It has been an age-old discourse; it only keeps changing names. Watching a piece of media or engaging with a piece of media by playing it: which is better? Earlier, it was television vs video games, today it is binge watching vs online gaming. There has been nuanced discussion over the merits of both mediums over the years. While binge watching absolutely has its own benefits, let us take a look at the arguments of online gaming over it.
Interaction Is Special
Playing an online game like skill-based rummy provides for you to interact with it. Plain and simple. While it is true that watching a show is also interaction, we here simply mean the prospect of engaging with the game and experiencing joy at the achievements we earn in it – something binge watching can never provide. The fact that you control what happens is what makes online gaming so much fun and enjoyable to indulge into. We control every aspect of it and we earn the achievements that make us happy and satisfied, of course.
With binge watching, you cannot control what happens next in a show or movie. You, however, have the option to stop it whenever you want. Whereas online games present a known environment for players to enjoy. Put simply, in watching a show, you watch someone else’s story, in gaming, you create your own story.
Busting The Stress Myth
It is believed that watching shows is better because it allows us the option of relaxing while enjoying a story unfold in front of us. While it is true that you can unwind in front of your television or computer screen after a long day at work. But most of us have sedentary lifestyles. We spend all of our days sitting in front of computer screens. Going home and sitting in front of another screen is not really the best way to unwind.
Instead, engaging with online games is a much better way to relax as they allow us to distract ourselves from the day to day activities and advancing in the games brings us joy, releasing dopamine in our brain – a chemical that is responsible for us feeling happy. Research shows that online games like rummy have substantial positive effects on us. They are not violent like video games and not unstimulating like TV shows.
Become A Pro
What starts as a hobby or maybe even a stress buster can easily become something you actively engage with on a daily basis and build credential over. Millions of people over the world play online games subsequently developing their skill set and bettering themselves with each game. They are obviously more than ‘passing idle time’ for people. They are now passions people hold dear to their hearts.
A show that is binge watched offers no skill development of that sort. You can watch and watch a show as much as you want, but it cannot be something you develop a skill set for. There are other ways to engage with it, like forming fan clubs but that’s about as far you can go in incorporating it in your life.
Novelty in Repetition
One of the biggest arguments against online games has been their repetition. You essentially do the same thing over and over again every day when you play games. That is obviously not the case with binge watching a show. You watch new content every time you switch it on.
But people fail to recognise the novelty the repetition of online games brings. Every game is different from the last. And your failings in the last game help you advance in this one. Every game serves as an opportunity to better yourself, learn new things or even just have fun. It is the familiar surrounding that helps us grow and better our game. So, in actuality, online games still offer more engagement and enjoyment than binge watching despite and by being repetitive.
The Choices
Many players argue that they want to be pulled back into the world of online gaming like rummy because it is so familiar to them. They have a plethora of games to choose from, but once they are hooked to one game, they continue to revisit it because it brings them happiness. For example, once you are done with rummy game download, you just need to open the game and you will be able to play different games every time you open the app. Binge TV while offering uncountable, immeasurable choices to its viewers, loses their interest due to that very fact.
Scientifically speaking, people lose interest if there are too many choices as it becomes overwhelming for them. In that light, revisiting a familiar game seems like a welcome idea, which is why so many people, young and old, are preferring online gaming over binge watching.
The Lucrative Lure
There is no denying that there are monetary aspects related to the world of gaming. For a lot of players, the simple prospect of being able to earn money while playing their favourite games is the number one draw towards it. There is obviously no such thing attached to binge watching. In fact, you have to pay money to watch something on the internet. That in itself creates a huge divide between both mediums.
There is a huge number of people willing to give online gaming a try because of the monetary element attached to it. Who doesn’t like winning prizes when they play? And a huge number of people distance themselves from binge television because of its monetary aspect. Why pay to watch a show online?
Value
A lot of viewers argue that TV shows these days do not offer much in value when compared to games. Even if you feel that a game does not offer anything of value per se, there is no denying that it offers fun, entertainment and enjoyment – which is why you played it in the first place. And to most, simple fun is a perfectly fine excuse to engage with a piece of media in today’s stressed lifestyle. It’s an escape from reality, a distraction. That in itself is value – a much greater one.
