Comedian Joe Rogan has said "video games are waste of time" on his eponymous podcast, yet studies have shown otherwise.
During the latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, the host discussed why children turn to video games when they don't have role models.
He began by saying: “Video games are a real problem. They’re a real problem. You know why? Because they’re f***ing fun. I have a real problem with them. You do them, and they’re real exciting, but you don’t get anywhere”.
Rogan continued: “You could be doing something exciting and fun, or you could just be playing f***ing video games.
“Three years later you could just be that same kid, just playing video games, waiting for the next whatever the f*** game is... and you’re gonna waste your time.”
But from the disenfranchised to the creative, playing — and even making — games provides a unique outlet for many, which might otherwise be impossible.
In their purest form, video games inspire creativity, provide a sense of community, launch careers and offer some of the most transformative, ground-breaking stories and narratives which simply aren't conveyed in other mediums like film and television.
Even more important, still, is that so many games are dedicated to helping both children and adults learn; someone who might not understand things on paper may see the information literally come to life in a video game, helping them to digest it better.
So, here's why video games are the furthest thing from a "waste of time".
1. Gaming isn't bad for your physical health
Rogan spoke about how going outside or being involved in something like martial arts was far better than playing games, saying: "You could be doing something exciting or fun... or just playing f****** video games".
The idea that video games are bad for your health is something which has thankfully been disproved many times over in recent years.
This is partly due to more exercise-heavy games, such as Wii Fit, Just Dance and basically anything in virtual reality (VR), which are all about keeping in shape.
Another excellent example is Pokémon GO, which encourages children and adults alike to venture outside and interact with one another.
According to a study conducted by Louisiana State University in 2018, video games have been able to help tackle childhood obesity. For the first time ever, this study on games in combination with fitness coaching and a step tracker, helped overweight children lose weight, lower their blood pressure and cholesterol, and increase their physical activity.
The GameSquad study enrolled 46 children ages 10-12 who were overweight or had obesity. Half were girls and more than half were African-American. Split into gaming groups, they were each encouraged to meet the national recommendations of 60 minutes per day of physical activity.
Children in the gaming group reduced their body mass index (BMI) by about 3 per-cent and reduced their cholesterol by 7 percentiles. In other words, the kids in the gaming group remained in a healthy range.
Another 2018 study about keeping active by playing video games set out to find out whether adding a narrative element to an active video game would lead to increased physical activity and improve cognitive function in the players.
The results suggest that following a narrative while playing an action video game may lead to increased physical activity and improved cognitive function.
2. Paving the way for careers
Video games not only help people actualise their own careers in gaming (be it in design, coding or storytelling), but they can also help people land jobs outside of the industry, as they teach gamers transferable skills to utilise in the workplace.
In many cases, for example in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), you're taught how to work well within groups to overcome tough challenges. Games such as Fortnite also train users to work on their reaction time and ability to process change at break-neck speed.
Being good at video games — or even just making videos on YouTube about video games — is now also enough to sustain a career for people these days.
Technology has given rise to new 'influencers' over the years, with people creating 'Let's Play' series on YouTube or stream on Twitch, making lots of money.
Popular YouTuber and streamer Ninja reportedly earns roughly $17 million per year, playing games and creating video content.
You don't even need to be an extremely successful streamer to earn lots of money. Even people who use Twitch to occasionally stream games are given monetary donations by viewers who simply love their content.
3. Educational benefits
Ever heard of the meme '200 IQ Play'? It basically sums up how video games help you use your brain in an effective way.
There have been plenty of studies regarding the educational benefits of gaming and it is virtually impossible to dispute how they help with learning acquisition in children and adults.
As we all know, the brain is a muscle and the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. This translates to cognitive games which prompt you to engage your brain.
In 2018 Gamelearning.co listed a string of positive impacts gaming has on helping children learn - from honing in on problem-solving skills, to improving users' memory.
Further to this, games on the Nintendo Switch, for example, are wonderful for children. The colours used are especially vivid and make things easy to digest, even providing another way in which parents and children can bond, and interact with each other.
