
Wrapping Up
The Oxford study is just the beginning of a new era of research involving online gaming. As time goes by, we’ll get more data directly from the gaming industry. And hopefully, it’ll become a prominent part of the scientific practices of modern society.