What did you learn playing video games?

http://myeslcorner.blogspot.ca/2012/04/digital-games-learning-english-by.html

 Here I will share how games can contribute for the learning and some of my experiences about it. It is important to say that video games have been seen by some people as a bad thing, where you don’t practice any skill, just stay sit playing. The first point against that is that games make you think in a lot of different way. The second point is that you are having fun, so you are in your comfortable zone, that helps a lot to your brain focus in learning and it is easy to think.

The first way of thinking that the video game make you improve is the ability of fast thinking. I can give the First Person Games that usually are seen as violent and inappropriate. In my own experience I learned a lot with these games, they put me in hard situations, where I was concerned or in pressure and need to make a fast and right decision or the other option was lose the game.

A little different the strategy games give you a fast thinking, but not under pressure like you are in FPS games. Imagine you in the middle of shooting for a FPS, and you need get out of there safe. For a strategy game you can imagine a chess that you don’t play with turns, but who play faster and with right moves win the game.

You don’t just improve skills, but you learn languages and other subjects. As a English second language speaker I leaned almost all what I know playing video games or chatting in game. I never had really speak English with someone or did classes before come to Canada. You can learn history or mythology with a lot of games, one example is the Age of Mythology, where you learn about old gods, Greek, Nordic and other mythologies.

People turn more sociable start playing. Mainly people that have social disturbs they feel more comfortable start being sociable by the internet, where they don’t have the eye contact and they are in their private space.

One thing that is very interesting is that the video game players start being much more creative and stop following the common sense. When the non-players people are watching TV or reading the news, but the gamer is playing getting off of the usual routine and world. It can sound silly but I can say that the player escape from the alienation from the big media.

Concluding, the game have a lot of positive points where can improve skills or knowledge, yes, it has the negative points but it is not just that.