Some very famous prodigies made a 'game' out of their field. Terence Tao for example, said he used to make a game out of mathematical solutions. And that he knows more about math after graduate school than before or during.
My personal experience in this was with a imaginative text-based game called a MUD. There were times when I was spending 20-50+ hours a week role-playing and player-killing with a group of friends. I very nearly flunked out of a full-tuition scholarship my freshman year, and left anyway because it wasn't fulfilling to me - I wanted to be a sysadmin, not study liberal arts. In HS it was fun using a PoE adapter to POTS for Internet access.
The things I took away from excessive gaming were "saying the right words to convince other people I have their best interests at heart" (RP for player-run cabals) and "speed reading skimming" "fast-twitch typing" and "writing conversationally."
I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble financially and academically and emotionally without these 'second lives' but I did see some positive outcomes. Real Life is usually a richer experience socially/experientially... except when it comes to playing make-believe... how much of the intersubjectivity superstructure (sociologically) isn't make-believe...? Perhaps, perhaps.
> The things I took away from excessive gaming were "saying the right words to convince other people I have their best interests at heart" (RP for player-run cabals) and "speed reading skimming" "fast-twitch typing" and "writing conversationally."
This is extremely relatable. I grew up playing Runescape and I legitimately think it helped me develop better rhetorical skills than my peers and just better instincts in general when it comes to social and economical things.
Don't get me wrong though, those thousands of hours spent on video games were still not worth it. And I also don't think it's desirable to be too instinctive and "twitchy".
My personal experience in this was with a imaginative text-based game called a MUD. There were times when I was spending 20-50+ hours a week role-playing and player-killing with a group of friends. I very nearly flunked out of a full-tuition scholarship my freshman year, and left anyway because it wasn't fulfilling to me - I wanted to be a sysadmin, not study liberal arts. In HS it was fun using a PoE adapter to POTS for Internet access.
The things I took away from excessive gaming were "saying the right words to convince other people I have their best interests at heart" (RP for player-run cabals) and "speed reading skimming" "fast-twitch typing" and "writing conversationally."
I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble financially and academically and emotionally without these 'second lives' but I did see some positive outcomes. Real Life is usually a richer experience socially/experientially... except when it comes to playing make-believe... how much of the intersubjectivity superstructure (sociologically) isn't make-believe...? Perhaps, perhaps.