What real life skills have video games taught you?

I'm sure we have all heard at one point in our lives from someone that video games are a waste of time and you can learn nothing productive from it.

Thankfully this old school way of thinking is disappearing as games have become mainstream and nearly everyone you know plays them whether on their phones/consoles or PC's.

One real life skill I've learnt from video games is the ability to play Poker (Texas Hold em)
I have Red Dead Redemption to thank for that. I was never a fan of Poker but when the opportunity arose to learn to play in the game, I remember sitting down for 2 hours straight playing poker in the game and doing nothing else:P Probably added 10+ hours to my play through time from this mini game alone. I'm now a decent player in real life and enjoy playing with my friends when we get together.

What real life skills have you guys learnt from video games?

Absolutely nothing.

Ok actually I got something. One time I was going go-karting and I started to imagine drive lines on the road like they are in Forza Motorsport. Needless to say I started the race in 8th and finished in 3rd which wasn't bad because I knew how to take a turn.

Japanese Chess when I play Yakuza 2. I had to read wiki to learn how to play it and spend a long time to finally beat the freaking AI!

I've been playing video games since 1980. There are a number of things that I'm good at because of video games.

GT taught me how to be a better driver in real life. When I first started driving IRL I had some anxiety about driving on freeways and GT helped me get over that.

I've also learned how to play Poker and chess from video games and probably a few other skills I'm forgetting.

Faster reaction speed.
Faster decision making.

These are general things though and many replicated studies show that (actually challenging) video games improve this for everyone.

Such as?

Would you say Driving games helped you obtain your actual drivers license by helping you visualize driving?

My clumsiness gets balanced out by an improved hand-eye coordination from playing shooters for over two decades.

No dude it was just go-karting. All I did was take the turns wide. My buddies didn't get that and were crashing into the walls.

Like this

Playing lots of Shooters over my lifetime has sharpen my reflexes in life like better reaction time and playing sports like Tennis (which is my main sports to play) helps out my reflexes when hitting the ball also, ready to react when my opponent makes a move.

Fire is effective against ice and falling down a pit might kill you.

Can't think of anything. Most the stuff i knew before i saw it in a game.

Not a damn thing.

It's alright to be a serial killer, as long as it's for a good cause.

If I hang out with people and strengthen my bonds with them, I will be able to summon more powerful demons to take on my enemies.

That I can break blocks of bricks with my head, that eating mushrooms supports growth, and if I encounter any snappy turtles I should just jump on their head.

How to handle a gun. I’m confident I would make an ace sharpshooter in the army.

played a ton of fps from qw to cs 1.6 and had the highest grade shooting badge @army, must be a connection.

Grinding, problem solving, understanding new systems quickly. I was always good at the last one but I think games have only made it better. Oh and I think games have made me be a little more open to advancements in technology and changes to my beliefs. I have very few problems changing how I think about things even if they are fundamental, and I suspect playing games that present many different ways of looking at a world and 'what if's' have made me very open to 'weird' things maybe being true. I guess you could call that desensitization. Roleplaying as different types of people has probably helped me understand and relate to people a little better, and I think playing games has improved my imagination. Especially its vividness.

Oh and games taught me to speak and write English a bit. And it was a game that got me back into exercising and now I am in better shape than ever before. So games have helped me a bit in the real world.

I hope games will help me with social anxiety at some point. I don't dare to do many things with other people even in games XD I should really set up my mic and/or play social games in VR at some point... Maybe next year :P

I've learned to not take myself seriously and shit sure not take anyone else seriously when it comes to entertainment choices.

That smoking cigarettes is bad for my health but will allow me to see infrared sensors, that a Hind-D is a Russian gunship, that hiding under a cardboard box is effective in avoiding detection against trained surveillance guards.

Racing games taught me the handling and attitude of Rear Wheel Drive vehicles. Currently own a RWD car and I dont think I can enjoy driving anything else. They also made me naturally tuned to using a manual transmission just by feel and hearing of a vehicles' torque.

Sims taught me about interior placement and aesthetics. Used to always look up other people's housing and creations online back in the day and get inspiration from that to mess about with my own creation. My apartment looks pretty nice with walls and furniture being colour coded.

Plenty of Strategy games have reinforced the habit of having to save my work every 5 or so minutes

I think I might have improved my typing speed from playing games online

I also feel that being limited to one game at a time growing up improved my patience and perseverance since I was forced to beat each game I got no matter how difficult it was.

I'm not much of a gambler. I think learned this from playing videogames?

Dude this is great stuff! Good luck with the social anxiety. There can be rude obnoxious people online but there are people that just wanna have a good time and chat with the people they're playing with.

Sounds like Video Games have really improved your life for the better. I just remembered the typing speed must have increased from World of Warcraft back in the day. I take it for granted sometimes so you actually reminded me its a skill:)

Video Games was the driving force of many an IT engineers, programmers, graphic/film editors and specialists etc The curiosity of "how does my fav game really work" and frustration of trying to solve game bugs on your own was the impetus, some on how to cheat, learning to mod etc etc.

