Hi all, I'm new here.
I guess some videogamers will recognize where that 117 might come from.
Today you hear a lot that sentence like "videogames are a waste of time", "videogames ain't teach you anything", etc...
I actually spent a lot of time playing videogames in my life, and for sure I can tell there's always a price for that, but at the moment I won't admit I'd have a better life if I'd have stopped yearlier.
There are for sure different kind of genres. I used to play First person shooters, strategy and real time strategy games.
I can tell I learn a lot of stuff that way. The mindset actually plays a big role wether you will learn or not, like... Are you playing for fun, or for competition?
I'll name one game I liked a lot, you can either like it or not, it doesn't matter. That was Halo. Let's jump straight into my halo 3 experience :
I had to learn english (I'm not a native speaker) to speak with other people in multiplayer. I had to learn where enemies would spawn depending on our allies placement (that's some math + strategy involved, already). You have to be reactive and think fast, especially in team games, where you have to think about what your allies are doing, what enemies are doing, and what you could do to maximize your chances to win.
Sometimes it was just a matter of milliseconds. There was this term "callout" ("A callout addresses a player(s) general or specific location, Usually used as an attempt to search or make aware of a player(s).")
While you were moving around, probably shooting, you had to be fast enough to callout your enemies, point at a specific place (which you had to remember, obviously).
I'm sure I could find some other points too. As you can see, just playing a videogame at a competitive level, could stimulate your mind as much as any other mind sport.