Gaming influences for children

1) Escapism

You’re not just escaping your surroundings, you’re escaping yourself. In movies and books you get to see into another world, and in video games you get to be in that world. You can be a professional footballer or a mythical creature in a fantasy world – the experiences are endless.

2) Mastery

Games can bring a sense of achievement. You get to level up, see your score on the leader board, often quicker than in the physical world, making it motivating to continue to play.

3) Exploration

It can often feel like we don’t have a lot of control over our lives, but with games we can be in control. We get to choose the games we play, and we get to choose the way we engage in them, giving young people a sense of autonomy.

4) Risk Taking

Young people are more likely to take risks than adults, and in games, if you die, you just press restart and try again. It doesn’t impact your physical life in the same way as failing a test at school does.

5) Competition

If you play football or do gymnastics, you only get to compete once or twice a week. In games you’re able to compete every single day for hours on end.

6) To make money

Esports and streaming provide opportunities to turn gaming into a career. Just like in professional sport or the music industry, the chances of reaching the top are slim, but that doesn’t make it any less appealing to players.

7) A chance to create

The opportunity to create new worlds and have control over them can be very attractive, for example in games like Minecraft. You can’t do that in the same way or to the same scale in the physical world.

8) Socialise

While playing online you, don’t just get to build on existing friendships, you can establish new ones. With online forums, live streaming and esports channels, you’re a part of a culture and a community that is larger than yourself or any single game.

9) Stress Buster

We all need to take a break from daily life at times, and how we choose to do that can differ. Gaming can be a way to escape these pressures, but if it is causing you not to deal with the things you need to deal with, that can be a problem.

10) Collecting

Many players enjoy visual progression as much as skill progression in games. With in-app purchases, loot boxes and microtransactions, you now have many ways to collect different items, including outfits for your characters.