Puzzlers Belong in the Gaming Community
How My Wife Got Me Into a Whole New World of Gaming
Before my wife and I got married, she wasn’t really into games like I was. I owned almost all the consoles for all companies since the Nintendo 64, and while she had dabbled in the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox 360, she wasn’t really playing a whole lot.
One thing my wife did love, however, were the games in the newspapers. Yup, not video games – things like the New York Times crossword puzzle, word scrambles, and the like. As those games have migrated over to mobile phones in the past decade, she’s gone all in.
Although the video game world still reserves the use of the word “gamer” for those who play serious games, perhaps it’s time to expand the use of that term. In my opinion, the kids that play Brawl Stars are gamers, and the parents playing match 3 games are gamers. Those are games, they are playing them, that makes them gamers, no?
It’s Time to Redefine What a “Gamer” Is
What I’ve found is that the toy and game hobby – because let’s be real, it is a hobby – has grown and melded together. We have TV shows that spin off into video games, and video games that spin off into TV shows. We have toys that come from licensed movie franchises. And we have physical board games being remade for digital consumption on platforms like mobile and Nintendo Switch. All of these hobbies are colliding at fast speeds, and so many people are benefiting.
This sounds like a long preamble but I’m getting somewhere with it: what we consider ‘gamers’ and what we consider ‘games’ is constantly changing. Despite the obvious overlap between puzzles and board games at my favorite local game store, I’ve never considered the two in the same hobby group. But I believe as I’ve illustrated, all of those groups have collided, with MOST people having interests that span across board games, toys, video games, and yes, even the New York Times crossword.
The Blurring Lines Between Gaming, Toys, and Media
The lines between video games, board games, TV, and toys are getting blurrier every day:
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Board games are turning into mobile apps.
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Popular shows become video games.
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Video games spawn entire movie franchises.
It’s no longer unusual to see people with interests that span across all these formats — myself included.
Puzzle Games Are Good for Your Brain
When I started finding puzzle games online, I was hooked. Finding jigsaw puzzle free online is pretty great and more and more companies are launching apps and online web pages for people to start playing today.Before I knew it I was getting my hand on every possible online jigsaw app and website I could find.
Honestly, jigsaw puzzles are good for your brain as well. In fact, Jigsaw Puzzling Taps Multiple Cognitive Abilities and Is a Potential Protective Factor for Cognitive Aging . That’s a pretty good reason to keep on puzzling in my opinion.
My hope is that the hobby as a whole begins to look more favorably on puzzle players, whether those doing physical puzzles or those playing puzzle games online. They are a type of game, whether people want to accept that or not.
I still remember a time where serious video game players wanted to push away mobile game players, and look how the tides have changed. Mobile gaming probably accounts for a larger percentage of overall gamers than we think. In fact, I would argue that week to week, I play more games on my mobile phone than I do on my PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2 combined.
Why I Prefer Online Puzzles
I’m terrible at doing puzzles in real life, and I avoid them at all costs. Well, avoid isn’t quite the right word – my wife refuses to let me help with puzzles because apparently I don’t do them right. To be honest, I don’t want to do a puzzle anyway, as I find them incredibly frustrating. Pieces fall on the floors, get stuck in the box, or magically disappear like socks in the dryer. With an online puzzle, though, I’m free to move pieces around as much as I like and I can be guaranteed that nothing is going to go missing.
Puzzles of all kinds are going to become, if they haven’t already, part of the mainstream and could easily overtake standard gaming themselves. There is something relaxing about doing a puzzle, yet exhilarating when moving against the clock if it’s timed.
There are so many options available to these puzzle makers, including head-to-head online speed puzzles. Could you imagine competing with friends to see who can finish a puzzle faster? Maybe have daily puzzle challenges where you try to beat a set time to earn medals and points? The possibilities are endless, whether the puzzles are free or paid.
Either way, the gaming community needs to open up their arms and accept the puzzling community as one of their own.
Article By Adam Roffel
