What games have positively influenced your life and how?

[Gamerforlife]

Video games have helped me develop my killing skills. I get a head shot in real life everytime.

I don't know whether to or

Although to be honest, video games probably did help my shooting skills. The first time I ever shot or even held a gun, a shotgun, I was 5/7 on the clay-birds. I am sure video games helped out a bit.

I know for a fact that video games have been used in military training

[Inazuma]

I learned Japanese from playing Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst. I developed a strong sense of rhythm from Dance Dance Revolution, in addition to getting very strong legs from playing so much.

Recently I started playing Shape Boxing 2 on the Wii. Not only has it helped me get back in shape, but it's teaching me how to box.

[AznKhmerBoi]

Shenmue and Yakuza

Shenmue : taught me to appreciate friends and keep those who close to you near your heart.

Yakuza 3 : You can be a bad ass but self respect and dicipline will give you greatness in term of social network.

[DejaNick]

This is a great topic! My answer may seem kind of lame to some, but this is the best example I could come up with. On top of being an avid gamer, I'm a writer and musician and I always find music to be the one thing I look for first in video games. Graphics are great, and obviously the gameplay itself is why we're popping this game in our console in the first place, but for me the music is where I get the most enjoyment and entertainment.

I deal with high levels of anxiety and depression(bipolar yuck) but for some reason any kind of soothing music in video games can instantly relax me, and any kind of upbeat music in video games can distract me from whatever is bothering me.

To me, the greatest examples of music in video games helping me out and influencing how I get through an average day are in the Final Fantasy series(of course) but more so, believe it or not, in Donkey Kong Country(Coral Capers theme, so relaxing!)

Deja Vu has helped influence some of the fiction I write, as have a lot of classic NES titles.

[Erik_Twice]

I started to learn English thanks to Tycoon titles, specially Transport Tycoon. You will never learn what "iron" or "copper" mean around here, as the public English education is a façade for politicians and there's very few people who actually teach the Language instead of teaching you how to pass exams. I'm pretty sure that my parents choice to get me a good teacher was helped by my advances on those games.

All those economic games also taught me a lot of geography and history. I don't think I would know anything about Africa were it not for trying to build the Transafrican railway. And I would have never heard about the Hansetic league had I not played Patrician II and it's sequels.

As it also can be expected those games also taught me a lot about how the economy works, what it means to take a loan, how to control your expenses, saving for accidents and other important basic lessons. I think those games are a very useful way to teach kids basic economic concepts.


When a friend of mine and I decided to cosplay as the Cheerleaders from Ouendan and practise a dance/cheer taken from the game little we knew about the popularity we would have. Our cosplay was insanely popular and we met lots of interesting people. It really got us into the scene. I screwed up when we were on the scenery tough I blame my friend because he said we were ready and didn't want to practise more xD


Dance Dance Revolution and, later on, Pump it Up were key in meeting a lot of new people, two very important friends were made thanks to that game and gathering to play it still remains an ocasional social event for my social circles. It also made me do some excersice while enjoying it something I would have never expected.


There are other influences but I don't feel like writting more today

[J T]

My answer may seem kind of lame to some, but this is the best example I could come up with. On top of being an avid gamer, I'm a writer and musician and I always find music to be the one thing I look for first in video games. Graphics are great, and obviously the gameplay itself is why we're popping this game in our console in the first place, but for me the music is where I get the most enjoyment and entertainment.

I don't think that's lame at all. There are a lot of games with great music even during the eras of more limited sound technology. I have always thought that Metroid's music was incredibly adept at making the most of the 8-bit technology and making it seem like the best possible instrumentation to use for the soundtrack (even if they could have used recorded audio back then).

Deja Vu has helped influence some of the fiction I write, as have a lot of classic NES titles.

Deja Vu is a great game that you don't hear much about anymore. I loved it back in the NES days though. I played through it several times back then just because I loved the story so much.

I thought about Deja Vu recently because I am in a practicum on Fridays at a hospital where we do neuropsych testing on people who are preparing for major brain surgery. To make sure we know which side of the brain is responsible for language we essentially "anesthesize" half of the brain using a drug called amobarbital, and then administer a bunch of language tests to see if they are affected. When this was first explained to me the neuropsychologist said that amobarbitol is often known as a "truth serum" and is sometimes used in interrogation, just like with other similar drugs such as phenobarbital or sodium pentathol.

My brain immediately went "SWEET! Just like the sodium pentathol in Deja Vu!"

[noiseredux]

Deja Vu is Together Retro next month, kids. Just a reminder.

[Evildeadmanwalking77]

I don't know if I can narrow it down to specifics as far as actual titles go, but for the NES in general had a positive influence on my life. You really had to earn & work hard for high scores or beating games for it because most games didn't have a save feature (aside from games with the battery back ups like Zelda) and even if you did it was still a challenge. I look at games like Zelda, Mega man series, Castlevania series, & even Super Mario Bros. I would just dedicate all my free time trying to get high scores and to beat them as much as I could. I always wanted to strive for better even if I did beat any game or got a high score (like on say: Donkey Kong, Pac Man, etc). Obviously, that had an effect on my life because I do that with anything in life that I do that may present me with challenges or just to imporve, either with my job, my marriage, or school. I always want to strive to make things better, easier, or whatever. I honestly feel that the NES had a role in that. That's the best way I can describe this topic as it applies to my life.

[J T]

Deja Vu is Together Retro next month, kids. Just a reminder.

Cool! I may have to play it again. I haven't played it in ages.

[Croooow!]

I learned so much Geography playing Europa Universalis II that I won my university's geography bee.