Have you learned a real-world skill from a game?

[thaclone]

interesting topic. I read about it a few days ago and was curious, if anybody here learned or improved real-live skills from a computer game?

 

For, I would really say, that I learned or improved some.

 

e.g. I think DayZ told me how to navigate through nature, just using the sun and stars.

 

I play a lot of ETS2/ATS and it might improved my skills of backing up cars with trailers etc

 

and what I really learned is the racing line for the race track Hockenheinring in Germany, that I then also drove with my car in real live. this really was a needy thing for me.

 

for now, this is what I can think of ... maybe there is more

 

so, what about you

[sila]

I learned how to track a target and plot an intercept course using nothing but sonar readings in silent hunter 3, I guess that counts?

[threp]

I play a lot of survival games: the start from nothing, make a knife, make an axe, make a bow, find water and food, make a fire and shelter sort of thing.

Decided to learn how to do all that IRL, because it caught my interest. Some of the simplest seeming bits are really tricky, while something that looks complicated and difficult in a game isn't IRL - it's just hard work if you've got a full stomach.

Kids enjoyed doing it along with me too. Kept bugging me to teach them more, which meant I had to learn more! . Don't expect to ever really need to do any of it apart from making a fire maybe, but it's nice to know we all can.

[t.ara]

Real-Life-Bodyslide-EFFECT: What I do on the right hand of the body is mirrored at exactly the left side of the body: If I now use real-life make up, I do it only on one side-the other side is done automatically:-)))

[Guest]

5 hours ago, thaclone said:

interesting topic. I read about it a few days ago and was curious, if anybody here learned or improved real-live skills from a computer game?

 

For, I would really say, that I learned or improved some.

 

e.g. I think DayZ told me how to navigate through nature, just using the sun and stars.

 

I play a lot of ETS2/ATS and it might improved my skills of backing up cars with trailers etc

 

and what I really learned is the racing line for the race track Hockenheinring in Germany, that I then also drove with my car in real live. this really was a needy thing for me.

 

for now, this is what I can think of ... maybe there is more

 

so, what about you

> Not from (modded) Skyrim except some kinky stuff, but Sims, that's another pair of shoes. I have learned about social interactions and how hard practice and work bring you satisfaction, prosperity and progress. Just as I experienced in real life.

[Grey Cloud]

I learned how to command a Soviet Tank Army with Talonsoft's Eastern Front but sadly the Soviet Union collapsed and rendered my skills redundant.

[sila]

On 9/21/2022 at 5:38 AM, Grey Cloud said:

I learned how to command a Soviet Tank Army with Talonsoft's Eastern Front but sadly the Soviet Union collapsed and rendered my skills redundant.

Have you looked at Gunner, Heat, PC? Might be a game you would be interested in if you like milsims.

[AKM]

Spent countless hours in flight sims back when I was flying.  It helped - in a way.  Flight models were way off from the real thing (the sim aircraft behaved differently than the real one), but things like radio-navigation and "flying" a cross-country flight in the sim before doing it for real so that I'd have some idea of what to expect I'd be seeing and when as well as Air Traffic Control zones and various changes were quite helpful.  Instrument training was quite decent, too.

Tactical and general situational awareness from all the military sims of various types.  Biggest lesson: Distance from threat (or potential threat) = time to figure a course of action.  Close quarters is damned dangerous.  I definitely keep people at "arms length" now because of those lessons.  Paying close attention to what's going on in your environment is the only way to have even a chance at avoiding danger.

Not really useful, but how to read a waterfall display.  How to differentiate the false target from the real one (i.e. which side of the towed array / boat the contact is on).  That's from Dangerous Waters.  Interesting and fun, for sure - after years of frustration and growth.

[FauxFurry]

Yes. Instilling and reinforcing skills is one of the primary purposes of play in members of all mammalian species.

Not only did I learn non-linear problem solving from puzzles (be they in print or in video game format. Myst might be too distinct from reality to say that form of problem solving will ever be useful, though. Maybe if I end up in a scenario out of SAW, I'll be set), I can read upside down and backwards due to reading the solutions to riddles in newspapers when it amused me to simply cheat my way to a solution at a glance. 

[sila]

25 minutes ago, AKM said:

Spent countless hours in flight sims back when I was flying.  It helped - in a way.  Flight models were way off from the real thing (the sim aircraft behaved differently than the real one), but things like radio-navigation and "flying" a cross-country flight in the sim before doing it for real so that I'd have some idea of what to expect I'd be seeing and when as well as Air Traffic Control zones and various changes were quite helpful.  Instrument training was quite decent, too.

