I feel like games have taught and inspired me to do a lot. Hell, the reason I'm in Japan at all is because of my love for gaming. It was my fondness of Japanese games (coupled with a lack of direction during my teenage years) that brought me to my decision to study Japanese at university. But thanks to that here I am in a nice job in Japan living the good life.
I know it sounds stupidly cheesy but the one life lesson I think I took away from gaming is to never give up no matter what.
I like hard games, games that punish me and test every single bit of my skill and determination. It's part of the reason I find modern gaming so disappointing and probably the reason I'm such a huge fan of Rougelikes. It's stupidly satisfying to be sat there for a few hours dying over and over on a segment of a game only to end up getting past it and having only myself to thank for it. Then when you eventually reach the end of that game it feels so triumphant.
So after punishing myself and seeking out the biggest challenges gaming has to offer, I've taken away a never say die attitude that I've applied to my life and I'm glad I did. I'm not sure about you, the person reading this post, but for me, I've been told at nearly every point in my life that I shouldn't bother with X, Y or Z thing because it probably won't go the way I want it/expect it to go or some shit.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Back in my college days (the thing before University for you Americans) I had this teacher who I will call Mrs. V for the sake of this story. This was quite late in the school year and pretty much all the students at my school had decided on what university courses they were planning on doing. One day, during a class, she comes up to me and asks what I was planning on taking, to which I responded "Japanese". One thing you have to understand before I carry on is that French at my school was mandatory up to a point and my results for French were....sub-par to say the least.
So after hearing my response she has this kind of shocked expression on her face like I just told her I was going to university to study murder or something. She then says to me "maybe you should change, if you're French results are anything to go by then you'll probably fail"
At the time I laughed it off since manners towards teachers was held as a top priority at my school but inside I was fuming. How dare this fat bitch who's been stuck teaching high school geography her whole fucking life tell me I'M going to fail at something based on my results for something TOTALLY DIFFERENT. Students are going through a tough time at that point and I can promise you that if someone in her position said that to someone a bit less stubborn than me, they might have actually changed.
But for me, sure I fucked up French but that's just one Game Over and moving to a new environment to study Japanese was my next coin in the machine. 5+ years later, look at me now, rushing out a post on a blog from a hotel in Japan after a month of training in Tokyo for my new job.
So, just like you should never give up when playing a super hard game, apply that same determination to anything and I promise you you'll go far. If you want something badly enough then nothing will stop you from eventually jumping over one of life's spiky death pits and smashing through the final boss of your own worry and self doubt. Just don't forget to give the middle finger and stomp all over any small fry throw away pricks that try to stand in your way too.
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Sorry if this post is all weird or whatever, I think Tokyo has sent my head all funny with it's shitness. Normal video game goodness will resume once I get back in Nagoya, promise.
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