Question of the Day, November 17, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, November 17, 2010



Sony and Nissan have teamed up to give Gran Turismo players the chance to become a real-life pro racer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105352-Play-Gran-Turismo-5-Become-a-Real-Pro-Racer]. Can games like GT5 teach you skills that are applicable in real life?

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[The Cheezy One]

No matter how realistic a game feels, the truth is always beyond that. No war game will actually have mud falling on your face, unless your 360 explodes while playing Call of Duty.
But it can teach you concepts and basics.

 

[Philbyy]

I don't think you can fully learn a skill from Videogames. It's like people who think they can give out diagnosis because they have watched House. It can teach about how things work, or ignite a passion, but it's a bit limited unless it's specifically designed, like flight training sims used in... well... flight training.

 

[therandombear]

Ofc videogames teach you stuff, like if you're shot just hide behind a wall until it passes or if you have a headache get tin foil and make a hat out if it

 

[Jezzascmezza]

Concepts, not execution.
It can give you information, but in the end, you're just pushing buttons.
Or wiggling a remote around like an idiot.

 

[teh_Canape]

yeah, what cheezy said

but there are some aspects that games can teach you, like, say, teamwork =P

in any case:

Typing of the Dead and IM Meen

the first teaches you to survive a zombie apocalypse one noun at a time as long as you have a duracell powered dreamcast on your back

and the other one teaches you to escape a magical labyrinth constructed inside a magic book by having you be dora the explorer and survive by punching giant spiders in the face and correcting grammar stuff here and there

 

[sms_117b]

Concepts but not execution.

Some times the right equipment can also give basics (like having a cockpit for a game like Gran Turismo, in face that's where my friend learned to drive).

Simulators also offer up very good concepts and a good overview, so you know where the controls are, I mean look at the training gear, NASA has for flight (it was a Mythbusters episode, albeit, that was not a game, and I also don't count simulators as games).

 

[VladimirSirin]

I am trying to think of a game that deliberately set out to teach, which also taught a skill set as well.....maybe Math Blaster, but mathematics is an abstract thing anyway. Are there games that teach you how to fix a car or do basic home repairs?

I guess "Police Quest" is a good example. You can play that and learn how policing works, in a general way, but are in no way qualified to actually be a police officer.

 

[tkioz]

Depends on the game honestly, I haven't learned anything from FPS games, or Action Adventure games, beyond basic problem solving skills I suppose, but I have learnt stuff from games like Civ and games like that were you have maintain budgets, control resources, etuff like that.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

No matter how realistic a game is, it still won't be a patch on real hands-on experience. However, simulations can teach concepts and theory ready to be put into practice, so they are still a valuable tool - especially in certain fields such as aeronautics.

 

[BabySinclair]

I've learned several hand to hand things from games only because I took the basics of what were shown and then had to learn how to apply them, concepts are useful but it is much harder to train actual skills in anything less than a true full simulator, not a game.

 

[Keith K]

Flight simulators are just video games.

 

[dex-dex]

i have learned things from video games such as it is better to have a team a pre-madonna slackers than no team at all

it teaches concepts but not how it is used so to say.

 

[icyneesan]

I hope so, or I'll be screwed as I haven't really invested in anything else.

 

[Laxman9292]

I'm not sure about video games teaching the skills performed by the avatar, i.e. being a one-man war machine or a world class martial artist, but they definitely teach problem solving skills, help sharpen your mental prowess overall and also your coordination.

"Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4685909/ns/technology_and_science-games

 

[ssgt splatter]

It can teach you a concept but not the execution.

The only thing I learned from a videogame is how to line up the iron sights on a gun.
The day before Halloween, my mother's co-worker invited us to go out to a range and fire some pistols. Now, neither me nor my mother had ever fired a real gun so in terms of experience, we were even. Now I played Call of Duty alot and knew how the iron sights should look when ADS so I was on target from the begining whereas my mom took a full 45 minutes before she managed to hit something other than the ground. The game did not teach me how to absorb recoil or how strong it was so it took me a little while before I was shooting accuratley rapidly.

Oh, and from that experience I learned I don't like revolvers all that much, too much recoil.
The 9mm and .45 on the other hand, those were fun to use.
I also got to fire the russian mosin nagant and the russian SKS rifles.

 

[drbarno]

An actual RL example her, done by top gear in similiar fashion to the original point.

 

[Doclector]

I think something can be mentally gained from videogames, such as online fps games teaching you quick thinking skills, and possibly teamwork skills if you find anything resembling something you could seriously call a "team" in the storm of lone wolves that is online fps gaming, and I believe that with the right execution, it would be possible to teach history through games in the way a documentary can, even better, as long as the subject has the common sense to think that there never was one single soldier who killed over a million nazis, as in to be able to take in the historical surroundings without thinking that what their own character did was true. As for anything else, I wouldn't rule it out, but I don't think we'll be getting something that could really be called a "game" rather than an "interactive manual" that could teach you cooking or science with any reasonable success any time soon.