Life Lessons From Video Games
"Knowledge is knowing that violence or to be violent in video games is only for fun, wisdom is not doing that in real life."-Me
The first time I discover this.. Gaming thing, I didn't know what I'm gonna get besides the enjoyment, but I knew there are good things in it, a lot of good things. Right now I think I really lucky to be in gaming world.
This post is about what video games and (my) real life have in common, things that I find could be useful in real life. Sorry if this is maybe a boring personal article from me, but I hope not. And don't forget to turn your stove off.
It Taught Me to Distinguish Good From Evil
"As I thought, you have the power of the Hero inside you!"
-Princess Zelda
Of course parents and schools teach us to be a good person so we'd be doing good things for the good of ourselves and other's, but video games also have its role in telling me which is cool and which is not cool. Saving the princess or stopping the bad guys and be the hero is a good way to inspire. This is like a simple tutorial that I shall remember in my life, there will be bad things out there that I shouldn't get myself into, but there is also good things that I can look into.
Sure in many games we are the one who helps the weak, rescue the girl, and defeat the evil. But in some games we can also rob banks, kill innocents, wage war, and be the villain. That's what make the trending topic about video games negativity, "violence". But the way I see it, that's the video games way to tell me "This is a thing out there, what you need to do is to see that this one is good, and this one is bad." So what I'm gonna do is enjoy being bad in the games and do the good in life. That's what we all do, yes?
The More I Progress, The Harder It Gets
"It's not going to be easy you know...", "Nothing worthwhile is."
-Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher Drake
I think it's too soon for me to say this, because I'm a 19 years old boy, what can I know about how hard life could be? But I've seen and heard enough to learn that the more we make progress or get older, the more difficult it become, that's what video games and life have in common. And now that I have graduated from high school, I think I'm starting that stage in my life, as a Level 1 player.
I had so many free times to do anything I like when (we) I was younger, school may gave increasing amount of tasks over time and that was just the beginning that didn't take too much time to play. But that's when I heard "When you get older, you'll have a fewer time to play around, because you will need to deal with college and work more.". Okay, I guess I'll need to be ready, and I've decided what I want to be when I get older. So my next step would be...
Running Side Quests to Gain EXP
"Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better."
-Chief
My perfect example is when I encounter an enemy that is way stronger for my current level, I'm gonna need to level up and get a better gear. I believe that's how I need to do to improve myself in real life. In order to achieve my goal which is still beyond my reach, there are 'side quests' that I can do to get more knowledge and experience that will make me a better person, and helps me find a way to reach that goal. Running side quests in video games is fun, yes? So is in real life, by doing something else to learn new things, that's also how to enjoy the journey of life.
Steemit is one of those side quests for me. Besides I could earn a few septims by writing good articles in here, I can also learn many things from the amazing Steemit community, and who knows if it's possible for me to find a way to achieve my goal from here, and could helps me to deal with...
Obstacles, Harder Level, Harder Enemies
"Maybe we’d fall short. Maybe we’d never even come close. But someone, someday, would know we’d tried."
-Vanille
In reaching our goal, there will always be obstacles in our way. We can keep trying and improve ourselves or we can quit the game. My current obstacle is... I don't think it'd be wise to talk about that specifically, so let's just say I have normal problems like normal people do. As I said in the second part, aging is the level stages that I'm talking about. As I'm getting older, I'll be in different levels filled with a lot of obstacles which requires a better me in order to beat it.
My parents once told me.. There will be people who will try to put me down once I get on top. That is true, a simple example is a jealous classmate that ruined my day just after I won a small school contest (as I said, I don't want to talk about it specifically, so that's the only thing I can tell you). So I thought if in young age I could see that kind of person already, I will encounter worse when I'm older and I need to be ready for it. Luckily I have...
A Player 2 Or Companions
"Sometimes, all it takes is a good friend to remind you of all the things you like about your life."
-Kiki
The best way to live this life is by making friends, but I won't do that the same way I make friends in Skyrim. Gaining Lydia's trust only to tell her to carry all my crap and dragon bones? No, no, I'll make sure I won't do that in real life. Asking Curie to be my companion so it will be easier for my journey and to give her the chance to do the research she always wanted? That's more like it. Making friends and helping each other is the kind of friendship that I'm going to do, that's the kind of friendship that we all do, no?
I think I can learn and try anything by myself, but with friends that could be better, easier, and more exciting. Besides parents and that good book, a friend is who you can go to lighten your day when sh*t happened. That's what I feel, the only one beside myself who can lift me up is my friend. The one who will remind me to not give in and stand by my side when there is trouble in front of me, is my best friend. My friends is also the ones that could help me to...
Make My Way To That Goal And Loot!
"If you do nothing, you will lose nothing. A craven way to live… If you can really call that life. I, for one, cannot."
-Aya Brea
I personally think that having a life goal is a must, because without knowing what we gonna do or what we gonna be and just living everyday life not doing the things that we love is not a good way to live. I haven't achieve this yet, but I know what my life goal is and I'm sure I'm on the right track to pursue it.
Sometimes, in video games the exciting part is the journey to get there, when we get what we wanted and where we wanted to be the excitement also ends there. Hopefully that won't happen when I get to my goal. My goal is related to gaming too, thanks to video games I figured what I wanted to do as a hobby and as my career. Have you achieved your life goal? If you have, congratulations! Or are you making your way to it? Then I wish you the best of luck!
I don't write the bad things in video games because I have never experienced or did some bad things because of video games and never once I see people around me doing so, besides seeing them disappointed for buying a crappy game. And I think I have spent enough times in gaming to know if games is bad for me. I hope that's not going to happen to me, or anyone.
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Wow. I never thought about it from that angle. This shows a lot of positives from being a gamer. Good post
Thank you. As long as we don't get addicted or leaving our responsibility, I think there's nothing wrong in being a gamer.
The lesson I've learned playing video game is that you not always need to be the best, but be persistent and never surrender.
Right, just because there is a button for surrender doesn't mean we have to click it.
God damn it i love your posts. Hitting the bong then reading your posts is just awesome, cant keep myself from commenting.
For me, playing video games at an early age certainly improved my english exponentially especially when playing WoW when it came out where you had to socialize with people in english. Not such a "deep" thought, or a "life lesson" as you offer, but video games can help in many different aspects, just wanted to make that as a note!
Again, great post, enjoyed reading it. =) Peace dude
I'm so glad that my post is good to read, you can always leave a comment if you wanted to.
Video games is where I learned english too. I learned english in games more than I do in school that taught me very basic english hahaha.
Thank you very much, peace dude, stay awesome!
Gaming has taught me so much. I definitely have better problem solving skills as a result of endless rpg games haha! Great read! Thank you for that.
Definitely, it taught me to solve problems in different angle. I didn't get that lesson much outside video games. And thank you!
One of my favorite topics :) . I love comparing life and games, wrote quite a few articles about it last month :)
Really? Sorry I didn't dig your blog to find older posts, I'm interested to read about how other people's life compared or being affected by video games. If you are planning to make that kind of post again I'll be sure to check it out
you can also learn much history from assassin's creed franchise
Assassin's Creed is like the virtual history teacher, right? Haha
I grew up with gaming so I am fairly certain that it had it's positive and negative impacts on my life. Positive for all the stuff I learned and the friends I met, negative I'd the addictive potential some of those games had but I rather blame my poor discipline for that ha.
Good and enjoyable read!
I know many people thinks that there is also negative side in gaming, which I also think is true. But I don't know why I've never seen or experienced that myself (I hope that's not a bad news for me), that's why I never mention the bad side of gaming in my posts haha.
Thanks!