Re:Humans Need Play
by s5300 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @10:57PM
(#34661681)
RuneScape teaches (or taught?) a lot
May sound stupid, but I credit playing it since 2003 while in preschool (stopped around 2007, bounced back/forth a bit from 2007-2010ish) with leading me down the life path that ended up getting me a full ride scholarship in engineering.
Also the life path that ended up getting me a completely busted neck & shoulders.
It taught many people programming, as they found many things about the game tedious & wanted to automate with bots.
If you search “RuneScape” in the HN search bar, you’ll find many anecdotes of HN users getting into programming after writing bots/scripts while they played RuneScape as a young kid/teen.
I think that falls into the “tricked into learning” category.
Minecraft has done the same for many a bit younger than I am from what I’ve heard. Roblox as well.
May sound stupid, but I credit playing it since 2003 while in preschool (stopped around 2007, bounced back/forth a bit from 2007-2010ish) with leading me down the life path that ended up getting me a full ride scholarship in engineering.
Also the life path that ended up getting me a completely busted neck & shoulders.
It taught many people programming, as they found many things about the game tedious & wanted to automate with bots.
If you search “RuneScape” in the HN search bar, you’ll find many anecdotes of HN users getting into programming after writing bots/scripts while they played RuneScape as a young kid/teen.
I think that falls into the “tricked into learning” category.
Minecraft has done the same for many a bit younger than I am from what I’ve heard. Roblox as well.