How video games helped me.

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monodiabloloco

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May 15, 2007
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I was interested in how video games helped you in your life. Did they teach you anything? Have they made you closer to someone? How were they beneficial to you aside from entertainment? The article the Myth of the Media Myth this week reminded me of a conversation I recently had with a total stranger.
I had a parent semi chastise me for letting my young daughter play her DS while we waited for a table at a restaraunt. The conversation turned to games being bad for children in general and how she would never let her boy play video games.
Her kid, a year older than mine, asked her what a one word sign said and she told him. I then asked my daughter to read several different signs around the waiting area. She did just fine then went back to playing Kirby. She was amazed and praised my daughter for being able to read so well. I told her that video games helped me teach her.
That's right, video games helped me teach my child to read.
For some inexplicable reason, my daughter would get all flustered when I tried to teach her how to read with books. She knew all the letters and their sounds, but would get all nervous and just guess at the words. I figured that she was just bored. Children's books, after all, aren't the most riveting of stories and my daughter has a very strong imagination that needs larger fuel than children's stories could provide.
I sat down and used RPG Maker XP to make a short series of games staring her. We sat together in my office chair and she played through them.
She was into it. I didn't even have to prompt her and rarely even had to help! After rescuing me from the evil necromancer Vrax, our virtual selves went on and destroyed Vrax only to discover that she was the last one who could summon dragons and that Vrax was only a puppet. She loved it. More importantly, she read it. After the first episode, I became merely a cushion that she sat on as she played. Nearly forgotten except when hitting an odd word here and there.
Now, I still make some of those but it's becoming harder to make challenging words for her to read. We also play more adult games since she can read the rules/cards/etc.
So, thank you video games for helping me help my child.
How did they make your life better?
 

WingedFortress

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Feb 5, 2008
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I dont know if I could narrow down one specific way videogames helped my life. They've just been there. I can't imagine what my past would have been like had those long boring country hours not been filled with my genesis playing. And as the years carried on, and television made my intelligence and imagination wane, videogames have always offered what I believe to be a much more engaging and fulfilling past time. If it weren't for videogames, I never would have had motivation to get my first job, and every job since. If it weren't for videogames, I'd be bored out of my skull.
 

Stone Cold Monkey

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Mar 5, 2008
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I would like to think that video games helped me with hero practice. Sounds corny I know, but allow me to explain. In video games you play the hero and time after time help others out. This has carried over a bit in the real world and allowed me to interact with others more (being fairly shy myself) to discover their problems and see if I can help them rather than to ignore them and walk past like many would. What I trying to say rather than be just another bystander, I would become involved and actively helping other in need.

It has also helped me with my resolution. Often when I find myself becoming lazy (my favorite vice is sloth) or thinking about giving up, I think about the characters I have played as and think how they would haven given up. Additionally, I remember how many times I failed at a level or a task in a game and apply to when I fail at something in life. Sometimes you just get up and try again and keep trying until you get.

Like I said, corny but true.
 

monodiabloloco

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May 15, 2007
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mspencer82 said:
I have two long, but relevant stories.
Man! That's horrible! I'm sorry about the stroke... I'm glad that you are getting back at least some use from your right side though. Also, it's great that you were able to help your sight!

StoneColdMonkey, that's not corny, dude. What ever works for you!
 

CasualZombie

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Mar 14, 2008
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As a kid I remembered the Zelda hearts health system making learning to understand basic fractions easy, buying/selling and scoresystems gave me lots of practice with other math, the ability to try try again 'cause it'll be worth it when you beat a challenge. To do good deeds just cuz you can. Just like the Guyver cartoon showed me that a hard challenge can be beaten with a little perserverence and gigantic lasers instead of nipples...or at least I think that was the moral???
 

monodiabloloco

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May 15, 2007
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CasualZombie said:
As a kid I remembered the Zelda hearts health system making learning to understand basic fractions easy, buying/selling and scoresystems gave me lots of practice with other math, the ability to try try again 'cause it'll be worth it when you beat a challenge. To do good deeds just cuz you can. Just like the Guyver cartoon showed me that a hard challenge can be beaten with a little perserverence and gigantic lasers instead of nipples...or at least I think that was the moral???
Oh yeah... ADnD taught me WAY better math skills than I had before I started playing. P&P game, not video, but still maligned as 'evil!'. I got a good laugh out of the Guyver reference.
hehe.. a quote from a friend of mine (different big mecha thing.)
"If I learned anything from Voltron, it's that teamwork and a gigantic powersword can take on any challenge."
This was said at a business meeting...
 

