What is a real world fact you have learned from a video game?

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What is a real world fact you have learned from a video game?

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  1. zayaisabitch Avatar

    I learned a lot of history shit from metal gear solid 3

  2. lifebeginsat9pm Avatar

    Tekken taught little me about the existence of Capoeira, Sambo, Muay Thai, Vale Tudo, and Bajiquan

  3. BoujeeMofo Avatar

    assassin’s creed taught me more history than actual history class

  4. Entire-Potential2691 Avatar

    Dig straight down for long enough, and you’ll eventually fall into lava. 

  5. allisonovo Avatar

    Recognizing specific plants from RDR2

  6. gingerflame07returns Avatar

    Dark souls is one of my first game as a younger child (believe it or not) and the lesson it taught me is that learning from mistakes and preseverence is very rewarding

  7. NCR_ranger2012 Avatar

    2 actually

    1, water and lava make obsidian

    2, war, war never changes

  8. D-Rez Avatar

    To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot it until it dies

  9. Fast_Marketing_1808 Avatar

    I learned gold is actually terrible for tools. Minecraft wasn’t lying

  10. Bl0wUpTheM00n Avatar

    Eating a whole roast turkey is actually really good for you and can sometimes bring you back from being at death’s door.

  11. xILoveTwilightx Avatar

    I thought obsidian was just a game thing… turns out it’s real and sharp enough to cut on a cellular level

  12. kintakoota Avatar

    ‘Switching to your pistol Is always faster than reloading’ -Gaz

  13. Informal_Green_312 Avatar
  14. toasty-tangerine Avatar

    I know a remarkable number of names of bugs and fish thanks to Animal Crossing.

  15. _BacktotheFuturama_ Avatar

    My knowledge of Greek mythology started with God of War

  16. Financial_Ad_1551 Avatar

    That I can scarf down 50 wheels of cheese mid swing in a sword fight.

  17. Sp3laeusUrsu5 Avatar

    RDR2 taught me how to actually play dominos

  18. NimBold Avatar

    The victorious writes the history.

  19. tropenatt Avatar

    Racing line

  20. budgetboarvessel Avatar

    The Cessna 172 is a popular beginner plane

  21. semperknight Avatar

    The person who has the most money wins the game.

  22. bigcatisverycool Avatar

    A lot of random Japanese history facts from Persona

  23. SayethWeAll Avatar

    Carmen Sandiego taught me so much geography.

  24. pdubs1900 Avatar

    The temperature of lava is about 1620 °C.

    From Oxygen Not Included.

  25. ThePurityPixel Avatar

    I’m not sure what world facts are, but Roller Coaster Tycoon taught me a lot of practical things about both economics and physics

  26. R_Steelman61 Avatar

    I would have to say RTS had been the best teacher. It forces you to juggle multiple factors, weighing resource, risk, determine defense and attack and, sometimes politics. balance skills and industry within your society striving for its long term survival. I will sometimes consider a real world problem like it was an RTS and ask how I would address it given real world game rules. Lots of great material on Game Theory and how it applies to life.

  27. the_cajun88 Avatar

    the cake is a lie

  28. klmccall42 Avatar

    RuneScape taught me that copper and tin make bronze.

  29. Thecrowfan Avatar

    RDR2 taught me to stop moping about past mistakes and focus on the future

  30. Sunaiart Avatar

    video games sneak a surprising amount of real-world knowledge into the action.

  31. axeman020 Avatar

    I know a lot more about Greek mythology than I would without the God of War games…

  32. LavenderMothBreeze Avatar

    That you can actually bribe guards in ancient Greece

    learned it in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and turns out it’s historically accurate!

  33. MonotoneTanner Avatar

    Most of the major events of ww2 and their dates

  34. ShyCloudFoxLilt Avatar

    In The Last of Us, I learned that cordyceps fungus is real

    it actually infects insects and controls their behavior.

  35. Writerhowell Avatar

    Nancy Drew game fan here… *slides on sunglasses* What haven’t I learnt?

