I love video games. I'm an absolute nerd about them. I love playing them, buying them and most of all, beating them. But, Merrilee, you must ask, you're a philosophy major, do you have any life lessons to take from these beep boop dang diddly games? I do!
Video games taught me to accept failure as a regular part of life. I may love games, but I am, to be quite honest, not that good at them. Sure, I can beat Mass Effect 1 and 2—on easy—but I'm not MLG. (MLG is pro gaming.) What does that mean for me? It means I die. A lot. Quite often over and over and over again until sometimes I have to stop the game. But that is the beauty of games, you can put them down.
Even when all you're met with is failure, you can take a step back. And for me, that's a lot like life. Even when I'm met with failure after failure sometimes, I know I can take a step back. I can put down the controller and talk to a friend; I can call my mom. I can take time for me. Playing games where your death matters, such as the survival game "Don't Starve" by Klei Entertainment or "The Binding of Isaac" really taught me a lot about taking my time. Because yes, failure is inevitable in a lot of things, but patience can often off set that failure.
So, a good real world example is papers. I write a lot of papers and I hate it, to be honest. I've got to be the most disgruntled academic I've ever met. It's mostly because I fear failure. But, if I am patient, and I don't rush into a room full of monsters (or, in this case, wait till the last minute or turn in something sub par) then I know that if failure comes, I have done my best. Learning to fail over and over again through video games, having to redo rooms and whole levels, I've learned that all I can give is my best. Maybe games are just an emulation of the greatest lessons we have to learn. But, they can easily fall on deaf ears. Learning from games isn't something that will just happen. It takes reflection and thought. So, next time you die in the latest FPS you've picked up, maybe ask yourself if it's a lesson. Or, you know, if you should have taken cover. That being said, should you all go out and play video games for these valuable lessons? Personally, I say yes, but they can be learned any way that's best. Find your stride in learning, maybe it is a medium like video games, or movies, or books. Maybe it's just living. Just have patience. Take failure in stride, it's inevitable. And always, always, watch your back.
