Accidental learning?

Uff. That's the worst kind of learning.

Bitches be trippin' GTA games

I learned Japanese vocabulary from playing imports, but that wasn't really accidental I think.

That's awesome, never really worked for me though. Did you have some prior training in Japanese? While it is incredibly easy for me to incorporate new English words into my vocabulary I've never managed to do this with Japanese words. I have a basic understanding of what I guess to be 30-50 words and phrases, but's that about it. I blame it on not actually knowing Japanese grammar, thus not having a real incentive to remember anything but some very basic words^^

I basically learned english from playing games.

Yeah, I am used to having conversations and conversing in it. My Windows, my phone, my gmail, most of my applications are in Japanese and I use it daily. That's probably why it's easier for me to play import games, because at most I am just looking up words/kanji I don't recognize ><... I can understand the grammar fine.

I started learning when I was 15 because of the whole it's easier to learn a language when you're younger thing, I figured it would be better to start then. I have a friend I have known for 11 years that he is practically family who has visited and we talk everyday, so I use it frequently. Not really so much for anime because I don't watch it, so my hearing could be better...

That's awesome :)

didn't the newest GT not have car damage?

There was lots of huge damage games 20 years ago.  So they have always been around.  Just as there have always been car games around that ignore damage.

But as for me, I would say my puzzle solving/riddle and pattern recognition was honed playing games.   Way too many games I have played like Zelda, rpg's and what not that i've had to solve little puzzles that I an recognize and solve any sort of puzzle super ass quick now.

They helped me learn English, although watching BBC sat/sun morning cartoons did the brunt of that.

They taught me how to program. Back then we didn't have internet and fancy apps. I had an MSX with a book with text listings in Basic of simple arcade games. By copying them over I slowly started to understand what was going on in the code and starting making alterations not long after. Which eventually led to making my own games.

Civilization taught me some about world history, or rather provided a nice visualization to put everything in order. FS4 taught me how to fly, although I haven't put that to the test yet :)