Did your parents ever tell you to play less video games while growing up? Yeah, ours too. Doubtlessly, they thought it was a colossal waste of time that would be better spent in the outdoors, exploring and learning. After all, what can jumping on Goombas and firing hadoukens possibly teach you about the real world? As it turns out, quite a lot. Here are the real-life skills and lessons we’ve picked up during a lifetime of gaming: from telling left from right to understanding the importance of imagination.
Mark Serrels, former Kotaku editor
The Wild Bunch (age 7): How to play poker
The Wild Bunch was a weird old text adventure about a Cowboy framed for murder trying to clear his name. It’s such a weird one. I found it buried in a bunch of pirated Spectrum games and I’ve yet to meet another person who has actually played it.
I loved it.
It was terrible. Truly terrible. It didn’t make any sense and it was too complex for my shriveled up brain to comprehend at that young age. But the game allowed you to play Poker, which I did. All the time. It took me a while to understand what the hell was going on, but eventually I got it. I understand the hands, how to play, when to play, what hands were best, etc.
Truly and legitimately this obscure old video game taught me how to play Poker.
Street Fighter II (age 10): How to fight
As an adult I’m short and weigh 67 kilograms. Hardly the type to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies.
But when I was ten years old I had the other kids shook. I was thought of as the toughest kid in my class, and no-one ever messed with me. Why? I have no idea, but I think it comes back to the moment when I got into a rare fight with another kid my age. I didn’t know how to fight, so I just started bouncing on my toes in a fighting stance that resembled Ken from Street Fighter II. I was obsessed with Street Fighter II, so I just started trying to move like him. I threw a few punches and landed some good offence before a teacher inevitably ran out and split us up.
I remember afterwards everyone was like, WHOA DO YOU KNOW KARATE?
I didn’t know shit. I just sort of managed to look cool doing these weird moves.
No-one ever messed with me after that.
Trials Evolution (age 31): Nothing is impossible
When people say ‘nothing is impossible’ I usually call bullshit. So many things are impossible.
But.
But sometimes things that initially seem impossible actually become possible with slow, incremental increases in skill or technique. Sometimes persistence creates this weird compounded cycle of progress. Sometimes you defy yourself and what initially seemed impossible becomes possible.
That sounds hokey. Even writing it feels hokey, but Trials Evolution was a game that made me feel like the impossible was possible.
There were tracks in Trials Evolution so fiendish I truly believed I would never be able to finish them. Then I finished them.
Then I looked at the conditions for receiving a gold medal on those tracks — had to finish in a certain time, could only make a certain amount of faults. That seemed even further out of reach.
But I did it. Eventually I did it. Through constant practice and consistent learning I managed to achieve the seemingly impossible. Honestly, I’ve carried that through into real life situations. Sometimes goals and targets seem far from reach, but making small steps towards those goals is paramount. If you keep pushing you’ll get there.
I know, I know, this sounds like some sub-Tony Robbins shit, but I truly believe it.
Chris Jager, former Lifehacker Australia editor
Lords of Time (age 10): The importance of imagination.
The Lords Of Time was a text adventure originally released way back in 1983. I first encountered it on a friend’s old ZX Spectrum and was instantly enthralled by the time-travelling storyline and vivid world building.
A few years later, I picked up an enhanced port of the game for my Amiga 500. But the magic had been lost. The new version added graphics to the top half of the screen, which robbed the game of its greatest strength: the player’s imagination. Instead of envisioning gigantic rampaging dinosaurs and the architectural splendor of Tudor England, I was staring at poorly rendered 16-bit paintings. Sometimes, less is more.
Pro Tennis Tour 2 (age 11): How tennis scores work
As a kid, I never paid too much attention to tennis on the TV. I subsequently had no idea how the scoring system worked. “Love?” 15? 40? Wha?”
After a few bouts of Pro Tennis Tour 2 on the Amiga, I had all the basics down; from the number of sets in a match to the peculiarities of changing sides during tie-breakers. As a direct consequence, I didn’t look like a total idiot during 7th grade tennis. Thanks Pro Tennis Tour 2!
Hired Guns (age 13): How to multitask
Hired Guns was a single-player action adventure game that put you in charge of four futuristic mercenaries. Unlike most other RPGs of the time, all four characters were on screen simultaneously, each in their own window. This forced the player to constantly micro-manage each party member, instead of simply concentrating on the guy in front. Inventory, weapons, and unique character strengths all needed to be taken into account across four windows simultaneously.
