Learning to type, with videogames!

I learned to type properly, not with educational software, but with a game called Silent Death Online in 1998. It was a 75-player top-down shooter, with maps that were so densely populated with ships, that if you wanted to type something into chat, you had to do it quickly or you'd end up dead fast.

Did anyone else learn to type in some non-standard ways?

Mario Teaches Typing

Starcraft!

The Typing of the Dead is a also an awesome way to learn.

@gpbmike said:

Mario Teaches Typing

Hell yeah, Mario Teaches Typing. I have vivid memories of playing this frequently in elementary school.

mavis beacon for life

There was one that we used that is very old and I don't remember the name. You had a character on the screen and letters would fly at you from the right and you had to type the letter to make the character jump over the letter.

I do not know how to type I just use voice control

I never really learned to type using a game. I suppose I refined my typing through playing a game with my laptop beside me. I'd have Skype or Windows Live Messenger or Facebook open, and when someone initiated chat with me, I tried to respond as soon as possible. It certainly made me more frugal with my words and also a little bit more accurate, I think!

I learned in elementary school, like Ryan.  With old Apple ]['s

@mfpantst said:

I learned in elementary school, like Ryan. With old Apple ]['s

My school doesn't have lessons in typing at all. If you're going to learn in schools in Ireland you'll have to get proficient your own way, in your own time, or when doing work at the same time. I was a terrible typist when I started school, but when I actually got my own personal laptop I slowly improved by simply using it a lot. Now, I'd say I'm a decent enough typist for someone who uses only the index finger from their left hand and the first and middle of the right hand. I know of nobody else who types the same way I do, but it seems to be a unique way that works so, so well for me that I am unwilling to even attempt to change and adapt to a more efficient style. Sure, in the long run I'd likely save time but as it is I type about 100 words per minute when I know what I am typing, and if not, I simply make it up as I'm going along and see how that goes! :P

@gpbmike said:

Mario Teaches Typing

I leaned in elementray school on old Royal and Underwood typewriters (from 4th to 6th grade I went to the blind kids [...uh, visually handicapped... ah... impaired... ah... disabled... ah... differently visually abled... Nope. Back then it was "blind kids"] school - the very blind did Braille and those of us with medium terrible sight learned touch typing - which nowadays with "mainstreaming" I wouldn't have gotten to learn)... 
 
It was also before video games (well, okay, Pong came out during that time)... but it's kept me from having carpal tunnel problems as I cannot get myself to type without keeping my wrists straight.

Starcraft!

The Typing of the Dead is a also an awesome way to learn.

@OldGuy said:

I leaned in elementray school on old Royal and Underwood typewriters (from 4th to 6th grade I went to the blind kids [...uh, visually handicapped... ah... impaired... ah... disabled... ah... differently visually abled... Nope. Back then it was "blind kids"] school - the very blind did Braille and those of us with medium terrible sight learned touch typing - which nowadays with "mainstreaming" I wouldn't have gotten to learn)... It was also before video games (well, okay, Pong came out during that time)... but it's kept me from having carpal tunnel problems as I cannot get myself to type without keeping my wrists straight.

Did you have a genetic problem with your eyes, or an injury? Or did you just have poor eyesight?

@xMP44x: Fuck dude, that's crazy.  When I got to High School/College and saw how people my own age couldn't type I was kinda shocked.  I think my school might've run some sort of pilot typing program that never caught on in other school systems nearby.  Which is crazy.  Not sure my typing speed now, but I'm pretty proficient and don't need to look at the keyboard.   Plus- what you said, what works, works.

@OldGuy said:

I leaned in elementray school on old Royal and Underwood typewriters (from 4th to 6th grade I went to the blind kids [...uh, visually handicapped... ah... impaired... ah... disabled... ah... differently visually abled... Nope. Back then it was "blind kids"] school - the very blind did Braille and those of us with medium terrible sight learned touch typing - which nowadays with "mainstreaming" I wouldn't have gotten to learn)... It was also before video games (well, okay, Pong came out during that time)... but it's kept me from having carpal tunnel problems as I cannot get myself to type without keeping my wrists straight.

Did you have a genetic problem with your eyes, or an injury? Or did you just have poor eyesight?

I got good at typing fast and accurately in 6th grade when I started playing Warcraft III and Diablo II online. Gots to type fast when your playing sheep tag.

@xMP44x: @mfpantst: I also learned with Apple II, but like MP I only really learned how to type fast when I had a messaging service and wanted to respond to people quickly (though this was back before Facebook and we only had AIM or Trillian...). We had classes in college but you could test out of them really, really easily.

I learned to type by using MSN/Yahoo messenger almost every day during the early years of high school (9th-10th). I did have "keyboarding" in middle school, but I just never got to into it. We didn't really use a "game", but some edutainment software that wasn't all that fun.

Hell yeah, Mario Teaches Typing! I sucked at it, but it was pretty cool.

For one of my friend's birthday I bought him a copy of some Nerf FPS game from KB Toys, and when he opened it there was a copy of Mario Teaches Typing lol

Learning to play FPS on computers about two years ago.