Tactical and general situational awareness from all the military sims of various types.  Biggest lesson: Distance from threat (or potential threat) = time to figure a course of action.  Close quarters is damned dangerous.  I definitely keep people at "arms length" now because of those lessons.  Paying close attention to what's going on in your environment is the only way to have even a chance at avoiding danger.

Not really useful, but how to read a waterfall display.  How to differentiate the false target from the real one (i.e. which side of the towed array / boat the contact is on).  That's from Dangerous Waters.  Interesting and fun, for sure - after years of frustration and growth.

On the topic of flight sims, there was a guy that used to be a heavy flight simmer that got a chance to use a real 737 flight trainer. They were so impressed that a few years later the guy got a job flying them.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by sila

[Vader666]

3D modelling, animating and a little bit of scripting.

And of course how to properly hate to do textures...

Started with Skyrim but really got into all that with FO4.

 

Maybe a little more on topic :

English

[Grey Cloud]

11 hours ago, sila said:

Have you looked at Gunner, Heat, PC?

Just had a look but it's not my type of game. I play strategy games rather than simulators.  Thanks anyway. ?

Edited September 30, 2022 by Grey Cloud

[landess]

Back in my day we weren't allowed calculator's in school and typing was reserved for those signed up to take the 'business' classes as electives.

 

Typing wasn't important until around 10-15 years later when the PC boom took off.

 

While I never learned to type 'properly', becoming familiar enough with the keyboard to mash out some words in a post, communicate during online gaming (before voip), and be able to complete QTE's on a keyboard has become second nature. Don't ask me what a fuckin triangle or X means on a controller.

 

M+K/B all the way.

[Grey Cloud]

2 hours ago, landess said:

While I never learned to type 'properly'

Do you remember Mavis Beacon?  ? I remember when you couldn't pick up a computer magazine without her either featuring on the cover disc or in adverts inside the mag.

[DrunkenCow]

12 hours ago, sila said:

On the topic of flight sims, there was a guy that used to be a heavy flight simmer that got a chance to use a real 737 flight trainer. They were so impressed that a few years later the guy got a job flying them.

 

 

 

 

 

Not as impressive as Sky King's barrel rolls.

 

 

[AKM]

19 hours ago, sila said:

On the topic of flight sims, there was a guy that used to be a heavy flight simmer that got a chance to use a real 737 flight trainer. They were so impressed that a few years later the guy got a job flying them.

 

 

 

 

Those full motion sims are something else again.  They are NOT small!

[worik]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:28 AM, thaclone said:

I play a lot of ETS2/ATS and it might improved my skills of backing up cars with trailers etc

I already had that skill with single axle trailers.  But I feel much more confident now with full trailers and such.

Spoiler

 

And I remember to have learned a bit  as a pupil when we played Sim City and tried to understand how the city administration runs the show.

[sila]

7 hours ago, AKM said:

Those full motion sims are something else again.  They are NOT small!

Yeah, those things are crazy. I don't know a whole lot about the training process, but going from a hobbyist flight simmer to being employed flying the real thing in just under 2 years seems like a pretty quick turn around. Or is that a normal time span for training on them?

 

Either way, I think its really cool that the guy got to follow his dream after learning to play the sims first.

Edited October 1, 2022 by sila

[t.ara]

Flight simulators are more difficult in compare with real flying a plane.  And also the best simulators are only used for learning the different processes and can ´t define a real flying.

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by t.ara

[KoolHndLuke]

Flying is nice, but I'd rather learn how to fuck in Zero-G. 

 

[t.ara]

31 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Flying is nice, but I'd rather learn how to fuck in Zero-G. 

 

That ´s also possible inside a plane...but you have to do it quickly....and concentrate on the basics

[AKM]

9 hours ago, sila said:

Yeah, those things are crazy. I don't know a whole lot about the training process, but going from a hobbyist flight simmer to being employed flying the real thing in just under 2 years seems like a pretty quick turn around. Or is that a normal time span for training on them?

 

Either way, I think its really cool that the guy got to follow his dream after learning to play the sims first.

No, it's not normal.  So abnormal, at least for the U.S., that I question if this was in the U.S., because I can't see someone here doing that.  Unless you're like one of the guys whose father owned an airplane, which he was able to fly any time he wanted.

The standard here is: Private Pilot License, Instrument Rating, Commercial License (allows you to start getting paid to fly, rather than paying someone else), Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), Certified Flight Instructor Instrument (CFII, pronounced CF Double Eye).  Then, you "get to" acquire X number of flight hours before most commercial carriers, or even commercial of other type, will even look at you.  I don't know the numbers anymore, but it was at least 500 hours total, and I want to say several thousand, but I don't remember the specifics.  Either way, it was several years of flight instructing purely to build time (hours).

