What games have positively influenced your life and how?

[J T]

We often hear stories about releationships and responsibilities being neglected from games like World of Warcraft or Farmville, or we hear stories about aggressive behavior being increased by games like Mortal Kombat or Grand Theft Auto, but we rarely hear about the games that had a positive impact on people beyond the basic positive result of providing a good time (which isn't something to scoff at, even though others often do).

I am curious about games that have had a positive influence on you though. Are there games that have taught you something? Improved a skill? Increased your creativity? Changed the way you perceive the world around you? Motivated you to reach goals? Maybe even paradoxically made you more productive? If so, what was the game and why did it have that effect on you?

[SpaceBooger]

For a kid with ADHD (and I'm a teacher so I can promise you that it's not false labeling) games taught me patience and persistence. I was able to learn to focus by playing and practiceing games like MegaMan, Ninja Gaiden, Sunsoft's Batman. Believe it or not those skills rolled over into my studying and other skills later in life.

[Gamerforlife]

Dynasty Warriors actually got me to read some of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel and learn a bit about chinese history. I also had a friendship that pretty much started thanks to DW 3. He randomly mentioned the game to me and I said, "I always wanted to try that game" and I went to his house, we played for a few hours and then starting hanging out for the next few years.

A cousin of mine and I bonded over an all night session of playing Rygar on the NES

This one is more of a positive effect a game had on someone else I know, but I once bought a friend an old Saturn and a copy of Dragon Force since he lost his copy(and his Saturn) years ago. There are few gifts that I have ever given anyone that made that person light up with joy like he did that Christmas

Growing up I always avoided the usual vices like drinking, drugs, smoking, etc. but I always found comfort in gaming. That WAS my vice. It was always something that helped me relax too when I was upset, angry or depressed about something. Games always had a way of getting my mind off of things or distracting me just enough to ease any pain I was going through(and if it didn't, I would throw on an old Metallica album LOL). I may have been a little addicted to games then, but it kept me from ever developing an interest in any of the aforementioned vices that so many of my friends had. If I had to choose between getting piss drunk or high or staying in and playing Final Fantasy Tactics it was an easy choice for me

I tend to obsess over completing any project I start on, even at the cost of sleep. I think that is something that games instilled in me as when I was younger I used to obsessively try to finish any game I played no matter how challenging it was.

Lastly, I know for a fact that my reflexes and coordination have improved thanks to games. I often find myself reacting to things faster than other people do and find that I often just seem to think faster too. Also, I tend to have a way of looking at things in unconventional ways, which is something a lot of games make you do. I believe that games have positively affected my ability to solve puzzles and think outside of the box.

I also think Lucas Arts PC adventure games have also enhanced my lateral thinking skills. I had to use a guide for two or three parts when I played the Secret of Monkey Island remake on the Xbox 360. After that, I emulated Monkey Island 2, Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle on my PC and beat them all with no guides at all as I now understood the unusual thought processes behind the type of puzzles these games had. I still hear people say that it impossible to beat those games without a guide

[Ivo]

I have no doubt that I have improved many skills due to games, some of the stuff I shared with what Gamerforlife said (but not everything). I also believe my reflexes improved etc.

I would like to add some stuff on the so-called "educational" aspect (beyond reflexes and stuff):
1. I'm certain that games contributed a lot to developing my English skills (mostly reading).
2. I feel that many of these games were effectively teaching ethics etc. through practical examples of going through the situation in-character inside the game. The vast majority of the games back then (and I think most of the games now) actually have you play a positive role-model "hero" of some sort.
3. I particularly remember learning a LOT with the first Civilization "Civilopedia", it being inside the game made it even more interesting to read (although I also liked to read about that stuff in books at the time).

This is more speculative, but I used to have a lot (a LOT) of nightmares with monsters as a kid, and I think when I started playing games more it got better. It may have just been getting older, but I remember a phase where in the nightmares instead of just running away I would battle the "enemies", so maybe the games helped.

Ivo.

[sonix]

As Ivo pointed out games can help you improve (passive) language skills, I'm pretty sure that through daily contact with games through all those years helped me improve my English. Now I'm planning to use them in learning German (good thing about PAL games is the language selection).

Games also got me interested in Japan, it's culture and eventually in their language. There are so many titles you miss just because of the language barrier, it's a pretty good incentive for a gamer to try and learn Japanese, and the games themselves can help you at it.

I also got interested in some other things like aviation (thanks to Aero Elite Combat Academy from Sega, a very overlooked game btw) and games also help in maintaining and improving those interests. For instance if one is interested in cars, it's enjoybale to watch Top Gear for the presentation of various supercars or read about them in magazine while drooling over the pictures, but then again you'll probably never have a chance to ride those machines in real life. Games give you that chance and serve it in many flavours for you to choose, whether it's a relaxing ride with Aston Martin DB9 in Test Drive Unlimited or a frantic race with upgraded Lamborghini Murcielago in NFS, same goes with aforementioned aircrafts, sports, historical events (wars), exploration of real places (e.g. London in The Getaway) etc. This way of overlapping with reality is something I like about (modern) video games the most.

[Ivo]

As Ivo pointed out games can help you improve (passive) language skills, I'm pretty sure that through daily contact with games through all those years helped me improve my English. Now I'm planning to use them in learning German (good thing about PAL games is the language selection).

Games also got me interested in Japan, it's culture and eventually in their language. There are so many titles you miss just because of the language barrier, it's a pretty good incentive for a gamer to try and learn Japanese, and the games themselves can help you at it.

(...)

Do you have any good suggestions of games to help improve German?
I asked a while ago about any German exclusives, but those are probably rare. If you know of examples with relatively simple German that would be good for improving vocabulary I would really appreciate it (I prefer stuff from the 16-bit systems, for PC or for handhelds). If you don't want to clutter the thread feel free to PM me.

Ivo.

[alienjesus]

As Ivo pointed out games can help you improve (passive) language skills, I'm pretty sure that through daily contact with games through all those years helped me improve my English. Now I'm planning to use them in learning German (good thing about PAL games is the language selection).

I used the language selection to practice for my Spanish exam. Im at a pretty low level of understanding still, but it really helped despite being quite heavy for a beginner - I'm sure I got some extra marks for using some of the words in my exam that a beginner just wouldn't have picked up other wise

[J T]

Do you have any good suggestions of games to help improve German?
I asked a while ago about any German exclusives, but those are probably rare. If you know of examples with relatively simple German that would be good for improving vocabulary I would really appreciate it (I prefer stuff from the 16-bit systems, for PC or for handhelds). If you don't want to clutter the thread feel free to PM me.

Ivo.

I recommend Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. I started to learn a little bit of German just from listening to the German characters speak in that game, even though you don't need to understand German to play it.
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/gabriel_ ... ast_within

Beyond Good & Evil also provides multiple languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, & Dutch.
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/beyond_good_and_evil

There's also a thread devoted to games on gog.com that have multi-lingual components.
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/multilingual_gogs

[sonix]

I could help you more if we were talking about PS2 games. When it comes too handhelds all I know is that german versions of Pokemon RBY are pretty easy to find, and Advance Wars has German (and French) language to choose, many other GBA titles should too.

[BoringSupreez]

Two games made the most impact on me:

Globetrotter 2 (PC): It's not that great a game, but I learned a lot of trivia, history, and interesting facts about various countries around the world from this game.

Civilization 3 (PC):
Same as above, only this was mainly restricted to history.