Gaming is likely why I got into drawing : ) I would draw Sonic a lot as a kid.

I like gaming cause it allows me to experience things outside the real world, mainly colorful characters, and cool storys.

Helped me read as well. I also credit it with teaching me to be a good person. Ultima: Quest for the Avatar encouraged me to follow all those virtues as a kid.

Sweet, nice to you know drew Sonic stuff too x )  I never competed in anything though, haha.

Thanks : )

Yeah, I think games help out with creativity and imagination, at least a lil.

Video games really help me for so many things...sadly people don't realize they're not as bad as people think.

For example: "OMG Video games target kids to be sexist, violent pigs! it ruins their mentality, makes them antisocial, and make them more likely to commit violence!" ~Propoganda-fed fools.

Well, let's look at alcohol and compare the two.
Audience:
Games: Made appealing for all ages and genders.
Alcohol: Seems "manly" and cool, makes kids think it tastes good and is satisfying

Side-effects:
Games: Too much is bad for eyesight, but helps hand-eye coordination
Alcohol: Damages brain, liver, makes one drunk, creates hangovers, makes one do crazy things.

Social-life effects:
Games: helps people interact with a plethora of people online.
Alcohol: Ruins one's life.

Inspiration:
Games: Inspires people to be interested in many things, whether if it's designing, animating, or anything else.
Alcohol: Makes people drunk, kills people directly, kills people indirectly.

Women equality:
Games: While women are sexualized in games, so are men, made appealing for women. Games for girls also exist.
Alcohol: Tool used commonly to make a guy intoxicate a woman, helping him rape her.

Cost:
Games: While being accused of "a waste", games usually cost $60(or less for non-AAA titles) and last forever, thus the experience can be enjoyed by not only the consumer, but with others, whether if it's online people or people the consumer shares it with.

Alcohol: Can be expensive for one bottle. Only lasts for one drink.



That's my way of telling people the answer to the question many ask: "Are video games a bad influence on people(especially minors)?"

EDIT: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/24/us/oklahoma-car-into-crowd/index.html  Suspected drunk women kills several in car crash. Hmm...I wonder. When was the last time games made someone kill?

Without gaming, I wouldn't be able to speak english even half as good as I can now.

I have really good spatial awareness, reaction time and hand-eye coordination!

Also good at driving (imho) and paintball, which I imagine is down to the above and playing driving and fps games.

Yeah it helped with my English. Today kids in school in our country will learn English much sooner, but when I was a kid you would first get English in school from the age of 11. Due to gaming, I already knew the language fairly well. Though I must give half the credit for that to movies. Here, movies are always shown in their original form with subtitles, so that was a pretty big help.

It's funny, because of this, I'm adequate at English, yet bad at German even though that language is even closer to my own than English is. At least I can read and understand that a bit though, I don't know a word of French. I'm probably better at Swedish or Danish than French simply because with those you can at least take a wild guess what certain words mean since they're in the same family as my own language. Same goes for Frysian, and that's my country's second language even.

It's safe to say, language isn't my strong suit, so yeah, I could say thanks to gaming, at least it's not a total mess

You were never in school? How is that even legal?