There are many articles across the internet teaching, beginning gamers how to do things. There are countless word salads about how players can be better at games. There are plenty of tutorials about building the best PC for gaming, and there are myriad articles about how to accessorize a gaming desk . There are even articles on how long you should sit in front of a screen. With so much information teaching people how to be a better gamer, let’s also take a minute to look at the life lessons that gamers can teach us.
1) Becoming More Solution-Oriented
Gamers have a fantastic ability, ground into them from the instant they pick up a controller or grip their mouse and keyboard. Gamers instinctively hunt for a solution. In the world of games, there are always problems, and those problems always have solutions. There are no obstacles that can’t be overcome, as long as you are looking for the path forward, you will find it. While gaming knowledge doesn’t always translate into real-world experience, it does ingrain a confident attitude about how to approach a problem.
2) Never Be Afraid To Fail
Gamers also can teach us a valuable lesson about failure. A gamer never fails until they’ve quit playing the game. If a player is fully engaged with the game they are playing, it won’t matter how many times the failure state is reached. They will go again and again until they achieve victory. The “Dark Souls” game franchise was marketed around this concept, and the people who love “Dark Souls” do so because every failure is teaching you something new and valuable.
Every loss to a boss is just an incremental step toward a no-hit curb-stomping victory. While gamers, for the most part, don’t like to lose, to most, a death in-game is not a loss because they get to keep trying. That’s an excellent way to view failure in general and is key to leveraging your talents and learn how to be successful in whatever you want to do.
3) Be Willing To Ask For Help
No one crowdsources a solution, quite like gamers. With the advent of the internet, gamers have been putting their heads together to unwind gameplay statistics, make tables for specializing character builds, and get the word out to other players if a patch has wrecked something. If you need proof, look no further than the “Pokemon” franchise.
If you need another example of the power of gamers, take a look at what happened when Destiny 2 was throttling experience gain once you hit the level cap. After that patch was implemented, a group of dedicated players used the scientific method to make a hypothesis and had hundreds of players test the theory until the math unequivocally proved that shenanigans were taking place. Teamwork makes the dream work.
4) Gamers and Charitable Giving
Many game streamers do fundraising events for charities. Games Done Quick has raised 22.3 million dollars at the time of this writing. Streamers, big and small, rally their fans for charitable causes that they believe in and have driven some of the largest donations to charitable organizations in the last decade. It shows that gamers have big hearts and a lot to give. It’s a good thing to learn that if you have the means, you should help who you can.
5) Upholding Values Such As Fariness
Gamer’s also have a keen sense of fairness. A good portion of games is based on clear and consistent rules. Gamers have gotten used to these conditions, and recognize when rules are tossed out the window. Players get upset if a game is inconsistent with their rules, or if those rules make the game impossible to play. Gamers are quick to twig when something is fishy and thrive in situations where rules are clear, unambiguous, and easy to follow. If there’s a flaw in a system, odds are a gamer will tell you where it is after some serious consideration.
Gamers have a lot to teach, more than just these five things, and it’s good to remember that gamers aren’t wasting their time with gaming. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and everyone enjoys different ways to spend their free time. Don’t be so ready to dismiss people who enjoy holding a controller or sit for hours behind a gaming desk. We all have something worth teaching, and we all get better the more we learn from each other.