    Things the Nancy Drew games have taught us about: Mayan history and numbering system, Roman numerals, North American birds, Cockney rhyming slang, history of the Salem witch trials, gemstones, history of Marie Antoinette, history of the French Resistance, Italian words, German words, French words, the Enigma machine, alchemy and alchemical symbols, Scottish food, history of Nefertari…

    This is not an exhaustive list.

  36. Comfortable_Creme526 Avatar

    Modern Warfare game quotes. Only the dead have seen the end of war

  37. RealSircht Avatar

    I learned how to make glass out of sand thanks to minecraft, lol

  38. Efficient_Pilot_5165 Avatar

    Minecraft taught me that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west

  39. TheArcanist_1 Avatar

    As a kid whose primary language wasn’t English, I learned a ton of English vocabulary from games. I still remember the utter shock of my high school English teacher when most of the class randomly knew the seemingly obscure word ‘cobblestone’ lmao

  40. MadeByMistake58116 Avatar

    I first learned about nuclear waste disposal (or lack thereof) from Metal Gear Solid. Blew my tiny mind.

  41. Candle-Jolly Avatar

    Watergate/Deepthroat (Metal Gear Solid, 1998)

  42. TheJoshArchives Avatar

    I haven’t tested it yet but after a few goes of surgeon simulator I think I could give open heart surgery a solid shot

  43. MountainMan2_ Avatar

    The process for making nuclear fuel from uranium ore is absurdly, ridiculously complicated and requires a bonkers amount of chemical and physical processes to achieve. I am glad I never decided to become a chemical engineer.

    Thanks, Mekanism. Thanks, factorio.

    Also, the names of about three dozen historical and notable landmarks around the world from civilization V. Before civ v, if you were to ask me about neuchwanstein, prora, or borobudur, I wouldn’t know what countries they’re in or even what kinds of structures they are.

  44. docrefa Avatar

    Total War and Paradox games taught me more than history class ever did. 

  45. zseblodongo Avatar

    Kingdom Come Deliverance taught me a lot about Eastern European history in the middle ages.

  46. Reboot-Glitchspark Avatar

    Submarine simulators made me pretty good with geometry and trigonometry back in the day, having to plot intercept courses based only on sonar ping returns and such.

    It is a computer game adaptation of a board game, but Twilight Struggle taught me a lot about the Cold War, and how delicately balanced everything was.

    Learned about various business and finance stuff from Wall Street Raider.

    Europa Universalis II taught me some stuff about a time period in history that I didn’t know that much about.

  47. Keepitsway Avatar

    In Cyberpunk, there are beat cops. At first I thought “beat” in “beat cop” meant the cop was exhausted or had been defeated by someone.

    Beat cops are just police officers who are assigned to specific areas to patrol known as beats.

  48. Toastfromthefuture Avatar

    High charisma can get you things low charisma doesn’t.

  49. [deleted] Avatar

    say thanks and please to chat GPT – Detroit: Become Human

  50. CherryObsessionn Avatar

    Assassin’s Creed taught me real historical facts about cities and famous figures I never learned in school.

  51. campingcosmo Avatar

    Kingdom Come: Deliverance taught me that getting into any fight where I’m outnumbered is a bad idea, and honour is for the dead, so anything I can do to even those odds is what I should do. It also pushed me to go learn more about how the Catholic church’s power and influence waxed and waned over the centuries, and the seeds of thought that eventually grew into the Protestant Reformation. I barely even knew what “antipope” meant before that game, and I’d never even heard of indulgences, so that was a fun learning experience.

  52. porgy_tirebiter Avatar

    When I moved to Japan, I could immediately recognize several cicadas by sound alone thanks to Animal Crossing.

  53. YukiIjuin Avatar

    I’ve learned more about the Renaissance era from Assassin’s Creed 2 than college.

    A more recent example is actually a chain of different new knowledge but sort of related.

