When I was a kid my dad had a copy of "The guild", which I was allowed to play from time to time.
Besides teaching me a bit of history, which was useful in school, the game teached me most and foremost how economics worked, like saving up, building up a business, expanding, trading, taking loans, the need to pay interests etc.
But I first realised later in life that this knowledge actually was useful to stay out of real life economical problems...

Other than that: Well, I enjoy games with puzzles and challenges, especially if those force you to think out of the box. Learning to solve problems by looking at them from different angles and connecting the dots is always useful. Who knows? Maybe you'll even find several working solutions for your problem. Wouldn't be surprised if this kind of "training" has from time to time helped me to make things work in real life and to develop a proper frustration tolerance.

#Hacknet has helped I learn more about scripting in my new Linux install, and... SSH. I learned from their commands and examples and now I have a better idea of what my terminal should look like!

Once I was in a team spelling bee and "conch" was the word we were asked to spell. It was a "sudden-death" style tie breaker, meaning that whichever team got one more correct answer than the other team would win.

I knew how to spell conch because my brother and I had been playing plenty of Jaws for NES earlier that year, in which you use the conch shells as a form of currency.

Unfortunately, my other teammates were unfamiliar with the word, but they all agreed that it made the most sense to spell it "caunch" instead.

Let's just say that my team did not win that spelling bee.

From Civilization, several examples of dynamics happening throughout History. To name one example, some aspects of war between distant countries in the Modern Age (before the XVIII century).

Apparently there are teachers that have used Civilization as a tool in their History classes (I think I read this in Time a while ago).

EDIT: After reading about a fellow GOGer's concern about the contest in this other thread, I think the issue merits reflection. So, does the fact that we are telling a true story mean that it cannot compete with someone else's story that might appear to be more interesting? Really?

That would be a way of looking at it. On the other hand, it is really up to us. What do we make of our experience playing games? for years?

Is it someone sitting on a chair watching a screen? Just that? or is it someone being made to smile by what they are seeing or, better, being a part of? How much emotion, drama, mischief has been going on? Did you learn that another world was possible? or that there are many worlds, some of them reachable only by an effort of one's imagination? Did you join the armies of Caesar? Did you fight in D-Day in the first line? Have you piloted machines of fabulous power? Have you conquered empires? Have you seen the realm that you cared for reduced to ashes? Did you dance with death itself, throwing yourself form platform to platform in improbable somersaults? Did you find that you had really achieved something? Did you find meaning by going further than you had gone before?

Where did games come from? A store? some place you liked? surely not thin air? Who gave them to you? Where they gifts, exchanges, purchases? Did you save to have them? Did you have all the games you wanted? Did you ever have to choose? Did you get to meet people because of games, online or in the flesh?

Did you learn something about yourself while you were so engaged? Something about the vast world beyond the place where you played? Did you seek and find refuge from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" in fantastic worlds where stories had a chance to end well, or at least, satisfactorily? Did you crave worlds where even the most complex rules were ultimately easier to learn, and outcomes easier to predict than the vast, fuzzy, possibly absurd if we let it be so, world outside the door? Did you brought back some skills, noticed or unnoticed by you at the time?

Did you ever think about when to play and when not, and did that mean something to you? Were you comforted, outraged, amazed, delighted, excited, entertained, bored, chaffed, disappointed, enlightened, inspired, left wondering?

What parts of your soul might have been different without games? What kind of person would you be? What have games meant to you and what do they mean now? Do you seek to try out new things? To be entertained? To get back to fun moments of the past? To learn something new? Do you play for killing time or you fire up DOOM or its brethren because it is "killing time"? :-)

Your story with games, if it comes from life, may well be full of shortcomings (in some aspects), success (partial), failure (partial), drama (until outcomes are certain), happiness (for a while), tragedy (but not forever), absurdity (blind luck catching us unawares), meaning (if we could find it or build it). You can tell it humorously, sincerely, seriously, touchingly, informatively, briefly, extensively, morosely, hopefully... or maybe in your own way that can be several of these ways combined or be your own thing. The way that you choose to look at the events in your life is up to you, and the way that you choose to tell your story is up to you as well. It is your story, it is unique and you are the one to weave it. Good luck.

When I was in high school, I played through the original Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Later that year, I needed a subject for a paper for my Composition class - the final one of the year, so it needed to be thorough and lengthy. I chose Voodoo as the subject, and used the sources from GK's bibliography for most of my research. It was pretty solid, actually.

