7 Ways Video Games Engage the Brain

Video games have become the largest and most profitable area of the media industry. Gameplay is entering all aspects of our lives (from socializing to exercising), and more than ever people are spending billions a year on virtual items and worlds that don’t exist.

While this may scare some, it does not scare the author of Fun, Inc, Tom Chatfield. He says the great thing about video games is its measurability. We can study data of users to find out what people find rewarding and how hard they are willing to work for a win.

Chatfield describes 7 ways in which video games engage the brain:

1. Experience bars measuring progress
2. Multiple long and short-term aims
3. Rewards for effort
4. Rapid, frequent, clear feedback
5. An element of uncertainty
6. Windows of enhanced attention
7. Other people

You’ll have to watch the video to find out what he means by each of them.

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