Students and teachers alike both love free time. Some spend their free time playing sports, watching television, and some play ‘Clash Royale’. Clash Royale is a strategy based game made by a company called SuperCell. Some find the game so entertaining they end up playing it in class; leaving a potential mark on students academics and proficiency.

This new distraction often leads to bad grades, low understanding of what is being taught, and dangerous levels of dopamine release in a students body.

First, according to Safes Parental Control App, “ some side effects of Clash Royale are screen addiction, high dopamine levels, and exposure to strong emotions.” 

When students play this game they can become aggravated, have a higher screen time and create unhealthy connections to their devices through the game. This can connect to our school as many people play this game and may even seem even addicted to it. 

On a more positive note, this game is still a strategy based game that relies on smarts and strategy. The ways the cards work and how they counter and play against other cards can lead to learning curves that make a student get better at skills like budgeting. 

In the game Clash Royale there are eight cards that you can put in your deck at one time. In this deck you need to have good cards in order to win, but at the same time if you just put all the best cards in your deck at one time then they will be too expensive to play making the game almost impossible.

This relates to budgeting because just as in real life you have to stay under a budget, in Clash you have to keep your deck under a 5.0 elixir ( which is the budget out of ten) average, otherwise the deck is unplayable.

Some students even compare Clash to chess, for example student Miles Hughes claims, “Clash is like if Socrates and Plato got together and made a better chess; and if anything, Clash Royale even makes me smarter because it is like chess.” So if this student claims that the game is like chess and chess is proven to improve strategy does that mean that this game could be a learning experience?

But just because Clash could potentially be beneficial, it has it’s down sides. Hughes goes on to explain “Clash is like a straight drug. You try it once and then you can’t stop, It’s insane dopamine. But the game is so aggravating sometimes I just feel pure rage after I lose many games in a row.”

 So the same student that claimed this game was beneficial for his learning as seen earlier but also claims it is an addicting game that gives him “insane dopamine.”

With all the ups and downs of Clash, is it really worth it to spend your time on this game? It likely depends on a person’s point of view. If you’re bound to get addicted to this game and it has affected your learning, then in no way is it worth it. On the other hand, if you have enough self discipline to prevent yourself from getting addicted, It may actually be beneficial to various skills like strategy, budgeting and reaction. As clash players often regard, this is why they Clash.