Seven reasons why grown ups should play more video games

Often seen as the pastime of friendless teenagers or a guilty pleasure, there are many huge benefits to playing video games

Even now, well into the second decade of the 21st century, we tend to view video games as a guilty pleasure. For anyone over the age of 25, they're often something you sneak off to do when no one is at home. They're a furtive treat, filled with the cultural equivalent of empty calories.

Partly this is to do with how video games have been marketed for the last 30 years - predominantly at teenage boys. The games industry has taught us to see games as loud, brash and arcane. On top of this, the most visible titles tend to conform to familiar stereotypes: Call of Duty is about killing enemies; Candy Crush Saga is about killing time. When you're not entrenched in games, these highly marketed titles become representative - you don't see the other things going on behind these entertainment monoliths. It's just like, if you only go to the cinema in the summer, you're in danger of thinking that all movies involve indestructible people wearing capes.