In my 14 years of playing video games, I have been told many things. “You should do something constructive”, or “quit wasting your time”. There is one thing that those people don’t realize. I have learned much over these years from playing video games, and I will continue to learn.
Earthbound, for the SNES, is a great game. If you do not own this RPG, you should get out of your chair and run to your local video game store to pick it up. Earthbound taught me about the wonderful ATM machine. You start out the game with an ATM card. I wondered what that was. I visited the Onett Drugstore ATM machine. It said, “Welcome to the Automatic Teller Machine. Please select a transaction.” I had now learned what an ATM is. I learned about depositing and withdrawing as well. Learning about it was fun, too, because I was playing a game. I didn’t have to read a boring book.
Earthbound also helped my reading skills. The school system makes us read books. I don’t see the point of forcing someone to read. I can’t stand reading books for school. They don’t even give us a choice of what to read. And they make it due by a certain day. Reading what I want and when I want to is very enjoyable. If you add a video game into the mix, I love it. Since Earthbound is an RPG, there is a ton of reading. My reading speed has increased. I have learned new words. I gained a lot of knowledge just because I wanted to learn.
So next time somebody tells you to get a job, or to stop wasting your time, tell them some of the things you learned that day from your video games. Knowledge is power. Now you’re playing with power. This means you are playing with knowledge.
