Improve Problem Solving Skills and Decision Making by Playing Video Games
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In this Advanced English Native Speaker conversation, we discuss the benefits of playing video games. Namely, we cover how video games can help you improve your problem-solving skills and boost your decision-making capabilities.

 

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As you watch/listen to this conversation, you can follow along with the transcript.

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:30:17
Mary Daphne
Hello, Advanced English Learners. Welcome back to another wonderful conversation. I'm joined by the one and only Greg and we like to do these sessions to help you improve your listening comprehension, your conversation skills in English, your pronunciation, your intonation, the way of saying how to say things, how to introduce topics, how to switch topics, essentially, how to communicate.

00:00:30:17 - 00:00:52:05
Mary Daphne
It comes down to that and we have fun doing them. We know that you enjoy them as well, so we'll keep doing them for as long as we can. All right. So today's topic, we're going to explore the benefits of video games and what you can learn from gaming, essentially. Let's get into it.

00:00:52:23 - 00:01:01:18
Greg
Sounds fun.

00:01:01:18 - 00:01:31:27
Mary Daphne
Okay. So let's first start off by prefacing it with maybe thinking about it in the lens of positive video games and more of the video games that promote, I want to say positive concepts. I mean, I know that there's a lot of types of video games, different genres. Maybe you can speak a little bit to that, Greg, because you have a lot of experience in this field.

00:01:32:03 - 00:01:40:24
Greg
Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. Education and video games have always sort of loosely overlapped.

00:01:41:05 - 00:01:45:17
Mary Daphne
Right? Right. While at the same time almost having a contentious relationship.

00:01:45:17 - 00:01:53:14
Greg
And there is a contentious relationship as well. I remember as a kid, I always loved to play educational video games.

00:01:53:14 - 00:02:06:18
Mary Daphne
I agree with you and I like reminiscing fondly on those video game memories. And I often ask you about them if you played the same video games as a kid and it turns out you did.

00:02:06:18 - 00:02:34:15
Greg
Yeah. Yeah. A classic when we were growing up was called Mario teaches typing and you would basically just show words on the screen and you would type them. And to the extent that you could type fast enough, your Mario character would sort of traverse this perilous path and you could see him sort of keeping up and there were special keys you could hit at certain times that would allow you to get extra points and stuff.

00:02:34:15 - 00:02:43:06
Greg
And basically the goal was to see how far you could get without making errors. And if you made errors in your typing, it would slow down the character. He would fall off or whatever.

00:02:43:06 - 00:02:51:18
Mary Daphne
Yeah. And they're like specific ones for touch typing, which is essentially when you don't look at the keypad or the keyboard and you're just able.

00:02:51:18 - 00:02:53:07
Greg
That's the whole purpose of it.

00:02:53:14 - 00:02:54:07
Mary Daphne
That's the purpose.

00:02:54:07 - 00:03:18:18
Greg
Is to get you fluent with the keyboard, which is actually quite needed. I mean, I've seen some people, particularly from older generations, who just didn't get that kind of training and, you know, they're not nearly as fast to the keyboard. So anyways, the point in saying that is there are games that are explicitly designed for education and those can be a lot of fun.

00:03:19:07 - 00:03:39:06
Greg
They tend to be lower budget, though I'm speaking from the perspective of a gamer, they tend to be lower budget and as you get a little bit older, you start to, you know, view them in a less rosy light relative to classic video games, which are intended to be purely for entertainment.

00:03:39:10 - 00:03:41:15
Mary Daphne
So what are some of the classic video games?

00:03:42:21 - 00:03:44:19
Greg
Well, you can break them into several categories.

00:03:44:19 - 00:03:45:02
Mary Daphne
Okay.

00:03:45:02 - 00:03:48:04
Greg
Right. So you have strategy games.

00:03:48:04 - 00:03:48:11
Mary Daphne
Yeah.

00:03:49:08 - 00:03:59:04
Greg
Which can be turn based or. But those tend to be, you know, you're building an army to go attack other armies. Okay, there's strategy involved, kind of like if you played risk.

