How Gaming Prepared Me for Life
Some people say video games rot your brain, but I think they work different muscles that maybe you don’t normally use.
— Ezra Koenig
In my youth, I sought refuge in games. My childhood was turbulent so it was a comfort to dive into a world that was not real.
There, in the virtual world, I could be anyone. It did not matter that my schoolwork was late, or that my mother was angry. There was no pressure to be someone I wasn’t.
I spent seven years in a game called World of Warcraft. Seven years!
Hiding in my computer for perhaps 5–7 hours a day. In the beginning, it didn’t mean anything, it was just to pass time and hide from reality.
But little did I know that this game would teach me leadership, social skills, help me get my first girlfriend, alleviate my anxiety, and even push to a more extrovert personality.
World of Warcraft.
For those that have never heard of World of Warcraft (WoW). It is a game where thousands of players play together. In one massive world. There are two factions that one can play as, the Horde and the Alliance and in these factions, there are multiple races that you can play as.
When you start playing there will be players playing alongside your character. You can interact with these players seamlessly through chat, trade or even create a party and complete quests and challenges together.
If you want more information you can click here to look at the new player guide for more information.
Social Interaction and Leadership.
This is a big one in WoW. There are quests and dungeons that need multiple people to complete and guilds with very many players in. So you often find yourself in need of a party or other people to help you complete your tasks.
This requires you to talk to and find others that are willing to play with you and that you all understand each other and your role in the team.
Trying to get through several hour-long sessions with others while trying to fight bosses and clearing the dungeons could get frustrating. You could lose several times, analyze together what went wrong and then try again. Over and over until it worked and you found a solution. This even built lasting friendships. And there were many that I played with regularly from all kinds of places in the world.
Guilds
This was when it really started to get serious. I wanted to create a guild, to lead and be on top. Some form of hunger for power was sure to be behind this but it doesn’t matter why. I wanted to, so I did.
Instead of just mass inviting everyone I treated it seriously. I Posted on forums, held interviews and talked a lot to everyone that wanted to join. I Created a forum and website and all of a sudden I wasn’t looking for people to join, they asked me to allow them to join.
It was exhilarating! We traded, formed huge groups to collect items, formed divisions to take care of certain tasks.
In the end, we were 60 people! Online every day interacting all the time. I had a massive responsibility, I had to keep a schedule going every day to make sure who was online. Keep tabs on our stockpile of items so that we could attempt the difficult bosses.
Leaders instill in their people hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.
Looking at my current workload it is not that much different from when I was managing this guild. I take care of scheduling, I have to maintain several internal company communities and I have to make sure that my teams handle their tasks.
It Is What You Make of It
Everyone will have a different experience with this. The 60 people in my guild didn’t learn all the things I did. But they did learn how to work in teams, how to coordinate and communicate effectively and seamlessly between several groups and tasks.
We all have our own journey through gaming but most will gain something from it. Be it a respite from their daily troubles, invaluable skills for the rest of their life, lasting friendships, and even a sense of accomplishment.
There are many people that say games are ruining children today and yes, under no control or supervision games can be extremely addictive. But so can Sugar, alcohol, tv, cigarettes, and even coffee! Everything is bad if done in excess.
Perhaps my consumption of games was unhealthy but here I am with a job, wife, three children, and a good life. I am proud of what I have accomplished thus far and a lot of it can be attributed to games in my youth.
