I know some of us heard this in our adolescence, "Video Games won't help you in life." or something of that general premise. Quite the contrary though, mystical voice of my past! Video games have done more for me then I know, I really doubt I'd be who I was if it wasn't for Smash Brothers specifically, or Gaming in general.
1. Evolved my sense of humor.Playing games helped me develop the sense of humor I have, and what I seem to be "famous" for. I learned, through tedious practice, that video games aren't perfect, and with all the training in the world, you'd still mess up, due to human nature or the video game glitching.(We all know we've been stage spiked in Brawl while standing on the stage.) Through this, I learned that there is no point to get mad at my own personal/the games fault, but rather blow it off like it was no big deal, and laugh about it later. Of course, if it's a heated tournament match, I'll be a little bummed about it, but I'll live, and have a good laugh about it later. And a good 40% of my humor is gaming humor as is, so if I didn't have as many gamer friends as I did, no one would get my jokes. And
EVERYONE hates when you tell a joke and no one laughs.
2. Helped my reflexes.This one sounds a little silly to an extent, but this one applies very greatly. Playing fighting games in my past, before Smash Brothers, helped me develop a primitive form of prediction, and over the years, it grew as I did. Not that I couldn't predict things when I was little, but playing fighting games helped me learn to predict things in advance, like what I was going to do, and it helped me develop the well needed life skill of planning ahead, which I still need to work on...
. This also applies to things such as driving for instance. I'm quite the speed demon when I drive, and I've almost been in a wreck or two now, but if it wasn't for Smash heightening my reaction timing, I would've been in a wreck, but Smash helped me learn to pay incredibly close attention to my surroundings/the people in front of me.
And last, but not least: 3. Gaining a plethora of friends, some which will be there for a lifetime.Everyone has that group of people they can call their best friends, and they have their own unique story on how they met them, and why they are so close. When you mention gaming as your "unique story", people seem to take this as a joke for whatever reason, but gaming has introduced me to so many great people it's not even funny. If it wasn't for Smash, or the common interest of gaming in general, I wouldn't have half of the friends I have today. The conversation starts with "Oh hey, you like this game too?" then it all goes from there. From there, you get to know the person, and you can never worry about being bored, because you have that minuscule common interest of gaming, so you'll always have something to do. And once you get to know these people, as long as it goes past just being acquaintances, these people could be friends for a life time, willing to drop all to make sure all is good with you.
By no means are these the only ways gaming has helped me, but I believe these are the most significant, and have had the greatest impact on my life personally.