00:03:59:14 - 00:04:00:28
Mary Daphne
Okay, that's the board game.

00:04:00:28 - 00:04:21:09
Greg
It's a little bit like that. You can have what are called first person shooters and those are basically you run around in a world and you're a soldier of some sort and you're fighting aliens or you're fighting enemies, whatever. So you're going around. But that's a first person experience. Yeah. Then you have RPGs.

00:04:21:09 - 00:04:22:09
Mary Daphne
Role playing.

00:04:22:12 - 00:04:27:19
Greg
Role playing games. One of my favorites and those are you're in this immersive world. Yeah.

00:04:28:06 - 00:04:29:22
Mary Daphne
And you have an avatar.

00:04:29:22 - 00:04:43:15
Greg
You have an avatar and there's some kind of storyline that you're following. Yeah. And those can be really cool sometimes. The first person shooters, they're called. Yeah. And the role playing games can overlap.

00:04:43:15 - 00:04:45:09
Mary Daphne
Overlap.

00:04:45:09 - 00:04:53:02
Greg
And so then also you have more recently something called massively multiplayer online RPGs.

00:04:53:02 - 00:04:55:25
Mary Daphne
And then RPG.

00:04:56:26 - 00:05:04:17
Greg
And one of the breakouts for that there was EverQuest, of course, but the one that probably got the biggest name.

00:05:04:22 - 00:05:06:12
Mary Daphne
Yes, World of Warcraft.

00:05:06:12 - 00:05:07:09
Greg
World of Warcraft.

00:05:07:09 - 00:05:07:23
Mary Daphne
Wow.

00:05:07:23 - 00:05:08:25
Greg
Okay, exactly.

00:05:08:27 - 00:05:10:18
Mary Daphne
This is coming from a non gamer.

00:05:11:00 - 00:05:39:28
Greg
Exactly. And it's worth, you know, sort of covering these different categories because each of them provides a type of education in its own right. I think that's right. Yeah. Each one of these styles provides a different type of challenge if it's an RPG or, you know, it's about sort of learning to adapt to an unfamiliar environment, trying to understand clues and uncover little riddles and patterns.

00:05:40:24 - 00:05:48:28
Greg
Then you have arts as real time strategy games. Those are like, you know, the same, same kind of skills you do. You develop when you play chess.

00:05:49:11 - 00:05:51:26
Mary Daphne
Rice and chess is a tough, tough game.

00:05:51:29 - 00:05:52:11
Greg
Exactly.

00:05:52:11 - 00:05:56:07
Mary Daphne
Lots of strategies and lots of brainpower you're using.

00:05:56:14 - 00:06:02:21
Greg
Exactly. Trying to plan your next step. Yeah. They tend to be also quite competitive. So you can play against other players.

00:06:02:26 - 00:06:03:18
Mary Daphne
Or A.I..

00:06:03:27 - 00:06:10:15
Greg
Or A.I.. Both are a lot of fun. And so in those cases, yeah, I mean, that's really driving your mind to be.

00:06:10:19 - 00:06:12:22
Mary Daphne
Strategic, right?

00:06:12:22 - 00:06:17:12
Greg
With PCs, you know, that's a lot like a fast twitch reaction, right?

00:06:17:12 - 00:06:26:26
Mary Daphne
So I would say let's just backtrack for a second. So with the strategy, maybe think about it in terms of amping up your problem solving skills.

00:06:27:16 - 00:06:34:27
Greg
I would argue that all of them use problem solving skills, but I would say that the RPG, which one were you referring to?

00:06:34:27 - 00:06:37:14
Mary Daphne
I was talking about the one before RPG.

00:06:37:14 - 00:06:39:18
Greg
So RPG is this sort of roleplaying.

00:06:39:19 - 00:06:41:11
Mary Daphne
Okay. So that would be that.

00:06:41:11 - 00:06:43:27
Greg
Yeah, that's that's often you have riddles.

00:06:44:06 - 00:06:45:00
Mary Daphne
Okay. So problem.

