Video Games & The Skill Question

So as I was driving on a rainy monsoon Saturday I got to thinking about all those proud FPS'ers out there proclaiming their "l33t skills."

Webster's defines skill as this...

skill noun

1:a the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in

execution or performance b: dexterity or coordination especially

 in the execution of learned physical tasks

2: a learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability <language skills>

So I find it amusing when I hear gamers attributing their accomplishments to it. 

I can understand the confusion.  After all, as gamers we spend  countless hours honing our" abilities" so we can trounce our opposition.   Notice I didn't go so far as to say the word "skills."

Skill and ability are two different things.  Abilities can be natural or learned but they're less tangible than a skill.  Think of it this way.  I may be "able" to do something but not have the "skill" to do it with any competency.

Playing a game does not constitute doing anything outside of recreation.  Nowhere do you see the word "recreation" used as a synonym to the word "skill." 

Don't get me wrong, recreation is important but nobody gets paid for it. 

Even professional athletes have to possess real "skills."  Those skills may be tied to doing for profit what most of us do for fun but demand far more effort than your weekend warrior pursuits.  Far more too...than any video game.

Skills usually have to have some value to the real world.  They come only after some degree of training and commitment.  For example; when you hear someone talk about "unskilled labor" they're talking about jobs that require no special training or experience to complete.

You won't even get an "unskilled" job if all you've got is your video game accomplishments.

In the world of gaming we do invest a lot of time learning the ins and outs of the games we play but rather than skill most of our success is dependent on our familiarity with how the game works. That can extend to taking advantage of flaws in the game (glitches) and earning achievements based only on how many "noobs" were available for abuse on the server at the time.

"Well," you might say, "that's skill right there!  I learned how to play the game well and now I have the "skill" to do it."  Except your context is wrong. 

Take the following sentence... 

I am skilled at playing Battlefield 3.

which is exactly the same as saying...

I am skilled at watching television.

Looks kind of ridiculous doesn't it, and it is.  When someone possesses a skill it means they have the ability to use their knowledge and training to accomplish a task, usually for a fee. It can also be used in other contexts. 

You'd expect a skilled athlete to dominate the casual amateur but that's not much evidence of his/her skill now is it.  It would be a hollow victory and guess what...it's the same for video games.   

Just as a skilled welder can apply his/her skills to anything from the family car to a warship that skill has value beyond a single context.  In the gaming world being good in one game doesn't mean you'll be good in another even if it's in the same genre.  There are plenty of Call of Duty players that stink at anything Battlefield and vice versa.

Most learning involves some level of repetition which is how most of us learned our ABC's.  Knowing our ABC's is a result of repetition, not skill. 

So it is with gaming. 

We can get bored with a game that we know all the ins and outs of.  It's impossible to be bored with a skill.  Once we have it we have it forever.  We can choose to improve it or let in languish but we still retain it nonetheless.

The context of a video game is a tightly controlled sandbox with little variation regardless of the players involved (unless they cheat)  If skill were truly involved a high ranking player would never be beaten by one of less rank.  Yet it happens all the time.  What you accomplish in a video game has no more value than how many more beers you can drink than your friends before blowing chunks.

Being an accomplished marksman in Battlefield 3 is not the same as being one on the shooting range.  It takes far more effort and training to acquire the real versus the perceived competency.

The bottom line is this:  Video Games are a recreation and nothing more.  Pro-Gaming is an oxymoron primarily because,  like reality TV, it only exists to make money by entertaining an audience under the pretense of making the trivial seem more important than it is.

I realize it's a gray area but it's important to know the difference between real versus imagined skills. 

I'd hate for any dedicated gamer to find out the hard way that being a "skilled" game player was not the same thing as being a skilled game developer.

I'm sorry if this offends anybody's ego (AKA Butt Hurt) but the sooner you realize it the more fun you're going to have and the more you'll get accomplished in life.