Brain Games for Function, Fun and Friendship

Gamification has become such an integral part of our lives. Hyping up the competitive nature those of us need to feed, gaming is also helpful in improving our coordination, memory, attention to details, focus, and socialization skills. If competition is not necessarily your gaming goal, other benefits besides the entertainment value, many of us find it relaxing to unwind with an enticing game helping to reduce anxiety and stress in our alone time. As we traveled with our family, we usually packed away a deck of cards to shuffle up during down time or for an activity break. One of my favorite games to play and an excellent beginner game for children to learn how to play is the card game Solitaire. Simple to master, playing Solitaire with a deck of cards does get a little tricky when you're not playing with a full deck (cornball pun intended!). Fortunately, technology has made a way for us to enjoy learning and playing games convenient with online gaming sites and apps. Whether you chose brain games for mental wellness functions, next level fun, or building friendships, gaming can be a win-win situation for a wide variety of reasons.

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Brain Games for Function, Fun and Friendship

Keeping our minds mentally active and challenged is as important factor in our cognitive abilities now, as well as in the future. Using brain games is a way to keep track of your performance and functioning levels, improve your reaction time, attention span, memory abilities, and other skill sets depending on the types of games you enjoy playing. Bringing people together, a good game also connects old friends and creates new friendships in the spirit of good sportsmanship. For example, my kids prefer multi-player games for the exciting interactions, while I'm more a fan of playing an occasional game of Classic Solitaire to escape from my routine.

Solitaire Rules of Gameplay

While Solitaire is one of countless card games with an element of luck associated with it, strategic gameplay does help with winning moves. The goal of my personal favorite version, Classic Solitaire, is to arrange the deck of cards according to card suit (Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds) and number order (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2) piles. Seemingly simple, unfortunately, there will be times when the cards are just not stacked up in your favor and arranging your cards in sequence will be easier said than done. 

Most times, I chose playing Solitaire online at solitaire.org, a popular site and app for game collections in a vast array of categories for all to enjoy. Choose from games such as-

Solitaire

Classic | Klondike | Spider | FreeCell | Pyramid | TriPeaks | Golf

Card

Blackjack | Crazy Eights | Euchre | Gin Rummy | Hearts | Spite & Malice

Mahjong

Solitaire | 3D | Animal Connection | China | Cooking | Golden Autumn | Panda

Hidden Object

Castle | China | Circus | Garden | Hotel | Kitchen | Pirate | Princess

Match 3

Candy Fiesta | Candy House | Same Game | Treasure of Atlantis | Zuma Ball | Zuma Legend

Logic Puzzles

Battleships | Chess | Crossword | Minesweeper | Nonograms

Sokoban | Sudoku | Tetra Blocks

Word Games

Crossword | Word Search | Letter Logic | Letter Scramble | Wordoku

Gaming Tip

Enjoying the many mental wellness benefits of playing games can certainly be fun and games (another corny pun), however, it's also important to be mindful of the amount of time devoted to gameplay. Taking a quick 10 minute break to play a few levels of your favorite game is understandable, yet can easily captivate you into losing track of time. Whether you are aiming to beat your personal best or going for the high score rank, take heed- gaming can become addictive.  

Technology has a enhanced our selection of online game sites and apps, taking us into the metaverse. Advancements in the tech industry are beyond our imagination, yet there will always be a place for the challenges of traditional hands-on brain games for function, fun, and of course, friendships.

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