Have you ever been so overwhelmed by a video game that you imitate it as much as possible? In some cases, this doesn’t work out too well — like with Grand Theft Auto. But if you’re not a complete moron, it can be very rewarding. Learning skills from video games can change your life. You have so many more options to choose from.
One of my biggest inspirations for skateboarding came from a video game: Yo! Noid for the NES. In level 3, The Noid skateboards instead of walking. Nothing beats blasting through the city park on a 
board with square wheels. I have played this level so many times that I’ve lost count. I decided that I had to start skateboarding, but I had no clue where to start. Then one day in 1997, a family moved into a house on my street. There was a kid in this family around my age that skateboarded. He showed me how to begin. We skated together for three years. He eventually fizzled out of skateboarding, but I’m still shedding the sidewalks. And the only reason I started to skate was because of a video game.
Another one of my inspirations was Tekken 4. It made me say, “hey, I think I’ll learn some martial arts.” The biggest decision was which one I should learn. I would have learned Capoeira, but there are no schools that teach it in my area. So, I just looked in the phonebook to see what schools were in or around my town. I eventually chose Shaolin Kempo Karate. I started for other reasons besides Tekken, but it was the first thing that sparked my mind.
Even though all of my motivations are not from video games, I have a lot more things to do in my life because of them. If you would like to share some stories of video game related inspirations, feel free to share them on the forum.
