Video games have a bad reputation for being expensive, brain-frying, useless wastes of time. As a lifelong gamer, I feel it is my duty to break that ridiculous belief. It is easy to judge games from the afar, but unless you actually invest time in them, you can never know the boundless benefits that they can offer. Here are just a few things that I have learned solely from video games:
1. How to count Roman numerals.
Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII...this game is on-going, by the way.
2. Weird terms like "excavating."
Once upon a time I took a field trip to a historical site in Kentucky. At one point on our trip, our tour guide asked if anyone knew what digging for artifacts and other items of historical significance was called. I was the only kid in the entire history of her tour groups that ever guessed the correct answer. How did I know this term? Harvest Moon, baby.
3. New vocabulary.
On another occasion, later in life, one of my teachers was asking the class what it meant to be "miasmic." Once again, I was the only person in the class who knew what it meant. In the game Bravely Default, you encounter a troublesome forest filled with poison. The name of this area? Miasma Forest. Video games are filled with unique vocabulary just like this.
4. What quality musical scores sound like.
If this doesn't make you want to laugh, cry, run a marathon, and fight for your freedom all at the same time then I don't know what will. The amount of times that composer Yoko Shimomura has evoked these feelings from me is uncanny.
5. What it really means to be a musical genius.
Japanese video game composer, Koji Kondo did a wonderful service to gamers with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. He composed the beautiful "Ballad of the Goddess," in which the main theme, if played backwards, becomes the series' nostalgic melody of "Zelda's Lullaby." I still can't wrap my head around this ingenuity.
6. Repetition will help you improve.
When I first started playing multiplayer first person shooter Battlefield 4, I was probably the worst player in the world. I always ended up with little or no kills and a high death count. I was so frustrated and I didn't understand why I couldn't last five seconds without dying. It's because it was a new game and I was playing with other experienced players who had better weapons and were probably very accustomed to the console they were using. In order to appease my competitive nature and enjoy the game more, I had to practice. Yes, practice playing video games. Sounds silly, I know, but without that practice, I never would have improved.
7. How to strategize and problem-solve.
You have to do this in some way, shape, or form in every game you play, regardless of the genre. This is an important one that outsiders tend to skip over. Whether you are solving a murder, assassinating an enemy team, selling people clothes, raising a farm, fighting a 5-eyed monster, fitting falling blocks together, building a life for someone else, or racing a vehicle, you must strategize to win. Oftentimes you have to create the optimum strategy as you are playing, which is a brain strengthening exercise if I've ever heard of one.
8. The importance of working together on a team.
When playing in any kind of multiplayer game, you will probably encounter team play. When you game with other people, you learn quickly the importance of cooperation. You must know your place within a team and work with your companions to achieve victory.
9. Cheating brings you no satisfaction.
Every game requires you to work for success. I personally never bother with using cheats because with them you do not get to see the fruition of all your hard work. You skip past the hours of leveling up, completing quests for gold, restarting the game a thousand times to beat that overbearing boss, exploring various nooks and crannies, and every bit of the gaming experience that is actually important. Why waste your money on a game if you're just going to cheat your way through it?
10. What true friendship is.
Relationships within video games, especially Role Playing Games (RPGs), are so enjoyable to experience. Each character is dynamic and memorable as is each relationship. Friends in most games don't engage in unnecessary slander, they don't give up on each other, and they all fight for something that is bigger than themselves and bigger than the silly, mundane struggles of our lives. Several years later and Link is still fighting for Zelda, Mario for Peach, and Pokemon trainers for their Pokemon. The friendships you witness within video games are the purest and strongest and should be a prime example to us all.