Looking back, I think Hired Guns helped prepare me for the multitasking proficiency expected of any office worker. The ability to manage scores of browser tabs, tackle myriad computing tasks at once and find solutions to more than one problem: my professional life is basically Hired Guns without the robots.
Dune II (age 15): Never rage quit
I spent the summer holidays of 1994 holed up in bed with a broken leg. For six straight weeks, I obsessively played the Commander & Conquer precursor Dune II on my Amiga — and it taught me a valuable lesson about the dangers of rage quitting.
As anyone who ever played as House Harkonnen would know, there was a devastating but unpredictable weapon in the game called The Death Hand. Sometimes it would strike your enemy’s base causing untold destruction… but other times it would malfunction and explode from its launching site. This happened to me after a grueling two-hour battle against House Ordos. I had neglected to save my game the entire time. Enraged, I jumped out of bed on one leg, grabbed one of my crutches and attempted to wallop the crap out of my mattress — the only thing in the room I could attack without breaking. Unfortunately, the crutch collided with my bedroom’s light fixture on the upswing, covering me, my bed and my Amiga in white-hot glass shards. If only I’d learned my lesson then and there (see below.)
ISS Pro 98 (age 19): NEVER rage quit
My most spectacular rage quit resulted in me literally getting knocked out cold. It was triggered by my mate scoring a totally bullshit goal in ISS Pro 98. I threw my controller across the room and dived towards the PlayStation’s off button. Except I misjudged the dive and slammed head-first into the corner of my parent’s coffee table. I woke up around ten minutes later and still suffer from occasional migraines to this day.
Nowadays, whenever a game pisses me off, I just put the controller down and calmly walk away.
Dragon Age Inquisition (age 35): Quitting doesn’t make you a failure
I’m pretty busy these days. I’ve got a wife to entertain, three kids to look after, a full time job and various financial responsibilities that need constant monitoring. I’m also getting older. The things that used to matter in my youth — like “beating” a video game — no longer hold much water.
Dragon Age Inquisition wasn’t the first game I didn’t bother finishing but it’s probably the first time I didn’t feel the least bit bad about it. The concept of the “shame pile” now seems alien to me. Simply put, life is too short to put work into sub par video games purely for bragging rights, trophies or achievements. The same thing goes for everything else in life. If you’re not actively enjoying something and nobody else is counting on you, there is literally zero reason to follow it through to completion.
Junglist, former Good Game host
The Guardian Legend (age 7): Sometimes I don’t know what’s best for myself
This was the first game I saved up money for. I was quite young, and my parents took the opportunity to teach me about the value of hard work. I did all the chores around the place for money, and saved up almost $US100 for a joystick because I thought it would make the game more fun. I got there, I bought the joystick, and then it turns out it was more fun with the controller. Sometimes what you want isn’t what you want. [I’ve been there, man. — Chris J.]
Age of Empires (age 15): I’m not actually that good
Boy, did I think I was good at Age of Empires. I was kind of the best player I knew. Better than all my friends. Then I took it online.
I was dealt this lesson in both the first game and its sequel, the first time I just didn’t listen. But when I went onto Microsoft’s Zone to play multiplayer, I was thoroughly schooled. I thought I was so good. But the player who took me out wasn’t even all that great in the grand scheme of things. He merely used one of the more popular strategies of the day – one I didn’t know about, because I was a relative noob – the Feudal Rush.
Sadly, it would take until Age of Mythology before I would actually get any “good” at the series.
Counter-Strike (age 23): Building a team
Having played this game for easily over a decade, it’s had an enormous impact on my life. I got into it at 16 years of age, when all I cared about was killing virtual people, and telling my friends about my epic bomb defuse. But as I got more into the game, I started caring more about real success in it.
I started to scrim and war, I was more active in the community, and my band of merry terrorists worked our way up the ladders. Success in this game requires teamwork and communication, but leading the team also taught me about responsibility, managing personalities, being diplomatic, and how to get things done. If you think managing people in the workplace is hard, with monetary incentives, try doing it when your only leverage is their passion and competitiveness.
