Games that can have (have had) a positive impact on your life

[AlexM]

With a recent purchase of 'Ring Fit', which has made me want to exercise (too early to talk about gains), I started thinking about other games that can benefit me outside of 'gaming'. 

 

I'm sure I reasoned, years ago, that buying Racing Games & a Wheel will allow me to learn the Nurburgring (amongst other tracks) ready for my next visit there - I haven't been back to the Ring for 10 years, and I still haven't learnt the track. I will be now be making a conscious effort to use some of my gaming time to learn the track.

 

I am keen to improve on the Piano, and learn a spoken language, I wonder if these activities can be gamified as well. 

 

What games are you using that provide benefits to your life outside of gaming? 

[Darwock]

Keyboardmania, Drummania. The controllers for those two Bemani games are the real deal (obviously the most basic versions thereof) so unlike Guitar Freaks, the skills you develop can transfer to the real instruments.

[joffocakes]

Street Fighter IV, mostly because I made a lot of great friends through learning and competing together. Developing an understanding of how fighting games work also changed my approach to learning new things and self-critique in general. Added bonus of having a greater appreciation of the genre as a whole so I'm happy to play even the worst fighters from the 16bit era for hours; that's free entertainment.

 

Agreed on Ring Fit as well; was  working great for my wife and I until we moved flat and I didn't unpack it. I should; it's great and exhausting (and a better "videogame" than I anticipated too).

 

Maybe I'll get the new Rocksmith. And, uh, a guitar.

[ImmaculateClump]

Shmups are great for teaching yourself how to cope with anxiety in a safe environment, and you can't play them very well when you're wrecked.

[Ry]

Hmmm. 

 

Only Box VR and Beat Sabre for some fitness. 

 

Normal games have never made me have some life changing experience. 

[AlexM]

42 minutes ago, Ry said:

Hmmm. 

 

Only Box VR and Beat Sabre for some fitness. 

 

Normal games have never made me have some life changing experience. 

I recently purchased Beat Sabre for that purpose, how do you compare that to BoxVR? At £7.50 I'm tempted to pick it up, although I really don't need any more games. 

[AlexM]

1 hour ago, joffocakes said:

Street Fighter IV, mostly because I made a lot of great friends through learning and competing together. Developing an understanding of how fighting games work also changed my approach to learning new things and self-critique in general. Added bonus of having a greater appreciation of the genre as a whole so I'm happy to play even the worst fighters from the 16bit era for hours; that's free entertainment.

Could you break down your new approach to learning and self-critique? I'm intrigued. 

[Ry]

3 minutes ago, AlexM said:

I recently purchased Beat Sabre for that purpose, how do you compare that to BoxVR? At £7.50 I'm tempted to pick it up, although I really don't need any more games. 

 

Box VR (or FITVR as its now known) is a much better workout. But is fun in its own right. Has solid online multiplayer. I still do boxing training and love boxing so it's great for me to play. If you have have no technique you might struggle at higher levels if you are score chasing. Regardless, you will get a good wee workout. 

 

I used to play for an hour twice a week (in between shadow boxing and actual heavy bag work) and it certainly burns the calories. 

 

Beat Sabre is a better game and more fun. Especially if you add your own songs. Still can get you sweating though if you put your heart into it. 

[Mr. Gerbik]

My mother in law is an historian and grew up in Italy. Thus, she knows a lot about Italian history. Early in our relationship, long before we married, missus Gerbik and I visited her parents around the same time that I was completely absorbed in Assassin's Creed 2. Well. I made an incredible impression on her mum, I was able to name so many historical events, places, and people. She was astonished that i had never visited Italy and that I hadn't studied Italian history. "Ah, it's just a subject that I find interesting" I think I said. Something along those lines.

 

Long story short, I've been the best of friends with my parents-in-law ever since and I've been married to missus Gerbik for 6 years now.

 

[AlexM]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

My mother in law is an historian and grew up in Italy. Thus, she knows a lot about Italian history. Early in our relationship, long before we married, missus Gerbik and I visited her parents around the same time that I was completely absorbed in Assassin's Creed 2. Well. I made an incredible impression on her mum, I was able to name so many historical events, places, and people. She was astonished that i had never visited Italy at that point and that I hadn't studied Italian history. "Ah, it's just a subject that I find interesting" I think I said. Something along those lines.

 

Long story short, we've been married 6 years now.

 

Impressive, I remember almost nothing from that game. I did at several points in your post get the impression you'd married your mother in law, very confusing it was. 

[Jazz Glands]

The first Red Dead Redemption got me through a really bad bout of depression a decade or so. Being able to lose myself in that world was such an escape at the time and I’ve never been quite that low since, happily. 

[Darwock]

I was thinking how if you substituted Italy/Italians with Japan/Japanese in that anecdote, the effect would have been very different.

 

Lucky that Italy is not known for attracting weirdos that are into videogames and obsess over the culture!

[Mortis]

Everything about Japanese culture I’ve learned from yakuza games - please don’t tell me they aren’t accurate portrayals. 

[Gabe]

I've said this before in a similar thread, but the Europa Universalis series taught me so much about history and really ignited a hitherto unknown interest in the subject too. For example, prior to playing those games I never knew that 'Italy' hadn't existed as a unified country for a long, long time before the 1850s or that Austria was a massive deal in Europe for hundreds of years, or that Spain used to control the United Provinces (and that there was a United Provinces!)

