Both my family and Lew's family loved games; board games, lawn games, even games on horseback. And getting one over on an opponent brought great explosions of knee-slapping laughter.
Games cause the player to learn to follow a pattern precisely as well as think completely out of the box. Games force you to think ahead of the "now" moment and make a plan as well as adjust plans foiled by the opponent. Games develop team efforts as well as individual goals. Games can increase both refined and gross motor skills and those that require a lot of physical activity can even produce physical fitness. And doing this in the context of a game is a lot more fun than an exercise routine.
Video games can develop some of these results but should be liberally mixed with other games that require more physical activity. Even rolling dice and moving pieces on a board game develops areas of the mind/body coordination that get missed by video games. Games help you to learn to plot a course and make adjustments along the way without losing sight of the goal.
All of these qualities are necessary for successful adulthood and games are a great way to learn them when you don't even know you are. You are just having fun!
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