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
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.
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…
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 🤣.
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
Comments
I learned a lot of history shit from metal gear solid 3
Tekken taught little me about the existence of Capoeira, Sambo, Muay Thai, Vale Tudo, and Bajiquan
assassin’s creed taught me more history than actual history class
Dig straight down for long enough, and you’ll eventually fall into lava.
Recognizing specific plants from RDR2
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
2 actually
1, water and lava make obsidian
2, war, war never changes
To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot it until it dies
I learned gold is actually terrible for tools. Minecraft wasn’t lying
Eating a whole roast turkey is actually really good for you and can sometimes bring you back from being at death’s door.
I thought obsidian was just a game thing… turns out it’s real and sharp enough to cut on a cellular level
‘Switching to your pistol Is always faster than reloading’ -Gaz
You cannot save.
I know a remarkable number of names of bugs and fish thanks to Animal Crossing.
My knowledge of Greek mythology started with God of War
That I can scarf down 50 wheels of cheese mid swing in a sword fight.
RDR2 taught me how to actually play dominos
The victorious writes the history.
Racing line
The Cessna 172 is a popular beginner plane
The person who has the most money wins the game.
A lot of random Japanese history facts from Persona
Carmen Sandiego taught me so much geography.
The temperature of lava is about 1620 °C.
From Oxygen Not Included.
I’m not sure what world facts are, but Roller Coaster Tycoon taught me a lot of practical things about both economics and physics
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.
the cake is a lie
RuneScape taught me that copper and tin make bronze.
RDR2 taught me to stop moping about past mistakes and focus on the future
video games sneak a surprising amount of real-world knowledge into the action.
I know a lot more about Greek mythology than I would without the God of War games…
That you can actually bribe guards in ancient Greece
learned it in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and turns out it’s historically accurate!
Most of the major events of ww2 and their dates
In The Last of Us, I learned that cordyceps fungus is real
it actually infects insects and controls their behavior.
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.
Modern Warfare game quotes. Only the dead have seen the end of war
I learned how to make glass out of sand thanks to minecraft, lol
Minecraft taught me that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west
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
I first learned about nuclear waste disposal (or lack thereof) from Metal Gear Solid. Blew my tiny mind.
Watergate/Deepthroat (Metal Gear Solid, 1998)
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
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.
Total War and Paradox games taught me more than history class ever did.
Kingdom Come Deliverance taught me a lot about Eastern European history in the middle ages.
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.
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.
[removed]
High charisma can get you things low charisma doesn’t.
say thanks and please to chat GPT – Detroit: Become Human
Assassin’s Creed taught me real historical facts about cities and famous figures I never learned in school.
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.
When I moved to Japan, I could immediately recognize several cicadas by sound alone thanks to Animal Crossing.
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.
Not exactly a fact but I learned English by playing video games.
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.
🖥 🛡 🗡⚔️🏹
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.
Orbital mechanics and a little bit about rocket science. Thanks KSP! (Kerbal Space Program, for the uninitiated.)
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?
that most people do judge books by their covers
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.
Louis Daguerre was a French painter who created “Daguerreotypes”, a process that gave portraits a sharp reflective style, like a mirror.
Copper + tin = bronze
Lots of world history from Age of Empires.
Caribbean geography from Pirates.
The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island, not Ellis Island.
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.
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.
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.
that you press “F” to pay respects
Gran Tourismo gave me the first Idea how speed and corners work together.
Breaking point and stuff.
“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.”
Feign death work vs animals but not human
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.
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.
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.
Queen Hapshetsut pretended to be a dude to assume the throne- Carmen Sandiego’s great chase through time
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.
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.
Cooking Mama recipes are fairly accurate.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – taught me a ton of Greek island geography, and refreshed my memory of Greek mythology a lot!
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.
I learnt orbital mechanics from Kerbal Space Program.
I learnt not to trust the marketing material from Kerbal Space Program 2.
Hitman is a real job!
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.
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.
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.
I know a lot of flower, bug, and fish names from Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Switching to your sidearm is always faster than reloading.
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.
Not a fact, but a skill: I learned how to tread water by watching Jak in the first Jak & Daxter lol
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 🤣.
When I went to Long Beach I remembered a few paths and walkways thanks to gta
Iron + Coal = Steel
RuneScape teaching kids metallurgy from age 7 and up
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
Never waste diamond’s on on a hoe.