00:06:45:00 - 00:06:46:01
Greg
Solving problems and.

00:06:46:02 - 00:06:47:04
Mary Daphne
Titles you think.

00:06:47:04 - 00:06:54:02
Greg
Of. Yeah, it's, it's, it's sort of a strategy, right. Resource management.

00:06:54:10 - 00:06:58:06
Mary Daphne
That also makes you think of being able to think of a decision quickly and be.

00:06:58:07 - 00:06:58:28
Greg
Absolutely.

00:06:58:28 - 00:07:14:27
Mary Daphne
Being decisive is actually a big problem. Think about how many business opportunities get postponed or never transpire. They never happen because somebody was too afraid to make that decision on the spot.

00:07:14:27 - 00:07:26:27
Greg
Really good point. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. Businesses languish, right? They don't get anywhere. They languish because people are afraid to make a decision or they spend too long equivocating.

00:07:26:27 - 00:07:28:04
Mary Daphne
Or deliberating or.

00:07:28:04 - 00:07:44:18
Greg
Deliberating, trying to, you know, make up their minds and not committing to something. The ability to be decisive, to make a decision and move forward and own that decision, is a really important skill. And so that's a great point.

00:07:44:19 - 00:07:53:27
Mary Daphne
I remember I came in when you were doing a gaming session one weekend and I saw that you were playing Witcher The Wild Hunt, so.

00:07:53:27 - 00:07:55:13
Greg
The Witcher would be a.

00:07:55:14 - 00:07:56:03
Mary Daphne
Role Playing.

00:07:56:09 - 00:08:00:21
Greg
RPG with some elements of an FPS.

00:08:01:15 - 00:08:14:24
Mary Daphne
Okay. And one of the I don't know what you call it in the gaming terminology, but there was the visual, the little like storyline happening with the characters. Yep. And then you had to make a few decisions.

00:08:14:24 - 00:08:15:09
Greg
Totally.

00:08:15:09 - 00:08:33:14
Mary Daphne
I felt a little bit of anxiety when I saw you had to make that because obviously I wasn't playing the game. I had no, I'm an outsider completely. But that just made me think, wow, this is really enabling people to work on that decisiveness skill.

00:08:33:24 - 00:08:43:13
Greg
Yeah. It's, you know, that actually comes from a classic style of book when we were kids. Yeah, it's called Choose Your Own Adventure.

00:08:43:15 - 00:08:44:05
Mary Daphne
Okay.

00:08:44:06 - 00:08:46:06
Greg
Have you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure?

00:08:46:19 - 00:08:54:19
Mary Daphne
I don't know if I'm being honest. If I saw the cover, I might recall some memories, but I don't know that I.

00:08:54:21 - 00:08:57:19
Greg
Okay, these are really cool. Okay, so the Choose Your Own adventure.

00:08:57:19 - 00:08:58:12
Mary Daphne
Well, I'm intrigued.

00:08:58:14 - 00:09:16:07
Greg
You're reading a book and you get, you know, it sort of starts the story for you. You're walking through a forest and the trees, the tree cover grows thick and the light grows dim. And all of a sudden, in front of you, you see a cave.

00:09:16:12 - 00:09:16:26
Mary Daphne
Oh.

00:09:17:11 - 00:09:21:21
Greg
Did you go into the cave or do you, you know, return home?

00:09:22:05 - 00:09:24:27
Mary Daphne
Okay. I've definitely played certain types of games. And at the.

00:09:24:27 - 00:09:31:20
Greg
Bottom of this is this is and then it'll say if you choose to go home, turn to page.

00:09:31:29 - 00:09:32:25
Mary Daphne
Three. Okay.

00:09:32:28 - 00:09:36:10
Greg
If you choose to go into the cave, turn to page 15.

00:09:36:10 - 00:09:37:15
Mary Daphne
Okay. Yeah, very cool.

00:09:37:15 - 00:09:53:14
Greg
Right. And so you sort of walk out, you go into the cave and you encounter some other sort of branch and you have to choose and you flip to some other part of the book and you as you go through, you will find that some, some choices will get you in trouble and other choices might find you some treasure.

