National Video Game Day: The 9 Awesome Benefits of Playing Video Games & How to Clean Up After

September 12th is National Video Game Day, and you know what that means: Glass, paper, and pens are coming out of their hiding places. Trips to your best bud-tender or a well-connected friend's house are already going down. Those preparing to celebrate National Video Game Day with some serious power streaming of their favorite games, doing group missions with friends, and staying up waaaay too late for a Monday night are going to need fuel to keep burning that midnight oil. Vape oil, that is.

Your favorite 'tiva strain and some caffeine can keep you buzzing all night, raiding, solving puzzles, or smashing arenas solo or with friends - whatever gets your game on. While there's been some bad hype about video games, we know the truth. Video games are awesome, and there are some pretty cool benefits to kicking back a few hours a week (or a lot more) to relax and test your skills.

The 9 Awesome Benefits of Playing Video Games

1) Training Your Hand-Eye Coordination

There's no denying that playing video games improves your hand-eye coordination. You need precision, focus, and lighting-fast fingers to win in real PVP combat scenarios or to perfectly manage your multi-front tower defense. Driving at the speed of sound, breaking puzzle walls at record speed; whatever your video game passion is, there's a good chance that you are way more accurate with your hands than you would be just playing ball in the backyard.

Sure, hitting a ball with a stick is good for hand-eye coordination. But so is shooting bug monsters in the skull bone with pixel precision while dodging behind cover.

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2) Applying Your Critical Thinking Skills

Most games today are not a "turn your brain off" experience. Even games you can play slowly in an Indica haze actually make you think and plan. From village builders to unlocking tech trees to choosing your character's combat loadout, strategy and critical thinking play a critical role. You might be outsmarting the other guy on the arena field or solving a dungeon puzzle, but you are definitely using your noodle.

3) Logic, Puzzles, and 3D Math: It's Educational

Speaking of the ol' noggin, there are tons of games that are actually designed to stretch your brain. Escape rooms are all the rage, and they are surprisingly heavy on the math puzzles. Puzzle games cause you to practice quick pattern matching and problem-solving, often on a time limit or to make it through an adventure. Then there is Minecraft and all its little cube-based game children. If we're not learning 3D math from that, why are schools using it in the classroom?

4) Gaming at Home Can Connect Siblings and Family

It's also been true since the very first two-controller console that games bring siblings together, and can even connect family across generations. Grandmothers play Zelda, uncles play Madden, and younger siblings play Animal Crossing, but we all play. Whatever you're into, there's a good chance your younger siblings, cousins, and neighbors want to be into it. If you're hanging with friends, games turn a blah afternoon into a party -and maybe a tournament. All you need is an extra controller or two Steam accounts.

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5) Online Games Connect People Across the World

Video games have also made us all more international. Ever stay up late and meet the Australian gamers who are up on the other side of the world? We all have. You've probably talked to people you would have never met through online games. You might have real friends or favorite teammates across the country, all the way across the world, or halfway across the world in any direction.

6) Teaching Your Little Brother/Sister to Read

Video games also play a major role teaching literacy in most modern homes. Little kids want to know what's going on during text-heavy storyline games and to read the UI of the games their siblings are playing. Some learn to read from game manuals. Some are taught to read by sounding out each character's dialogue with the help of a gaming older family member. And that is just awesome. Just don't forget to stub out the blunt when your little sibling or cousin wants to join you for video game story time.

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7) Basic Survival Skills Without the Scouts

If anyone tells you video games are worthless, just tell them what you've learned about survival. Many games today include features like getting hungry or freezing without fire - and teach us the basics of survival like how to noggin a zombie while scarfing scavenged burritos. Or how to make a campfire with tinder and a log pyramid. No scouts meetings needed.

8) Real Driving and Piloting Skills

Piloting and driving skills are the benefits of video games that even the military will acknowledge. Kids who operate vehicles and learn how wheels work become better drivers when they finally get behind the wheel. And realistic flight simulators are actually used to give pilots training hours without using fuel or putting rookies at risk of a crash.

9) Smoking Blunts While Your Character Smokes Blunts

Last but not least, you can light a blunt while your video game character also lights a blunt. While this trend may have started with Grand Theft Auto, there are now plenty of games where you play a character cool enough to smoke, dab, or vape while taking a brief break from their adventures.

Cleaning Up After National Video Game Day

Celebrating National Video Game Day on a Monday is going to take all night. You're going to need sugar, caffeine, and plenty of dank to make it one of the best nights of the year with your live buddies or your Australian best buds in the late night gamer channels. But when you wake up Tuesday Afternoon (or heaven forbid, in time for work on Tuesday morning) you may find a gaming room that smells like Shaggy's ashtray - and might look like it as well.

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Check it out to get ready for your National Video Games Day celebration, and the cleanup on Tuesday after.