Strategy games: Develop Real Life Skills
When life pushes you, what do you do? Are you the kind of person who cries for help? Are you the kind of person who stands there like the deer in the headlights and hopes for a bailout that isn't coming? Or are you the kind of person who takes a deep breath and then pushes life right back?
This were a few lines written by Robert Lewis Webbe on the Forum of a very popular online strategy game http://apps.facebook.com/realmofempires which inspired me to ponder on that fact whether On line role playing strategy games help you develop real life skills or not ?
For many people obstacles in their life prevent them from being able to complete certain task. Those people who play computer games however tend to look at problems not so much as obstacles but as challenges! Strategy games by their very nature regularly put obstacles somewhat similar to real life issues and players have to take decisions, create relationships, deal diplomatically, work in a team hence making them accept that they will regularly face problems which they will need to overcome in order to progress through the rest of the game.
It is this alternative way of looking at problems as challenges rather than as obstacles which has led many people to believe that playing such computer games actually provides valuable opportunities for online gamers to develop their life skills for the real world, and become people better adapted at dealing with the inevitable flood of obstacles and issues in their way.
This were a few lines written by Robert Lewis Webbe on the Forum of a very popular online strategy game http://apps.facebook.com/realmofempires which inspired me to ponder on that fact whether On line role playing strategy games help you develop real life skills or not ?
For many people obstacles in their life prevent them from being able to complete certain task. Those people who play computer games however tend to look at problems not so much as obstacles but as challenges! Strategy games by their very nature regularly put obstacles somewhat similar to real life issues and players have to take decisions, create relationships, deal diplomatically, work in a team hence making them accept that they will regularly face problems which they will need to overcome in order to progress through the rest of the game.
It is this alternative way of looking at problems as challenges rather than as obstacles which has led many people to believe that playing such computer games actually provides valuable opportunities for online gamers to develop their life skills for the real world, and become people better adapted at dealing with the inevitable flood of obstacles and issues in their way.
This can be well argued by a successful person well suited to the real world and who has never touched any game that it is a mere waste of time. No doubt about it ! Real life is the best practice one could possibly get from real life situations, and no matter how realistic and well programmed a computer game is still a game but the life skills taught and the lessons learnt within an environment of a strategy game like http://apps.facebook.com/realmofempires is an echo of the skills real life will teach you.
The argument is that someone who plays a computer game is more likely to look at a problem in their own life, or a mistake that they may have made, as an opportunity to develop, learn, and get it right next time, whereas non gamers are, perhaps, on the whole more likely to simply see an obstacle, and ignore it, or just stop whatever project they're on.
However, the essential point to this is that, rather than simply being a leisure activity which wastes time, or is no good except for its own purpose, there is some merit in playing games, and in some cases they may have more to teach us than we currently realise. There are very much two distinct camps debating and both sides have valid truths.
However, the essential point to this is that, rather than simply being a leisure activity which wastes time, or is no good except for its own purpose, there is some merit in playing games, and in some cases they may have more to teach us than we currently realise. There are very much two distinct camps debating and both sides have valid truths.
Once we are able to put aside the essential differences and prejudices, we may find that not only do some interesting studies and understandings develop, but that the future of gaming may be influenced in such a way that valuable lessons for life are specifically introduced or developed further specially for the new generation who have lost the patience to deal with issues calmly and patiently in this fast net savvy world..
No comments:
Post a Comment