What games have positively influenced your life and how?

[d123456]

Japanese drift racing games, like Battle Gear 2 and 3 made me buy a rear wheel drive.
Is that what you meant?

[sputnik]

My late-blooming love of fighting games taught me a lot in the last year or two. I've gained the discipline to practice at something until I got good at it. Memorization, timing, and insight are all things I've gotten better at since getting into Street Fighter, and those are all really helpful with my other main hobby - writing poetry.

[ZeroAX]

Team Fortress 2, only cause it got me to stop playing that life destroyer that was WoW.

[Bradtemple87]

Team Fortress 2, only cause it got me to stop playing that life destroyer that was WoW.

WOW does destroy far too many lives

[J T]

Here are my top three answers:

Super Mario Bros and Battletoads:
Life Lesson: Failure is essential to self improvement
More than just about any other games, these two taught me persistence towards a goal in the face of failure. This is not a lesson to be underestimated. One of my complaints about school systems is that our schools are geared toward punishing failure and training kids to avoid mistakes at all cost. We don't really teach kids that failure is part of the learning process because every mistake has a negative impact on their grade in a traditional course structure. Kids learn to feel ashamed and discouraged for making mistakes, even when they tried their best. This neglects the important notion that every time you fail at achieving a goal, you have learned one way not to achieve the goal. Failure and the ability to recognize and adapt to failure is essential for learning and personal growth.

Traditionally challenging games like Super Mario Bros and Battle Toads (as well as modern day challengers like Super Meat Boy) have failure (and recovery from failure) as a central aspect of the gameplay. Nobody beats Battletoads on their first run. You have to fail, and you have to fail repeatedly so you can learn and improve your skill, and only once you have developed skill and memorized patterns can you move forward and complete your goal. And even if you never do reach your ultimate goal, it's still fun to try to overcome the obstacles and watch yourself improve.

Persona 4:
Life Lesson: Life is fleeting, spend your time wisely.
In Persona 4, you are constantly reminded of the importance of managing your time. How you choose to divide your time up between your school work, hanging out with your friends, and doing your work of demon hunting is the key to succeeding in the game. Every decision about how to spend your time affects what happens in the game. If you neglect your friends, not only do you lose time with them, but you also lose out on the strength you gain from their added support. If you neglect your studying, you won't have all of the skills you need to succeed. And if you neglect your work, people die. The clock is always ticking and each decision is connected to all aspects of your life. This is the ultimate game for recognizing the importance of time management and life balance.

Minecraft:
Life Lesson: Possibilities are endless if you devote the time and effort.
Minecraft is all about creating things. But more than that, it's also about seeing the possibilities that are available to you in the world around you. I have found myself outside of Minecraft in the real world looking at architecture and technology in a new light after playing the game. Someone decided to build this tunnel. This building was somebody's goal. This table required someone to cut down trees, someone to mine the materials to make screws, someone to design and craft the table, and someone to manufacture and sell it. The cities we live in require an immense amount of creativity and work, but we can craft our world to be whatever we want with enough time and imagination.