12 interesting facts about computer games
Fact number 1: 2/3 of Europeans and Americans under the age of 50, at least occasionally play some or other computer games. Including mobile games. Such statistics is probably true for CIS countries as well.
Fact #2: 60% of all gamers are men and accordingly 40% of women. So girls, if you want to find a boyfriend, welcome to online games. Being friends with a girl who is also into video games is the dream of almost every guy gamer.
Fact #3: It is also worth noting that men, much more often than women play complex games that take a lot of time and effort. While women, more often play casual games, that is, in all sorts of Candy Crush Saga, the treasure of pirates, and other Fruit Ninja.
Fact #4: Multiple studies have proven that playing shooters is useful because it helps people in the future, faster and more effective in those situations where you need to make an instant and correct decision. People who actively play computer games are much better at grasping what is going on around them. These experiences help them perform better in attention tests, which require them to quickly assess what is going on around them. For example, driving a car and navigating a city. There is also a study in which scientists have found that surgeons who regularly play shooting games perform complex operations more quickly and efficiently and make fewer mistakes. Very often you can hear non-sighted people say that computer games are bad for children’s psyche, making them more violent and generally disconnected from the real world. This statement has long been refuted by many studies and therefore pay attention to such statements, do not.
Fact #5: What is interesting is not this, but that computer games are not the first to be accused of spoiling children. In the eighties of the 20th century, there were practically no computer games yet, since few people had computers at all. So, the American youth of those years, very actively fond of the board game “Dungeons & Dragons”, which was to fight each other by using different characters, magic, and monsters. Already in those days, there were unics who accused this board game that it spoils children, making them cruel, mean and prone to crime. No studies, of course, have found any negative effects of this board game (and others, too) on children.
Fact #6: The most recognizable character of computer games, is plumber Mario. Few people know, but this name, the character was named after the man at whom the developers from Nintendo rented its first office, his name was Mario Sigale. By the way, after the series of games about Mario became popular, this name is much more often given to newborn children. This fact is confirmed by statistics of names around the world.
Fact #7: Pac-Man was created by Japanese Toru Iwatani. The idea of what Pac-Man would look like came to him while he was eating pizza. Pac-Man’s name also has something to do with food; in Japanese, the word Pac-Man means to chew, which is how the name Pac-Man came about.
Fact #8: In 2011 it was revealed that the administrations of several Chinese prisons were forcing prisoners to play World of Warcraft and earn game currency, ‘gold’. Prison officials sold that ‘gold’ to other players for real money and made large sums of money. The Chinese prisoners were forced to play WOW for 12 hours a day to earn the necessary resources. It is interesting that the prison authorities were not held accountable for this and got away with simple fines. Prison administrators said that such prison labor is much more efficient than working on the machines and brings much more money into the prison budget.
Fact #9: Another interesting case related to China and online gaming. A Chinese man was very concerned that his son was spending too much time on one online game. He paid other players money to hunt him down and kill him for two weeks in order to prevent him from playing. So the father wanted to encourage his son to pay attention to the real world and take his mind off the games.
Fact #10: In 1978, a game came out in Japan, ‘Space Invaders’ it could be played on special machines that stood in various public places and shopping malls. In it you had to shoot at the aliens who were descending toward the player from the sky. To play, you had to throw a coin into the machine. This game became so popular that it caused a shortage of coins of a certain denomination in the country, as a huge part of them was used to play ‘Space Invaders’. This shortage lasted for more than a year until the frenzy began to subside.
Fact #11: The company ‘Valve’ published an interesting fact, the company’s employees said that 37% of games that are bought through Steam, never run. That is, people often buy games in Steam on sale with deep discounts in order to play them later, but in the end never play them and forget about them.
Fact #12: Studies have shown that gamers are much more likely to be able to enter a state of conscious dreaming, which is when a person sees a dream, is aware of it and can fully control it, doing anything in it. It also helps people get rid of nightmares, since a person can stop it at any time.
