Do Videogame Skills Transfer To Real Life?

macshune writes "Lately, I've been wanting to try my hand at firearms, just to see if a youth spent playing Duck Hunt and an adolescence playing FPS games has given me a preternatural shooting ability. This got me thinking, do videogame skills, both reaction-based and of other kinds, transfer to real life? My friends that play D&D are good storytellers, but do games like Counter-Strike build teamwork skills? Inquiring minds want to know!"

Comments

I attribute my pilot's license to simulator time

[Quarters]

I solo'd at 12 hrs. I took my flight exam at 42hrs. The averages for both (respectively) are ~18-20 hrs and ~50+hrs (some say 60).

While most PC based sims aren't certified as trainers there is still inherent value in things, like:

*Just shooting landings for a few hours to get the timing and visual cues of things down.

*Planning your cross country and then flying it virtually to make sure you've gotten everthing correct.

*Practicng stalls in a controlled environment

etc... Yes, PC games can give you skills that transfer to real life.

I don't think so

[Angst Badger]

With the caveat that I've spent a lot more time with real firearms than FPS games, my impression is that no, the skill doesn't transfer. Guns in games are much easier to use than real-world guns. The main differences that I can see are:

• It's easier to aim in a game than real life. I suspect this is an intentional feature to make the game more fun to play.
• Guns in most games never jam or misfire.
• Guns in games require no cleaning, repair, or other maintenance.
• Automatic weapons in games never seem to overheat.
• Guns in games reload themselves automatically.
• All the ammo you find lying around in heaps and mounds(!) is in excellent condition and is never booby-trapped.
• Bullets in games don't ricochet, and shooting at brittle objects nearby (concrete walls, for example) never seems to spray you with high-velocity debris, nor does shot bounce around dangerously in enclosed spaces with hard surfaces.
• The player character in most FPS games must have some sort of prosthetic ears, because not even a grenade detonation at close range ever seems to cause either temporary or permanent hearing loss.
• Guns in games have no appreciable recoil.

...and so on. As for developing teamwork, you may have a point, but that probably applies to any team sport. Evidently, the Army seems to think that multiplayer FPS games might be good tactical training, and perhaps it is, but the Army makes soldiers get lots and lots practice with real guns.

Re:FPS skillz != firearm skills

[buffer-overflowed]

Yup big difference between being able to hit something with a cursor or a light gun and being able to hit it with actual lead.

FPSes and games like Duck hunt ignore so many things that an actual marksman will take into account when aiming. Wind, distance, the characteristics of the gun/ammo in question, slight inaccuracies in optics, etc.

it has been remarked that new doctors

[bmnc]

seem to have a much smaller learning time when using machinery for keyhole surgery, or the various 'scopys.

I can't remember the source (think it was 20/20), but the suggestion was that the abstract skills of manipulating mice/joysticks/etc in games translates well into manipulating the weirdass device used for controlling the camera.

SO that is an affirmative from the medical profession, i guess.

Re:FPS skillz != firearm skills

[zelphior]

some people say to aim a gun lower than where you want to hit because they instinctively flinch just before pulling the trigger. This flinch brings the barrel up slightly, and hopefully into the general vicinity of the target. However, a good marksman knows to control the flinch reaction, and thus aim exactly where they want their shot to go.

A Sniper (or anyone going for a long distance shot) adjust their sights so that the barrel of the gun is above the target to account for the fact that the bullet drops as it flies towards the target.