 

I've visited a number of places in real life too, where my only interest was generated through knowledge gained from the game (i.e. Vienna).

 

I'm forever grateful for taking a punt on the first game (I don't even know why I did), because it has led to a real thirst for exploring the past. 

[AlanT]

PUBG for me.  First time played a proper battle Royale game but non of my mates played on Xbox.  Posted on this forum for online friends and met some amazing people some of which are my best mates to this day.  Without that game I wouldn’t have met them 

[joffocakes]

55 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

My mother in law is an historian and grew up in Italy. Thus, she knows a lot about Italian history. Early in our relationship, long before we married, missus Gerbik and I visited her parents around the same time that I was completely absorbed in Assassin's Creed 2. Well. I made an incredible impression on her mum, I was able to name so many historical events, places, and people. She was astonished that i had never visited Italy at that point and that I hadn't studied Italian history. "Ah, it's just a subject that I find interesting" I think I said. Something along those lines.

 

Long story short, we've been married 6 years now.

 

You married your mother-in-law?

[phillv85]

The Total War games have helped my geography immensely. I used to have no interest in geography, mainly because in school it was a class about rocks and other such shite. About 2000 hours across the Total War series and I’m pretty good now (excluding anything south of the Sahara)

[Mr. Gerbik]

1 hour ago, AlexM said:

Impressive, I remember almost nothing from that game. I did at several points in your post get the impression you'd married your mother in law, very confusing it was. 

 

11 minutes ago, joffocakes said:

 

You married your mother-in-law?

No, my wife. Edited for reading clarity.

[Floshenbarnical]

GTA V introduced me to some of the best blokes I know, from this very forum.

 

Elite: Dangerous taught me:

 

- The power of research

- The power of preparation

- The courage to head off into the black by myself

- Always to buy good insurance

[Siri]

To be honest, I'd say playing Tony Hawk games when I was a kid, Guitar Hero (to a lesser extent, as I was already headfirst into metal) as a big kid and Hotline Miami as a bigger kid has shunted around my musical tastes somewhat and has made me a lot more accepting of genres and not being overly dismissive of music outside of my comfort zone.

Playing way too many RPGs as a teenager gave me a broader grasp of vocabulary as well, I guess. I wouldn't have said it's good vocab with how translations were back then, but it was broad.

[catinthehat]

World of Warcraft for me.  I made friends in those few early years that I've been close with ever since.  We're spread all over Europe, but meet up at least a couple of times a year to just talk nonsense and share some happy memories (well, we did before the dark times, before the empire).  None of us have played the game for at least 10 years, but we still chat every day on our private Discord server.  I owe that game a lot.

[nakamura]

From a purely fun perspective, Winning Eleven games were the best times. 2001-2006 especially. 

[Yobo Ahoy]

5 hours ago, Mortis said:

Everything about Japanese culture I’ve learned from yakuza games - please don’t tell me they aren’t accurate portrayals. 

 

On a serious note I feel like I have a near encyclopaedic knowledge of Japanese food because of Yakuza. No other game makes me so god damn hungry! 

 

 

 

[Darwock]

7 hours ago, joffocakes said:

 

You married your mother-in-law?

This is a paradox I have never encountered before. If you did marry your mother-in-law, her mother would be your mother-in-law, and so it would not be her that you married.

 

I suppose it works if you divorce from your current wife in order to marry your *former* mother-in-law.

[ImmaculateClump]

Marrying your wife seems a bit pointless as well. I don't think the marriage perk stacks.

[BeeJay]

Civ II was a big one for me. I'd never really played a turn based strategy before and had no interest in history or geography at the time. I wasn't in to reading and my parents weren't academic so conversations about ancient civilisations or even technology development never happened. I'd say the most important influences in the game for me were learning about the technology developments and wonders.

 

The game is a great example of starting the breadcrumb trail of discovery. It doesn't directly provide a lot of information but just provides enough to spark the interest.

 

Someone mentioned Assassin's Creed II earlier and I'd also agree with that for similar reasons.

 

I'd also say Mass Effect 2/3. I forget which one specifically to be honest, but both games prompted me to become much more conscious about our place in the universe and was the first game series that I felt like the decisions had meaningful analogy to the real world. It prompted me to think much more about my biases and how my upbringing impacted my world view.

[Soulstar]

On 08/07/2021 at 21:38, Yobo Ahoy said:

 

On a serious note I feel like I have a near encyclopaedic knowledge of Japanese food because of Yakuza. No other game makes me so god damn hungry! 

 

 

Ive not played that but Odin Sphere has been making me hungry as of late. Crafting recipes....bloody churros when they come out on a plate and the chocolate covered ones. Then the detailed animations of the main characters eating the food at a table. 

[Qazimod]

I guess DJ Hero broadened my knowledge of EDM and also got me more interested in beatmatching - I’ve made over a hundred shitty mashups on my YouTube channel and I did have some Numark turntables for a little while until they dropped support for them.  
 

To echo @joffocakes - Street Fighter IV at the height of the Super/AE madness was pretty special. I don’t play fighters quite as much these days (wifi shame  ) but I do still keep an eye on things that look like fun.