    I’ve always been a fan of art noveau style of art. Then I found out recently from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that the era that art noveau thrived in was called Belle Epoque.

    That rabbit hole then lead me to finding out that Clair Obscur is the french way of saying Chiaroscuro, which is the high contrast art styles that was popular in the Baroque era.

    Chiaroscuro itself is a term I’ve learned from Life is Strange for being one of the earliest photography movements due to the strong black and white presented in early photography.

    I’ve learned a lot of real world facts from videogames lol.

  54. Amelieplayss Avatar

    Not exactly a fact but I learned English by playing video games.

  55. Hefty_Dinner909 Avatar

    The historical existence of Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, etc — all from Age of Empires (1997, PC) and Age of Empires II (1999, PC).

    Then, through Age of Mythology (2002, PC), knowledge of all the Greek gods, Norse gods, Egyptians gods, and all the associated legends and mythology.

    🖥 🛡 🗡⚔️🏹

  56. meong-oren Avatar

    I learned that you can’t just go in straight line from point A to point B if you travel in space, thanks to Kerbal Space Program. And orbital mechanics in general.

  57. sexless-innkeeper Avatar

    Orbital mechanics and a little bit about rocket science. Thanks KSP! (Kerbal Space Program, for the uninitiated.)

  58. StunningDarling Avatar

    Thanks to Portal I now know that terminal velocity in Earth’s atmosphere is about 120 mph. My physics professor was pretty impressed when I brought this up in class. Who knew playing as a test subject would actually teach me something useful?

  59. TomTheFoolOfRy Avatar

    that most people do judge books by their covers

  60. Boofter69 Avatar

    Did you know that when you fall from a really high cliff down where you can’t even see the ground… you can die?

    Thank you Super Mario Bros.

  61. flyingcircusdog Avatar

    Louis Daguerre was a French painter who created “Daguerreotypes”, a process that gave portraits a sharp reflective style, like a mirror.

  62. FaunKeH Avatar

    Copper + tin = bronze

  63. Ishmaeli Avatar

    Lots of world history from Age of Empires.

    Caribbean geography from Pirates.

  64. Blackbeltsam5610 Avatar

    The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island, not Ellis Island.

  65. TemptingHoneybun Avatar

    Playing The Last of Us taught me that cordyceps fungi actually exist and can take over insect brains in real life. I randomly brought this up during a first date once and honestly it was a better conversation starter than I expected.

  66. Jackvultar Avatar

    From Red Dead Redemption 2, I learned that tuberculosis was a devastating disease before antibiotics. The game’s portrayal of Arthur’s slow decline made me research how TB was a leading cause of death in the 1800s, with people desperately seeking cures at sanitariums.

  67. slav_squat_98 Avatar

    This wasn’t mentioned in the game, but still a cool fact. Ubisoft provided their mapped model of the Notre Dame Cathedral when it burnt down to help rebuild it. Pretty wild if you ask me.

  68. GaryBlueberry34 Avatar

    that you press “F” to pay respects

  69. AndiArbyte Avatar

    Gran Tourismo gave me the first Idea how speed and corners work together.
    Breaking point and stuff.

  70. Hoatmail Avatar

    “That cigarettes contain benzopyrene, a chemical that leads to lung cancer? We now know that when benzopyrene enters the body, it changes to benzopyrene diolepoxide and attaches to the receptors on the P53 gene, the gene which causes lung cancer. The BPDE attaches to the P53 gene in three specific locations and causes pre-cancerous changes to the lung tissue.”

  71. red_kiri Avatar

    Feign death work vs animals but not human

  72. master_prizefighter Avatar

    I learned how to read through playing Tetris on the Game Boy. Not sure if this directly counts.

    I learned how to be confident, patient, and I can win/lose through others playing Street Fighter 2. I realized I found something I was good at – gaming.

  73. PM_ME_UR__ELECTRONS Avatar

    One from Civilisation 2. Not what I would call a fact, but I think it’s an interesting perspective. It gives one possible explanation about why governments don’t seem to give a shit about global warming.