It also taught me that online respect is a myth. Many people spend so much effort trying to attain it – Lord knows I did – but with trolls, tall poppy syndrome, and anonymity, no matter what you do you’ll have to deal with someone saying you’re the worst thing ever. The eSports crowd in particular is hard to please, to the point of not being worth it, and to a lesser extent, hardcore gamers in general. It was a bitter pill to swallow, as those are labels I assign to myself, and I’d like to be able to make my own kind happy. But core gamers don’t like to be pleased. They like to win.
Lastly, Counter-Strike taught me the value of mentoring. In an effort to curb rampant dickhead behaviour, we sponsored some younger players as long as they adhered to our code of conduct. They could use our tools, and be taught our strategies. It was an attempt at positive indoctrination, and I believe it took hold with at least two of them, as they went on to become prominent community members.
World of Warcraft (age 24): I have a way addictive personality
By that, I don’t mean people just can’t get enough of my awesome style. I mean, if you locked me in a cage with a lever, I’d know what was coming and be hooked on cocaine through anticipation. WoW was another step in self discovery for me, learning that I can get super addicted to anything, and that makes me vulnerable to the psychological tricks used in the “dark side” of game design.
Up until this point, I had mainly played competitive multiplayer. But Blizzard are among the best at what they do, and they had me hook, line, and sinker.
Dark Souls (age 28): Don’t hate the game, baby. Hate the player.
A funny thing happens when you’re learning a combat system that’s objectively perfect. All those excuses you tell yourself don’t ring true inside your head. You can’t blame the game with a straight face internally. It’s not the game, it’s not the lag. There’s only one thing it can be, and that’s you.
You failed. You Died. And that will happen again and again, until you just do better. Playing Dark Souls is like an exercise in self analysis. If you want to keep playing, you have no choice but to adapt your playstyle, fit it’s way of playing, instead of it fitting your playstyle. And that’s exactly the successful attitude you need when attempting something difficult.
Some things, like learning coding, have very direct similarities. The code isn’t wrong, you are. Fix yourself. Level up. Try again. But even when life isn’t fair, having the mindset of stubborn self-improvement, perseverance, and self analysis, is a massive asset.You start to look at other people blaming the system, or the game, and you’re aware of how they’re limiting themselves.
Alex Kidman, veteran games journalist
Pitfall! (age 8): Picking left from right
This is somewhat embarrassing, but for whatever reason as a kid I could never quite get left and right properly associated.
I wasn’t dumb in other areas, but this particular distinction eluded me until I started playing videogames. Platform games specifically, because you typically run from left to right. So all I had to do was think “which way would I be running” to pick between them.
Yes, I did eventually sort it out in my head. Brains are weird things.
Fairlight (age 12): Imagination can make things better
I picked up Fairlight along with a number of other games in a compilation set for the Amstrad CPC6128, which was the family computer at the time. The instruction manual was a sheet that displayed the basic controls, but that was it.
Why was I in the castle? The loading screens were thin with detail, and in truth, it’s a game you can complete in remarkably short order once you know what you’re doing. That didn’t matter, however, because in the absence of a lot of detail, my youthful brain filled in the gaps, making Fairlight a game that I have remarkably detailed and fond memories of that wouldn’t make a lick of sense to anyone outside my immediate family.
Ghosts N Goblins (age 14): Anger isn’t good for you
Again with the Amstrad, and its remarkably limited port of Ghosts N Goblins, a game which gave me my first rage quit experience. An early section of the game seemed impossible to my tiny mind, and no matter how hard I tried, or how angry I got with the game, I couldn’t proceed.
It’s the first and only time I’ve ever thrown a joystick across a room. Mind you, the Amstrad Joystick was a horrible thing, and it frankly deserved it. The only way forwards was to walk away, cool my nerves and try again when I was significantly calmer.
It’s again a pretty simple life lesson, and, to be totally honest, one that I miss from time to time. When I do, however, I think back to angry Alex, age 14, and the game I just couldn’t finish.
RoboWar Age 17: Coding can be interesting
RoboWar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboWar) was one part coding language and one part silly robots blowing each other up in a tiny arena on the Mac computers that the high school I was attending at the time. There wasn’t a lot else to do on these particularly locked down machines other than create junk files in order to watch Oscar The Grouch pop up and sing the trash song (remember that?), and while I was never the best coder I knew (that would be a friend of mine, Jonathan, who, while a peaceful soul, could code some quite killer bots) there was simple fun in tweaking code to make a robot appear “smarter” over time.
