Should You Ever Mention Video Games?

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777137

I was wondering if it would be appropriate to ever mention video games as a hobby. I play a popular Esports game (probably the most popular) and have been ranked fairly highly in the past (Top 5%). I know that normally this is something you shouldn't mention, but is having been highly ranked in the past make it something I can/ should mention?

Also, if it was something I should mention, would they ask me to verify that and how would I go about that?
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I would only even begin to consider mentioning it if you were making a large amount of money off of streaming or were a professional or near-professional. At top 5%, you don't even come close. If you're talking about league, this means just being challenger alone isn't worthy of mentioning, and you are maybe plat at best? That isn't impressive enough to people who play the game, let alone strangers who are completely unfamiliar with what you are talking about, and will probably look down on playing video games

If you had helped start a video game related club at your school and were the president, I would still find it questionable to list, but at least then it's leadership and maybe you could have used that position to raise money for charity or do some cool things as an organization. Sorry bud, but I don't think this one will cut it lol
 
If you actually participate in tournaments and win/compete for physical awards and prize money, then you could consider using it.

It sounds like a horrible idea to write in your application that you play a video game for hours a day and are ranked pretty high on an online leaderboard.

You: "I'm a triple ruby Paladin!!!"
Adcom: "I... see..."
 
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Once I talked to an admissions person about eve online - one of the most complex space sandboxes ever.
 
I'd only mention it if you can somehow relate some lesson you learned from playing the game, like hard work, determination, planning etc.
AND only if it's in a secondary essay that specifically asks about hobbies, never for a primary.

caffeinemia said:
Once I talked to an admissions person about eve online - one of the most complex space sandboxes ever.
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I remember reading a couple of years ago about some massive space battle on Eve online that took place over some lease of a planet or something. I think it cost a significant amount of real world dollars as well in ships destroyed. Were you a part of that?
 
Unless you are involved in programming, I would stay away from this. Too man old conservative types that would roll their eyes.
 
yaka said:
I'd only mention it if you can somehow relate some lesson you learned from playing the game, like hard work, determination, planning etc.
AND only if it's in a secondary essay that specifically asks about hobbies, never for a primary.


I remember reading a couple of years ago about some massive space battle on Eve online that took place over some lease of a planet or something. I think it cost a significant amount of real world dollars as well in ships destroyed. Were you a part of that?
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No, I was busy editing med student essays and automating production of arms for those space battlers. Churning the gears as lord of war! So i was making money in and out of game.
 
danman794 said:
1) I was wondering if it would be appropriate to ever mention video games as a hobby. I play a popular Esports game (probably the most popular) and have been ranked fairly highly in the past (Top 5%). I know that normally this is something you shouldn't mention, but is having been highly ranked in the past make it something I can/ should mention?

2) Also, if it was something I should mention, would they ask me to verify that and how would I go about that?
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1) No. Better to pretend that your priority is to interact with the real world, demonstrate people skills while in real life, and help to make this universe a better place.

2) Hobbies doesn't require a Contact.
 
Catalystik said:
1) No. Better to pretend that you interact with the real world, demonstrate people skills while in real life, and help to make this universe a better place.

2) Hobbies doesn't require a Contact.
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Hey . gaming IS social these days.
 
Ok, I won't mention it then. I started an amateur team, but we never ended up competing. I went to a smaller school so I didn't have a chance to get enough competitively skilled teammates.
 
Only mention it if you have some novel research project idea that integrates how playing video games makes doctors more facile at X, Y or Z. There are plenty of studies already out there that suggest that people who play, say, 20 hours of halo, have an easier time working scopes and laparoscopic instruments. The guy who creates a really good, practice at home, simulator on one of the major gaming systems is going to make $.

Beyond that kind of relevance I wouldn't mention video games.
 
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PhillyDoc11 said:
I would only even begin to consider mentioning it if you were making a large amount of money off of streaming or were a professional or near-professional. At top 5%, you don't even come close. If you're talking about league, this means just being challenger alone isn't worthy of mentioning, and you are maybe plat at best? That isn't impressive enough to people who play the game, let alone strangers who are completely unfamiliar with what you are talking about, and will probably look down on playing video games

If you had helped start a video game related club at your school and were the president, I would still find it questionable to list, but at least then it's leadership and maybe you could have used that position to raise money for charity or do some cool things as an organization. Sorry bud, but I don't think this one will cut it lol
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Ya, it is league, and I started our club, but I wasn't an official president. One reason I wanted to mention it is because I spent wayyyy too much time on it. Good thing I am taking time off from school before I apply, I need the EC's.
 
