Games are competitions or pastimes, ranging from football, checkers and Monopoly to more complex affairs such as video games or role-playing games that require skill, strategy and luck to win – including video games or role-playing games like WoW or Rift! They may require skill, strategy or luck – or all three; and some have specific goals they must reach, such as beating an opponent or winning races. They may be played alone, in teams or online; amateur or professional; casual or intense – such as spectators at basketball games or fans attending chess championships!
There is an infinite variety of games out there, from violent shooters and role-playing fantasy universes to the relaxing puzzles of Monument Valley or postmodernism like The Stanley Parable. One thing they all share in common, however, is entertainment and challenge when played, providing people an escape from everyday life and fulfilling fantasies like becoming superheroes battling villains in digital realms or warriors slaying gorgon heads with powerful swords.
Games are defined as activities characterized by an unpredictable outcome that cannot be predicted, agreed-upon rules and competition between participants, imagined elements like chance and created goals that are played with physical objects like balls or pieces of wood; virtual ones like computer screens and controllers; or abstract concepts like strategy or time management. A game may involve only one participant at once but for best results multiple players need to participate with high degrees of cooperation between them all and high degrees of interaction between players.
Researchers have documented a range of mental and physical health benefits associated with video gaming, both mental and physical. Video games can improve memory while alleviating symptoms associated with anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They’ve been proven to aid healing from traumas as well as decreasing migraine frequency – while increasing social skills among children.
Games offer unique ways of entertainment that have an educational component. Games provide opportunities to teach new strategies, problem-solving techniques, teamwork skills and even empathy/ethics lessons as they immerse players into fictional worlds with complex plots and ethical dilemmas.
There is an array of games available across multiple platforms, such as mobile phones, tablets and computers. Most are played using controllers with tactile feedback which provides tactile sensations to the player; this feature is known as haptics and can simulate various sensations that enhance gaming experiences; for instance, simulating earthquakes might make the controller shake in their hand which in turn increases educational value of these games.
