How Strategy Games Can Improve Your Business Skills

If you’re a millennial, you have probably played a strategy game during your childhood. Maybe you’re still playing, but you wouldn’t admit it.

Playing games today is very common among children and adults.

The gaming industry is advancing really quickly. The experience provided by games is much more complex, and the overall gaming users’ number keeps increasing as the time goes by.

The interesting thing is that behind many games, there’s something to learn. Strategy games are more than often useful to the individuals who play them.

And strategy…well, it is definitely important for many aspects of our lives and businesses.

Strategy Games Explained

Let’s first define what I call a strategy game:

“Any game that gives me the opportunity to use my strategic thinking with the purpose of making a progress.”

Pretty simple, right?

Well, there are plenty of games which I have personally tested. I could tell you that they’ve helped a lot, and they still do in the present moment.

Let me give you an example of a strategic game: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. If you don’t know by now, “Counter-Strike” is one of the best shooter multiplayer games since ever.

What have I learned from this game?

Well, first of all, I learned how communication is one of the keys to team success (because it’s a 5v5 situation). Moreover, I learned that being a team player is more rewarding than being the guy who wants to take the most credit.

World of Warcraft, the most popular and played MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), is a very strategic type of game. You get to create your virtual character from scratch and explore an amazingly built virtual world. During your playtime, you keep leveling up, doing quests, and getting better than other players.

Now…the entire idea of controlling a virtual character while being surrounded by thousands of other players and an unpredictable environment is absolutely great. These type of games test your competitive spirit, your ability to integrate, to lead, to adapt, and so much more.

5 Business Skills that Strategy Games Teach

During my gaming experience, I have managed to develop the following skills, all by playing strategy video games:

1. Adaptability.

Most strategy games put you through many difficult situations. You need to take fast decisions, or else you end up bad.

Most of these games force you to adapt to change, and that’s a very useful skill to have in business.

If games offer a difficult environment, then how about the business marketplace’s environment?

2. Sacrifices.

More than often, you have to give up something in order to get something.

Every strategic game gives you more options. You can choose A instead of B, but you can’t choose both.

Each decision/sacrifice gives you a different advantage. Now that’s a lesson to remember.

Good businessmen understand that more than often, a decision has to be made.

3. Out of The Box Thinking.

Out of the box, thinking is very much appreciated nowadays. Original and innovative ideas do witness more success than the average ones. MMORPGs, for example, are allowing you to stand out from the crowd by doing things differently.

You can use your own in-game money making methods, you can use different weapons and armors that give specific stats, and you can do so much more. All of these in order to test your creativity and confidence.

If you learn to be original in games, you’ll tend to be original in real life too.

4, Leadership.

Every strategy game is going to teach you leadership dynamics. Because you’re the one who creates and controls the strategy, you’ll be obviously in charge. The responsibility is all on you, and you must use your leadership skills to prevail.

After I quit video games, I have figured out that what made me play World of Warcraft so much was the possibility of me leading the best guild on the server. I have actually built three big guilds that ruled for several months each. I was playing to lead, and also to establish a long-lasting legacy.

So…why do you play the games that you play?

5. Teaches You How to Grind.

Strategy games will always teach you the sense of grind. You will lose from time to time, get killed in-game, or lose a fortune of currency.

Once you fall, you obviously respawn or restart the game. Only that this time, you get the chance to think of something new and do things differently.

Grind (or hustle) is extremely important in business (and in games too). Without constant practice, tests, failures, and optimizations, you’ll never be able to reach your or your business’ full potential.

Conclusion

Strategy games are a great way to develop business skills, only if you know how to use them. That means that you should focus most of your play time on the activities that allow you to develop the skills that you want.

Of course, you can also get a book and start reading more about that skill, but playing is always a better way of filling your time, am I not right? So if you really love playing games, make as much as possible out of them!

About The Author

This is a guest post by Michael Gorman, an expert blogger situated in London, who always stays on trend in blogging, digital marketing and social media.