00:09:54:00 - 00:10:03:24
Greg
Right. And so it's the same concept in these RPGs. You get to choose how you interact with other characters. Right. And interestingly, there's also some social dynamics at play.

00:10:03:26 - 00:10:05:22
Mary Daphne
Okay, let's talk about that in that way.

00:10:06:00 - 00:10:33:11
Greg
So oftentimes when you're interacting, you have the option to choose between being a polite character, a rude character, or just strange. You know, there's basically anywhere along a spectrum you can reply in different ways, and based on how you reply, the characters will react accordingly, right? And by being polite, you might open up certain storylines. By being rude, you might close off certain storylines.

00:10:33:28 - 00:10:44:06
Mary Daphne
So what would be the incentive to be rude if the polite storyline opens? Ah, the polite character opens up so much, you know, more opportunity, I mean.

00:10:44:06 - 00:10:48:26
Greg
Well, it depends on the game. So in some games, the play character always gets the more interesting storyline.

00:10:48:27 - 00:10:49:10
Mary Daphne
Sure.

00:10:49:11 - 00:11:13:13
Greg
In a game like Witcher, believe it or not, sometimes being selfish actually gives you items and you know, weapons that are more powerful. And so it really is a hard choice. It's like I'm compelled to feel like, generally speaking, I'm a nice person, so I want to do the nice thing here. Right? On the other hand, I know that if I do the bad thing right, if I tricked this person, I'm going to get a more powerful item.

00:11:13:13 - 00:11:14:00
Mary Daphne
Interesting.

00:11:14:01 - 00:11:20:03
Greg
And so you actually have to make a decision and you have to decide, like, do I care that this is just a video game? Who cares, right?

00:11:20:04 - 00:11:22:05
Mary Daphne
Does it impact my identity? And yeah.

00:11:22:12 - 00:11:23:20
Greg
Am I this kind of person?

00:11:23:20 - 00:11:47:17
Mary Daphne
Yeah. You know, I can imagine. I know that I would have some cognitive dissonance if I, you know, felt like my character had to behave in a certain way in order for me to level up in the game that went against what my personal beliefs are, especially since I'm in this space of communication. And, you know, so I wonder how I would feel doing that.

00:11:47:17 - 00:12:10:12
Mary Daphne
But you make a great point because I think with the social dynamics at play, the social dynamics at play cut off the see there, you know, I think it's interesting because it gives you a little bit of a thought experiment and it allows you to see maybe what kinds of reactions you would get if you were anything other than polite.

00:12:10:21 - 00:12:27:19
Mary Daphne
And it could be a little bit of a social experiment with, you know, a lot of upside because you learn a lot, but not much. You know, it's not really negative in the sense that you're not impacting other people's lives. It's low risk because you're working with, you know, a character in a computer game. Yeah.

00:12:28:04 - 00:12:50:27
Greg
Yeah, I agree with that. And I think also arguably the most important lesson I derive from those is it just puts you in these sort of moral scenarios, right, where you have to decide what you feel is right. Because I can tell you in business, you encounter those situations all the time. Yeah. Are we going to be completely honest with our client?

00:12:50:27 - 00:13:12:02
Greg
Are we going to be completely honest with our customers, are going to be transparent? Are we going to, you know, disclose the problems that we have, you know, before they become a bigger problem? Are we going to, you know, confront someone who is behaving in a way that's problematic? Right. Like these kinds of things you deal with in the real world?

00:13:12:02 - 00:13:25:27
Greg
Yeah. Particularly in business, but also in your social life when you get to simulate that in a video game. Right. It just gives you a little more preparation for those real world scenarios. Right. Right. And that itself, I think, is very powerful.

00:13:26:06 - 00:13:53:25
Mary Daphne
What I like about, you know, especially if you're selective about the video games and we're looking to review them in a positive light based on that criteria. What I like about that is that it's active TV watching, film watching, it's relatively passive unless you're, you know, making it a language activity. Like I remember when I was learning French, I would devour so many different films in French and I would be so, you know, active.