I don’t code much any more, but RoboWar gave me an appreciation for logical approaches to problems that stays with me even now.
Super Bomberman/Sim City (age 20): Games can be great icebreakers
When I went off to university, I had to live in shared accomodation, which meant (gasp!) living with other people I wasn’t related to. Some I got on well with, some I loathed, and some I just seemed to be unable to connect to, even though there should have been some similar interests to shuffle around.
Enter the Super Nintendo, and its versions of Sim City and Super Bomberman. One flatmate, Eric, was so enamoured of Sim City (which I’d rented overnight) that he went out and bought the cartridge, despite not owning a SNES. Many, many games ensued until we moved onto a bitter time trial rivalry with Super Mario Kart.
Meanwhile, another flatmate, Max, moved in. Max was OK, but we didn’t really get along in any real way, and instead tended to irritate each other.
Max declared one day that “all videogames were stupid”, until Super Bomberman came into the house. A full twenty hours of competitive play (and a small amount of lubricating beer) later, and the tension between the two of us relaxed remarkably.
Whelp, that’s everything that video games have taught us in a nutshell. Now we want to hear from you guys: what valuable life lessons has your beloved hobby imparted over the years? Or is it really just about jumping on Goombas and shooting fireballs? Share your stories in the comments!
Comments
20 responses to “The Skills And Lessons Video Games Have Taught Us Over Our Lifetimes”
Games like Alundra and Breath of Fire taught me that religion doesn’t automatically make somebody a good person.
Final Fantasy 7 taught me that it’s ok to move on.
Super Punch Out taught me that it’s ok to fail. Even if you come back later to beat them.
Goddamn Bruiser Twins.
The importance of providing feedback:
Was a big fan of the Gold Box D&D games, starting with Pools of Radiance. This was a phenomenal game for its time, using the very unforgiving D&D rule set of the day, graphically representing some of the things you could only dream of, and provided a fairly decent story/quest line to follow. It’s major flaw was the level of manual tasks you needed to perform as the player, especially casting individual cure light wounds spells to heal your party. This became incredibly annoying later in the game when you’d spend a good 15 minutes casting your 4 cure light wounds spells, memorizing these spells again, rinse and repeat, until you had your party to full health. Luckily SSI listened to player feedback, and made the change with the next edition, forever making me respect the process of actually providing feedback giving the opportunity to improve.
lol @ that wow screenshot…
@markserrels, that Street Fighter story, hilarious.
Pokemon Red taught me how to get along with my older brother, and how to treat him fairly. He had Blue, and we would also trade and battle against each other, and whilst I always wanted to win, over time, we both learned that it wasn’t just the winning that was great, it was the struggle to get there.
Video games taught me that something with a 95% chance to happen will still inevitably fail. Fuck you, XCOM.
On a more serious note though, one good lesson games taught me is that you can always snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Don’t give up until it’s finished.
Then go play Civilization where 90+ % will always equal 100%.
I do play Civ, where barbarian archers seem to be able to kill my infantry with ease but any time I attack back I often end up dropping them to 1hp instead of killing them. Don’t even get me started on spending 6 turns attacking an entrenched barbarian camp only to have fucking Ghandi come along and capture it the next turn with a god damn scout.
Pool Of Radiance and Curse Of The Azure Bonds both taught me the value of diversity.
A party of any one ‘class’ just never worked, you needed to mix it up with some fighters, some mages, healer etc.
Age.. hmm about 10 I guess, late 80’s early 90’s anyway
Also, Leisure Suit Larry 1 taught me the value of condoms, if you root the first prostitute chick upstairs at Lefty’s without one, you died.
Age, hmm also 10 I guess, same time frame.
Also I guess I will include Kings Quest/Space Quest/Police Quest, which taught me the value of semi-good grammar (or at least spelling). Although to be honest, ‘look stump’ ‘use nightstick’ ‘put glass in laser’ really isn’t that good as far as grammar goes lol
edit; i’ll also cheekily add that Secret Of Monkey Island taught me that fighting with insults is infinitely more enjoyable than using actual swords lol, also that if the grog is strong enough, it can burn through prison bars hehehe
I loved the old Sierra adventure games. Police Quest and Space Quest were excellent but Quest for Glory was my favourite. I loved how each game took you to these different cultural settings and the attention to detail Lori and Corey Cole gave to bringing out the unique elements of those cultures in a really positive way, and adding the most endearing humour to the mix as well.
