5. They Increase Your Spatial Awareness and Sense of Direction
You might be of the school that believes that games like Grand Theft Auto are literally the devil (although probably not, if youre reading an article promoting video games). However, an open world sandbox game like this is constantly scrutinizing your spatial awareness and forcing you to rely on your sense of direction in order to get from A to B in a quick and satisfying manner. While no one is saying that you should drive in reality like you do in GTA, the very fact that youre picking lines through traffic, attempting to avoid hazards and simultaneously heading towards a destination means that the brain functions youre using are the same ones youll use while youre out on the real road. Each game tests your spatial awareness and sense of direction in its own way; even a game like Animal Crossing for example, forces you to remember where your house is in relation to the villages other characters. As a species, weve needed these skills since the dawn of man, and well need them far into the future. From that perspective, gaming is as worthwhile a pursuit as any other.