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

[DunkeyKong]

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.

That's just insane! I'm glad that no one got hurt though

 

[Boog111]

Strategy and critical thinking.

 

[Revolver32]

Off the top of my head:

- I played enough Japanese import titles to have a basic grasp of the language. I'm not fluent, and I can't understand everything; but I feel like I have a good grasps of Hiragana and Katakana. I know enough to get by, in a sense.

- Video games got me interested in firearms. So now I have several firearms of my own, and know how to shoot them. I also know how to handle them, which is not something video games or movies often like to demonstrate. As someone who owns several revolvers, I must stress that you should never "cowboy" the cylinder on a revolver; flicking it shut. That can damage both the revolver's crane over time, as well as the timing. If you've never handled a revolver, but eventually find yourself wanting to try one at a range, please look up videos on proper revolver handling before doing so.

Oh, and video games taught me the art of procrastination and waiting until the last minute to get homework done when I was in school. Does that count?

 

[YuriSukiSan]

I would say three things mainly thanks to MMORPGs! (even if other games have some deep concepts that help you explore your own thoughts)

1. Has to be how valuable community is, you don't realize how important that is until you don't have it anymore. There's nothing worse than be an isolated individual in a hostile environment, some times as much as it might begrudge some people, -you- do rely on others. Whether that's the food you're eating because of your farmers, your local store, or just getting help from a friend. Everything is connected and the moment it breaks down, its a disaster. It sounds silly but that's what happened in early MMORPGs, and it really helped put things in to perspective for me. Just as an example it's why the local canditate I always vote for supports local farmers, especially when I see countries corporatizing their food, adulerating it, and even making it toxic. You read a bar of chocolate over here, and it has three ingredients. In the UK which I visit for a friend, it reads like a toxic soup of chemicals.

2. Emotional maturity, when you don't have a lot of life experience (and I'm not saying I do now!) you're often sheltered by your parents from how unpleasant other people can be. This might change with bullying in school but in MMORPGs.. you have experiences that you might not otherwise get, like being scammed, or mistreated, or how it feels to have someone go out of their way to help you even if you just had a massive argument. And obviously, on top of all of that, how you can embarrass yourself by acting silly. It sounds obscene but being social in MMORPGs completely desensitized me to a lot of things. Whether that's differences of political opinion, beliefs, how to empathize, or just people teasing you. Just an example I used to gush over boys all of the time, and kind of let them take advantage of me, I was a slave for other boys. I had my heart broken 24/7. And I did the same in MMORPGs until they taught me to stop being stupid!

3. English language, and roleplay! It's really hard to find a local group to play TTRPGs when you're basically living around rural farmers in a small village and fields. It sounds so silly but I remember when they first installed elevators and escalators in a brand new store that had opened in a bigger market town which was my equivalent of a city, it makes me sound ridiculous but you know how freaky that was?! That's how rural it is, even the buildings around here look like mueseum pieces. So MMORPGs allowed me to learn, and do things, I just wouldn't have gotten to do!

 

[PaleFolklore]

The understanding of politics, as well as the human condition. The Fallout series were definetly the most influental example, when it comes to this. The early Final Fantasy titles were also a huge influence, especially FFVI.

Post automatically merged: Jan 19, 2025

I would say three things mainly thanks to MMORPGs! (even if other games have some deep concepts that help you explore your own thoughts)

1. Has to be how valuable community is, you don't realize how important that is until you don't have it anymore. There's nothing worse than be an isolated individual in a hostile environment, some times as much as it might begrudge some people, -you- do rely on others. Whether that's the food you're eating because of your farmers, your local store, or just getting help from a friend. Everything is connected and the moment it breaks down, its a disaster. It sounds silly but that's what happened in early MMORPGs, and it really helped put things in to perspective for me. Just as an example it's why the local canditate I always vote for supports local farmers, especially when I see countries corporatizing their food, adulerating it, and even making it toxic. You read a bar of chocolate over here, and it has three ingredients. In the UK which I visit for a friend, it reads like a toxic soup of chemicals.

2. Emotional maturity, when you don't have a lot of life experience (and I'm not saying I do now!) you're often sheltered by your parents from how unpleasant other people can be. This might change with bullying in school but in MMORPGs.. you have experiences that you might not otherwise get, like being scammed, or mistreated, or how it feels to have someone go out of their way to help you even if you just had a massive argument. And obviously, on top of all of that, how you can embarrass yourself by acting silly. It sounds obscene but being social in MMORPGs completely desensitized me to a lot of things. Whether that's differences of political opinion, beliefs, how to empathize, or just people teasing you. Just an example I used to gush over boys all of the time, and kind of let them take advantage of me, I was a simp for other boys that were pretty. I had my heart broken 24/7. And I did the same in MMORPGs until they taught me to stop being stupid!