Yeah they were great. Especially since they could be played with my sister, which of course my parents liked, it was good for bouncing ideas of each other. Just good games, great writing, good graphics for the time, differing settings (especially liked King Quest 3, the wizard apprentice one)
Counterpoint – I played the Krynn series where I had 1 paladin, 1 fighter/thief and 4 fighter/mage/cleric.
I didn’t learn about diversity, but I sure learned how difficult D&D was… and then eventually I learned how actually D&D worked.
I learned Poker from Samantha Fox’s Strip Poker on my Commodore 64. It was extremely tame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfoVR0JpVrU
I was about 7 or 8 from memory 🙂
Wolfenstein 3D – taught me the mechanics of being prepared. There was nothing worse than jumping into a room filled with soldiers with only one bullet and a minuscule sliver of health left.
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter – Be on the offensive. Being defensive is letting the opponent dictate the terms. Be aggressive and you’ll catch them off-hand.
Half-Life – even when you’re down, there is always a way up. Think it was the level where Gordon was captured, I thought that there was no way I can get my weapons back. Eventually, I found them all without trying. So there is always a way up.
Counter-Strike – Always communicate. Even if it is a crap tactic, if enough people say it, then it might be worth doing. I think I communicated to the team to try another passage round and sure enough, we found out that the enemy didn’t have any snipers guarding the road and promptly smashed them.
Dark Souls (and in extension Bloodborne) – life will throw shit at you, it’s just how you rise that makes you stronger. There were times I was tempted to throw in the towel a lot for Dark Souls. But every long period, I pick up and get through it no problems. Same thing could be said for my working life really. Had a down moment in losing my job then promptly got my stuff together and decided to make the most of what I had. Now, I’m in a great job and probably looking forward to learning a lot more in the future.
So yeah, gaming does teach a lot of stuff for us all…maybe not Candy Crush…
World of Warcraft – As a raid leader, I learned a great deal about commitment to a goal, time management, preparedness and leadership and how running a team means knowing the strengths and weaknesses of everyone involved
Guitar Hero – That I have amazing hand eye coordination and sense of rhythm and a fondness for rhythm games in general now.
The Last of Us – That medium is no barrier to a good story being told
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest – Never judge a book by its cover. Was the second game I bought with my own money after I got a SNES for christmas back in the day. I had 2 options initially, a game called Gods, and a game called Mystic Quest. I had no idea what either of them were about but looking at the back of the boxes in the pawn shop they were in, I decided on Gods because the size of the enemies in the battle screenshots on the Mystic Quest box intimidated my 11 year old self. Having no knowledge of JRPG back then, I didn’t realise what the screens represented, I bought it on my second visit and fell in love with the genre.
Good point, I did learn a lot from raid leading, and my vanilla guild had class leaders too, which I was one of (prot warrior FTW). Being a raid leader in a vanilla progression guild also taught me that it’s easy to get burned out when you push yourself too hard. We got a lot of server firsts back then, but these days I take a much more relaxed, casual approach to MMOs and I feel a lot better for it.
Sonic 3 taught me the value of consistency in games. (9 years old)
Carnival Night 2 – the spinning barrel. I was never able to pass this part the entire time I owned this game.
I ended up passing it off to my Japanese exchange student friend Yoshi (yes, really) and he and his brother Hiro burned through the game. They gave it back to me with all Chaos Emeralds unlocked on every character after 2 weeks. From then on all I did was get 50 Rings and go Super Sonic and tool around in the game.
I guess I also learned it’s good to have friends who are better at games than you are.
Descent 1 & 2 (and to a lesser extent Doom, Doom 2 and Quake) – Navigation by landmarks.
To this day, I can still quickly come to terms with where a place is by going there – to the extent that it sometimes makes it very difficult for me to give directions because I frequently don’t know any street/road names but navigate by eye.
World of Warcraft – Yep, I too can get addicted to things. I have deliberately not played an MMO since for four months of my life, I spent more time playing WoW than anything else… while working a full time job. It did, however, seem to teach me how to survive on limited sleep.
I found Descent great for improving general spatial awareness. Keeping a mental map of a three-dimensional maze and being forced to remember the exact path out through every pitch, yaw and roll imaginable on a time limit when you set the place to blow was challenging and I think it really helped me in other non-gaming tasks in life.