Gamers are getting a bum rap these days.  We choke each other, sue each other, tear each other down for not being hardcore.  But I refuse to believe that there isn’t a positive side to games.  There’s an entire serious games movement (PS3 owners just look at your Folding@Home section on the XMB to see what I mean) out there, with gamers and scientists coming together to create a better world.  I regularly play Free Rice because I know that someone out there will eat more because I played a game.

But do the games we play improve us as players?  Many would say no.  Saturated with violence, sex and depravity, we entertain ourselves with some of the worst of human behavior.  So what do we learn from our games that makes us better people? 

Here’s my answer.  Let’s hear yours.