Games you accidentally learned from

Nyaoku

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Angry Juju said:
I learned to read from Pokemon :/

I used to play pokemon blue a lot.... even though I couldn't read... It was hard....
Same here. I just went through knowing tackle ment win and growl ment make funny noises at the thing. It was fun.
 

thejackyl

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I learned how to read from NES/SNES games. At least better than the way my school taught us. I mean school taught me how, but video games actually had me reading at a much higher level than the "See spot run" books that we had in 1st grade. I actually had read The Hobbit in 2nd grade.
 

Raggedstar

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I third (?) the Assassin's Creed games. After I played I was looking to read more about the events in the games, like The Crusades and many of the events in Ezio's time. I actually took in quite a bit considering how many creative liberties were taken. But whatever.

EDIT: OH OH, Sonic helped me learn my dental machines (if that counts). There are ultrasonic and sonic scalers, but one uses water and the other uses air. What you need to remember is that Sonic hates water :3
 

RipRoaringWaterfowl

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Ryan Savage said:
I used to be a really big fan of two old city building games called Caesar and Pharaoh. Without really realizing it as a kid they both ended up teaching me a lot about history in a way that helped me out with school down the road. I didn't play them to learn, but I kind of ended up doing it accidentally and I thought it was great.

I was wondering if any of you guys had games that you felt did the same thing for you? Doesn't necessarily have to be about history either. How about a game where you learned some math? Science? English? Maybe even another language? But you didn't buy the game specifically with that goal in mind.

Does anyone have any good examples?
This is me. I learned a lot of history from Pharaoh, but I did almost go insane when it said Mark Antony and Cleopatra won at The Battle of Actium, yet all my history books said Octavian had won... FGHHHHNNN!

Kvaedi said:
Age of Empires definitely taught me more about history than any class ever has, and more importantly made it interesting enough that I wanted to read about it on my own as well.
Same here. The second one was full of good historical tidbits.

neonsword13-ops said:
Leemaster777 said:
Persona 4 actually taught me a great deal.
I had no idea what a "senpai" was until that. I also learned that you're supposed to drink 2 liters of water a day. I also found out that takoyaki are basically batter-fried octopus.
Oddly enough, Persona 4 has a great amount of learning potential, even if some of the questions that you learn inside and out of school are outright stupid. (See question: "What is tallest mountain in the solar system". Answer = Mt. Olympus on Mars. My ass.)
There are actually two mountains named Olympus in our solar system: the one in Greece we all know and love and where Zeus and his buddies and siblings hang out, and the one on Mars that your supposed to refer to as "Olympus Mons", and is the tallest in our solar system. The fact that Persona 4 refered to Olympus Mons as Mt. Olympus ( translating Mons for no apparent reason) did make me cringe, too, though.

Terminate421 said:
Ironically, call of duty 2 made me pass a history test.

I think Gears of war actually saved me at one point, a large amount of shit on a shelf at a local store was collapsing and with instinct I hid behind a concrete pillar that was next to me. When I looked around, I saw that there were 200 lbs boxes where I had been standing before hand and around me.
The older, WWII CoDs were excellent on historical accuracy and all the events. And now I also know that Gears has saved a life. I salute you, cover based shooting!
 

Andy Shandy

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Jun 7, 2010
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revenge6000 said:
daveman247 said:
ww11 weapons
The eleventh world war was by far the most tragic.
Well played, sir/madam

OT: I have learnt quite a bit about various histories and cultures from various games such as Assassin's Creed and Civilization etc. Also I am quite good now at recognising guns mainly due to shooters. There are probably plenty of other things as well that don't spring to mind immediately.
 

Radeonx

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As I was playing a lot of text heavy RPGs/text adventure games as a kid, my vocabulary increased quite a bit.
That's really the only thing. I would've learned a lot of random history facts from Assassin's Creed had I played it a few years earlier, but I knew a lot of that crap already so it doesn't really count.
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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I learned three things.

First was sheer planning ability. Due to alot of RTS games in my early gaming years.

Second was channeling rage into my ability to play. This also is responsible for my high attunement with the metagame in fighters.

Third was the ability to cope with photosensitive headaches. I think thats the one im really proud of.
 

Spectrre

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Age of Empires 2 for me as well. Small history facts just a part of what it is I guess. Age of Mythology too I suppose. Taught me the raw basics of all the old deities (I think I spelt that wrong..)

Other than that I am drawing a bit of a blank though I am certain there are more examples to be found.

On a side note; Is anyone else eagerly awaiting some avid FPS player who believes he is now a weapons expert of some sort?
 

Larmo

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Ryan Savage said:
I used to be a really big fan of two old city building games called Caesar and Pharaoh.
god i remember theses games, my mom still plays them too she keeps a old win 98 laptop around for this purpose.

OT: I would have to say Eco-quest (a point and click adventure game for kids by Serra) looking back it is a bit preachy in the environmental message but it impacted me strongly as a child, it taught me conservation and impacted my view of the environment and how the things we throw away affect it.

the second is the Assassins creed series, especially the 2nd game, i read ever scrap of data and info the game presented because the world it built felt alive and i wanted to learn all about it, and i aced my test on Renaissance Italy largely because of it.
 

Tiger Sora

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Video games are the reason I took an interest in history. That and History Television, back when they showed old war documentaries and such others. Not to much these days. Not that I don't like IRT or Ice Pilots.

I love history.
 

Fijiman

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My opinion of both cartoons and games for years has been that you can learn a lot if you pay attention to the right things. Sure some of the things you might learn might not be relevant in most cases, but you can still learn some fairly interesting things.
 

Broderick

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May 25, 2010
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I learned to count from watching my mom play tomb raider on the sega saturn. I would try and count how many shells and medipacks she would have.
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

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Nov 9, 2010
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I learnt basic battlefield planning from games, and have used that quick planning skill in exercises in my job.

I also am damn good at map reading skills from all the varying degrees of maps found in games! Especially games like GTA and the Getaway with the hard-copy maps that you can use while playing! Now maps are second nature to me, even home made hand drawn and confusing ones!

Finally I learnt aircraft recognition from the Act Combat games, along with some of the basic characteristics! Like the SU-32, and the fact it has a kitchen and tiolet on board, even though it looks like a fast jet, and you enter it through a ladder behind the front wheel!
 

sketch_zeppelin

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Well i usally learn a bit about from any game i play. If i haven't learned somthing from the game that stays with me past turning the game off then it proabley wasn't that good of a game to begin with.

Games like Call of duty World at War and Assasins creed spring to mind instantly. I mean your playing through a historical setting. even if the characters are fictional, the world around them is based off of actual history.
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

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Simcity taught me about zoning... And Streets of Simcity taught me to never, ever mess with grandmas with machine guns.
 

Odbarc

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Dynasty Warriors is based on a popular old book in China. Not sure if it has any historical accuracy or not. I learned a lot just by playing that game (they're all the same canonically).
There's a lot more to learn if you actually open the encyclopedia - which I happened to actually read one day while bored.

Alternatively: Mario is Missing.
 

anthony87

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The first Metal Gear Solid taught me a bit about different guns, nuclear weapon information and what the symbol for infinity is.
 

iNsaneMilesy

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Pretty sure the original Pokemon on gameboy back in the day taught myself and many others to read incredibly fast at an early age... and also to manage animal slaves and money to a lesser extent.