Maximise your HP: A Guide for Healthy Gaming Habits

By Gaming Editor Bonny Murphy

Gaming is a wonderful hobby with more positives than negatives. However, there are some well-known drawbacks from playing video games. We can easily go too far down the hole and develop some unhealthy habits surrounding this hobby. The point of this piece is to discuss what the dangers are of playing games to excess and how to circumvent that by building an awareness of healthy gaming habits. There are some types of games that are better to play when time gets tight and you are a bit busy in your life. Also, there are lots of little changes you can make to your time in front of the screen to help mitigate some negative aspects of gaming. This is by no means an attack on gaming or an insinuation gaming is bad for you. There are some great benefits to playing games regarding mental health and cognitive skills. But there are also issues with the nature of the hobby and I will go through these in detail, with helpful notes on what can help. No hobby is a wholly perfect activity and everything can be done to excess. Hopefully, you will find something in here to create a more mindful and healthy gaming experience.

Let’s get the negativity out of the way first and talk about the dangers of pushing gaming too far. Gaming is a giant industry with the goal of making amazing gaming experiences but also of making a lot of money. This means that by their nature, games, like any good experience, can become addicting. In a blog post, the organisation Healthy Games notes that, “The immersive nature of video games, with their dynamic visuals, interactive challenges, and rewards, may inadvertently contribute to reduced attention and concentration in other aspects of their lives, such as schoolwork, social interactions, and other important activities.”. The need to play just one more game or continue to just one more checkpoint can be too tempting. This can cause people to lose valuable time needed to focus on other aspects of their lives. Due to gaming often being done in the evening hours when most people can find the time to relax, sleep can be most impacted by this urge to continue. Other things that can be impacted is your diet, exercise and overall mental health from spending too much time on games. As Healthy Gamer points out, the power of how immersive and compelling video games are can be their detriment.

So, what games are good to play to avoid the pit trap of consuming all your time? Timed games are a good way to set limits but are not a perfect solution. These games all have timed matches, allowing you to plan how long you want to play for. This gives you the opportunity to estimate your playtime better by having some rough idea in advance of how long the game will be. These timed matches are often in gaming genres such as multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs), first person shooters (FPS) or battle royal games. They are usually competitive spaces that let you take breaks between games to rechange. Good examples are games like, League of Legends, Valorant, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Apex Legends, and Rocket League. Highly competitive play is not for everyone and I am not saying these are the only games available to you when you’re busy. There are more titles you could play in other genres, as I will explain later, but these games provide some way to mitigate getting sucked into a deep, immersive narrative with a timed, concise game, hopefully in less than an hour.

As I mentioned above, if competitive gaming is not your thing, do not worry. Single player games that focus on a story being told rather than heavy mechanics and competition may be the answer. They often have natural feeling narrative stopping points which give the player the easy opportunity to step away from the game. Some of these games could be, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, Doom (2016 version), Doom Eternal, the God of War games and the Resident Evil franchise. All these games involve some mechanical skill but rely much more on a complex and immersive story. They each have checkpoints, autosave spaces and narrative beats that give you the option to step back. Almost functioning similarly to a novel, each chapter or arc is constructed with a framed narrative in mind. This is a more relaxed and casual option to the timed competitive game but does also have its drawbacks. If immersive gameplay is a reason why you can get too sucked into gaming, these options may not help. Each game comes with unique and interesting stories on top of immersive environments that could capture your attention too long, even with the set breaks. Everyone has to test what works best for you, but it is possible to comfortably step away from a narrative game once a story arc is completed in the game.

No matter what game you play to reduce the excessive consumption of gaming, there are lots of little things you can do in between games to help. Frankly, playing games requires you often to be sitting for long periods of time. As many of us, especially students, are highly aware, this is terrible for your body. The group Esports Healthcare notes some great tips on how to improve your gaming sessions by protecting your body. Posture is always a key area in need of attention. Avoid leaning forward when playing and increase the height of your chair armrests to allow your forearms to rest comfortably. Other simple tips include taking eye breaks from the monitor or TV screen, walking around a bit, if even to just grab some water and/or a snack. These little breaks give your body a chance to hydrate and stretch which can improve your focus in the game while also protecting you from some of the gaming damage. They also cite sleep as key to rest from long hours in front of the screen. One method I often use is to wait at least 20 minutes after turning my computer off before sleeping. This helps my eyes relax and the stimulation of gaming to leave my body. Now, I must admit I still use my phone in this time, but nobody is perfect.

With all this talk of how gaming can be bad and dangerous, I want to dive into how gaming can benefit people also. Gaming can improve cognitive function by teaching problem solving skills, memory and encourage creativity. Healthy Gamer notes that in particular, “Certain types of video games, such as those that involve strategy and role-playing, can even teach valuable life skills, such as teamwork and communication.”. This point is crucial to the joy of playing games with people. Games connect people and create great memories. Those who have social struggles may find games a useful and safe way to explore social interaction and relationship building and, furthermore, use the skills from games to improve their in-person experiences and relationships. Overall, gaming is worth the risk to me, but any little tips to help manage and enjoy the hobby to its fullest are always welcome.

To end, I would encourage people to seek the types of games that suit you. The forms of cooling off and warming up that work best for you and your body. No one has it all figured out, all the time, and we can all use some help to play safely while maximising enjoyment. Hopefully some of these tips may resonate with you as something you already do or something you want to try. To those who don’t think any of this is of value, I would ask to try it out regardless. Maybe you have no idea the improvements that could be made to your health, mental and physical, if you give some healthier gaming a go.