As a heavy gamer myself, I would say leave it off. there is a stigma around gaming which other hobbies do not get.

Unfortunately, this can lead to hurting your application than helping. Why risk it?
 
Astra118 said:
As a heavy gamer myself, I would say leave it off. there is a stigma around gaming which other hobbies do not get.

Unfortunately, this can lead to hurting your application than helping. Why risk it?
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Exactly this. I've played my share of video games throughout college but didn't dare mention it, though I did mention my hobby of building computers.
 
I would steer clear because older people just cannot relate. They may stare at CNN all evening and call it productive, but you're not going to win by trying to bring them over to your world view. Instead, try to spin it into something more relatable. Do you build your own rigs? Are you interested in how on-line communities add value to interpersonal relationships? Are you well versed in how massively multi-user communities improve dissemination of ideas across broad and disparate reference groups? MMORPGs all technically involve this stuff. So say you used to be way into video games, but spin it that as you matured you've been thinking about how these sort of platforms both shape and serve blah blah blah. That way you can be true to yourself at some level, and still go home and play CounterStrike.
 
Don't do it op. I remember telling an interviewer about being a managing admin for a competitive server on a very popular real time strategy game during college and he looked at me like I had 3 heads. I realized I made a huge mistake right away and never mentioned it again. Straight up rejected
 
typhoonegator said:
I would steer clear because older people just cannot relate. They may stare at CNN all evening and call it productive, but you're not going to win by trying to bring them over to your world view. Instead, try to spin it into something more relatable. Do you build your own rigs? Are you interested in how on-line communities add value to interpersonal relationships? Are you well versed in how massively multi-user communities improve dissemination of ideas across broad and disparate reference groups? MMORPGs all technically involve this stuff. So say you used to be way into video games, but spin it that as you matured you've been thinking about how these sort of platforms both shape and serve blah blah blah. That way you can be true to yourself at some level, and still go home and play CounterStrike.
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Old people only care about one thing and that's money (or how much money they can leave their cute grandchildren). If your gaming led you to make a couple million, then go ahead and talk about it. =D
 
Whether or not it is warranted people will think of you as immature and childish if you mention this, its just the stigma the older generation has for this kind of thing.
 
Unfortunately people in this profession have a VERY jaded opinion of video games. I have actually competed in South Korea back in college and I never mentioned it. Not worth the risk.

On the plus side, it makes you awesome at endoscopy, video laryngoscopy, and laparoscopy.
 
caffeinemia said:
Old people only care about one thing and that's money
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I dunno -- seems like there incrementally less focus on money as you progress from the high school board to pre-allo to allo to gen Res and to the specialty boards on here. Money is something people who don't have any assume people who do focus on, but it's really the other way round.

What Adcoms do care about is accounting for your time in the most productive way. They want people who are already showing signs of accomplishment in the real world at a young age. Video games for most are regarded as entertainment, but there are very few forms of entertainment anyone is going to respect you for doing for 20 hours in a row alone in your room. It's regarded as no different than binge watching a TV show. You could have been spending all that time doing some activity that would enhance your CV.

Now I suppose there's always some value in being the best in the world at something, so winning competitions may have some value. But there's still something sad about investing that much time on a video game to be great. Will always seem like you missed a good chunk of real life in so doing.
 
Tenk said:
...
On the plus side, it makes you awesome at endoscopy, video laryngoscopy, and laparoscopy.
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Maybe. But really the guys who conduct studies to try and show this are the only ones who get any points for playing video games, not the ones without a research bent who do it unproductively for fun.
 
typhoonegator said:
I would steer clear because older people just cannot relate.
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
its just the stigma the older generation has for this kind of thing.
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caffeinemia said:
Old people only care about one thing and that's money
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Could we define "old" here guys? I'm getting the impression it's anyone over 30, in your eyes. Personally, I think everyone from the pre-Pong/pre-Space Invaders generation are retired and/or might have trouble tottering to adcomm meetings.
 