Milo42

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Mar 26, 2008
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Learned to read from them, which is awesome.

I also learned some sub-basic information about games and programs from assorted modding and hacking, as well as programming from WireMod in Garry's Mod.
 

Natural Hazard

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Mar 5, 2008
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Made me more creative as a person, and here i am today studying hard and long to hopefully become an Games Designer.
 

RedSigma

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Mar 7, 2008
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Its funny. I've noticed that anyone who plays anything like Final Fantasy reads much faster then the average person.

I don't have much to contribute to this topic, but what kind of to mind is that gaming helped me find my calling in life. I've always been into art, basing most of my inspirations on movies and TV shows I had seen when I was a kid. But about a 3 years ago when I tried Silent Hill 2 for the first time I came to realize that video games are the ultimate form of art. Animation, paintings, movies, they all limit you with how you can experience the art within them. Video games on the other hand give the viewer total control in which to explore the world thats been created for them, and that is what inspired me to go pursue video game development. So I have video games to thanks me for that.
 

GenHellspawn

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Jan 1, 2008
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The only thing I could say is that Fallout got me into writing, and now I'm an aspiring writer :glee:
 
Nov 28, 2007
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Guitar Hero helped me improve my hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Plus, video games helped me get away from it all when my life was, quite frankly, hell.
 

Man_In_Gauze

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Mar 2, 2008
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Wow, I love the OP's story. :D Sounds like one of those Reader's Digest anecdotes my mom is always telling me, except positive toward those vidjamagames.

As for me, my parents are from India, and hvae lived less than half of their lives in the US, so they're not really that computer-literate, having never taken compter classes or having used computers much at all in India. Ironically, they can operate the latest, most high-tech biological equipment that requires months of training and special permits and classes to operate, yet sometimes need my help with scanning for viruses or updating their software. Anyway, my huge love of PC gaming has made me an expert (relatively speaking, I suppose) with computers, especially troubleshooting them. So I can help my parents with the small, everyday computing problems that they run into, such as text formatting in PowerPoint, while learning how to use Photoshop and learning how to operate million-dollar laser microscopes from them at the same time, and telling them what the best and latest computer equipment is so they can get good stuff for their lab. It really brings us together and is a learning experience on both ends.

Plus, I can reasonably argue a case for getting a sweet gaming rig, since they trust me to know what's best in that area without trying to rip them off.
 

TheFishIsSad

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Mar 23, 2008
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Well I used to suck at guitar.
But after beating TTFATF on Expert on GH3 I picked up a guitar and was much better than I remember being.
I also play bass now, as well as drums.
I'm even in a band me and some friends from school made called "My Trained Pet Walrus".
Don't ask where the name came from, I thought it up suddenly and don't know how the hell it happened.
 
Nov 28, 2007
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TheFishIsSad said:
Well I used to suck at guitar.
But after beating TTFATF on Expert on GH3 I picked up a guitar and was much better than I remember being.
I also play bass now, as well as drums.
I'm even in a band me and some friends from school made called "My Trained Pet Walrus".
Don't ask where the name came from, I thought it up suddenly and don't know how the hell it happened.

You beat TTFAF on Expert? *looks at my failure to beat Jordan, cries in shame*
 

mshcherbatskaya

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Feb 1, 2008
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@monodiabloloco - I think that is so awesome that you made a game for your daughter and sat down with her to play it. That is a little girl who is going to grow up knowing she is valued and recognized for herself by her parents.

@mspencer - I had a similar experience. Due to eyestrain from my tech job, one of the muscles that moves the eye around gave out and I developed double-vision. But as I played video games, my vision would slowly realign. Apparently it was exactly the sort of low-impact exercise my eye muscles needed and now my vision is fine. I also use videogames to reverse the temporary near-sightedness I develop from doing up close detail work on something (usually knitting.) I had the satisfaction of going to my mom and saying, "Ha! Video games are good for my eyes, so there!" I was raised with the admonishment that to much TV would ruin my sight.

My own story: I didn't start playing video games until my late 20's-early 30's, when I worked for an employer who put a multiplayer VG setup in the breakroom. I sat there and watched the guys on every lunch break, bouncing out of their seats with shouts of triumph and talking metric tons of trash. I really wanted to play but I was intimidated by the testoterone cloud. Finally I decided to suck it up and fight for my spot on the game couch. I was the only woman in that entire organization that did. That's how I learned to play, and also how to stick up for myself in a room full of gamer guys.

Or maybe this is the story about how games ruined me. That's right, fellas, games and gamers made me the monster I am today. BWAHAHAHAHAHH! ;D