    Civ2 simulates global warming by swamping coastal land and inducing desertification after enough pollution is generated. You can reduce your pollution levels in several ways, including using clean energy like Hydro dams or by installing recycling.

    But even if you pursue eco-friendly policies, there’s no guarantee your neighbours will do the same. Even with the UN, you can’t put pressure on other civs for generating excessive pollution. Short of invading everyone, you have no way to stop them.

    So why bother wasting resources to stop pollution if global warming will occur anyway? If you care about the environment you will be out-competed by your neigbours who don’t. It becomes a sort of tragedy of the commons.

  74. nezumipi Avatar

    No matter how hard you work at something, there is always a 13-year-old with an energy drink dependency who is better than you.

  75. TheRealNemoIncognito Avatar

    Queen Hapshetsut pretended to be a dude to assume the throne- Carmen Sandiego’s great chase through time

  76. Yamureska Avatar

    Katyn massacre and the name of the Soviet Secret Police, from MGS3. I have since become a historian of the USSR and am working on getting movies made about the Soviet Union.

  77. msprang Avatar

    The pirate Blackbeard actually did lay siege to Charleston, South Carolina, in order to get medicine for his crew. The story is greatly embellished in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag.

  78. Oddish_Femboy Avatar

    Cooking Mama recipes are fairly accurate.

  79. cat6Wire Avatar

    Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – taught me a ton of Greek island geography, and refreshed my memory of Greek mythology a lot!

  80. Slutty_Mudd Avatar

    Cover vs concealment. What can and cannot probably be shot through, and how important it can be putting something solid between you and someone you don’t want to engage with.

  81. MotherSpell6112 Avatar

    I learnt orbital mechanics from Kerbal Space Program.

    I learnt not to trust the marketing material from Kerbal Space Program 2.

  82. Any-Adhesiveness9254 Avatar

    Hitman is a real job!

  83. Lethalmouse1 Avatar

    Due to the fact that I play Civilization, my son did and actually liked watching me play. 

    As a result, he routinely nailed stuff in history class that other kids didn’t. We also did at times browse the descriptions in the game that actually give the real information etc. So he was aware of things at ages most kids weren’t. Wonders, nations, leaders and some figures like scientists etc. 

  84. Hagisman Avatar

    Age of Empires. Erik the Red was a Viking. I surprised my 6th grade teacher with that one. Additionally surprised them with my discussion of Mayan and Aztec warriors.

  85. Bullet_Number_4 Avatar

    9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors taught me about a real medical condition called prosopagnosia where a person becomes unable to distinguish one face from another.

  86. OneMysteriousCloud Avatar

    I know a lot of flower, bug, and fish names from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

  87. mayoronczka Avatar

    Switching to your sidearm is always faster than reloading.

  88. Fearless_Freya Avatar

    Not exactly facts but I learned a lot of words from looking up stuff from diablo 2 as a kid. In particular “amelioration” is one I can recall now.

  89. Quailgunner-90s Avatar

    Not a fact, but a skill: I learned how to tread water by watching Jak in the first Jak & Daxter lol

  90. EnolWen Avatar

    I learned a lot of fish and dish names (and look)from Stardew Valley. It was the second game that I played in English, first one was Terraria, where both have limited text 🤣.

  91. Naps_And_Crimes Avatar

    When I went to Long Beach I remembered a few paths and walkways thanks to gta

  92. simplysalamander Avatar

    Iron + Coal = Steel

    RuneScape teaching kids metallurgy from age 7 and up

  93. Charming-Second1119 Avatar

    even if you help them doesn’t mean they will help you, got that from the last of us happens through out the whole play through but when people want something or are desperate they will do anything for it, better to be alone and watch your own back then have someone watch it for you who could also possibly be a bigger threat then what you could’ve been facing in the first place

  94. WeirdPressure151 Avatar

    Never waste diamond’s on on a hoe.