Ten Year Old Saves His Family's Life, Credits Mario Cart

[Jacco]

None of us are strangers to the absurdity of the anti-gaming crowd constantly screaming about how games are "murder simulators" and how they cause violent behavior.

That being said, this story from a town not far from where I live interests me because it seems to support those claims, albeit on the other side of the spectrum.

Basically, a 10 year old took control of a vehicle when his grandmother passed out going 60mph (that's roughly 97kph for you evil, non-imperial unit using subhumans) and was able to bring the car to a safe stop using driving skills he attributed to playing Mario Cart.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57596842-1/10-year-old-saves-family-in-errant-car-credits-mario-kart/?ttag=fbwp

Obviously there is a long way between driving vehicles and actively murdering people, but it does force us to question whether video games can or do teach the basics of skills we use in them- i.e. driving in Mario Cart or operating firearms in CoD.

So any thoughts? Reactions?

 

[Shadowstar38]

Well, if you have the wheel controller, I could see how that might work out.

But from a game to an actual gun, Call of Duty doesn't help worth a shit. And that's just shooting anything. Not to mention you'd have to be pretty brain damaged to want to do that to real people after playing.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

It was lucky he didn't get hit by a blue shell. That would have been disastrous!

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm a Canadian subhuman and proud of it!

Anyway, nice to see a "Gaming skills in real life" story not go the way of firearms for a change.

 

[Wickatricka]

Yeah there are quite a few stories like this. Even though if something dangerous was happening to me the last thing on my mind would probably be what I learned in a game lol but here's another one about a Norwegian boy saving his sister using his awesome wow skills. http://www.nextnature.net/2010/05/norwegian-boy-saves-sister-from-moose-attack-with-world-of-warcraft-skills/


Kinda wanna get back into WoW. Though I heard mists really sucks.

 

[NoeL]

IT'S SPELLED MARIO KART GOD DAMNIT!

I also love how you described him steering the car off the road into a ditch as "bring[ing] the car to a safe stop". But yeah, good on him.

 

[Angie7F]

I think games are good. A lot of my interest in myths, history and classics were because I read about them in games.

 

[MetalDooley]

There was already a thread about this story 4 days ago.Might wanna do a quick search in future OP

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.823811-10-year-old-saves-three-lives-takes-the-wheel-at-60mph-credits-Mario-Kart

 

[EeveeElectro]

Tomorrows papers will be "Boy, 10, knocks grandma unconscious and grabs control of the wheel after playing Mario Kart..."


Srsly though, this is good! I can imagine stuff like this happens more than you think it just isn't reported. A few times I've taken stuff learnt from games and used them in real life. Nothing usually life saving but it's still good all the same.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

There you go people, Mario Kart saves lives.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Hah, and they say video games are no good for children...!

 

[rodeolifant]

I will tell you from personal experience that trying to romance someone like you would in Baldur's Gate is not the way to go.

One time when I was in the US I got to shoot guns for the first time. Whilst actually shooting is not something you get handy at playing games, I could in fact name all the guns that were in front of me. I understood how to load and operate the things from the get-go, just from having seen so many in games and movies.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

All I'm thinking is thank god he didn't use his GTA skills.