When you think of gaming, it’s not perhaps puzzle games that first come to mind for most people; you might think of things like driving games, first-person shooters, or maybe massively multiplayer online games. But the thing is that puzzle games have been around for a long time, and they’re still extremely popular – it might be that you play them yourself and don’t even think about it.
The interesting thing about puzzle games is that they come with a lot of benefits, and if you can play them regularly (you can fit them in between playing other games, so you don’t even have to give up anything else to enjoy them and all the advantages that come with them), you’ll definitely see what those benefits are. With that in mind, here are some of the reasons why puzzle games are so important and why you need to play them more often if you don’t already.
Memory Improvement
When you play puzzle games, you’ll often be asked to remember things like patterns, sequences, clues, hints, and so on. This means you’re using your brain all the time, unlike in a different kind of game where you might start to play automatically without really thinking at all (and this also has its place, as it can be very relaxing, which is why it’s a good idea to play different types of games). A game like digital Sudoku, for example, which is all about numbers and their positions in a grid, needs plenty of remembering, and that can help you make your memory stronger.
The great thing about improving your memory whenever possible (and using puzzle games is a great way to do it) is that this will benefit you in many other areas of life. When you need to remember names and faces, recall past events, or simply be more efficient at work, having a strong memory boosted by playing puzzle games is certainly going to be helpful.
Better Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a big part of playing puzzle games because these types of games often give you difficult challenges to get past, and you need to know how to analyze all the information you’ve gathered and think of how to use it to come up with a solution. Unsurprisingly, this type of thinking is useful when it comes to real-life problem solving, which again might be at work, but could be at home as well. That means that if you need to fix something at home, you can try to work out how to do it yourself before immediately calling for help – you might save yourself some money, and you’ll definitely feel a sense of achievement.
Whether you’re trying to work out a difficult crossword clue or you’re thinking of how to use all the items you picked up in your inventory to get past a particularly tricky challenge, being able to look at these issues in a critical way means you’re more likely to get an answer you’ll be happy with.
Spatial Awareness
Did you know that puzzle games can also really help when it comes to having better spatial awareness as well? A puzzle game like Tetris, for example, is all about moving and manipulating shapes to fit into a gap, and the more you play these types of games, the better your spatial awareness will be.
That might not sound like something that’s all that important, but you use spatial awareness many times for many reasons without even realizing it. Take putting your groceries away when you get back from the store, for example – having good spatial awareness will help you work out the best places to put things. The same is true when you’re packing for a vacation and need to make the most of the space in your suitcase or even when you’re trying to park in a tight spot. When you have good spatial awareness, these things aren’t an issue anymore, and you’ll be able to do them quickly and easily.
Patience And Persistence
Puzzle games are entirely designed to challenge the people who play them, and they give you problems that don’t often have immediately obvious solutions – that’s the whole point of these games; if they were too easy, they wouldn’t be any fun.
Because the problems aren’t straightforward and need a lot of thinking about – as well as potentially some trial and error as you think of different solutions – they can help people develop better patience and persistence, even if they feel as though they want to give up. A good word search is a great example of the kind of game that needs a lot of patience as you carefully scan the grid to find the words listed next to it, and if you try to rush or make assumptions, you might find you’re looking in the wrong place altogether.
Learning how to be persistent even when things don’t seem to be going your way is a useful trait that can help you in many different situations in life, and you can learn it in a wide variety of ways, but when you learn it playing puzzle games, it’s safe. You can get frustrated if you need to without it being the end of the world, and you can suffer setbacks that won’t do any lasting damage, but you’ll learn a lot in the process.
Stress Reduction
Although what we’ve just said above might make it sound as though playing puzzle games can be quite stressful because of the need for patience and persistence, the truth is that playing puzzle games can actually be a great way to de-stress. The fact is that you can find stressors everywhere, so having something you can rely on to de-stress you and allow you some space and time to unwind is vital for your mental health and happiness.
When you play a puzzle game, you’ll be focused and completely immersed in what you’re doing, so you’ll be distracted from anything else that might be stressing you out and only thinking about the game you’re playing, whatever puzzle it happens to be. This is actually a form of mindfulness, and being more mindful is something that a lot of people recommend when it comes to being less stressed and feeling calm and peaceful. When you’re being mindful, you’ll not only stop thinking about things that are worrying you, but you’ll find your blood pressure lowers, your heart slows down, and your body will even release feel-good hormones like serotonin and dopamine, reducing stress and helping you feel relaxed, giving you a fantastic sense of overall wellbeing.
Out-Of-The-Box Thinking
Puzzle games usually require players to think creatively or ‘out-of-the-box’ to come up with solutions to the various problems they have to face, and they’ll need to try all kinds of unusual solutions (perhaps even ones that don’t seem as though they would work) to move forward. In real life, these kinds of ideas would be dismissed right away, and most people would stick to the more usual or conventional ideas. However, when you do that, you might actually be missing out on the best solution, and although it’s true you’ll still need to dismiss most of your more ‘out there’ ideas, you’ll still potentially find some real gems that help you solve your problems.
Creative thinking is a truly valuable skill that can help in so many different areas of life, from your personal life to work and everything in between (which includes gaming, of course!), and being able to stray away from the beaten path and come up with innovative solutions isn’t something everyone can do – if you can do it, you’ll pull ahead of the crowd.
Educational Value
Education might not be something you want to associate with gaming because you want to have fun, not study, but the two are often mixed together, and when it comes to puzzle games, that’s definitely the truth. Depending on the game, you might learn all kinds of new things, and they’ll all be helpful in your everyday life in some way.
Math is a good example of a subject that a lot of people never liked much at school, but when they’re playing puzzle games, it can be a skill they ‘accidentally’ pick up or improve without knowing that’s what’s happening.
Then there are other subjects like history and geography, and many video games have some of these elements in them, and you can even find word searches and other puzzles that have historical themes, as well as much more. If you like something you hear about in a game – or even if it’s just a theme you’ve spotted – you might want to learn more, and that’s never a bad thing.
Entertainment Value
At the end of the day, the main reason for playing puzzle games is that they’re entertaining, and that’s what they’re meant for. They might be challenging, they might be educational, they might even be a fantastic way to de-stress, but if they’re not entertaining, none of that matters because no one will play the games.
If you enjoy puzzle games, that’s all you need to know, and it could be the biggest benefit of all.