3. English language, and roleplay! It's really hard to find a local group to play TTRPGs when you're basically living around rural farmers in a small village and fields. It sounds so silly but I remember when they first installed elevators and escalators in a brand new store that had opened in a bigger market town which was my equivalent of a city, it makes me sound ridiculous but you know how freaky that was?! That's how rural it is, even the buildings around here look like mueseum pieces. So MMORPGs allowed me to learn, and do things, I just wouldn't have gotten to do!

Also, thanks for pointing out MMORPGs. Definetly learned a lot about how to prevent getting scammed, lmao

 

[Anonicus]

As someone who was raised English, My answer would be to help with Problem Solving issues.

But when it comes to stories in games, I think the simple answer to that is Life Lessons and how various games over the years has helped me improve as a person through the stories that the characters goes through.

Other than that, I don't think you can learn much from games unless the game is SPECIFICALLY designed to actually teach you.

 

[jankusanagi]

All kinds of things, most of them already mentioned here... helping with English, logic, puzzle solving, strategy, hand-eye coordination, reflexes, history, orientation/navigation...

 

[MrFabulous]

I am pretty sure I could actually pull off the Satsui no Hadou irl if the situation demanded it.

More seriously, I think I gained a greater appreciation for aesthetics and art that has to work within really limited means. Legitimately learning to find the beauty in things like (superficially crude) pixel graphics, poorly translated text or simplistic music. Sort of teaching yourself to fill in the blanks with your own imagination to conceptualize the ideas that are being imperfectly communicated. I think it's a skill that's lacking in a lot of modern video game fans because when they see more stylized art styles or rigid presentation they often assume that it's an objective failure on the part of the creators and dismiss it pretty quickly - but becoming accustomed to old stuff like this gives you more patience for things like great music that suffers from poor production, enjoying a good script in an otherwise bad movie, appreciating poorly translated prose for the ideas that it does communicate, etc.

 

[miguk]

• Hand-eye coordination — Didn't like sports enough to join a team (I played them causally, but didn't feel comfortable around the jocks at school or even the gym teachers), and didn't want to do shop-style stuff (woodworking, metalworking, etc). Games were a safer way of improving that.
• Money management — RPGs give a simple way of learning the basics.
• Efficiency and diminishing returns — Again, RPGs' leveling systems get that idea across.
• 日本語 — Games and anime aren't the best way to learn it (still haven't found a day-to-day use of お前はもう死んでいる), but it does get you interested enough to learn more outside of entertainment.
• World mythology — Thank you RPG devs for not just making me fight angry squirrels all the time.
• Computers — They made more sense when I knew some basic concepts from game consoles already.
• Rom Hacking — Those uncensored patches aren't going to install themselves.

 

[freebie#47]

Patience and Improved my instincts. Also not a skill, BUT how to have fun. Really improves your social skills IMO.

 

[not4corn]

Hmmmm... is racism and better understanding of villain characters' motives a skill lol? Jokes aside, I don't think I gained any skills from videogames; however, I do feel like I was inspired by videogames to make or draw something. I also got inspired to visit Japan and try different cultures. Inspired to work out and things like that. The biggest benefit of gaming for me was just making friends and having a good time imo.

 

[popckorn]

Metal Gear Solid, specially VR Missions.
It improved, tempered, and honed my super spy skills.
Napoleon Dynamite would have been jelly of my rad moves and mimetics.

I was THE ABSOLUTE BEST playing Hide and Seek on my block, and adjacent blocks.
**they would go to the cinema while I hid**

 

[ouyrtuy]

I got better cognitive skills and reaction time.

 

[beefbowl]

I used to work as a level designer for mobile game companies, so I guess that's a skill I learned from video games?

 

[ATenderLad]

Not a damn thing, I shoot *every* barrel I see and not one of the bastards have exploded yet!

 

[Rylioli]

gta taught me how to drive. still couldnt tell you what the lights mean though

 

[lothermus]

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.

Definitely learning english without taking any classes/courses. And I'm trying to do the same for learning japanese for almost 3 years now!

 

[Amag0k1]

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.

"Daja vu i have been here before!"

 

[OmegaPunch's iconOmegaPunch]

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

Hey, good luck bro

 

[hazys]

I definitely learned a lot of English from video games as a kid. However because of that my vocabulary was skewed towards ancient/medieval terminology lol. Like, I knew what a cuirass was but not a mortgage

 

[zacharinolongpants]

I've recently been playing games in Spanish to help acquire a decent level of proficiency in said language haha. It's been an incredibly fun and gratifying experience. I also get to justify putting more time into gaming while also reducing brain rot lol.

 

[Perseonn]

English language. Among my peers, I have the best spoken and written English around. However, I was semi-formally taught in British English, Video games makes me use American English a lot.

Also recently, due to consuming a lot of Japanese media, Japanese language.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Better at packing and organizing things in boxes to maximize space.

Forcing myself to be more patient...

 

[kamille]

The ability to ignore everything depressing and confusing by escaping reality. Honestly i probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for gaming and other hobbies that let me escape reality.

 

[χKai]

The more I play Fallout New Vegas, the more I learn how to fix different guns jamming.