Collaborative post (AD)- All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Since I was a kid, I have loved playing games. From card games to board games, I was always happy to compete with someone or with a computer rival. In fact, computer games were still kind of new in the 80s so we used to have to wait ten minutes for them to load from what looked like a tape cassette player. The anticipation was always worth it though. The only disappointment came when the long awaited game was chewed up by the old fashioned cassette player. I could only dream of such things as online games.
Online Free Games
These days, I use a variety of apps and online free games to entertain myself when I just need a break from concentrating on my work. Modern technology means that I can load up a new game in seconds and there is no delay.
One such game that is becoming very popular online involves guessing a word every day. Wordle provides five blank spaces which need filling with letters. If those letters are correct but in the wrong place they turn yellow and if they are in the right place they go green. You basically get six guesses at finding the word. This is the kind of thing I do when I want to wake up my brain and it is very popular with my students too.
Another way to access plenty of free online games is by visiting plays.org which is an advert-free site that has loads of traditional and new games to choose from. One of my favourites there is Battleship, where you can play against the computer and try to destroy its ships. This game has always been popular with my family and so having an online version brings back happy memories for me.
I find it really easy to set out where I want to hide my warships and then love to use my logic to locate those pesky enemy vessels before my opponent finds mine. The game is quick to play and ideal for when I am waiting around for a meeting or just sat on a train, filling time.
This site also has educational games and is increasing its offering every week. A new favourite of mine is Dominoes Battle, for instance, where I have to match the end of my domino with the opponent. The idea is to be the first to use all of your dominoes but obviously there are times when you have to skip a go, due to not having the right numbers on your dominoes. I used to play this game with real dominoes whilst growing up and absolutely love it when I am feeling bored and need a quick fix of fun.
How do games reduce stress?
In my opinion solo games are really good for reducing stress levels as they allow you to be distracted from your everyday problems for a moment. As long as you manage your time well and don’t neglect your work, spending up to an hour a day playing a game online can be beneficial. For me, it is relaxing and if I have been feeling pressured, I usually feel much more chilled out by the end of a gaming session.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article about how playing games can make you feel more chilled out. If you enjoyed the article please drop a comment below and consider following my blog for similar articles in future. If you would rather chill by another means, you might find Read, Watch, Listen handy as it recommends a good book, TV show and podcast.
I was totally absorbed in matching games when small boy used to feed at all hours of the night. Now it’s LEGO games all the way. Small boy loves wordle and nerdle though.
I just heard about heardle too where apparently you guess a tune.
I enjoyed reading this article and also finding playing games help to relax me.
Oh I’d be SO bad at that
Thanks for reading.
I was gaming in the 80s too! And I well remember the cassette loading systems – waiting for 10 minutes and then getting a ‘Load error’ message was, to say the least, frustrating 🙂
Since then I’ve had various incarnations of Sony’s Playstation (currently on a PS5). As you say, gaming is great for stress relief. Most games demand your complete attention and so force you to stop thinking about whatever it is that is causing you trouble – not only that, but it can let your sub-conscious work on the problem while you play!
Exactly. I remember having a ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
I see people posting their Wordle boards all over social media and I should give it a try. I tend to lean towards games that are less intellectual when trying to relax. Great post! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for commenting.
We’re not gamers, but it’s great that they help you reduce stress.
Nice post! I really love gaming and yes it is very relaxing though also working very well as stress-relief depending on the game you play XD. I play on my phone, but also on my PC and consoles. There is such a wide variety of fun games to play.
It was great reading this and learning more about how much you enjoy gaming. I am the worsts when it comes to gaming since I might get so absorbed that I could spend days doing nothing else apart from that. It felt like I had to fight myself to stop doing it so much. Currently, I choose not to have any games on my laptop and I just have sudoku on my mobile which I allow myself to play for 20 minutes top per day.
Yes you can get carried away.