As parents, it is disconcerting and frustrating to find that your child does not want to engage in any activity other than playing video games for 16 hours a day. Telling them to read books doesn’t work. Also, asking them to do household chores doesn’t work. Your child will criticize and want to get back into playing games. These are not great alternatives to video games.

Parents generally don’t know what activities to recommend for indoor players. When a child feels compelled to sit down and read a book, which he does not enjoy, it does more harm than good. It resents the child and the parent because the child will go back to playing against the parents’ wishes, and the child feels compelled to do something that is fundamentally unpleasant to him.

There is a fundamental lack of understanding on both sides of this equation. Therefore, it is essential to understand how video games affect your child. It helps to understand why some activities are more fun while others are boring for your child, and how you, as parents, can help them regain balance by using alternatives to video games.

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12 alternatives to video games

• Arts, dance or music lessons
• Natural activities such as white water rafting or hiking
• martial arts
• Learn programming
• Training in start-up companies
• Competitive sports
• Scouting/Eagle Scouting
• volunteer
• Private classes
• Learn Creative Art Forms
• Playing in the stock market with fake wallets or small amounts of money
• roller coasters

While it is useful to know the alternatives to video games that can work, this list is incomplete without understanding why some activities work for certain types of players.

Before we dive into what activities you can replace games with, we first need to know how bad gaming addiction can be. We designed this test to help you find out:

Different types of gamers seek to satisfy the different needs of video games. To find out what these needs are, we first need to understand how games affect the mind.

How do video games affect the brain?

Video games affect the brain in many ways. However, we will focus on three distinct effects:

1. Dopamine depletion
2. suppress negative emotions
3. victory arena

Dopamine depletion

Our brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine when we are having fun. This chemical controls the feeling of pleasure. When we play games, our brain releases a constant supply of dopamine with random bursts.

Over time, our brain gets used to a certain level of dopamine, and we need to play for longer periods to have the same amount of fun. If we keep playing for long periods of time, our brain gets used to a certain amount of dopamine, which makes other activities less enjoyable. Anything other than games is not fun.

suppress negative emotions

Video games also suppress negative emotions. The amygdala is the part of our brain that controls the feeling of negative emotions. They are active when we feel negative emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, frustration, etc. Furthermore, functional MRI studies have shown that when we start playing a video game while the amygdala is active and we feel negative emotions, the amygdala shuts down. .

Over time, this can lead to a condition called  Alexithymia  , which is the inability to determine your internal emotional state. This is why video games are great coping mechanisms. One can play a game easily and feel better.

victory arena

The victory circuit is not a physical structure in our brains. It is more than a psychological pattern that all human beings have in common. The victory circuit is activated when we feel challenged, and as a result of overcoming that challenge, we get a reward.

Video games have found a way to break through this cycle. If we feel challenged enough, we can play a video game and change that. Video games provide us with challenges and reward us in a submissive way. As a result, we don’t need to rely on the real world to feel the test and get the rewards.

Alternatives to playing video games

Now that we understand how video games affect the brain and the needs that they fulfill, we can begin to look at the different activities that would constitute suitable alternatives to your child’s playing habit.

However, the first step is to understand the types of games your child plays. This understanding will help you decide whether or not they will enjoy a particular hobby because different types of games meet different needs. Some of the game types mentioned here are:

• MMORPGs  like Final Fantasy 14 and World of Warcraft.
• Adventure games  like The Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls and Skyrim.
• First-person shooter  (FPS)  games like Fortnite and Call of Duty.
• Sports  such as FIFA.
• Collectible Card Games (CCGs)  such as Hearthstone, Artifact, and Gwent.
• Clan games  like Clash of Clans.
• Turn-based strategy games   such as Civilizations, XCOM, and the Total War series.
• MOBA games  like League of Legends and Dota 2.
• Role-playing games (RPGs)  such as the Final Fantasy series, The Witcher, and Diablo 3.

