I don't mean things like "OMGZ I learned how to outrun the cops from GTA!1!!!1!1!1!1!1!!!" I mean what are things you've legitimately learned from video games?
For me it's the definition to the world "simultaneously." It was back when I was quite young (around 9 or 10) playing Mega Man Soccer during the SNES days. I don't remember exactly what the button combination was but I was reading the instruction booklet and it said "Press these two buttons simultaneously to do a super shot" or something like that. I kept trying to figure out what that meant until I accidentally hit them both at the same time. I was like "OOOOOOOOOOOOH, now I get it."
So...anybody else?
What have you actually learned from video games?
When I was a kid I learned a lot of words and how to be patient with certain things as they take time. Obviously you can learn these somewhere else but I did through video games.
English, and some history stuff.
Learned more from video games than school could ever teach me which was kinda fun.
I've picked up a few supplemental vocabulary words from wordier games like Mass Effect - I like to read all of the Codex entries etc.
I don't know if it counts as actual learning, since I know it already, but the little math exercises in DS Brain Training helped speed up my in-head calculations.
I learned a lot about military gear through gaming, especially through all those old classic flight simulation. World Games probably thought me a few national anthem, country flags, a bit of geography and weird sports such as caber tossing. And there have been a few games based on actual historic events, some of that probably stuck too. And of course a good bit of english and some BASIC programming.
Overall however I don't think there has been all that much I learned through gaming, especially today's mainstream games just don't have all that much connection to the real world and you mostly just learn stuff related to the game world.
Ultima 3 on the NES taught me to read beyond the scope of shitty word flashcards/ young children's books.
Since I am an RPG fan I have had to do a ton of read which has been great since I am not into books.
From online video games (and the internet in general) I have learned that people fucking suck. As for valuable things I have learned from games... probably vocabulary. DotA also made me very good at mental math.
I had a short addiction to the arcade version of Ridge Racer when I was in High School. It was the arcade version that you sat down in, etc. A few months later, a van was going down their small hill in winter and they lost their traction. They ended up about halfway into my lane with only a few seconds between me and them. I swear to this day that my driving in Ridge Racer flipped on automatically and I drove around them like it was nothing. I didn't kick the back end out or anything, but I don't remember "thinking" about what to do. I just did it and didn't realize I had until after the fact.
That it's an inane, costly, time-consuming and life-disrupting activity. God, I could've earned a PhD in the meantime!
Not really, I lack the intellect for that.
All jokes aside, I play games for fun, you know.
When I come home from work, it's a good way of releasing stress.
I don't necessarily have to learn anything from games.
I learned a lot of basic history from Age of Empire 3 and its expansion. Attila of the Huns, Genghis Khan, etc.
I've learnt to 4 shot xX420DDOUBLEOPESMOKAHzXx with my crossmap team shot, whilst rushing the elbow and hitting invis spawn, kk? gg btbkkthxbyejk
" I learned Montezuma was a total dick. "I learned that on Spring Break.
I have learned to leave micro-cassette recorders everywhere I go, recording all the various sundry and unsavory things i have been up to lately, as well as my bank PIN, where my car keys are, and how to confuse my guard dog. This way, if I ever get amnesia, I can always get home.
English. Not that I learned it only from games, but it helped so much that I can credit them. And some facts about WW2 and some guns and similar things. Nothing really huge, expect that English. Videogames really helped me learn it more than I would at the time. (English is not my primary language)
I guess the most basic thing I can think of is navigating interfaces. Learning a completely new program with a different interface probably comes faster to people who play video games. We basically do that shit every time we buy a new game. The most basic computer literacy.
Like a few people wrote, pretty much most of my English. Gave me huge, huge advantage where I live since it's integral to to having a college education but we only begin being taught the language in High School.
Other than that mostly trivial stuff, some things WW2 and Chinese history (thanks to koei).
@Overwatch said:
English. Not that I learned it only from games, but it helped so much that I can credit them. And some facts about WW2 and some guns and similar things. Nothing really huge, expect that English. Videogames really helped me learn it more than I would at the time. (English is not my primary language)
That is pretty cool and probably way cheaper than sleazy Rosetta Stone.
If you play Braid, you will experience difficulties of time moving forward and expect everything to be reversing any second now.
I was talking to a classmate on the phone, and I was thinking she was speaking in reverse the whole time.
And no I don't do drugs :P
But seriously, action games that test your hand-and-eye coordination really help in things like surgery operations where you're moving a tool inside the body on a camera, which is what we trained in one of our years of medicine.
Specifically, the Templar stuff in Broken Sword. Obviously it wasn't 100% accurate because it had to accommodate a story and a game around it, but a lot was spot on, and instilled a curiosity in me to learn more about them.
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