How has playing a video game helped you in an unexpected way?

I bought my first English dictionary in order to understand the Alone in The Dark video game, that I played on my mom's 486 computer. And now I'm here talking with you guys :)

Vocabulary. I learned words like superfluous and lackadaisical and acicular from gaming.

And there’s all the skills you learn from tabletop gaming that everyone talks about all the time as well. Group dynamics and leadership and compromise. Writing and storytelling and so on. And also realizing that I'm not quite as introverted as I thought but rather had a shitty childhood with people treating me terribly. It’s amazing what you can do when you’re in the company of people who treat you with respect. See also research skills and numeric literacy. My skill with mental arithmetic is a lot better than it would be if I wasn’t a gamer.

I don't know if this counts as a direct answer to your question, but we'll give it a go.

I currently have a undiagnosed fatigue issue. I've been meeting with myriad medical professionals and ruling things out for over a year now, but I've yet to get any answers. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much or how well I sleep, I still feel a significant "pull" to fall asleep during my day. Every single day.

The "pull" isn't too bad if I'm actively doing something, but it's downright unbearable during low-energy activities. Sitting through meetings is challenging. Reading is out of the question, which is unfortunate, because I absolutely love books.

Videogames are, interestingly enough, helping me hold on to my reading hobby. Instead of sitting down to "read," I will put on an audiobook and pull up a mindless, casual game. The game keeps me "active" enough to not want to fall asleep, and it's mindless enough that I can keep focus on the book. This is now my primary method of reading, and I've finished dozens of books this way.

It's not a perfect replacement, as I find that my recall is lower with information that I've listened to rather than read. I also tend to listen to non-fiction over fiction since my ability to visualize is dampened while actively engaging a game, so I would miss out on the richness of a lot of stories that rely on descriptions and imagination. Nevertheless, I'm glad that I'm still able to finish books and do what I love.

Hopefully I can get some sort of answers and solutions to my issue in the coming months, as I'd love to be able to read normally again. Until then, however, my casual gaming setup is helping me stay awake and focused.

Silicon Zeroes gave me a much deeper appreciation for how microprocessors work at a low level, and Shenzhen I/O kickstarted an interest in embedded programming. They're part of what motivated me to become an ICS student!

Civ V and VI and Crusader Kings II have definitely improved my general knowledge of history, religion, and geography.

My Jeopardy game has seen improvement. My mom said video games would rot my brain, but guess who got the clue about Isabella de Castile correct? Take that, mom.

What a fun question. I must agree with what the other commentors have said. Civ has definitely expanded my knowledge of history and political systems. Other games have expanded my vocab and introduced me to new scientific concepts. However, I think the most profound effect games have had on me is that they pulled back society's curtain when I was young. I remember one thing in particular, and in hindsight this is silly, but I was playing Gran Turismo and was buying car parts with credits, the generic in-game currency. I started realizing that money is a concept, and a dollar was just a credit with a different name. Paper money lost its value at that point, like it wasn't the paper that was valuable, but what it symbolized that was valuable. Maybe that was already apparent to other kids my age, but I needed that game to come to that conclusion.

Messing around with making "games" on the TI-8* series in high school gave me a basic understanding of programming.

Ocarina of Time helped my older brother aim a bow and arrow. We'd been doing archery for a bit anyway, and he was replaying it on GameCube (we had the n64 version, as well), and noticed he was doing better because he was aiming in-game like he would in real life, and got a better feeling for sighting.

I can't think of any ways I've grown from gaming, except for developing typing skill through hours of Runescape fifteen years ago.

Obviously games taught me how to speak English. But I also first got interested in programming from playing around in Warcraft 3's Map Editor. Aside from creating custom maps and messing around with unit properties, it also had the option to program unit behavior and actions. Spending hours in there creating maps eventually lead me to learning HTML and Javascript to create a mini web browser game. Which then led me to studying programming in school.

It may be a bit of a stretch, but modded Minecraft helped me get into the field l'm studying right now (industrial product design).

I played that game for years, then got into a modding group besides only being a player, so l just did playtesting.

I already had some PS experience so when l tried modding on my own the first time l failed miserably on the code end but the textures came out nice.
So l started doing textures, which eventually expanded to "I want to learn to draw" to "I would like to study something more creative compared to analytical chemistry". That's how l got into industrial design: it's technical, creativity and honestly a lot of fun.

Tetris l think has helped me with being able to pack stuff efficiently: l'm pretty good at saving space just by filling in the gaps :P

l would also name games like Minecraft and Roblox because l met a lot of friends on there, some of which l regularly talk with even a decade later.

There are a few skills that pc games have helped me hone over the years, like my English vocabulary and understanding of the language as a child. It`s at a point where i have a hard time finding words in my native language and have to fill in with English. Most of these skills are to be expected though.

The only thing that comes to mind right now that was somewhat unexpected is my how it helped my mentality. I started playing league of legends pretty early, just as it got out of beta testing.
I saw the community turning toxic over time, and at one point i was a flaming mess as well. With the history of my mental health i am very emotionally sensitive, so it completely blocked me from gaining any enjoyment at all after some time, where to toxicity from both myself and others triggered my anxiety to a point where i simply could not play the game any longer, not without some serious change.
I decided to take a break and work on how to tackle different situations that made me tilt(the term used in gaming for when you let your emotions take control, often linked with rage) and what situations made me act toxic towards my fellow team members.

I can honestly say that i have an answer and technique to any question or situation that tilts most players in any multiplayer game now. These skills have helped me tackle real life problems like defeat. Or the ability i have to separate other peoples problems from my own.
One big factor is how these behaviors creates barriers between you and your ability to learn effectively and become better at the game(or any other thing in your life really). So in some ways it has helped me to learn new skills as well. to name a couple.

Playing Halo gave me something to bond with other kids over when my family moved to a new state in 2002.

Playing Sim City 3000 taught me the basics of budgeting and debt management.

Playing (and modding) Quake 3 provided a carrot on a stick that I needed to learn how software works and how to code.

I think the most prominent thing is finger coordination. It's insanely developed in all gamers but pretty useless in life. Just look at how hard it is for a person who's never touched a controller to even do anything in a video game.

I'm pretty sure Mount and Blade warband taught me some basic economics (supply and demand, the buy low sell high rule), and sparked an interest there. Keep in mind that even if I was one of the lucky 10k, I was like, 12-13 when I learned this from that game.

I'm a Project Manager, so my life is filled with a lot of spreadsheets and future forecasting. For the last 15 years, I have played a lot of FIFA as a manager in career mode. The amount of similarities between managing a team in FIFA and what I do are astounding. Also, I used to play a lot of RPGs in the 90s, and I treat myself much like an RPG character. I constantly assess my skill sets and try to increase them.

Now, if only I could do that with my gold.

Fortnite improved my reaction time a bit so I could dodge traffic better in racing games.