hand-eye coordination

It helped me improve my social skills because I talked about Super Mario World And Sonic with so much knowledge of every shortcut and walk through in all levels and the girls would listen in awe.

Video games have enriched my life in many ways:

I think when I was a teenager they helped developed my work ethic. I would spend countless hours playing these games. Unfortunately, I think I neglected my studies. However, when I was a young college student I learned to readjust these energies to non-video game tasks better and hence prepared me to be a responsible adult.

Video games give you great satisfaction for accomplishing a challenge. I think winning Military Madness was one of the high points of my formative years. That game isn't based on reflexes or cheat codes it's pure intellectual strategy at its best. Like Chess, but better.

I agree with Corbie that video games can be great companionship. I didn't have such a traumatizing event happen in my life, but I have always been somewhat introspective and didn't make friends as quickly as some people do. And they are a good cure for boredom when your real friends are busy or what not.

Perhaps best of all, video games show one how wonderful human imagination is. It's been a fun ride seeing, hearing, and playing these inventive, brilliant works of Art over the years.

Games have helped me by having fun.

Well you tried. That's all you can do!

Were these girls asleep or just deaf?

@Corbie-does your love for shmups and sevens come from a specific life experience?

My love of shmups stems from my high school lunch hour days. We only had 35 minutes for lunch and most of the arcade games were always taken. But R-Type was so difficult, most people wouldn't even play it, so it was always open. After awhile, I grew to love the blistering difficulty and high level of intensity of the shooters.

As for the sevens, I just decided that sevens needed more exposure in this world. They've been buried in mediocrity for far too long. It's time to step up and embrace the seven for the amazing number it truly is.

I knew there was an explanation!

I would pay to get that image out of my head.

Your high school had arcade games? Did it also have a cool mini train that went around the building like in Silver Spoons?

what kind of girls were you talking to? what human female plays super mario and sonic?

No there was a small diner/arcade right next to the high school. I spent more time there than in class.

Escapism. A test of my skills and hand eye co-ordination. A Mario-thumb.

They dont exist in reality or if , then there is a dark secret why they didnt want to go out to the Barbie pony farm like the others...

• Since I was a small child I am more a brain-driven person, so games appeared more interesting and challenging to me then climbing on trees or collecting soccer player cards
• I got a C64 to play around in the mid 90s (ya) and teached myself at how to program in BASIC at the age of 11 or 12. Later, this helped me to easily understand how programs like Excel can be used or other computer languages work.
• solving PC-game related problems forced me to learn a lot about hardware and software
• when you are new somewhere, gaming related topics can be a good way to find (male _ ) friends quickly
• english games helped at learning this language and keeping it fresh (my native language is german)
• I learned a lot about history from World War I & II games (but trust me, not from Call of Duty...)
• endless and useless military knowledge like the kind of bullets used in a M16 or how thick the frontal armor of a Jagdpanther is

Who said anything about you?

We did!

And only the LOL was directed at you. Not the comment below it.

Hmm... Well, as a kid they were helpful because I was an only child and the neighborhood kids were...well, let's not go there (bad memories...let's just say you wouldn't want to be around them a lot). As I grew, I overcame my fears of the creatures on-screen such as Super Mario World's Bowser (there was a time when I was younger that he had me running for a place to hide).
Not exactly sure what they've helped me with... Probably puzzle solving and my reaction time when confronted with a problem, as well as making friends (guess how many of them I met due to games?). : P