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Have you ever applied some video game wisdom to solve real-world problems?

Era of not Yakuza

Era of not Yakuza

Banned
Dec 4, 2017
11,481
Brazil


The first thing I remember learning was what a "Door" is thanks to Syphon Filter 1, it was my first step learning English at that time
More recently I remember trying to solve everyday problems in turns after playing a lot Valkyria Chronicles
Believe it or not, I learned that you should not brake when making a turn, you brake before and accelerate as you make the turn (Need for Speed Underground 2)
how to save fuel (Gran Turismo 5)

But seriously, did you ever had a chance to put some good use from something that a game showed to you ?
 
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Grug

Grug

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,645
I reckon I'd be a better chance than the average person to land a plane if I had to. Played a lot of Microprose flight sims as well as X-Plane etc over the years.

I'd need radio guidance of course, but I'd back myself in.
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
27,993
I got a great pic of Michelangelo's David by analyzing the guards movement patterns and view cones. Seriously, I was thinking MGS at the time. The hell with those gift shop prices.
 
Subpar Scrub

Subpar Scrub

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,576
After playing Akiba's trip I could actually find my way around the main streets very well without a map.
 
low-G

low-G

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,144
When I was ~4...


But lots of little things over the years... playing games in Japanese for some language skills, basic firearms operations (I played around with World of Guns before first going to a firing range).
 
Cpt-GargameL

Cpt-GargameL

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,024
Learned how to drive because of NFS: Underground. I told my mom "let me take the car around the Apt complex, I know how to drive" while her and my aunt looked at each other as if I was crazy. Whipped the whip around a bit and they were shocked šŸ¤£ I was 14 at the time.

Also, no one taught me how to drive manual and I drove my very first car 30+ miles on the highway on the way home from the dealership when I was 18. I strictly plaid all racing games in manual.
 
matrix-cat

matrix-cat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,284
I once did the classic adventure game trick when I locked myself out of the house. We had an older door lock with a big old key that stayed in the lock on the inside of the door, so I slipped a piece of paper under the door, poked the key out of the lock from the outside so it would fall onto the piece of paper, then pulled the paper back under the door with the key sitting on it.
 
AlexBasch

AlexBasch

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,310
Throwing grenades and knowing how they bounce in FPS codes has made me an expert on throwing paper balls into the trash bin at the office.
 

_Pow_

Member
Oct 30, 2017
164
a guy I know was pacing about on the phone to his girlfriend at lunchtime and I threw a load of chips (fries for you yanks) at his feet and he got mobbed by pigeons. Was straight out of Far Cry 4
 
OP
OP
Era of not Yakuza

Era of not Yakuza

Banned
Dec 4, 2017
11,481
Brazil
matrix-cat said:
I once did the classic adventure game trick when I locked myself out of the house. We had an older door lock with a big old key that stayed in the lock on the inside of the door, so I slipped a piece of paper under the door, poked the key out of the lock from the outside so it would fall onto the piece of paper, then pulled the paper back under the door with the key sitting on it.
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That was very clever. I remember going to a prohibited area in my school imitating the stealth from Syphon Filter. If I was good enough only the nuns could answer
Grug said:
I reckon I'd be a better chance than the average person to land a plane if I had to. Played a lot of Microprose flight sims as well as X-Plane etc over the years.

I'd need radio guidance of course, but I'd back myself in.
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Cpt-GargameL said:
Learned how to drive because of NFS: Underground. I told my mom "let me take the car around the Apt complex, I know how to drive" while her and my aunt looked at each other as if I was crazy. Whipped the whip around a bit and they were shocked šŸ¤£ I was 14 at the time.

Also, no one taught me how to drive manual and I drove my very first car 30+ miles on the highway on the way home from the dealership when I was 18. I strictly plaid all racing games in manual.
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Sims in general and racing games are probably very helpful, it seems
 
deep_dish

deep_dish

Member
Oct 25, 2017
941
I have had a long time theory that kids in the late 80s who grew up learning how troubleshoot a a dusty NES are generally better problem solvers than kids who did not.
 
ArjanN

ArjanN

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,113
I've used the "slide the paper under the door then push the key out of the lock onto the paper to drag the key back to your side" trick that's featured in 50% of all point and click adventure games.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,580
Like every day of my life.

I finally learned how to properly use a compass playing ark. I actually navigated all over Tokyo and into the outskirts on a bicycle using only a compass and the wi-fi at 7-Eleven and Family Mart to look down at my map. Most the streets don't have names and stuff. And there's not really numbers on the buildings. I found it tricky. It was just like ark.

I learned how to flick my finger really really fast without getting tired... ummm... some people appreciate that.

I have had to hide in poor hiding spots to get into or out of places and I was always thinking of metal gear. How snake would do it. This was when I was younger. I wasn't a terrible kid or anyting but I would get into trouble.

Gran Turismo! It came out right when I was turning 16. I shopped for my first car on Gran Turismo. An FC RX-7. I did. I went and bought a real one.

That game and it's little packed in driving manual got me off to an amazing start with my driving. Driving is very important to me. It is a simple game, and once Gran Turismo had taught me all it could teach me, it was still a sort of meditation on driving. A sort of dreaming driving. And I'm actually thought of techniques playing Gran Turismo that I could try out in a real car.

My friend is the same age and feels similar about Gran Turismo. 5 years after the first one came out and we played split screen almost every day, he joins the Marines and was deployed to Fallujah. He doesn't like to tell many stories about it. But from the ones he does, Fallujah was hot.

He has one story where he was leading a small convoy. He was driving a large vehicle and pulling a trailer. Driving through a town, they were ambushed, and had to put the pedal to the metal to smash out of there.

In the course of maneuvering through this deadly shitshow, his truck and trailer started to jackknife. The horror of stuffing his vehicle and blocking the road, and getting them all killed made his blood run cold. But then gran turismo kicked in. These are his words. He said he had never done such a countersteering maneuver in real life, but in that critical point, he literally felt his Gran Turismo instinct take over and he straightened out that fuckin trailer.

everything I know about how to play different sports comes from video games. I don't play them so I no good, but at least I know the rules.

But most of all, fighting games. If I went into this, you'd be rolling your eyes assuming that I'm overstating everything. I'll just leave you with one whopper: fighting games changed my life. Rearrangedmy perception of challenges. If there's a wall out there that can stop me, it can't stop me from trying.

Actually just last night I play a game on dreams that taught me all about Greek pillars and how to identify them from different periods. So I got that goin for me.
 
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