5 skills I learn from gaming that I apply in school

Is gaming just for fun or can it be a tool for learning? Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Matthias Lim assures (his parents) that the hours spent on different games develops useful skills that improve the way he learns.

By Matthias Lim

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills (from puzzle games)

Games like Portal, Fallout and Escape Simulator push me, the player, to persevere in coming up with logical solutions to obstacles and problems in my path. 

Rather than perform tasks mindlessly, I often had to think out of the box to find solutions. By doing so, it developed my ability to think critically and problem-solve.

In the context of school or work, playing these games have trained me to anticipate problems in projects and tasks.

For example, as a media student, many problems can come up while filming videos. Therefore, by actively foreseeing issues that may occur and planning to forestall them, I raise the chance of success for the project.

Playing puzzle games also reshapes the way I see my schoolwork. 

The thrill that I get from solving a puzzle in-game makes me see the homework and exams my teachers gave me as extensions of these puzzles, making it more enjoyable to complete these tasks.

2. Pattern recognition and knowledge-retention skills (from strategy games)

Pattern recognition is often cited as an essential skill to do well at anything – being able to spot recurring issues or solutions means coming up with effective patches more quickly. That practically describes what we do in games.

Strategy games in particular grow my ability to recognise patterns.

With games like Chess and Risk in this genre, I have to study strategies and the methodology to win. I remember binge-watching a lot of YouTube in my free time as research.

Such games increase my memory power too. At first glance, memorising moves, information and strategies may sound like a chore for a game, but enjoying the game motivated me to do so. After all, don’t we do more when we’re having fun? 

I’m a naturally forgetful person, so I feel that getting more practice in flexing my memory muscles and spotting patterns helps with my ability to process quickly and retain facts easily.

PS: It helped me to memorise my spelling tests in school too.

3. Communication skills (from MOBA games)

By nature, MOBA games require players to interact with one another. The better you can communicate, the higher your chance of winning. 

This genre of game usually finds a bunch of random players looking for a match, before throwing them together on the same team for the next hour.

By having to relay my intentions to the random team that I’m playing with, I have to be an effective communicator in order to lead my team to achieve our objective within the limited amount of time that we have.

But naturally, as teams play together, disputes and conflicts are bound to arise. The teams that I play with are no exception. 

In the online gaming community, there are some players who, for either their disrespectful behaviour or for  starting conflicts, are unpleasant to be around. When we encounter these “toxic” players, it sometimes feels like we’re trying to get a five-year-old to cooperate. 

When I first started playing MOBA games, I was inexperienced in handling conflicts, and would lash out at these players. 

But through these situations, I’ve learnt how to mediate conflicts and to defuse tense situations – awesome life skills that are useful in any collaborative situation.

4. Creativity (from sandbox games)

Lastly, sandbox games help develop my creativity. In games such as Minecraft and Roblox, which are open worlds with few rules and restrictions, there are endless possibilities for me to play with. 

In my Minecraft phase, I came up with crazy contraptions and structures, and nothing stopped me from doing so. There is a freedom afforded by these games that expand my capacity to think creatively, on top of learning about good design such as colour contrasting. 

Furthermore, many games of this genre are multiplayer games too, albeit designed in a different way than MOBA ones. By connecting to online servers with other players in them, I was able to see what their creativity could deliver. 

I’m someone who needs to observe others to learn. Through these platforms, I gain a lot of inspiration from what some of them  create, and the open sharing indirectly motivates us players to improve what we are able to create too.

5. Self-discipline (in order to play more games)

Of course, as with all good entertainment, gaming can be addictive. We’re naturally drawn to these worlds of infinite possibility and fun.

Players have to be disciplined, to ensure that they manage their own time well. This was a skill that I struggled to develop, but I knew I wanted to do what was healthy and not, say, let my schoolwork suffer at the expense of games.

So it was important for me to set boundaries. I had to set clear time limits for myself, as well as conditions that I had to fulfill, such as completing my homework first before I gave myself permission for game time.

As a young person, I found it difficult to enforce this consistently, so I asked my parents to keep me accountable.

In the end, the discipline that I developed helped me to strive for my best in everything that I did. That’s why out of all the skills that I learnt through gaming, this was the most valuable one to me. 

The skills don’t come just by playing more

I have to add that most players only develop these abilities when they approach games with a desire to improve as a player, and not just to win.

You could win by simply playing against weaker players. Or chancing upon the right strategy, character or power for a situation.

Or you could play mindlessly for hours on end and perform better because of the sheer repetition, or if you keep resorting to cheat sheets.

To acquire the skills I listed, players should play in the right spirit. That means we try to apply the kind of critical thinking or pattern-recognition skills as the game designers intended. 

To me, it’s when we play to improve that counts as “winning”.

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