The saying, “You are what you eat” implies that the food that enters your body necessarily and significantly affects the way you behave and feel on a regular basis. But how about applying the proverb to other segments of a person’s everyday life? Provided that nutrition does not have to refer to one’s diet only, but any substance that enters the organism, a whole new door for discussion opens up for us.

Let’s focus on the brain for now. Every piece of information that our minds come across while mindlessly browsing the Internet has an impact on the direction in which our thoughts go for the rest of the day. This way, the nourishment directly influences our mood and the way we will continue to draw conclusions and make decisions until we go to sleep.

All Work and no Fun Makes Jack a Dull Boy

Entertainment is an indispensable part of human life. Remember when Jack Nicholson’s character in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining almost butchered his own family because he was – bored? There might be other things included in the plot that affected that way he acted, but you get my point. An ever-evolving branch it is, entertainment has gone through multiple metamorphoses to suit diverse groups of people’s needs.

Online entertainment has been a thorn in many conservative persons’ eye for decades now. Many a scholar has taken a different approach to the novelty and proven it is just entertainment in one of its embodiments. For instance, University of Pennsylvania professor Kenneth Goldsmith tackled the matter and analysed the parallel between traditional and modern-day learning and playing online.

Gaming in all of its shapes and forms has challenged the popular view of entertainment. It has tremendously altered our perception of entertainment, and we have gone farther than simply having fun. Gaming today is a way of living and in a way, our reflection.

Ancient Greece Meets Gaming

For the sake of this article, I will keep the division simple. However, I would take this opportunity to also reflect on Barbaros Bostan’s 2018 study Gamer Psychology and Behavior in which he covers a whole range of gamer-related topics such as understanding the psychology behind game design, cognitive processes, and the self-determination theory in digital games.

By way of illustration we will take Hippocrates’s depiction of the four temperaments. Let’s stick to two types of gamers: cholerics and sanguines. The former are defined as ambitious, goal-driven, and above all independent. As such, they tend to spend most of their time playing individual sports or games in which they can stand out as leaders. They are not ideal team players, as they have the affinity to be overly competitive.

On the other hand, I am taking sanguines as the opposite side of the spectrum to cholerics. In Psychology, sanguines are known to be out-going and social, and find it hard to sit idle. Being extroverted as they are, sanguines prefer games that boost team spirit and are likely to take part in risk seeking activities. Ideal games for the type would be arcade games and VR games which are heavily featured in the online gaming industry.

As a particularly propelling branch of iGaming, casino games can also be a determiner of one’s pesrona. They come in various types and forms and thus match different temperaments. The likes of Poker or Blackjack would definitely portray one as a risk taker while especially popular video slot games will often sit well with a more casual type of gamer, an enthusiast who would most often enjoy spinning the reels for free – just for the fun part of it.

The division and description thereof is far more intricate, but that will be the subject of a future article.

With regard to games having a profound impact on our life choices, I will exemplify the concept with a gender focused practical study. According to the survey conducted by a group of professors from the University of Surrey, England, girl gamers were more likely to turn to pursuing PSTEM (Physical Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths) degrees in comparison with ladies who had not been active in the gaming world. In this particular model, we see how a seemingly naive industry can have a decisive impression on a person’s professional future.

Mens sana in corpore sano

It all comes down to what we choose to feast on – physically and mentally. In order to be able to function properly and test all the angles of the character, one must nourish both their body and soul.

Your choices are what makes you, but what others see is the performance impacted by the way you feed yourself and – as such – a portrayal of your personality.