What real life skill have you acquired from playing video games?

[Prism_Red]

So yeah, have you ever have that "I know how to use a gun, I played CSGO before" moment, but actually has/been helpful in your life?
I'll start with something simple, Civilization helped me with history lesson during my school years.
Also, a friend of mine actually learned how to drive from Forza Motorsport.

 

[Retrodyte95]

Games have significantly helped me in learning English

 

[TheWanderer]

English maybe ....that's it really

 

[Omegapunch's iconOmegapunch]

Games taught me English better than schools did.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Like the others, games mostly help improving my English

Other than that though, it helps me discovering many nations and…basically almost all of their history. I have to thank most of the sports games for that (especially football games)

 

[Azazelivae]

I'm gonna say the obvious one first:

Language.

If not for Games i don't think i would be able to speak English at least as coherent as i can be right now.

The second is unironically driving, obviously driving in a game versus in real life is vastly different (please don't think you can actually drive just because you drive well in a videogame, if you've been playing Simracing a little bit too much you probably had an "idea" how driving works but that's about it) but without those driving game i don't think i can learn how to drive as fast as i am right now.

With that said i still can't ride a bike ironically lol.

 

[χKai]

Hand-eye coordination.

 

[Therich]

Definitely much more adept at throwing down banana peels to take care of cars that are coming up behind me.

 

[Aziamuth]

I'm studying Philology indirectly because of videogames and dream of being a professional translator one day. It's tough and sometimes demoralizing but I can (probably) do it

 

[fake-kun]

I learned that bandicoots are real.

 

[SwordBreaker40]

Base economy understanding after playing EVE online for 17 years. I not kidding the amount of in dept you can go in eve Economy if you have the will and energy you can learn allot of real life economy.

Also I know an American dude that spent years playing EVE doing space trucking and ended up in real life starting his own truck company because thanks to EVE he learned allot of logistic and economy.

 

[χKai]

Wasn't there some kind of game that teaches you guitar?
If you already have experience, you could still learn a thing or two.

 

[Zack]

Language.

Empathy. (Let's just say, being alone when you grow up leaves you "lacking" in certain things.)

Emotional growth. (While yes, it's another word for Empathy, this one specifically refers to recognizing MY emotion and reading other people's emotion.)

Learning basic common sense. (Different parts of the world, have different cultural norm. Learning what's "normal" in other places help me understand other people that comes from different places.)

Strategy. (I usually play games that has RPG mechanics, and next to that was Strategy. I'm not very good at thinking ahead of stuff, still not to this very day in fact, but games like these help me re-arrange my erratic thoughts.)

Anger management. (I've got a lot of thoughts running through my head, and majority of them isn't very positive. The games I've played allows me to relieve my stress while simultaneously taught me to solve problems WITHOUT hitting them first.)

My life, for a lack of a better word to describe it, is pathetic. Despite my current addiction to video games, it was better than the alternative.

And trust me, I've seen the effect it has on other people. I've lived through it myself. It wasn't very nice. Depression is a hell of a mental disease.

I'm not doing optimally, but it's certainly better than before! And I have video games to thank for that. It saved me from boredom, depression and help build me to be the person I am today!

 

[Karnik]

What can you learn from playing video games? Absolutely nothing useful for daily life. Maybe puzzle games help to train concentration and attention. Yeah, some RPG games helped me perfect my english, especially the text-heavy ones.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Excellent thread!

I learned English through videogames.

I also started my journey through dancing by playing Boogie.

 

[Donte]

Mainly English, also to respawn at checkpoint

 

[mbarrettom]

English, Japanese Language and Culture, Philosophy, Literature, Cinema. A lot

 

[pl1sk1n]

Perseverance mostly, and introduced me to some of the ideas around philosophy in earlier titles from the 90s and early 2000s. Xenogears specifically was a jump of point in studying this, so that i could understand what the game makers where reading (smoking) when they made the game.

That perseverance then helped me in understanding what the authors to some of the philosophical works where even saying, with nicheie, freud and jung
being some of the hardest stuff to read for me.

I think gaming as a medium can be a grate catalyst in teaching and enriching our lives.

EDIT: i was going to say English too, but the software i use has helped more, as games do not usually have the patience to give me context in words. I guess i am dumber like that.

 

[Prism_Red]

I should've known English are not the first language for majority of people.

Definitely much more adept at throwing down banana peels to take care of cars that are coming up behind me.

Please keep it to just bananas, don't throw around turtle shells at the traffic.

My life, for a lack of a better word to describe it, is pathetic. Despite my current addiction to video games, it was better than the alternative.

And trust me, I've seen the effect it has on other people. I've lived through it myself. It wasn't very nice. Depression is a hell of a mental disease.

I'm not doing optimally, but it's certainly better than before! And I have video games to thank for that. It saved me from boredom, depression and help build me to be the person I am today!

There are worse outlets out there, video games CAN save lives. Stay strong man.

Perseverance mostly, and introduced me to some of the ideas around philosophy in earlier titles from the 90s and early 2000s. Xenogears specifically was a jump of point in studying this, so that i could understand what the game makers where reading (smoking) when they made the game.

That perseverance then helped me in understanding what the anthers to some of the philosophical works where even saying, with nicheie, freud and jung
being some of the hardest stuff to read.

I think gaming as a medium can be a grate catalyst in teaching and enriching our lives.

Oh yeah definitely this too for me, games taught me that almost any problem has a solution, it's just a matter how much effort are you willing to put in and how to stay strong in the face of hardship.

 

[NekoTofu]

There are some beneficial aside from just language. I've little knowledge about gacha games to share, considering that, it had some degree of mathematical solutions by character builds and resource management within the mechanism, is for you to decide and thought through what higher chance of character to be powerful. (Or on the contrary, u can waste your money to Meta characters whatever is to powercreep)

Such as like Arknights, there are puzzles to be solved from characters to be usage and highly timed action need it to retrieve your character if one enemies aoe gets shot to ur marksman class. You got to have an early preparation and alternative plans to get through. That is why some people are so persevere with that, they would complained how hard it was the level and getting stuck on the same level for a month or longer so definitely not a sign of fun to get through. To view this is unfathomably not for casual gaming however is also the stronge mentality test to experiment with your mind. It wasn't my ideal gameplay choice to enjoy Tower defense game but a interesting point for the mechanism. That developers of Yotsar, has enrich storytelling, world building and of course the game implementation of it. These were mainly a game with mathematical stats within. You could understand why crit becomes main theme on Genshin Impact or all of MMO that implies those gear to forge with the great critical and elemental stats.

So yeah, math is need it and notable stuff to better reserve your gear and understand what value to sell on.

 

[F_IV]

Always look behind waterfalls.

 

[rayman61]

I learnt to play chess on a Commodore Amiga. Just kept on playing moves until they were accepted and eventually got the basics in to my head. Getting told every time I tried a wrong move was a big help. I don't think a real person would have been as patient, lol.

 

[Cu-Neo]

The superpower of English and knowing how to work with game files and things that Nintendo would send me to the mushroom kingdom jail for doing it.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Learned a lot about historical figures from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Civilization, Age of Empires 2 and the Total War Series.

 

[Putrid Being]

A couple years ago, I turned at a stoplight on an icy road a little too fast and did a complete 270 in the opposite direction I wanted to go (it was early morning, nobody was there). So I did what always worked in driving sims and slammed the gas and turned the car hard to the left and did a perfect 180 and went on my way.