Don't Panic

I've been thinking about all that I've learned from video games. As with many trades, skills, or hobbies, video games are great teachers of many important skills, virtues, and perspectives.

Being a Gamer requires a certain tenacity and persistence in the face of adversity. One struggles against challenges and obstacles where success on the first attempt is not common. This breeds an acceptance of failure and an understanding of consequences, but more importantly it cultivates a resilience to “giving up” and a mindset focused on critical thinking and problem solving.

Gamers must also be flexible and think quick on their feet. They learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome. They need to understand the causality of their actions and perceive a wide array of outcomes.

As the player is often cast as the hero archetype (predominately where strong story development is involved), there are important lessons in morality, the intrinsic value of helping others, championing beliefs, and discerning good from evil. Often, one learns virtues like nobility, honor, trust, respect, empathy/sympathy, and kindness.

Gaming also necessitates the development of a wide variety of skills, such as navigation, spacial reasoning, economics and resource management, teamwork, communication, pattern recognition, memory, and creativity, to name but a few.

There are talents nurtured by the element of the sport of gaming itself: hand-eye coordination, reflexes, endurance, and perseverance. One usually learns to grasp a wide variety of complex rules and conditions, and understands multiple nuances.

The lessons I've received and the skills I've built from Gaming have made me successful in many arenas, such as education, the workforce, projects and hobbies, relationships, and even parenting.

Not everyone has the same experience, but I've deeply valued mine.

If video games have taught me anything, it's that if you encounter enemies then you're going the right way.