A little bit indirectly, through games many people have found their inner calling, be it the military or policing, business administration/management, landscaping, surveyors, maritime, healthcare etc etc. One friend joined maritime studies and profession because he loves ship simulations, another loves being the "healer" in MMOs and fpses like battlefield so he took up nursing and social work, one joined the army because he loves tanks and i'm sure hundreds of thousands figured out what they wanted to be through games and such. I've read of a guy who quit his deskbound job and took up trucking because he absolutely enjoyed playing Euro Truck Simulator.

Games is as huge an impact on a person as any other form of media or even inspirational social figures, both present and historical.

Taught me how to play Blitzball

@Netret0120:

Racing games taught me the basics of driving. Like turning, decelerating at the right time to make sharp turns and shit. Getting my driver's license was a breeze thanks to them! Also, shooting games improved my hand and eye coordination and rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Hatsune Miku taught me a little about staying in tempo in music. That helped me get better with the piano.

driving skills thanks to GT3.......

How to get really, really pissed off over minor things...

Well, actually that's the gaming community, but still counts right?

Probably above average spacial reasoning, and greater hand-eye coordination. And helped in problem solving abilities.

Directly (not necessarily taught but certainly helped with)

• hand eye coordination
• reaction time
• tactical/strategic thinking
• problem solving
• money management

Indirectly (I wouldn't have taken the time to learn if I wasn't a gamer)

• software engineering
• PC building
• electronic cooling
• CPU and GPU overclocking
• voltage/power consumption management
• etc.

Hand-eye coordination, obviously. Doom II taught me map reading and occultism. Driver taught me how to drive, map reading and landmark navigation. Gran Turismo 2 taught me how to race. I'm sure there is some others there as well. I've been playing video games for 26 years now, 87% of my life.

Yeah, I was thinking that. More typing speed got quicker because of things like Runescape or being quick to type in Warcraft 3 lol.

WoW is an Interesting one because I hear of people being better leaders and managers just from leading a successful WoW/MMO guild; going as far as some in the IT field recognizing it as a skill if put in a resume.

Never lead a guild or anything like that, but trying to lead and manage a group of people on the internet to be on schedule, on the same page and work cohesively in a raid to be drama free seems tough.

Mushrooms have positive and negative effects when consumed.

Break the shit out of any wooden box you see because it has treasure (or it will explode; but hopefully treasure).

Eating mushrooms makes the world appear smaller.

And yeah, typing went from about 40 WPM to 100 after playing online games for so long.

To give a serious answer: English

That's a good one. Many of my foreign classmates say they learnt English from Movies and video games. Not classes or any formal lessons but simply repetition playing their favourite games. Naturally the first words they learnt were the swear words from too much GTA :P

And I was told that video games would never teach me anything useful:P Come to think of it, leading a guild took so much planning and coordination and time management. Great times:)

Accurate percentage:P Were you ever told when younger that you're wasting your time with games and that you'll "grow out of it"?

Now that I think of it, Video Games have improved my money management skills incredibly. I never found it particularly hard to budget and stick to it because I grew up managing cash in games like GTA, Bully etc. Its amazing how going through this game has made me realise many of the skills we have we take for granted and don't even consider it a skill but just natural when it really isn't for many people.

The last part resonates with me too immensely. Games have had a huge impact in my life and I've even shed a tear or 2 whilst playing them. Unlikely that i'll forget those moments ever.

You can't quick travel when a enemy is around.

I played a lot of text adventures when I was a kid, so...reading? Reading comprehension?

Nothing. But I learned to read basic Japanese so I could play more games with no English realese (for example, Tales of Vesperia PS3 version)

Yeah, I remember learning quite a lot of English from games like Zelda and Diablo when I was a kid. Also played the top down GTA and GTA2 a lot and picked up a few sweet curse words there. :P Went around saying stuff like "I'll stick a gun up your ass and blow your fucking eyeballs out". Not very useful English perhaps, but it's still learning.

Getting a gal to have sex in a Jacuzzi is easier in, The Sims, than it is in real life. :P

MGS4 tought me how to fry eggs properly, but now I don't eat eggs so it was a wasted lesson anyway.

Maybe for you.

Nothing

Sure, sure...

With your low standard.s Knock yourself out. lol :P

@SecretPolice said:

@NathanDrakeSwag said:

@SecretPolice said:

Getting a gal to have sex in a Jacuzzi is easier in, The Sims, than it is in real life. :P

Maybe for you.

Sure, sure...

With your low standard.s Knock yourself out. lol :P

Your wife won't be happy about you posting her home videos on here.

The only thing I can think of is I learned the rules to Football when my OG XBox came bundled with a Football game and my roommate insisted on playing it with me