Engaging in almost any kind of activity will in itself improve your ability to think in different ways. Playing Starcraft does make you smarter since it helps you develope new skills, however this isn't something that is unique to starcraft.

Working at an assembly line would help you build optimization skills, playing soccer will help you recognize patterns in the play and playing chess would help your ability to think ahead etc etc. All basic, simplified examples but you get the idea. Thinking about something will always make you a smarter person than before you thought about it, it will never make you dumber. Obviously playing Starcraft would teach you more skills than working at a contruction line or other mundane tasks, but discussing whether or not playing starcraft makes you smarter than playing Counter-strike or studying math is really quite pointless IMO since you only ever get back what you put in.

I feel like I've learned a lot of really helpful things from playing Starcraft, but on the other hand many of the skills I've learned from Starcraft other people have probably learned those same exact skills some other way. I'm definitely better than my friends at strategizing and thinking several steps ahead but in other matters they are smarter than me, presumably because they have put more thought into these things than I have

United States813 Posts

April 08 2011 04:31 GMT

#64

I've been doing school work a lot better ever since I started. I don't get distracted easily and I just get straight to the point.

ThumperSD

United States333 Posts

April 08 2011 04:53 GMT

#65

No but it takes intelligence to play

cive

Canada370 Posts

April 08 2011 04:57 GMT

#66

I made this connection before. Friends that are in higher ranking in games in general turned out pretty well for themselves (good school grade, jobs, etc.)

So maybe, smart people => good at games

I am afraid it is a one way deal, from my experience (more game =/= smarter)

Silentness

United States2821 Posts

April 08 2011 05:18 GMT

#67

A lot of former Brood War players turned out to be successful poker players. I wouldn't say RTS games make you smarter. Some people just naturally have the talent to be really good at RTS games. Didn't Koll get like B ranking on Brood War Iccup Server his first season... that's just insane. Some people still can't even get C+ and they've been playing for years. I do think though that the top level Starcraft players are pretty smart though.

VIB

Brazil3567 Posts

April 08 2011 05:25 GMT

#68

- On every single game, the players who play it think it's what smart people play
- You could post this question on any forum of any game, you'd get the same answers
- You can extend this thinking for any activity, job or hobby that you choose to do, those who practice it, believe it's what smart people pick to do
- It only makes sense, if you didn't think it was a smart thing to do it, you wouldn't be doing it, would you?
- In my personal humble opinion, nothing can make you smarter. You're born with it, that's it, period.

You can teach yourself to be more careful before making decisions, you can teach yourself to pay more attention. Specially, you can teach yourself how to do things so you don't have to learn them again. Which many people confuse, knowledge with intelligence. But your actual intelligence will only decrease after you were born. I am dumber now than what I was 10 years ago. I will be dumber in 10 years. And there's nothing I can do to change that.

moltenlead

Canada866 Posts

April 08 2011 05:31 GMT

#69

I won't say that I gain IQ points playing SC2, but I would say that my decision making has become snappier and and am able to do more things at once (kind of like multitasking).

RTS offer you to practice skills unique to the genre. FPS trains hand-eye/reaction etc... and so on

leetchaos

United States395 Posts

April 08 2011 05:34 GMT

#70

On April 08 2011 14:31 moltenlead wrote:
I won't say that I gain IQ points playing SC2, but I would say that my decision making has become snappier and and am able to do more things at once (kind of like multitasking).

RTS offer you to practice skills unique to the genre. FPS trains hand-eye/reaction etc... and so on

Counterstrike is just as much a mind game as it is an aim game. Yeah you need aim (execution), but in the end the champions are the ones with superior strategies (mind games).

As per the main topic. RTS makes you better at RTS... and that's about as far as I would go with that.

GypsyBeast

Canada630 Posts

April 08 2011 05:45 GMT

#71

nope srry RTS's only attract people who think they are smart. smart people are all out doing more important things.
in all seriousness i think the decisions that we make in SC2 are all comparitivly simple and 1 demesional, while our real life decisions have an uncountable amout of angles and outcomes. this being said i do think it makes you smarter, but not smarter then if you did any other mentally stimulating activity as avadly as SC2. SC dose atttract smarter people tho.

Flyingdutchman

Netherlands858 Posts

April 08 2011 06:07 GMT

#72

according to your points even baseball makes you smarter. The problem is a lot of knowledge (one of the key points of being smart) you learn for the game, like BO's, what you can expect when you scout x at time t etc, is very specific and only applies to the game. I guess you do hone some skills that can be useful elsewhere, but you shouldn't put too much weight on that.

starcraft911

Korea (South)1263 Posts

April 08 2011 06:09 GMT

#73

Smarter than what? There are a lot of better things i could be doing with my time. I don't think spending as much time as i do on sc is a smart thing so probably not.

Does playing basketball make you smarter? i guess if you can relate something to it then sure.

dupard

United States8 Posts

April 08 2011 06:09 GMT

#74

It's helped improve my poker game. Helped me be more critical during my actions.

Dude.

United States94 Posts

April 08 2011 06:16 GMT

#75

Dudes, it's extremely, terribly bad to think that you're born with a certain level of intelligence. This mindset will make you plateau pretty quick. I'll make a separate thread about the Entity and Incremental intelligence theories, and how they affect people. I was raised with the wrong theory, and ever since I read about this, I've made insane improvements in my life.

And to the OP:

I've noticed SC2 definitely helped me prioritize my investments better, utilize my time more efficiently, and understand the fact that having a specific goal helps elucidate the road that'll get me there.

But, I think everyone's "smart". I believe it's a very relative term. We are what we do.
Labeling someone as "smart" at something is just saying they've spent more time working at it than you.

Roe

Canada6002 Posts

April 08 2011 06:19 GMT

#76

Of course it makes you smarter. But only if you're smart enough to make it happen in the first place.

Rashid

191 Posts

April 08 2011 06:45 GMT

#77

I can attest that playing SC2 not only makes you smarter, you can also apply what you've learned in-game to your everyday life.

Once i was at work, and i wanted to skip and go out for a while but my boss was still in the office, Since i've played SC2, I simply conjured a hallucination of myself sitting at my desk looking busy, and my boss didn't even suspect anything.

PS: Btw this is probably just a coincidence, but my boss's name is Greg.

Keilah

731 Posts

April 08 2011 06:53 GMT

#78

playing too much starcraft makes my brain fuzzy and tired, similar to how i feel if i solve simple algebra problems for 2-3 hours straight

Bonham

Canada655 Posts

April 08 2011 06:59 GMT

#79

On April 08 2011 09:11 TALegion wrote:
If you have trouble following basic human logic and deriving conclusions from it, I doubt that your main concern right now should be how vide games affect your life.

And yet the strategy forums are so very, very active.

Iplaythings

Denmark9110 Posts

April 08 2011 07:00 GMT

#80

On April 08 2011 08:57 nttea wrote:
Nah, I'm as stupid as ever