For example, I am terrible at Super Meat Boy, but just playing it has really improved how I play platformers and games that need faster imputs overall.
Dead by Daylight. Spending so much time chasing or being chased by other players has definitely improved my tracking/flanking abilities in other games, as well as pathing and following players audibly. I may not be a great shot, but I know exactly where you’re going and how to cut you off.
Also utilizing mindgame strategies can really fuck with people in other games.
Edit: Also also, I don’t get tilted nearly as easily as I used to. DBD sucked all the rage out of me.
Edit 2: My first point also applies defensively, in that I know how to more effectively lose someone if necessary.
Hollow Knight 100%. Its also my favorite game.
Crusader Kings reminded me that losing can be fun
Nothing like castrating half of the family tree because of that one time your brother tried to break up your empire!
You may have misread my post. I said losing the game. What you’re describing is clearly winning the game :p
- Dwarf Fortress has entered the chat.
Oh man, that brings back memories. All my Dwarf Fortress games were horrific dystopias. Full-on police states optimized for the production and export of lead children’s toys (they are enchanted by our more ethical works).
Then new unskilled arrivals would wait in a room with retractable spikes before they met anyone. It was someone’s job to pull a lever all day. Then the clothes would be exported (they are enchanted by our more ethical works).
Everyone left was either in the army or a skilled worker confined to a 2x2 room containing a bed, table, chair, and statue of the mayor. The doors locked from the outside.
Newer versions have made this strategy less productive I think – I haven’t really kept up. At the time a single death could send your fortress into a fatal spiral of depression and it worked pretty well though.
The speed and random nature of Spelunky really helps build gaming skills.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (PS2).
You either learned, or you quitted.
Elden Ring.
I didn’t love the learning/difficulty curve of Soulsborne games until this one, but it got its hooks in me hard.
I usually spammed most boss fights and played everything a certain way, but here I had to learn the boss’s moves and dodge, parry and use power ups to bring them down.
Worth it. While frustrating, it made me return to other genres and play them again but differently. Hitman, sniper elite, roguelites/likes, anything that rewards patience, really. These now had a whole new facet I didn’t see before, or I did and I was applying it to these games.
I’ve since tried other soulsborne games, and while I now appreciate the difficulty and find them a lot more fun, the exploration and world of Elden Ring was the difference maker for me. It was being able to forge my own path and choose my challenges.
Similar answer and probably cliché, but for me it was the first Dark Souls. I finally played it about 2 years ago after avoiding it for a long time and thinking it wasn’t my thing. I thought I hated games that didn’t allow animation cancelling because they weren’t “responsive”. If I hadn’t heard so many people insist it’s great I would have given up because the character doesn’t react to every wild button mash.
Boy was I wrong. Once I understood the combat it was like Zelda (my OG favorite franchise) but better. And brutal. Playing through it subsequently made Elden Ring much easier than it probably would’ve been otherwise. Exploring every nook and cranny and overleveling helped a bit too I’m sure.
On PC with mods for upgraded resolution and textures (and dsfix) DS1 was a quite good experience. There’s still a bit too much BS like hidden paths and even NPCs that are way too obscure, and the game falls apart near the end, but learning to navigate the platforms of Blighttown and besting all the different bosses sharpened my skills like nothing had in ages.
Not that it’s much of a benefit today as RTS games are barely nonexistent. But StarCraft 2 taught me all about macro management. Spending them resources and building an economy.
Yeah, learning to perform a macro cycle while doing other stuff is really useful. I sometimes play AoE2 with friends, and I’m not very good at it, but if there’s one thing I can do, it’s spamming trash units in the late game.
Nioh 2
WoW increased my typing speed and accuracy as without voip, its essential to communicate effectively.
Everquest did this to me.
I mained a bard, and back then you had to stop a song and start a new one every so often…
Mathematically it translates to a button press ever 1.5 seconds, ignoring movement, other combat abilities, etc.
I also refused to compromise on spelling and grammar at the time.
I got real good at typing accurately and quickly.
I have lost a lot of that speed, but at comfortable pace I’m probably 80-90 words a minute, and the last time it was measured was a keyboarding class requisite. 121 GWAM for an eighth grader isn’t too shabby. As long as I fixed the printer I got to play games in that class.
+1 for wow for typing and also it was the game that taught me to think about the enemy’s habilities and how my abilities should be used in a particular way effectively against them.
Same. I wouldn’t stop talking during combat so I was typing full sentences in that one second global cooldown.
I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game
If you know, you know.
You lost
Fucking CONSTANTLY. I did eventually beat it though.
Megaman X - Probably the best Action Platformer ever, it teaches you all the basics of the genre through gameplay alone.
Metal Slug 2 - Cuphead too hard for you? Then give this good ol’ classic a shot! It has simple yet fun mechanics and you can go as trigger happy as you want. And don’t feel bad if you play on Free Play Mode, what matters is that you have fun!
Gran Turismo (PSP) - If you want to get into the series (or into Racing Simulators in general) this is probably your best bet, you have all stages available from the beginning and very little customization, but you can feel the progressiveness of the game as you buy more powerful cars and unlock higher difficulties.
Grand Theft Auto III - This game can be really hard at times (no swimming, only 3 safehouses, cars are really fragile, etc.) But once you understand the mechanics of the game and you start getting better, the rest of the series is a piece of cake. (Also, i loved the freedom you had when performing most missions in this game, it makes sense that later titles restricted you due to being more “story oriented”, but GTA V’s missions really just feel like going through film setpieces that is boring :/)
Multiplayer games taught me that I generally dislike other people.
I can play on my own time, and I can play with friends, but god help me I HATE playing on the server’s time. I can kinda do it with Pokemon Go, but that’s one you can play as casually or as hardcore as you like since you’re mostly playing for yourself after a point.
I’ve been on a decade long hiatus from multiplayer aspect of games - aside from games I was with people I knew in RL.
I only occasionally get a twinge for the comraderie of some epic raid in an MMO, or tight unspoken squad tactics where everyone just does their job as expected (not necessarily well lol) and came out on top.
But really, I don’t have the time to commit to either of those.
Then I hear about my friend in GW2 (RL friend) who is going through some toxic guild BS and I don’t miss it.
I tried DOTA once. Once was enough.
Mass Effect made me far better at multitasking and not letting myself get tunnel vision on an objective.
Sure I’d played Gears of War, or RTS’s that used the traditional rock, paper, scissors method of unit dominance, and resource management.
I’d just never played a third person shooter that expected me to combine all of those skills into a single gameplay loop which required constant shifting from power/defense based problem solving to accurate shot placement and squad positioning on the fly.
Unblock Me taught me that even if you don’t see the solution yet, moving the pieces in the way that they can move will often illustrate the correct path.
Breath of the Wild helped with my willingness to explore and discover in open world games.
