GamerNode: Columns - Why Gamers Are Better at Handling Life

Why Gamers Are Better at Handling Life

Category: Industry, Posted: 08/15/2007 at 07:59PM EDT by Frank Ling, Content Contributor

I've been reading a lot of articles lately about teaching kids life lessons through sports, and using organized activies to help prepare them for the "real world." That got me thinking: video games do the same thing. People just don't really talk about it.

With video games, sometimes you enter levels that are rather easy to navigate and play through, but as time passes, the levels get harder, and the bosses become more formidable. And in some cases, the solutions to various traps and puzzles seem to elude you until you are certain that you will never be able to figure things out.

Life is like that sometimes.

Maybe that's why gamers are so resilient in times of trouble. With my gaming pals, when they're going though tough times, it's like, "FTW, I hate it, but I'm going to beat it somehow." Either that or they just laugh and play a few games. Some people say that's just ignoring the problem, but I think it's much deeper than just escapism.

We're conditioned to face challenges in every game we play - whether it's a causal game of Wii Sports or an intense title like Gears of War, games all seem to teach us a subliminal message - that there's always a solution to a problem or challenge.

Another thing that gamers excel in (most of the time anyway) is their ability to stick with objectives. I know the typical stereotype of a gamer is usually someone who is a slacker. But in real life, this is far from the truth, and many of the gamers I know past and present are some of the most diligent folks I've met.

Gamers are persistent to a fault when it comes to completing missions or goals in games -- just look at the Achievement Points. There is a mindset that things have to get done no matter what, and this translates to someone who understands what it means to take up a diificult task and stick to it until it is completed. Pretty good qualities for an individual when facing life's curve balls, wouldn't you say?

Ok, I didn't get my degree in psychology, but this sort of makes sense to me. Of course, life, some would say, is a game. You have to play games with your boss because he's always hounding you to do more work for less money. Your teachers play the game of "pass this course or you're just a failure." Parents play the guilt game and say, "If you'd stop playing so many games, you'd do better in school," and so on.

But the bottom line to all of this is that gamers know how to have fun and also realize something about life that most people don't know: you can always beat the game if you don't give up.

What do you think? Has playing games helped you out at all?

Posted by Brendon on 08/15/2007 at 10:35PM

I like this. The best part is anyone who's a gamer has their own examples they can add on to why games help them do X or prepare for X better in their life. For example, thanks to games I have an extraordinary skill when it comes to reading maps.

Posted by Eddie R Inzauto on 08/16/2007 at 04:02AM

I DID get my degree in psychology, and I certainly agree with you. Video games are not only a form of entertainment, but a tool to help us think, analyze, and learn. we can then apply those lessons and the critical thinking skills developed during gameplay.
There is no doubt in my mind that videogames are a sharpener of wits, rather than a detriment to our intelligence.

Posted by Foonix on 08/16/2007 at 07:33AM

I totally agree with your article.I spend a lot of time to play video games (only PC games, and especially Counter-Strike with my team and friends), and I never failed at school, and I think I won't. I'm 17 years old and play Counter-Strike since I'm 13. I'm still passing my school years as one of the best. I'm not only playing videogames and studying, I'm also doing music, going out... In most videogames, you have to take choices, and assume the consequences, you have to win, win, win, pass the problems, and never fail to the objective. It's the same in the life, especially in the world of work. I'm also writer for the most read French e-sports related website : www.team-aaa.com. I entered in the crew when I was 15, and during the team I spent there, I learnt a lot of things and improved many things like my writing skills. Today I'm better at school when it's about to write articles, reviews or syntheses, just because I do it with video games.When you talk about the sentence "If you'd stop playing so many games, you'd do better in school", my parents said me that many times too. Is it true ? Not really, it's in fact too easy to say, but not so easy to do. I have a lot of school friends who play video games for fun, and don't care about video games so much. And they're by far not better than me at school. They just spend their time to partying, binge drinking, spending a lot of time doing stupidities... I respect the lifes of each one, here's not the problem, but I think there are much more possibilities and better ones to be better at school than just studying all the day. Things like managing your time, your work, being concentred and focused on your work, having great social and communication skills, reading and writing skills... I'm improving all of that by playing games and being part of a crew who write articles about video games.When you say "FTW, I hate it, but I'm going to beat it somehow.", it's also true in some cases. I play a lot of tournaments online and on LAN events, and playing video games (like Counter-Strike, Quake, Warcraft, Trackmania, PES, and other competition games) by this way helps you to have the will to win, the force to pass the objectives, to be the first, to be the best. And one more time, you can find that in the real life. You'll just want to solve your life's problems, and you'll do it, because, finally, you know you're able to do it, it's just about developping self-confidence, and video games help to have it like sport help to have it.To make a conclusion to my comment, I'll just give you a quote of a Swedish Counter-Strike team manager, Andreas "bds" Thorstensson : "If you have the will to win, you will win."

Posted by winsall on 08/16/2007 at 09:55AM

does that mean i can grind my cooking skills?

Posted by darrenpauli on 08/16/2007 at 10:22AM

Wow, no idea what happened there. Just pushed submit once.Apologies.

Posted by darrenpauli on 08/16/2007 at 10:23AM

Improved motor and cognitive skills such as hand-eye coordination, concentration, stamina and lateral thinking have been credited to complex gaming by numerous studies. The University of Rochester found that people who trained for 30 hours in first-person action games had a "stubstantial increased ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space", than non-gamers given the same sight test. Similarly, the Australian Defence Force suggested FPSs like Counterstrike can improve tactility and hand-eye coordination, and it is now hosting online games to attract gamers. <A Href>"http://atomiq.org/images/far_side_hopeful_parents.gif"> However, I feel for the parents of those still playing Mario</A>

Posted by frozen_dude on 08/16/2007 at 02:52PM

Firstly, interesting article, and I must say that I have not seen any evidence for the gamer stereotype some people spout out, although there probably is someone like it out there, I believe gamers do fare better in life than the average non-gamer.That being said... Klonoa FTW!

Posted by umbram on 08/16/2007 at 03:53PM

I agree with this article, this really puts it in perspective. Im glad they dont have a game that simulates my job, people would be very pissed and upset while playing it. :)

Posted by Quasar on 08/17/2007 at 12:36AM

I think for me, the biggest surprise was the amount of ill will and harsh emotional response against gamers on digg via this article. People were equating us to slobs, people who abused their children and the social morons of the the world...and those were the kindest comments. lol.
If anything, it made me proud to be a gamer and to realize that gamers around the world have a common bond that these people who consider themselves "good citizens" will never know or experience. It's also sad too to realize that we, as gamers, are still seen by society as second class citizens. But of course, they're dead wrong about this.