00:13:53:26 - 00:13:54:12
Mary Daphne
That's a good point.

00:13:54:22 - 00:13:55:27
Greg
Yeah, you can do it. Active.

00:13:55:29 - 00:14:26:21
Mary Daphne
Absolutely. I'd pause it, I'd check my comprehension, I'd write down expressions. Right. But most people are not doing that when they're consuming, you know, television and film. And look, there's a place and time to do that. We're big film people, but you have to recognize that one is relatively more passive than something like a video game where you're really activating lots of neural pathways in your brain.

00:14:27:01 - 00:14:40:08
Greg
Right. And to be clear, though, there are video games that are very passive. They're video games where you can just tune out and sort of very mindlessly do things. And I don't couldn't even tell you the names of them because I don't play them.

00:14:40:09 - 00:14:43:23
Mary Daphne
Yeah. And I have seen you play any of those, but I don't even know that those exist.

00:14:43:28 - 00:14:51:15
Greg
Those do exist. So there's, you know, in all of entertainment, there are opportunities to just completely turn off your brain if you want.

00:14:51:15 - 00:15:06:13
Mary Daphne
And there's a great expression for this saying that just applies to different arenas in life. But you can say just coast to coast, a city like a sea coast, you know, you're just hanging out, relaxing. You're on your float and you're just coasting.

00:15:06:14 - 00:15:13:09
Greg
That's funny. That's one way to think of coast. So coasting is also in my mind to coast.

00:15:13:09 - 00:15:13:22
Mary Daphne
Yeah.

00:15:13:23 - 00:15:21:21
Greg
Like it's I think of, like, something that's sliding, huh? Like, like a train coasts along the track.

00:15:21:21 - 00:15:22:04
Mary Daphne
Okay.

00:15:22:23 - 00:15:25:16
Greg
But I like that imagery of, like, the coast.

00:15:25:23 - 00:15:26:20
Mary Daphne
That makes me like the.

00:15:26:20 - 00:15:27:10
Greg
Seaside.

00:15:27:10 - 00:15:48:02
Mary Daphne
Yeah, just kind of relax. Yeah. Letting the waves take you where they may. Yeah. Just a little side note here. I remember in one of the spin classes we used to do a lot when we were in New York. There was a place that did spinning and they would sell t-shirts and they had no coasting. Meaning you have to put pedal to the metal.

00:15:48:09 - 00:15:53:23
Mary Daphne
Yeah. You're not allowed to just take it easy. It's not coasting. You need to crush it.

00:15:53:24 - 00:16:14:09
Greg
The yeah, that's funny because even when I am watching shows or movies, yeah, I actually do try to take a more active, active approach to it. So I'm watching, you know, sort of the angles of the shots. Yeah, I, you know, I pay attention to the kind of dialog that's being used. Yeah.

00:16:14:28 - 00:16:17:00
Mary Daphne
The registers they're using register.

00:16:17:09 - 00:16:31:01
Greg
I pay a lot of attention to character development. Like, what are they trying to express with this character? Yeah, you know, how are they going to, how is this character going to evolve or how has this character evolved over the course of the narrative?

00:16:31:02 - 00:16:51:05
Mary Daphne
Yeah, absolutely. I think there's absolutely a way of doing it actively. And, you know, language learning is definitely one way to do that. But also just being really observant, understanding the social dynamics, the social connections, the plot development, the character development. So maybe next time you watch something, even in your native language, give that approach a try because it's really fun.

00:16:51:05 - 00:16:52:13
Mary Daphne
I mean, we enjoy doing that.

00:16:52:13 - 00:17:14:13
Greg
So yeah, taking it back to video games, that's the same goes for video games. Yeah. You know, you can play games mindlessly or you can play them very proactively. And from my personal experience, it's always more fun to be very engaged with the game. Yeah, right. Really try and challenge yourself. Like in most games you can also dial down the intensity so you can choose a very easy mode or you can choose more challenging modes.

