Things that affect a gamer’s health!

Gamer health is a very different subject than what I normally discuss but I feel like it is something that is sorely overlooked in our communities! I’m talking about how our “hobby” that we love so dearly has made kids overweight, lazy, damages their eyes has a severe impact on the heart and much more.

There are a lot of things that we go our entire lives without considering but I have reached an age that it’s starting to affect me and I wanted to put it out there. We sit in a chair/recliner/couch and stare at a screen for hours on end, some of us for a job and then for our hobby, and we never consider the effect it can have on our eyes and our overall health. Studies have shown that someone who sits for long periods of time, at a desk, for example, has an exponentially higher risk of heart problems and other medical issues. Our eyes are a very delicate organ that needs to be cared for the most than anything else. I would much rather lose an arm than my sight. Do you ever notice how your eyes hurt and burn after several hours of gaming? That’s retinal damage being done because our eyes were never meant to stare intently at the artificial light of a computer or TV. 

That’s not all either. I have recently come under some carpal tunnel pain. I always knew my arm would hurt if I played arcade games for any extended period of time but I never had any issues when gaming on a console. Well, now it seems it has caught up with me. 

Being 36 years old, which is ancient for a gamer, my body isn’t as resilient as it was when I was 20. I have been playing Dark Souls 3 and I am a cheater. I always have been. If there’s a road to make a game easier then I’ll take it. The “boss souls glitch” for DS3 requires that you hit a certain combination of buttons rather quickly and timing must be perfect. Therefore, it takes a while because you don’t hit it every time. If you’re good you might get 6/10 done. Most get about 1 or 2 out of 10. With that said repeatedly pressing buttons has my arm in a bad way now and after about 2 hours of gaming, I have to stop and rest my arm. 

Things like this are not talked about because, let’s face it, this is a subject that’s detrimental to game sales and console sales. There are, I’m sure, a whole slough of studies proving these things but I haven’t seen anything because it would hurt the industry. 

Well, that’s about all I have. I just wanted to give a little different perspective and introduce you younger gamers to a topic that you probably couldn’t care less about right now but I assure you that you will eventually. Keep these things in mind and remember that gaming is a hobby and there is a thing, which seems foreign to most kids these days, called OUTSIDE that we used to play with and have fun. Give it a try sometime! 

Thanks for reading and as always… HAPPY GAMING!!!