Games are activities. They can be useful if they provide adequate knowledge of results. Otherwise they are simply exercises that may actually develop bad habits
HOW GAMES CAN DEVELOP BAD HABITS
- Think of a violin student, for example. If the violin student plays without getting any feedback about how to position the hands, he or she may eventually play some decent notes, but never achieve effortless playing because the hands may be in some cramped or awkward position. Changing such a bad habit can take more months than it took to develop the bad habit. So playing "just for fun" ends up producing more pain than if some care would have been taken in learning proper positioning in the first place.
- You may be playing basketball but if you don't receive some feedback on how to dribble and how to shoot the ball, you will learn by trial and error, which can be a long and frustrating process.