00:17:14:13 - 00:17:31:03
Greg
Yeah, and I have to give credit to my brother because I was always tempted to turn it just a little bit too easy. Yeah. So that I didn't have any concerns about getting through. Right. My brother, on the other hand, always likes to turn just a little bit harder so that he would fail multiple times. And by the way, that's another huge part of video games.

00:17:31:04 - 00:17:33:19
Greg
Yeah, it's all about failing and trying again.

00:17:33:21 - 00:17:57:01
Mary Daphne
So you try to use life lessons. Yeah, that, that in and of itself is, I would say enough to like, you know, want to maybe incentivize you to play video games. Getting practice was failing and not being afraid to fail. I mean, business is all about that. You're constantly testing, trying out things, failing, testing again, trying out things failing, or it goes on and on.

00:17:57:01 - 00:18:22:02
Greg
Exactly like if you're playing a game and you don't have to save and you don't have to restart, you know, for the start of the level or whatever, if you're not dying as the video game character, you're probably not playing on a hard enough difficulty. Yeah, because that's, that's a big part of playing the game is, you know, if you could just coast through as you're saying, then there's not really much challenge and there's not much you don't get as much value out.

00:18:22:02 - 00:18:29:09
Mary Daphne
If your ego might get a nice little boost, your confidence might feel elevated in that moment, but then afterwards you like it.

00:18:30:09 - 00:18:31:01
Greg
Did I really? Huh?

00:18:31:07 - 00:18:36:14
Mary Daphne
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We played Age of Empires together. That's a strategy.

00:18:36:19 - 00:18:40:02
Greg
That is a yes. That is a real time strategy game. That's a terrific one.

00:18:40:04 - 00:18:43:06
Mary Daphne
That's really the classic. 
00:18:43:06 - 00:18:44:18
Greg
There's a little bit of history there.

00:18:44:18 - 00:18:44:28
Mary Daphne
Too.

00:18:44:28 - 00:18:49:12
Greg
It is right there. You're learning about the different cultures, societies.

00:18:50:03 - 00:18:57:00
Mary Daphne
The strategies, the techniques, their technology, technology, the age that time, like what was going on.

00:18:57:00 - 00:19:06:28
Greg
And yeah, that this sort of technology tree is right. How, how do you progress through the different sorts of levels, the different stages of, you know, the development of the technology?

00:19:06:28 - 00:19:29:20
Mary Daphne
Absolutely. So as we wrap up here, maybe, you know, as a gamer yourself, if you are a gamer listening and watching this, you might say, oh, yeah, that makes sense. I do that. I've learned that this is the way of, you know, doing X, Y, Z. Great. You might be nodding in agreement. And if you're not a gamer, maybe, you know, consider starting to explore that type of activity.

00:19:29:20 - 00:19:46:03
Mary Daphne
You know, it's a great way to unwind, but also be really active, right? Your brain is getting a lot of stimulation in a good way. And you're learning so much and so many of these lessons and skills can be applied to the real world, which is awesome.

00:19:46:03 - 00:20:05:10
Greg
Yeah, we haven't even talked about the ability to actually interact with other people in these games, particularly in a non-native language. Yeah. Right. So just using the language in a way that really matters because your communication with them can dictate whether or not you guys succeed at whatever sort of mission that you're on. Absolutely. That's huge. And you can do that.

00:20:05:10 - 00:20:10:08
Greg
That can be in voice. So there really are so many layers to this. Yeah. That is powerful.

00:20:10:18 - 00:20:29:10
Mary Daphne
So it might be something worth exploring. And I would love to hear your thoughts. What kind of skills do you think you learn? What have you learned? If you're a gamer, what would you like to try to do? What's your, you know, strategy for gaming and yeah, share whatever you'd like in the Q&A and in the comments.

00:20:29:21 - 00:20:54:18
Mary Daphne
So we look forward to hearing that. And thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate your time. We value you as a member of our community and we're really looking forward to sharing the next steps of what's coming up because we have some exciting news and we look forward to sharing that with you very soon. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the channel.

