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The Mental Effects Of Gaming Essay

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Beside the mental effects of gaming, lay the physical effects. Another belief of gaming is that it is physically threatening, and if not taken in moderation, that may be true, but at face value, some video games can be a very useful tool for physical fitness. “Serious” games, as mentioned previously, are games that are designed for personal improvement, but as stated by Mark Baxter, “serious” games are just a subgenre of a more encompassing genre known as lifestyle games. According to Baxter, these games lack the more academic focus typically associated with “serious” games, yet still focus primarily on improvement through tier one gaming experiences. An example he gives of a successful lifestyle game is Wii Fit, which is a game that consists of exercise activities. He also claims that games like these have been adopted in several physiotherapy rehabilitation centers (Brain Health and Online Gaming). Baxter is right on this claim. These lifestyle games, also known as fitness games, contain a variety of physical benefits, including rehabilitation, and thankfully, several console designers are attempting to embrace these positives. In 2006, Nintendo released the Wii console, which is the console Baxter’s example was played on. It saw large commercial success due to its ability to provide gamers with an entertaining and physically stimulating experience, selling over one-hundred million units worldwide. This console allowed players to exercise in a unique way that entertaining,

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