Alternatives to video games for your resident player

• Martial Arts, Competitive Sports and Rollercoasters:  These activities are suitable for first-person shooters and sports players. These players enjoy the thrill they get from the sense of danger. They have a high competitive drive and love to win against adversity. They also love to acquire new skills.
• Startups Internships:  Internships are great for card and strategy gamers. These players love to understand complex systems and achieve quantitative mastery of the subject. They also have a highly competitive drive. As startups are complex and competitive systems that require employees to do more than just their daily tasks, the player will feel the appropriate challenge there. Bonus points if it is a technical, financial or political startup, as it requires a high degree of strategic planning and problem solving.
• Scouting/Eagle Scouts, Volunteering, Habitat for Humanity:   These activities are suitable for players of clan games and MMORPG games. Players usually play in these games for a sense of a shared community, so community activities that involve working together toward a common goal are likely to be enjoyable for these players.
• Learn to  code, tutoring: RPG players, turn-based strategy, and CCGs will enjoy coding and teaching because it involves system understanding, quantitative mastery, and learning new skills (similar to internships at startups).
• Playing the stock market with fake wallets or small amounts of money:  CCG and Turn-Based strategy games players will enjoy playing the stock market (safely). These players get satisfaction from planning and implementing a successful strategy, and they can achieve the same feeling from the stock market.
• Nature Activities:  The outdoor activities work for the adventure, MOBA and sports game players, because these players enjoy exploring and are very curious. Hiking is excellent for those not looking for adrenaline, while white water rafting works for those looking for adrenaline.
• Learn a creative art or form:  Adventure game players will enjoy learning to play a musical instrument, carpentry, painting, sculpting, etc. because they activate the parts of the brain that interpret sensory information. These people are motivated by seeing new things, navigating new landscapes, and creating something new.

Alternatives to video games that won’t work

• Read a book:  In theory, reading a book is a suitable alternative for the player. Books can offer rich stories and interesting narratives, like video games. They can also act as an escape from the real world. Moreover, they also come with great benefits, such as enhancing reading comprehension, increasing vocabulary and improving communication skills. However, reading the book is too boring for the brain that loves a fast-paced activity. The gamer’s mind is highly dopamine-tolerant, and books cannot live up to the “fun” that video games set. At the beginning of the game cleansing process, the player will not be able to read or enjoy books. They won’t enjoy attention span because the book isn’t fast paced enough to be stimulating.
• Playing board games with the family  Board games also seem like a good alternative activity to video games. However, many players feel quite defensive when their games are taken away from them. If they had to do something else, like play a board game with the family, they would associate the negative feelings of not being able to play the games with spending time with the family. As a parent, this is not a good bond to inculcate in your child. It is best to spend time with your child while playing games. This will help them get used to your presence when they are having a good time, and they won’t feel threatened by pulling their toys away. Apart from that, board games are very boring for the player, as they are slow compared to video games.
• Play outside  : While spending time in nature is great for your child, “playing outside” is too abstract for a player to process. Moreover, one of the biggest reasons children turn to video games is that they are being bullied outside their homes. If your child runs away to video games to avoid playing outside with his friends, he’s probably doing so for good reason.
• Housework:  Let’s face it – chores are boring, especially for kids. It will be especially difficult for a player to stop playing games and do housework because they are still at home where their video games are accessible. Their environment has not changed, and they will still wonder why they have to do chores when they can play video games.

Open-ended problem solving versus closed-ended problem solving

Some activities will not work for players because they are too abstract. For example, “Exercise” is not doable. How does one workout?

Video games put us in an environment, tell us the rules, and then ask us to solve a problem given a certain set of conditions. The player’s mind gets used to going through this process, so when they find themselves in a situation where the rules are unclear or open, they stumble. They do not know how to deal with these open problems, because video games have trained their minds to solve endless problems.

This affects the player’s motivation as well. Players are less likely to clean their rooms because their minds don’t know how to solve open-ended problems. It’s hard for them to break this task down into actionable steps, which prevents them from trying to do that task in the first place. :

One solution to this problem is to help them break this task down into several steps. For example, cleaning your room can be divided into cleaning your closet, picking clothes off the floor, making the bed, etc. All this is a doable task that will help the player learn how to solve open problems.

conclusion

To suggest activities that are suitable for your child, you need to understand the games he enjoys playing. This will give you insight into how their brain works and why the games they play are fun for them.

The first step to doing this is to join their team. If your child’s perspective is “me + video games vs. my parents,” it will be hard to get them to do anything.