00:20:54:18 - 00:21:26:16
Mary Daphne
Make sure you're a follower. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast and you're listening to it and sharing it with friends. And don't forget to leave us a nice review and we love sharing this content with you. So definitely, you know, stay here and we will see you very, very soon. All right. Bye for now.

⚡⚡⚡

Here are the answers to the listening comprehension questions:

(1) What does MD fondly reminisce about? [~1:58]
Educational computer games
Educational board games
Educational methods 
Educational books

(2) What is an example of an educational game? [~ 2:20 - 3:00]
Teaching touch typing ; to be fast with the keyboard, without looking at the keys

(3) From a gamer’s perspective, what’s one drawback (negative aspect) of educational games? [3:22]
They tend to be boring
They tend to be lower-budget
They tend to be difficult
They tend to be a lot of fun

(4) What can you glean from the expression “rosy light”? [3:33]
A cynical way of thinking
An optimistic way of thinking
A cautious way of thinking
A fun way of thinking

(5) All of the following are categories of games EXCEPT: [3:46 – 5:00]
Strategy games
Turn-table games
First-person shooters 
Role-playing games

(6) What was one of the breakouts for MMORPGs? [5:01]
World of Warcraft (WoW)

(7) What are some reasons some businesses languish {fail to make progress or be successful} [7:26] ?
People are too afraid to make a decision, they spend too long equivocating deliberating, and being indecisive. This is why being decisive is an important skills to have, particularly with regard to success in business.

(8) What can you glean from the context when MD says she’s “an outsider?” [8:28]
She feels excluded from the gaming world
She is not a good gamer
She doesn't feel like gaming
She doesn’t game

D. is the best answer because MD mentioned she didn’t know the terminology of gaming and that reveals that she is not a gamer and doesn’t game. You might’ve picked up, however, that at the beginning of the conversation she talks about how she would play educational computer games growing up.

(9) What are the social dynamics at play in video games? [~10:04 - 10:33]
You can choose how to interact with characters
You can change your personality 
You can pretend to interact with characters
You can interact as yourself

A. is the best answer for this question, because you choose how you want to engage with the other characters and if you'd like to interact with them in a kind or rude manner.

(10) What would incentivize someone to make their character “rude” in the game? [10:40 - 11:25] What does it depend on: 
Your mood & how you feel that day
Your character & their personality
The storyline & nature of the game
The characters in the game & nature of your personality

C is the best answer to this question. And Greg gave the example of the game The Witcher. The way your character interacts with other characters is largely contingent upon the nature of the game and the overarching storyline.

(11) Why might you feel some cognitive dissonance interacting in a different way as a character in a game versus how you act in real life? [11:39]

If you are by nature a kind person but your character in the game you’re playing is rude and not very kind.

(12) How is playing a video game a low-risk social experiment? [12:18]

You can test various ways of interacting and try on various communication styles to see what reactions you’ll get from what communication styles.

(13) What is one of the best lessons Greg’s learned from playing video games? [12:40]

Video games put you in moral scenarios where you have to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. In business you encounter this situation all the time in business, in the real world, and in your social life. The scenarios you experience in video games give you preparation for the real world.  

(14) What imagery does “coasting” evoke for MD and Greg [15:01]

Being on a float by the seaside (MD) and something sliding, like a train coasting along the tracks (Greg).


(15) What’s another very important life lesson learned from playing video games? [18:00]

Failure. Basically, failing, learning, and trying again. Seeing failure as a learning experience.

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About the Author and the Explearning Academy:


Mary Daphne is an expert in communication, executive skills and professional development. She is the founder of the Explearning Academy, a platform dedicated to helping individuals enhance their social fluency, boost their careers, and elevate their social game. Through immersive group coaching programs like the Executive Communication Lab and self-guided journeys, participants gain the social superpowers and career catapults they've been searching for. If you're ready to take your negotiation skills to the next level and connect with like-minded individuals, visit academy.explearning.co and explore the various plans available. Join the Explearning Academy community and unlock your full potential.

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