Gaming Teaches Life Skills – Fact As Of Now!

It’s pretty much widely agreed by people that have done the research that gaming can teach and enhance life and working skills, from multitasking to quicker problem solving abilities, and even general team work skills. All of these and so many more can be taught, learned and improved via gaming!

A few months back I read an article on www.mashable.com that said “Gamers, make brilliant body builders”, it basically said that gamers have a few important skills that a body builder must learn by force determination, ability to set goals well, and drive.

Let’s a pro-gamer for a prime example and explore this concept more, first to come to my StarCraft2 addicted mind is dSeleCT. Now I can’t speak for him personally but I can tell you now he plays for a long time and trains very hard, he has to if he wants to stay as good as he is and improve further. But what skills are required for him to be a good StarCraft2 player?
• Multi-tasking.
• Fast thinking.
• Quick reactions.
• Good deduction skills.

Those are just a few of the skills that any professional StarCraft2 player has to have that can be translated into life. Another example, if you walked into a job interview and they asked “what skills do you bring to the table?” and you tell them those four skills they are going to ask you “when have you shown these?”. Now you won’t want to say StarCraft2 will you, but really that’s actually a very good answer (although I don’t take any responsibility for any failed job interviews due to saying that you should get the job because you’re gold league StarCraft2), as we have shown by digging deeper into some key skills of SeleCT.

Moving on from jobs, if you’re currently in education and looking for better ways improve your learning try taking some skills from gaming and look for different ways to apply those skills to your projects or exam revision. A good example that I use while doing my endless stream of coursework is listening to music. Let’s face it most of us like music while we are gaming and I’ve found it really helps me to focus and learn, so I blast music in my room while doing coursework or other assignments and essays. Another good example is the use of awareness, since beginning to game I’ve started noticing things a lot more because in a fast paced game you need to, I now do my best to apply this to researching, I’ll have a book and web pages open skimming though things and picking out things I need a lot quicker than many people I know.

So wait a minute, if gaming can teach you so many skills and also bring you enjoyment, why aren’t schools and the education systems trying to bring more “normal” games into the classroom? Ok, fair enough Team Fortress 2 probably can’t teach you Pythagoras Theorem, but it can teach you team work and help improve reaction time and awareness. This is one of the things that I really think needs to change in education now. The gaming industry is now a valued and very lucrative one that can teach people so much, so why shouldn’t it be incorporated into education?

“Contrary to fears about the violent reputation of some games, there is no firm proof that playing them has an automatic negative impact on children's behaviour, for example by causing aggression, said the report from the committee on the internal market and consumer protection.

Instead, "video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society."” (A quote from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/12/computer-games-eu-study)

Not to mention puzzel games! They inspire and completely require creative and logical thinking, games such as portal require you to change your mind set to think in a specific way using specific tools, games like these are perfect for teaching people problem solving skills. Hey, maybe schools should have "Puzzel Game" lesson!

A similar report from the European Parliament says that schools should be paying more attention to video games and should also be informing parents as well as students on the benefits that they have! If the EU Parliament is behind video games actually teaching skills, then why shouldn’t we be trying to transfer skills used and learned in gaming to our jobs and education.

Finally, I shall finally leave you with the article from CNN - http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/14/health/video-gamers-bodybuilders-fitocracy/index.html

Now go forth and use your gaming skills for good (not evil)!