What did Games teach you?

[TheIronRuler]

Hey there Escapists, my name is Iron Ruler and today I'd like to ask you a simple question:
What did Games teach you?

I know that most of you out there have grown up with video-games and have early memories of them. Each game teaches you its own mechanics, but it can also be a wealth of knowledge. As a child I grew interested in mythology from the Age of Mythology Video Game, and set out to read more about it in my public library (mostly because at the time wikipedia wasn't that well-known, and, well, I was 10). When I grew older I got into more 'mature' games about war - and it drew me into the great wars of the European continent, ones which I delved into right before my Bar Mitzvah. Then came the Roman Era in the Total War series, and I was hooked. Video Game after Video Game, I learned from them and they opened me up to a wealth of knowledge I didn't even know was there. I'm a history buff, and during my play at titles like Europa Universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2 I've grown accustomed to the world geography and regions. Games like Geopolitical Simulator had me memorize the world map by heart just because I saw it so much and interacted with it. There are educational games, and there are games that can educate you - and those are the ones I like best.

My dear escapists, what did Games teach you?

To my brothers in arms and fans of History, I'd like to introduce to you a fan group of Historical Games and Games from the Paradox Interactive studio.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Paradox-Interactive-Fans

 

[Pink Gregory]

That games are infinitely better than gamers.

Wah wah passive-aggressive post go me.

I chased up italian and byzantine history from Assassin's Creed, but really that's about it; my interests diverge quite sharply from games with any sort of historical/realistic bent.

 

[Flutterguy]

Just because I have invested 1000+ hours doesn't mean I should continue something. For me as a teenager, this was an eye opener.

How a market can easily be exploited by someone who already has money.

90% of any given population is relying on the other 10%.

Thanks WoW.

 

[Random Fella]

How to spell the word 'rogue' (god help me if I spelt it incorrectly now)

Also how to screw people over in business, good old TF2 hat trading.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

English vocabulary, mostly. Thank you Pokemon for teaching me about "vouchers", "dire" and "magnitude".

 

[Gamerpalooza]

On average? Culture shock you can look up gaijin goomba.

I don't play games to be "enlighten" I play games as a past time to have fun.

You can look up the CAR theory.

Competence is becoming more skillful
Autonomy is being masters of our own destiny
Relatedness is that we matter to others and have an influence on society

 

[Jack Action]

That ultra-elite special forces the world over are barely above teenagers with BB guns in terms of combat efficiency.

Also that if you don't like the way the world works, you can always mod it to suit your tastes.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I know that most of you out there have grown up with video-games and have early memories of them. Each game teaches you its own mechanics, but it can also be a wealth of knowledge. As a child I grew interested in mythology from the Age of Mythology Video Game, and set out to read more about it in my public library (mostly because at the time wikipedia wasn't that well-known, and, well, I was 10).

Same here. I already knew a bunch about myths and stuff, but that was mostly Greek myths I'd learned in elementary school. Learned a ton about Egyptian & Norse myths via that game. Also, did you know that the Atlantian Civ's basic combat units were all based around Roman gladiator archetypes? Realized that when I took latin.

English vocabulary, mostly. Thank you Pokemon for teaching me about "vouchers", "dire" and "magnitude".

Same for me. I learned words like "Agility" and "Dynamic" among others. Learned some colors from RGB, too.

OT: Learned a bunch about World History from Civilization V, especially the wonders. I didn't have a general "World History" class in my basic childhood education, so I learned about buildings like the Hagia Sophia, Uffizi, Angkor Wat, etc. via this game along with a few historical leaders.

Extreme Escape (9 hours 9 persons 9 doors and Virtue's Last Reward) taught me about some stuff like basic Game Theory (prisoner's dilemma).

And of course, I've learned about tons of weaponry from the various WWII and modern war games I've played.

 

[Evonisia]

As I'm playing ZombiU now, I learn that everyone just sees other parts of the world as the important bits with a road or two between them.

I also picked up a bunch of words out of the blue. Example, I learned fortitude from WoW. Then I found the word in Othello, now I see it as some kind of foreshadowing (woo!).

 

[GJHenry]

I learned how to read English when playing games. I also learned history and other philosophical views. This is all I could think on the top of my head. I probably learned more but I've played a lot that it became normal for me.

 

[Burgers2013]

Video games taught me that if I ever run into a locked door, try lighting any candles or torches nearby to see what happens.

Really though:

I remember being struck by something in particular about an RTS, Knights and Merchants, when I was a kid. I built an army for the first time. I spent a ton of resources training a huge army to march off to conquer a nearby NPC town. Then they all got hungry. My 12-year-old self was astonished (soldiers eat?!). Long story short, I had too few serfs and too little food to keep the army I trained, and most of them died. It gave me a bit of perspective into how burdensome a large standing army can be on the local economy and resources. I had to devote everything I had to keeping them alive, which wasn't only not enough, but I stopped building/expanding in any other way. Finally, I sent them off to fight knowing that they would fail as they were mostly hungry and their numbers thinned. At least that way, they would stop hindering my town.

It was actually a little horrifying to see how much thoughtless self-destruction I caused by not thinking ahead of time, and how little I could do about it after I made the mistake. One of my serfs got killed by an NPC scout. I built an army. I killed like 10 soldiers via starvation. I sent the rest to slaughter. I did much more damage to myself than the NPC did.

I guess I learned that one should exercise a lot of forethought about consequences when in a leadership position. Also, manned, standing armies are extraordinarily expensive to maintain.