Gaming as a Skill

As you may or may not be aware of, there is a lot of debate and going back and forth among the people of our society on the concept of people gaming, what gaming does, and how it affects us.
There's a lot of ways to try to answer this abstract question, but I feel there's only one facet of it I can really cover well.
I'd like to talk a bit about the talents that individuals learn from playing games. I will give specific examples, and more general ones to give you a good idea of what I'm getting at.

This topic was inspired by Jane McGonigal's TED Talk about how gaming can make a better world.




I often have heard of children, teens, and even adults who receive a lot of criticism for their enjoyment of games. I've heard a lot of responses from skeptical individuals toward these people that sound like this:

"There's so many more productive things you could be doing."

"When will these ever help you in the real world?"

"It's unhealthy for you, you should be playing outside."

"This won't help you get a good career!"

Imagine that you hear things like this each day, and you constantly receive this skepticism and ridicule from people who don't understand what makes gaming such a beneficial activity. You would not feel very good about gaming at that point. I'm sure if you're anything like me you'd tell them you don't care and continue playing the games. Good.

Games teach a lot of valuable skills and lessons. These skills and lessons are able to manifest within our material world, regardless of if they manifest well in the digital world. I'll use myself as an example of this, to better illustrate my point. I will use several game examples for each skill I learned from playing games, and explain how it taught me that skill.

One of the skills able to be obtained easiest from games is the skill of cooperation. Cooperation doesn't seem like a hard skill to learn, but given the competitive nature of society in a lot of dynamics it can be pretty grueling to try and be the team player.
The games that taught me cooperation are far and wide, but I will list five of the biggest influences on this element.

1. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
2. World of Warcraft
3. Minecraft
4. Halo 2
5. Warframe

These games are all pretty different from one another in terms of gameplay. But each one helped solidify the element of cooperation within my mind for achieving my goals. Each of these games have trials and obstacles within them to guide a player and show them the power of working together. Whether this was online with other players, or offline with a team of different characters, it still taught the same important dynamic of the strength of teamwork.

The second skill I learned from games was leadership. Oftentimes it is not understood how someone can become an effective leader. But in games, we as gamers witness characters in the story who are powerful leaders, as well as witness other players who lead their teams well. Through this observation, or participation in leading others within a game, we learn how to lead an effort with others better than normal.
The games that taught me this skill the best would be the following:

1. Counterstrike: Source
2. World of Warcraft
3. EVE Online
4. Runescape
5. Neverwinter Nights

There were a lot of people I met along the way in these games and a lot of teams I led or was a part of throughout my experience. I rarely ever encountered someone leading a team badly. There are plenty of games nowadays that rely more on teamwork and leadership than these games do. I'm mostly referring to the giant influx of MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games such as League of Legends, SMITE, Heroes of Newerth, DOTA, etc.
Through the playing of these games, I've learned a lot about how to effectively manage working alongside or above others. I can manage workflow better. I can give better feedback and help the improvement of those I'm leading more effectively.

The last skill I'll address here, and probably the most important one, is friendship. I learned how to communicate, bond, and interact with people easier through playing games. The ability to bond with people and make connections is probably one of the most important skills in today's society. We are constantly at a need to expand our network, to get our name out there, and to show people that we are interesting and worth spending time with.

I won't list any games for this last skill since I can barely think of any games that don't teach this skill that I play. I think every game teaches this, or at least encourages the player to develop this skill. I have so many friends I make just from playing games that I never have a lack of people to talk to or interact with.

You hear often in our society about people who can't work with others, who can't lead effectively, and who don't have any friends. Wouldn't this world be better if everybody obtained these skills?