When I was a child, all games were in English. Therefore, in order to understand the plot, I had to translate words with a dictionary. Over time, I began to understand the text in English without a dictionary. Basic knowledge of a foreign language, learned through video games, was very useful for me in real life when I traveled to other countries. In addition, basic knowledge of English allows me to communicate on this site with people from other countries.

From video games? I've learned that even in the darkest of times, there's still hope. And that hope has a name: Commander Shepard. :)

Video games keep you out of trouble.

I learnt two lessons that shaped my life philosophy even today:

1. If I'm lost in a video game, the path with enemies usually tell me that I'm going the right way.

Explanation:
I just LOOVE to explore in video game worlds! I like to find every secret or hidden Easter Egg and often deviate from the main storyline path.
Therefore, I was easily lost in the virtual world and had no idea where the game needed me to go.
This was the case of The Witcher 3, but I ended up finding many secrets so getting lost was a plus!

Many new games feature an "arrow" that points the player to the right direction, so being lost isn't as common.
I had the worst lost experiences with older games. I remember spending hours trying to find the right path in Half Life and Cry of Fear.

That is when I learned that the correct direction to advance the story would be guarded by enemies!

Application in real life
From an abstract perspective, when I encountered hardship in life, those experiences had helped me grow the most.
It is much easier said than done. Some experiences can even bring tears to my eyes, but surviving them has taught me the most valuable life lessons than anything one can pay for in school.

The paths with most hardships tend to be right direction for maturing in life and growing in personality, physically, and spirituality.

I haven't perfected this yet. There is still much more for me to learn and apply this in my life but it has changed my life drastically and has taught me to go outside of my comfort zone. I wouldn't be who I am today without this life philosophy.

2. Sleep early! Have good time management and self-control to do so
Very simple and direct lesson. Some may even say it is common sense.
It is rather funny that I would learn this lesson from a video game, but I sure did.

Explanation
In Stardew Valley, if you go to bed later than 1AM, you oversleep and wake up with half your energy bar filled as opposed to max.

I was very ambitious and wanted to complete the most I can
So I was always very reluctant to go to bed at 12AM. Considering travel time, it would already be past 1AM when I returned home. However, the game forced me to get in the habit of sleeping at 12AM.

Application in real life
Consequently, it forced me to adapt two important habits in life:

 ▪ Self-Control
Stop working when it is 11PM and start heading home!
It was very difficult. There are always errands to attend to!
But no excuses! Pack your bags and head home

 ▪ Time Management
Even if I head home at 12AM, I wouldn't make it before 1AM
So this forced me to plan ahead of time and consider travel time and plants' maturity time for which to farm in each season.

Stardew Valley's mechanism for sleeping late resembles real life significantly.
Sure, we don't see energy bars floating next to us in real life but we undoubtedly would feel tired and more irritated after not sleeping enough. We have all been there before!

Before I realized, I was also going to bed earlier in real life.
"Wait, I want to finish a video game mission first"
Nope, do it tomorrow. It is 12AM now.

Indirectly, video games (ironically) had helped me improve my time management and self-control and a good habit of getting more sleep!

Thank you video games and video game developers!
Much love <33

The Assassin's Creed franchise has been an boon to Historians, specifically I have used Assassin's Creed III for a American Architrcture class to get a better feel for how the colonial (Northeast United States) buildings looked in the colonial time. Moreover Liberation, Black Flag, and Freedom Cry expanded to the Caribbean and allows a look at French, Spanish and Creole architecture in New Orleans, Havana, and Port Au Prince.This franchise has taught me much about history, not just architecture, by providing a living historical narrative that can be walked through and expiranced in a way that is not truly comparable to a written narrative. showing how people of that time dressed, what the buildings looked like, the materials used to build them, and what social spaces looked like and who occupied them, etc. Assassin's Creed should be assigned in schools or some version of this digital history. I would have been so much more engaged in the material as a young adult if it was in a medium that i was already immersed in and comfortable with, Video Games.

One of my all-time favorite games, FTL, taught me two things: it is possible to do everything right and still lose (as anyone who's encountered a ship with beam drones on their first jump with the stealth cruiser could tell you), and perseverance against all odds can make victory all the sweeter.

For a bonus, Into the Breach taught me that there is often a clever solution to your problem if you're willing to look for long enough.

To save, save, save. This I learned early in life playing many games, but specifically Sierra adventure games. Never fun spending hours only to find out you took the wrong path.

Today, I'm making frequent back ups, archives, etc to save myself pain and anguish...especially when making big modifications and edits. One misstep and it's game over man, game over!

Ultra hard games like Hollow Knight helped me redefine my expectations and how I gauge success. They also helped me redefine "as rage-filled as I can get".

Video games taught me that you should always wait a bit before buying some hot new game or piece of tech. No Man's Sky sure wasn't worth 60 bucks at launch, but it sure was worth the 6 bucks I paid for it four months after launch!

Also that save scumming makes for a pretty neat episode of Rick & Morty.

Games taught me to look for solutions to problems outside the box.

Games like Half-Life 2 and Oblivion definitely helped me gain greater joy of isolation when walking in remote places and not being so fearful of being lost in the unknown.

I've learned from Dark Souls to look both ways when entering a room to beware of ambushes. I also learned that if at first you don't succeed, die, die again!

I took games that are brutally difficult and applied the skills I learned to create my own charity/business.

Old school snes/sega brutal games that don't have checkpoints, even newer games like dark souls, have taught me that persistence is key. I have taken these strategies; never give up, strive to keep going until I win, and failure only makes me stronger in real life. When I fail, I take it as a learning experience and see what I did wrong, check my strategy and attack the situation again. While I was a Marine I made many mistakes, but each time I learned from them and obtained great success from it. No matter how many times I fail or get knocked down in a game or in life, I take it as a great opportunity to learn and get stronger for the next attempt. I used to only try in games and would fail in life, but once I took this mentality and applied it to my life I noticed massive changes for the positive.

Back in the early 00s, Diablo 2 gave me the push to learn to touchtype, since communication is important, but there's so little time to spare when things are going on in an action game.

Consuming enough power drinks before a staff meeting gives you enough boost to engage your super, complete your combo, and fire off your ultimate for a flawless 2-0 victory in the discussion.