Brain Teaser Puzzles
A common denominator for all puzzles is that they challenge us. A jigsaw puzzle is a challenge to your ability to see patterns and recognize matches. It is a physical challenge to match up pieces and somewhat of a mental challenge to make a lot of random segments make a whole. There is something tremendously satisfying about solving simple puzzle or even just one piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is all the reward you need for taking up the pastime. In that way, puzzles are very relaxing because whether its filling in a word on a crossword, finding a word on a word search or putting one of 300 pieces together on a jigsaw, that satisfaction is what recreation is all about.
Scientists tell us that doing puzzles that challenge our mental abilities do more than just give us a good "brain tease". They make us mentally stronger, more agile and better able to solve problems in our daily lives. So we get the double value that each time we take on a new level of complexity in the form of a puzzle because every time we challenge our minds, that’s fun. But the second level of value is that our minds literally get smarter because we learn new problem solving skills even when we are not trying to learn.
Many word games combine pattern recognition with an ability to solve clues of a mystery. Even simple word games like we play along with on Wheel of Fortune hit that spot in our brain that likes the challenge of finding the phrase as the letters are revealed. Even children as young as elementary school demonstrate a love for this kind of mental challenge by playing simple games like hangman where finding the letters to finish a word saves the imaginary man from execution.
If single event games like a crossword puzzle or a word find are challenging, when you go the world of online gaming, you can find a universe of challenges to your mental abilities to solve puzzles and mysteries like you never experienced before. It is one thing to play a challenging puzzle that taxes you to solve a single puzzle. But because of the complexity that can be easily supported online, a single puzzle can become part of a "Matrix" (if you will pardon the expression) of puzzles that can be woven together into a plotline with characters, scenes and a grander mystery to solve that may take hours or even days or weeks to unravel and that calls upon you to grasp dozens of individual puzzles that fit into the broader game scope.
Amazingly, youth who play video games or online adventure games are quite adept at this kind of challenge. Even the much maligned game of "Doom" is in actually many layers of mazes that have to be solved to understand the larger plot of the game. These games combine mystery and puzzle solving with visual and hand eye coordination for a total puzzle solving experience that can become truly addictive. But just as our simple puzzles build our problem solving skills, these online versions will create super problem solvers of online gamers if they can ever put down the joystick and apply those talents to the world where real problems are out there to be solved with those amazing puzzle solving skills.