Tell me if you feel me on this one, folks. Or remain respectfully silent while class is in session. Either way, dig on this:
Example #1: . b d left-click home shift-0 g s , left-click right-click shift-right-click left-click shift-9 b . b w left-click shift-right-click , left-click shift-left-click 9 h left-click shift-1 . . b l left-click double-left-click shift-2
And so on.
Or
Example #2: left-click down-arrow ctrl-c alt-tab left-click ctrl-v enter left-click print-scrn alt-tab left-click alt-tab left-click ctrl-c alt-tab left-click ctrl-v double-left-click 1 3 left-click
These commands are all issued in the space of, oh, probably 30 seconds, give or take for computer processing time. I get paid well to enter one of those strings. The other I paid $39.99 to do. Can you tell which is which?
That’s right. I’m getting on my high horse about “video games” again. Feel free to disagree, and navigate away if you find the subject boresome.
But video games, in my opinion, got a really bad rap. Whenever “video games” and “children” are brought up in conversation, there’s the “Well, I’m sure they benefit hand-eye coordination. But why don’t they go outside? They just stare at the television like zombies? Not to mention all of the violence that they see on the screen. Plus, the number of hours they spend playing video games could be better spent doing something constructive with their lives.”
No one seems to miss one crucial thing: video games teach people how to solve problems. Not everyone can solve problems -- I've known people who just seem to completely shut down when things don't go their way. When you play a video game, things don't go your way all the damn time. That's the whole point -- video games are just one challenge after another thrown at a person. The "game" part comes in how the person reacts to these situations.
And I think that, since people can't measure "brains" like they can "muscles," these skills get put aside. There's no objective way to quantify a person's "ability to solve problems efficiently," other than through tedious psychological testing. But I think that my years playing video games have absolutely made me a smarter, more effective member of society. It sounds counter-intuitive (how can one learn anything just by shooting pretend guns at pretend demons on a little flashing screen?), but I believe it quite fervently.
So, if you were curious, example #1 is from the real-time strategy video game “Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War.” It’s what’s called a “build order,” which is basically a sequence that you follow at the start of a game to build up your army faster than your opponent. In the example, I instructed my builder unit to start work on a new structure, told my combat unit to capture a strategic point, mapped a hotkey to my base (so I didn’t have to click on the base every time I wanted to issue an order), queued two units to be built at my base, constructed a “boss” unit…and that’s only up to the “shift-9” command.
Conversely, the second string of commands is what I do at work all day – namely, documenting pirated videos online and entering them into a database (I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s essentially entering URL information with a screen print into a database).
One is a (supposed) waste of time, the other is a skill that earns me a good living. But, I tell you what, they sure as hell look the same when I write them out like that. And it feels the same when I'm doing them.
Now I'm not saying we sequester our children in a room with an Xbox controller and a television set. That's dumb, and I'm dumb for even putting that argument out there. Naturally, I fully realize that it is very important health-wise and relationship-wise to get out of the damn house from time to time. Alls I’m saying is, stop shitting all over video games, people. They’re not brain-rotters. They’re not evil. They're mostly harmless...and (in my opinion) they're quite beneficial. Just think of video games as brain training devices – they teach people how to manipulate complex systems effectively, and use given resources to accomplish a goal. How's that for some frigging corporate double-speak for you?
Because (and I may have gone on too long here -- tl;dr), the people I know who boast about the fact that they “don’t even own a TV” or “barely know how to use a computer” are, typically, the most ill-informed, boring people I know (this doesn’t apply to you, dear sweet blog reader…I’m talking about all the other jerk-offs who boast about their lack of TV watching and internet surfing. You're cool; otherwise we wouldn't be buddies, would we?).
Now I know this isn’t solid proof. I'm no sociologist (which is an overrated, soft-science discipline populated with POV-pushing frauds, in my opinion), or psychologist (I got no beef with them). My opinion is nothing, really – just the ranting of an aging video gamer that has a chip on his shoulder. But, I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Am I wrong? A large number of you out their either work for, or will one day work in an office environment. Don’t you want to be the guy who can figure stuff out quickly, and improvise a solution if things don’t get done? Or do you want to be the guy who just has to “get out of the office and take a personal day” because the computer’s not working? Better yet, which one of those two would you want to hire?
Video gamers are problem solvers. That’s all that video games are – a never-ending cavalcade of problems that need to be diagnosed, contemplated, and then solved…as efficiently and accurately as possible. It’s brain training, and, dammit, it’s effective.
Posts
