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Playing Games Will Make You a Better Strategist

Giant LED Chess Board

It is not a myth that playing Chess will make you more strategic in other facets of life.  Strategy games improve the brain’s cognitive flexibility and agility. Yes, this applies to some video games too!  Emphasis on some. Before you go and start saying that playing video games will make you smarter, it’s important to keep in mind that some games are lazy and antisocial and too much screen time has been proven to have many negative side effects.

But back to that cognitive flexibility thing…  The U.S. Department of Defense discovered that gamers are considerably smarter than non-gamers. And with the commonly held belief that humans reach their peak of intelligence by the age of 20, playing games earlier in life can really help with exercising the brain and helping it achieve its full potential.

It’s also interesting to think about how much gaming is present in the business world. There is increasing “gamification” in work life with terminology like “key players”, “playbooks” and “end games”, as well as competition and incentives frequently being used to motivate employees. Why not think of the world of play as a prelude to your career in the business world?

Games are a popular choice for team building and other corporate events.  Why not use this opportunity to have some fun AND learn more about the potential of each of your employees?  Find out how they think, whether they are able to anticipate their opponent’s next move and how they react to victory or failure.  All of these things are valuable insights into how an employee operates at work.

Here are our suggestions for strategic game rentals that will exercise the brain: 

Chess – Always think several moves ahead. Chess requires a lot of forward-thinking and focus.

Checkers – There are thousands of possibilities when playing checkers and many different strategies you can use to win.

Jenga – Don’t let the tower fall!  Read our blog posts on how to beat anyone at Jenga.

Connect 4 – Remember to start in the middle column!  Keep a lookout for your opponent’s color lining up horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Tetris – Stack the falling blocks in a nice flat layer on the bottom of the screen. As different sized blocks fall be careful to place them in a strategic manner, so you remain stacked at the bottom of the screen.