How to Learn Life Lessons From Video Games

Video games have had a hard time in the past for causing violence and causing obesity. While it’s true we should all go outside from time to time and get some exercise, the people who craft video game worlds often try to instill lessons within the gameplay and story that most people don’t look hard enough to see. Here are some tips on how not to miss these important messages, and gain other positive influences from playing video games.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Video game console or PC
• Diverse library of games.
• Open mind

1. Don’t just rush through the game. It’s easy for an experienced player to destroy most games in a weekend, and kill an role playing game in a week. Take the time to appreciate the game world, the characters that inhabit it, and the artistic creativity that went into making it.
2. Look up names of items, places and characters online. Most games (especially role playing games) get their inspiration from mythology and history. Just by exploring the inspiration behind a single name, you can come across a wealth of knowledge that’s barely touched on in history class.
3. Put those literature class critical thinking skills to work on the game's story. Not only will you learn a lot about the game creator’s message, it can help you finish some very story-centric games.
4. Listen to the music in the background. Most games have beautifully orchestrated scores that not only add weight to the game’s situation, but also serve as some great listening. This can act as a great bridge into understanding and loving classical music.
5. Apply game mechanics to everyday situation. You won’t be able to cast a fire spell to clear the yard, but you’d be surprised what skills video games can teach you. Working as a team for example. In most role playing games you have to use the strengths of your party members to survive, and understand their weaknesses to keep from losing. You can apply this directly to working on a large project, or managing a small group of people.
6. Learn how the games are made. Pay attention to how the graphical engine works, and the flaws in various systems. You can take this knowledge and better understand computing and design.

Tips & Warnings

• Different games are better suited for learning from than others. There are a lot of mindless shooters out there that you probably won’t get much from. Role playing games are heavy on story and text, so they are great for literature and language based skills. Strategy games are great at critical and strategic thinking, and many have historical based environments. Puzzle games challenge the mind, and sometimes include mathematical computation. Look for games that have quality content over just action.
• Don’t stop your exploration with just video games. Comic, novels and even some movies offer a lot to learn from, and you always have the Internet’s bounty at your disposal.
• While you can learn lots of skills you can use in life in video games, you still have to go out and live it to make any of it useful. Don’t forget to put the controller down and live life outside the house too.
• Be realistic about what you’re going to learn. You won’t learn how to command armies or how to use martial arts from video games. You can learn about resource management, dedication and training, but generals in real life go to school and have lengthy military careers, and martial artists train daily to get where they are. Video games don’t do that for you.
• The most important lesson to learn from video games is that while you control the actions of the characters, you also control your actions in real life. In video games, however, the results of those actions are different for game purposes. If you commit an act of unwarranted violence against an individual, you’ll go to jail in real life, while in a game you might only lose a life or items. Be smart about what you do in real life, and stay out of trouble.