The problem, for the industry, is that it effectively means that you have the new pilots teaching the new pilots.  On the other hand, there is no better way to learn than to teach.  Students will ask you questions that you never would think to ask yourself.  But then you end up with guys like the one who sent me to solo: He was there for his hours, he was NOT a good instructor, and he made those facts clear to me.  Being young and naive, I did not understand what a detriment this was to my interest in flying, never mind my skill, nor the fact that I could have, and should have, asked for a new instructor. 

I had a much better time years later with a retired 747 pilot and instructor pilot in one of my sim groups.  HE knew how to teach, and HE enjoyed teaching immensely.  And it showed in the results.  Example: I still clearly remember one night when myself and one other guy spent all night with this guy just learning how to navigate by various systems in Digital Combat Simulator's A-10C.  Usually, we flew all night, and used the weapons systems liberally.  That night, we spent maybe 30 minutes in the air total, all the rest of it learning non-combat systems and how to do X, Y, and Z three different ways from a guy who knew what he was about and how to teach it to others.  Probably the best night I ever had in that sim.  And we never fired a shot.  Sure miss that dude, but people move on.

[sila]

16 minutes ago, AKM said:

No, it's not normal.  So abnormal, at least for the U.S., that I question if this was in the U.S., because I can't see someone here doing that.  Unless you're like one of the guys whose father owned an airplane, which he was able to fly any time he wanted.

The standard here is: Private Pilot License, Instrument Rating, Commercial License (allows you to start getting paid to fly, rather than paying someone else), Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), Certified Flight Instructor Instrument (CFII, pronounced CF Double Eye).  Then, you "get to" acquire X number of flight hours before most commercial carriers, or even commercial of other type, will even look at you.  I don't know the numbers anymore, but it was at least 500 hours total, and I want to say several thousand, but I don't remember the specifics.  Either way, it was several years of flight instructing purely to build time (hours).

The problem, for the industry, is that it effectively means that you have the new pilots teaching the new pilots.  On the other hand, there is no better way to learn than to teach.  Students will ask you questions that you never would think to ask yourself.  But then you end up with guys like the one who sent me to solo: He was there for his hours, he was NOT a good instructor, and he made those facts clear to me.  Being young and naive, I did not understand what a detriment this was to my interest in flying, never mind my skill, nor the fact that I could have, and should have, asked for a new instructor. 

I had a much better time years later with a retired 747 pilot and instructor pilot in one of my sim groups.  HE knew how to teach, and HE enjoyed teaching immensely.  And it showed in the results.  Example: I still clearly remember one night when myself and one other guy spent all night with this guy just learning how to navigate by various systems in Digital Combat Simulator's A-10C.  Usually, we flew all night, and used the weapons systems liberally.  That night, we spent maybe 30 minutes in the air total, all the rest of it learning non-combat systems and how to do X, Y, and Z three different ways from a guy who knew what he was about and how to teach it to others.  Probably the best night I ever had in that sim.  And we never fired a shot.  Sure miss that dude, but people move on.

Aah.

 

Well this was in Europe. The video took place at Gatwick airport in 2017 and he got a job flying 737s in Europe in 2019 as a first officer.

 

Maybe he was able to show he knew enough about flying from the sims that he just needed the flight hours then? No clue what training he got in between the video and him getting the job. I just think it's a cool story of someone getting to live their dream 

Edited October 1, 2022 by sila

[spoonsinger]

Humility. Having programmed for my working life I know problems. Having delt with people I know their expectations. Very rarely they match up.  What does this do with gaming. Reactions MOFO!!!!! Managed to dodge late night mugging because f*** Yeh!!. (ran away). However thinking about it, that was probably down too British Bulldog playground skills. So, umm, just Humility in the normal sphere of existence. 

[AKM]

9 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Flying is nice, but I'd rather learn how to fuck in Zero-G. 

 

The infamous "so-I-have-heard", apparently astronauts have been warned about this.  For the same reasons they don't use pencils in space - zero G means stuff gets everywhere, whether that 'stuff' is graphite/lead from a pencil or genetic materiel.  Solution: No sex in space.  Don't know about the "Vomit Comet", i.e. the training aircraft that they use to give candidates and others brief zero G experiences, though:
 

Spoiler

 

14 minutes ago, sila said:

Aah.

 

Well this was in Europe. The video took place at Gatwick airport in 2017 and he got a job flying 737s in Europe in 2019 as a first officer.

 

Maybe he was able to show he knew enough about flying from the sims that he just needed the flight hours then? No clue what training he got in between the video and him getting the job. I just think it's a cool story of someone getting to live their dream 

Makes sense.  I have no idea what Europe's standards are on the issue, but the U.S.'s Federal Aviation Administration rules that stuff (THE RULES that is) with an iron fist.  No shortcuts, period.