I got a B+ on the paper, if I remember correctly, which was slightly disappointing, but then again, having had a solid jumping-off point for my research took a lot of stress out of the process, so I was happy enough with it.

I learnt that 'one more turn' in turn-based strategies usually means a sleepless night. :)

Playing Catherine back then vaccinated me against marriage and similar commitments!
Many of those nightmare stages and their respective bossfights still give me creeps. Many good lessons and early warnings to be found in that game.

In video games, but also outside.

I write for a big publication in English, once a month (for reasons of protecting my anonymity of my "gaming" life, I can't give details, sorry - it is not a typical journalism, however, rather a website that is aimed at a special audience interested in a certain hobby - nothing NSFW however). I also write tor two magazines about the same topic - one in English and one in German.

So, you already know what comes next: Starting with Super Mario Bros., continuing with Apogee games, MS-DOS, other game in English language also, I... learned English from video games and computer usage.

In fact, I even got into arguments at school (in Germany), as I insisted that it is "color" and not "colour", as I of course learned American English - not British, as taught in Germany.

Of course, only with the advent of the internet at my home this got perfected, when I was already an adult. Thanks to movies and videos in American English, I looked up things I didn't understand. Of course, in 2009 I found a girlfriend in an online MMO who is from the US. Still hoping we can meet eventually. But at least our relationship lasts.

tl;dr: Video games taught me - a German - the American English language.

Puzzle and point&click taught me logic and out-of-the-box thinking.
RPGs and adventure games enticed me to learn english.
Platformers and action games improved my reflexes and sense of direction.
Stategy and building sims taugh me some planning.
Stealth and horror games.. showed me to be more calm and careful I guess?
Space sims were useful.. uh.. for better undersanding tridimensional maps?
Sport and racing games.. nothing, because I'm still bad at them like IRL XD

Here's something that I learned from Codename: ICEMAN, and that I use constantly when I go vote during elections, or when I need to see my personal doctor, which has his office in a military hospital, so security is stricter than usual.

Whenever somebody handles your ID Card, make certain when you get it back, that it is actually your correct ID card. In Codename: ICEMAN you need to use your ID card to get past a guard. When you are done, you go back and the guard gives you back your ID. However in this case the guard makes a mistake and gives you the wrong ID. If you don't check, the game continues normally, and it isn't until the very near end of the game, when you need to use you ID card again, that you discover that you have the wrong one, and can't progress further. And by the way, there is no way of going back to get it because you're on a submarine. You would have to load a save file, or start a new playthrough to see the ending.

What I have learned through the main three entries of the Brothers in Arms series is, every man, has a breaking point. Every man, no matter which branch of life they come, no matter how sturdy one can be, how resistant to pain, stress and trauma, at one point...you just break. Matt Baker, a strong, reliable man, saw how his squad fell, one by one. Had seen his best friend die, had listened to Leggett that he was responsible for the death of Allen and Garnet and promised to keep it a secret, every death, anyone could see weighed heavily upon him, but he stood strong, even later on, when marching into the Netherlands after the failure of Market Garden, when his other best friend and second in command Hartsock became a paraplegic, that he broke completely, haunted each night by the faces of the dead, the guilt of Leggett's death and that of Frankie, of Allen, Garnet and Risner, and of Obrieski, it all came down. It taught me that, in the end, a tough exterior is only a temporary ruse to give us strength, because deep down, we are vulnerable, we are human, and sometimes we just have to break out of the shell and be just that, otherwise we loose everything that makes us just that.

Games like Star Control inspired me to learn programming in school - a simple space fight game similar to Star Control was one of the first projects I created once I had learned how to code graphics primitives. Playing long-form games like RPGs (Ultima series, SSI's Gold Box AD&D games) also helped learn perseverance to stick with see such projects to the end. These skills have provided me with several work opportunities later on.

When I was a bit younger, they were a video club where we can rent movies and video games. There was that game on that shelve, The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask. What I learn through the journey of that game. Every character of that game has a story to tell and worth listening, even in moments of crisis. I don’t really have much friend, but I always “stay awhile and listen” someone when they need to talk.

I learned to holster my weapon before talking to people.
Not in.

One word:
Patience!

Okay, another two:
Self confidence!

:-)