Games Represent the Human Spirit

   If you'd rather watch this than read it, check out this link: https://youtu.be/D9fX1yWP3WI

    For all of my life, skill-building has been a pivotal source of my fulfillment in life. The only reliable source of this I had was video games. All of the other real-life methods of improving myself as I grew up were either deemed too dangerous or I didn’t have the knowledge, nor desire to learn said knowledge, to improve at the things that I did have within my control. So the result? I ended up playing over 13318 hours, or 510 days, on steam - even more, if we count things outside of steam. Games are a representation of life, that’s why we like them, and I continue that thought by saying games can provide the lesson of struggle and growth. It’s like miniature representations of the human spirit. 

Before I continue, I want to preface that I encourage people to get away from games to focus on real-life IF POSSIBLE (I felt that within my strict household, I’d do nothing but stare at the wall and have no friends if I didn’t play. More on this later.). It’s just that I spent so much experience playing them that they have undoubtedly influenced how I view the world. Anyway, preface done, onto the article.

So here are a few anecdotes of me learning how to learn from video games.

 It all started on Counter Strike Source, I was on a surfing server and little me saw all of these other players doing all sorts of crazy 360s, flying high into the sky in this virtual environment. I was struck. This is my first conscious memory of playing video games and, more importantly, trying to learn something that I did not know how to do.

Eventually, I learned how to surf, I don’t remember if I was any good, but I do remember feeling very good about spending the time to learn. I don’t remember finding anything on youtube at the time since I was like 5 years old (2005), so all I had were forums and the other players. I’d spend a ton of time on these maps essentially dying over and over again, trying to figure out what keys to press, how to maneuver my mouse, and all the fancy ways to accelerate and decelerate when I needed to. In the end, I learned, and this marked the beginning of a pattern that would continue to go on until the present: the joys of skill-building.

I remember another distinct moment of this, this time in my adolescents. My group of gamer friends had migrated from the Xbox to the PC and we were trying to figure out what games were good. One of those games was DOTA 2, a MOBA created by valve. If I recall correctly, we played 3 games and did nothing but absolutely lose. It had been a long time since I lost like that on the Xbox I was relatively good at the games I played. So once again, I dusted off that part of my brain that liked to learn and got to work. I don’t know what my win rate was, but I remember feeling like I lost just about every game in my head. If “I” won, it was usually because someone on my team was very good. Still, I stuck it out until I wasn’t an absolute dead weight. Then, one day, after years of playing this game, I realized that I was pretty good at it. 

My final and most recent case of video games feeding this desire to skill build is in Tekken 7. I dabbled in some fighting games in the past, but I never really enjoyed them, a close friend (my current roommate)encouraged me to start playing them. And once again, I got hooked. I spent a ton of time playing the game, losing constantly to players better than me - all for the sake of trying to get better to increase my rank. Some days I’d do great, some days I’d get totally thrashed, but I kept trying over and over again. 500 hours later and about 1 year since I started, I became a pretty decent Tekken player within my group. 

So why did I just paragraph dump you with a few stories of my past of how I built skills in skill building? It’s simple, because, despite the fact that I did not have a chance to improve in real life, I was able to learn what it takes through skill building through these games. See, none of these endeavors were easy. All of these games always resulted in me getting angry at teammates and being critical of myself to improve along with all the stress and anxiety that comes with that. In a way, I learned that getting better at something is hard.

As of right now, I have 12255 hours, or 510 days, on steam. And that’s just steam alone, this doesn’t include browser games or time spent on League of Legends, blizzard or phone games. Nor does it include the time thinking or talking about games, none of that. So this number is probably selling itself short by 40%. And all of that time I spent on games I always remember trying to do this as optimally as possible, trying to be better. This is why I argue that games can teach you how to learn. 

Now, I know that not everyone plays games like this, some people just play for pleasure and story. That’s for a different type of person, I’d much rather read a book or watch a case study of someone in real life. But for those that like improving at games, those that put hours and hours into trying to get better, I strongly urge you to take that energy and apply it to something in real life. You’re probably not going to go pro with games, if you are, then you already know if you’re that person, but everyone else can take this energy, this sort of human spirit, and apply it to real life. 

At this point in my life, I think that there are better things to improve on rather than video games, in fact, I want to make it clear that I’m trying to stop playing them all together to skill-build in real life (the place where it really matters), but the fact is that video games can teach you this process as well. Again, this is not a suggestion or green card to play more games. If you’re an adult or an adolescent free of strict parents, you should learn skills in real life that will make you more fulfilled. There’s nothing wrong with using games as a way to relax, but if you’re spending hours and hours of your days like I was, then consider if you’re truly happy. It took me years to figure out that I wasn’t. If you are, then great! You’re sure as well winning a lot sooner than I did at life. But if you find you’re not happy building skills in the virtual world, then come join me and all the other self-improvers in making your life better!

Stay tuned for the next article and see you next time!