next »

[Shambrook]

I also learned a lot from Animal Crossing. For one, if you bury a sack of money in the ground, you can grow a money tree from it.

I learnt from Animal Crossing NEVER TRUST A FUCKING RACOON!

[handCraftedRadio]

I learnt almost everything I know about computers from fiddilng around with them to get games to work, does that count?

Same with me. I used to always mess around with the files and system settings on my uncles computer. I accidently broke two of my favorite games that way, commander keen 4 and alley cat, which he got off of the bulliten boards back in the day. I was never able to play them again until i got my own computer and the internet was invented.

[Super-Dot]

Pokemon taught me the value of the dollar. I am pretty frugal now!

[Soulliard]

Super-Dot: How so? All it taught me was that the key to infinite wealth was surfing along the shore after watching a tutorial.


On Topic: Honestly, I don't think video games are terribly educational. They can make you think and feel, just like any other art form, but as a teaching tool, they usually fall short. I have yet to find a game that's both educational and fun. Even puzzle and strategy games do little for education- they make you think, but they don't impart any useful knowledge, or ultimately change your thought process.

Not that I think this is a problem. I'm happy with using games purely for fun or artistic value, and books and the internet for study.

[Lucaz]

Beyond the standard game skills I've developed, games helped a bit with english, and I learned the history of the templars with Broken Sword, and about New Orleans and voodoo with Gabriel Knight. And some random bits on geology and metalurgy with Dwarf Fortress.

But beyond that, I don't think you can learn much from games.

[agj]

I'm sure there are a lot of other things as well, that just stuck subconciously. I've always been one that believes that one learns better through experience than study and the fact that games offer so much interactive, could explain why things often stick longer than through say study.

Yeah. Experiential learning.

Manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, visual memory, pattern recognition, concrete and abstract reasoning, reaction time, spatial mapping and memory, mental rotation, working memory, visuomotor planning and sequencing, fine motor skills, etc etc etc....

This is a good list.

Some relevant links:

http://www.passig.com/home/nartdetails.aspx?mCatID=18334&nartID=20290
http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=236#more-236
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061226134706.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220012341.htm
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/05/24/video.games.can.make.us.creative.if.spark.right
http://www.valuesatplay.org/
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/348/25/2508
http://learningspaces.org/n/papers/play2.html

[Don Andy]

Haha, I sort of learnt English by playing games. Of course, I'd never be able to write like this without some good dose of school english, but way before that I was already catching up some words and phrases from ordinary video games. They weren't even intended to educate.

Aside from that, actual educating games I enjoyed the most were math ones. There is this one I rediscovered on an old CD just a few days ago. I think Sir Math-A-Lot was the name (or something like that). You were a knight and had to "defeat" a dragon in a number of castles. Every castle was made up of a number of tiles with either questions like 5+1=? or numbers, like 6. To clear them you had to step over the corresponding tiles.
After finishing a "road" (with several castles) you were getting an item or fish for your customizable pond.

I loved that game.

[Hajo]

Haha, I sort of learnt English by playing games.

Me too. Helped me a lot in school, actually.

Overall I'd say games spawned my interest in programming, and later computer science in general. I'd not say games taught me programming, but they made me learn it. To a lesser extend that is true for designs and graphics work.

I'm still bad at hand-eye coordination, and most games are too quick for me. So even if it's a common claim that games help here, they didn't for me.

[Super-Dot]

Super-Dot: How so? All it taught me was that the key to infinite wealth was surfing along the shore after watching a tutorial.

I was a wee lad at the time, so I wouldn't say that my reasoning was perfect, but basically I never spent a cent now because I might need it later. Needless to say, when later came, I assumed that there would be another later. The habit stuck.

So I guess it actually gave me the opportunity to form an irrational fear. But a handy one!

[J.G. Martins]

The Where in the ____ is Carmen Sandiego games were definitely good for geography and common knowledge and the likes. Treasure Mountain I helped you learn english vocabulary and Treasure Mountain II helped you learn basic math. And it was pretty damned fun at the time!

The Super Solver games were also very good in these respects - mostly every game from The Learning Company, methinks.

Seriously, it really helps in all the elements of the lists that have been put here. Comparison with people who haven't had computers or used them when they were young showed me this. I was astounded at the lack of logic reasoning, vision and ability to keep several things in mind at the same time.

Also, things like Lego and similar really do help too!

[mirosurabu]

Yes, Carmen Sandiego series. I have learned a lot of english and geography from them.

[Dugan]

cheese types - from James Pond 3, where levels on the game map were named after various cheeses.

And perhaps Tetris has made me good at packing things?

[Copper8642]

I learned a lot of vocabulary from all sorts of games, history from Age of Empires, and the basics of supply and demand from M.U.L.E.

[SelfTitled]

I work for a company that makes games to teach, from Roman history to naval ship procedures. Company is called Caspian Learning btw. We also made the first 3D facebook game.
http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/