"Turn off this computer and find some real job." - Do you also hear that everyday? Now you can answer that you are training your skills for future employer (so stfu). Here are few games that can improve your work skills.
1. Civilization V - micromanagement
Managing a huge empire, consisting of a dozen cities, fighting on several fronts, and building spaceship at the same time? How many managers around the world could do so? Such skills are nothing new for Civilization V veterans. How to use it at work? Simple - determine a target, treat each of the smaller activities and the least significant resources as part of the game.
A whole generation of players that experienced rebuilding the city after Godzilla attack has developed skills that would help to avoid this whole financial crisis ... or maybe this generation caused it.
2. Modern Warfare 3 - time managment
Time managment is very often the most important part of each CV. So now you can say on your job interview that you are able to shoot 400 bullets, throw 20 granates, reload gun over 35 times and motivate this lazy noobs by constructive criticism ("wtf are you doing, you mother****?!") in only ten minutes! If you are able to get 10 frags using 3 different weapons in less than 2 minutes you are prepared to fight in corpo-wars whose powerpoint presentation was better.
3. The Sims – Life = Work
At the beginning everything is pink and beautiful. We set our house , we choose the colors of the walls and roof tiles . Buy handmade beautiful hedge and choose a place for swimming . And then the funds ends. So we reduce the area a little bit , replace swimming pool with jacuzzi and hedge to pure wood. And then the founds ends again. So we put a tiny tiny house in which we have only the cheapest washing machine, fridge and a telephone. Good we have enough founds for few windows and door. We are looking for work, and once we find it , we are there all day. When we are back we are desperately trying to fill the remaining time before bedtime with some valuable activities , which still ends up on watching TV / playing in " tomb raider ".
Yes, my dears , no school , no teacher , no raw parent teached that life is a series of work, sleep and drive to Ikea once every 4 years for a new chair as The Sims series did.
4. Skyrim – with great power comes great... boredom
You are the Dragonborn, the one and only in the whole of Skyrim, which can fight dragons. Children want to be like you, men are jealous of your skills and orders you free beer, and women want to make their husbands were more like you. You are Dovahkiin, the savior of the land. But you still have to walk on foot to most places, the horse still gets lost somewhere, armor rusts and sword breaks down.
You still have to talk with "important people", who share with you some nonsense and each mission is so important that the fate of the world depends on it.
So what usefull lesson is in Skyrim? The higher you are, you have only more and more responsibility and and just as much fun at the bottom, which is almost zero. Next time when you will met your manager keep in mind that while he writes an email, he maybe slowly dieing inside.
5. World of Warcraft - the bigger the team is, the bigger chances of failure.
Or in other words - in each team there is at least one idiot. Such games as WoW or any other MMO require cooperation in larger team. And this reveals a certain universal trait - chain is as strong as its weakest link. In each team will be one person who believes that he is wiser, smarter and better knows his stuff than you, the leader of the group. It's a sign that in the near future exactly this person will do something stupid and whole group effort will be lost.
6. Starcraft II – never compete with Koreans.
just... don't. Trust me.
7. Angry Birds - Maximizing profit
Angry birds teach us two skills needed to work in a large company.
First and most important - cut the costs and maximize profits. The fewer birds you will use to destroy the structures of our enemy , the more points you will get. Same at work - the less you consume the resources of the company to reach its goal, the better. Even if you are working in a Photocopy Center, and our resources are paper clips.
8. Battlefield 3 - there is always someone better than you (not only Koreans)
Last , and the most cruel life lesson that can be drawn from computer games. In every multiplayer there will always be someone better than you. If you think that you are already really good , your "Kill / Death" ratio is 4.0 and all servers are yours, surely there is someone who will embarrass you ,and revise the value system. And for sure he will do it in such humiliating style that there is nothing else for you than go to play Mario Cart. Single player.
On the other hand, this life lesson has also its positive side . That you can be the one who will show that pr*ck with a sniper rifle, camper on the edge of the map, where is his place.
This is how you can recognize good multiplayer game- no one is safe.
But remember - in real life there is no respawn - YOLO.
Do you agree with me that true gamer would be a perfect employee? Maybe you are employer that is looking for new Senior Customer Service Representative? Think about asking during job interview to put in chronological order all WoW expansions, or in what Need For Speed you were racing only on tracks not streets.
Tell me - what other games are usefull to improve your work skills? (but please to not include Facebook games).