Not to mention they can also serve as an excellent therapeutic distraction if you're bogged down with the everyday trials and tribulations of life; Animal Crossing has become a firm favourite during lockdown for this very reason.
A report published by the American Psychological Association also found that playing games may help children develop problem-solving skills.
It found the more adolescents reported playing strategic video games such as role-playing games, the more they improved in problem-solving and school grades the following year, according to a long-term study published in 2013.
4. Competitive streak
People praise the competitive nature of modern sports to no end, so why is that not the case with video games?
The Esports scene is full of tournaments, teams and big events to see which team is the best. Sound familiar?
Not to mention that the prize money from some of these tournaments can be life-changing for the people who win them. From Fortnite and Apex Legends, to Counter-Strike and Overwatch, Esports provide more than just a place for people to watch games.
Just last year, a British teenager won over £1 million after coming second alongside his teammate in the Fortnite World Cup finals. Jaden Asham from London scooped the prize along with his Dutch playing partner.
All of the arguments made for the benefits of competitive sports can be applied to video games. Games inspire teamwork and camaraderie and provide a haven for the swathes of people who want to watch these games unfold. For them, specifically, it provides an outlet, a community and a place to share a passion with other like-minded people.
Which brings us to our next point...
5. A sense of community
There used to be a time when everything we knew about video games wasn't so easily accessible online and the majority of things people knew about them all came from the people playing the games and discussing them online with each other.
This is where people took to forums to just talk to people who also loved the game you do. Games have entire communities built around them and this still happens today.
To use Dark Souls as an example, this game grew to be known as incredibly difficult at face value. But once you scratch beneath that incredibly thin surface of the wildly exaggerated difficulty of the game, you then found out about it's narrative and the world lore all being presented to you in a way that struck a chord with players.
From discussing what a certain item description in the game might mean to thinking you've cracked a lore-related puzzle left unanswered, people avidly discuss games at length and make genuine friendships and connections from these interactions.
Because there was so much mystery surrounding games at that time, all people wanted to do was talk about them and share their love for the game with others.
This sense of community, which is more or less echoed in the countless Discord chat rooms that exist today, has never been lost.
Again to cite MMOs, these games are all about working together. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has a reputation for having the downright nicest and most pleasant player-base and, in my time with the game, I see this in so much of it.
Everyone is happy to help you with a dungeon boss or explain mechanics during a raid. The sense of community from video games is based on sheer enjoyment and wanting to spread that so others recognise it. It is a thing of beauty.
You can form a genuine connection with someone you only speak to in the game and they might live hundreds of miles away. People are social animals and video game communities, for the most part, highlight the best of that.
Games inspire people to be creative. To draw amazing things, write compelling narratives, tell inclusive stories, inspire people to cosplay, understand themselves and so much more.
Video games have an edge over a lot of mediums because the player is the one put on centre stage. Games can be works of art and you don't have to look far to see that confirmed — the intro to The Last of Us comes to mind as a particularly impactful piece of gaming art.
I know that I myself was moved to tears and in fact made positive steps in my overall outlook and attitude after completing the game Persona 4 Golden for the first time. This may sound bizarre, but if you've played it you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
Games can change you. They have the power to make you want to do and be better, while also giving the people who play them an outlet and a community to bond with.
They also enable creators to share their unique stories and visions, while providing invaluable insights into different cultures that we otherwise might not be able to experience.
Joe Rogan might well have been trying to specifically highlight video game addiction with his comments, but addiction isn't exclusive to gaming and exists in nearly all parts of life.
As with everything, there are of course negative sides to gaming - and we're not disputing that. But there's no end of positivity coming from video games. UK gaming body UKIE does a wonderful job at highlighting all the good that comes from gaming.
Many campaigns have been launched along with workshops all about teaching people how to code and how to get into the games industry. Notably, this year UKIE launched a new campaign called #RaiseTheGame, which is all about improving equality and inclusivity in the industry.
Painting video games as a "waste of time" is not only an ideology that belongs in the past, but it's also one that only serves to perpetuate negative views of the industry, and is potentially harmful to those within the community.