Catalystik said:
Could we define "old" here guys? I'm getting the impression it's anyone over 30, in your eyes. Personally, I think everyone from the pre-Pong/pre-Space Invaders generation are retired and/or might have trouble tottering to adcomm meetings.
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To be fair it's really hard for a lot of even old school gamers to really understand the competitive gaming/esports world. So if we take old as "out of touch with competitive gaming" you don't have to be that old, Say 35-40.
I think a bigger issue is I'm pretty sure that adcoms are aware of how prevalent gaming addiction and internet addiction seem to be in college age kids. And of course the assumed lack of maturity among gamers.
 
Law2Doc said:
Maybe. But really the guys who conduct studies to try and show this are the only ones who get any points for playing video games, not the ones without a research bent who do it unproductively for fun.
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I'm not talking about people who play call of duty or halo with their bros in the dorm. I'm talking about professional gamers. I know and have played with plenty. Trust me. This is a different level that is not included on any study. If you are near or at this level, you WILL be better at all these skill sets just from mastering multiple skill curves.
 
I have a related question. I have the high score on a pinball table at my favorite bar. Should I mention this on my app? If I beat my own high score later, can I use this as an update?
 
Tenk said:
I'm not talking about people who play call of duty or halo with their bros in the dorm. I'm talking about professional gamers. I know and have played with plenty. Trust me. This is a different level that is not included on any study. If you are near or at this level, you WILL be better at all these skill sets just from mastering multiple skill curves.
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Until someone studies it that's just a huge hypothesis on your part. Certainly should be some transferable skills (and studies to date have shown this) but my bet is after a certain point the law of diminishing returns sets in and the master gamers will find they aren't far enough ahead to justify the time they've invested over the casual gamer. Could be an interesting study though. Put some master gamers against casual gamers and against non-gamer controls and at the end of some period of practicing see how they fare on MIS simulator tasks. Might show people they are wasting a lot of time.
 
Tenk said:
Unfortunately people in this profession have a VERY jaded opinion of video games. I have actually competed in South Korea back in college and I never mentioned it. Not worth the risk.

On the plus side, it makes you awesome at endoscopy, video laryngoscopy, and laparoscopy.
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Grrrr...? Is that you?
 
image.jpeg
Catalystik said:
Could we define "old" here guys? I'm getting the impression it's anyone over 30, in your eyes. Personally, I think everyone from the pre-Pong/pre-Space Invaders generation are retired and/or might have trouble tottering to adcomm meetings.
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If you don't know what a gravity hammer is then you are old 😉 honestly I just meant anyone interviewing you generally. Even I would raise my eyebrows at someone who focused on video games if I was an interviewer, I even play video games and if someone does it enough to want to list it on the app the image above comes to my head
 
Law2Doc said:
Until someone studies it that's just a huge hypothesis on your part. Certainly should be some transferable skills (and studies to date have shown this) but my bet is after a certain point the law of diminishing returns sets in and the master gamers will find they aren't far enough ahead to justify the time they've invested over the casual gamer. Could be an interesting study though. Put some master gamers against casual gamers and against non-gamer controls and at the end of some period of practicing see how they fare on MIS simulator tasks. Might show people they are wasting a lot of time.
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Waste of time is relative. If you enjoy something, how is it a waste of time? If you enjoy riding your bike in circles, is that a waste of time? If you enjoy fishing but throw back every fish you catch, is that a waste of time? This just echos the sentiments of a lot of people in the United States: video games are a waste of time. Outside this country, gamers are far less ridiculed and can even be celebrities. I don't feel like I ever wasted time with games because I played them for fun and with my friends. I just happened to be good at them. I'm nowhere near as good as I used to be mostly because I don't play nearly as much.

Also, I don't need a study to show that professional level gamers will be naturally better at endoscopy, laryngoscopy, and laparoscopy because 1) there's no point and 2) I already know that a Starcraft Gosu is going to wipe the floor with someone who has never even picked up a Nintendo controller. You are absolutely right that there will be diminishing returns though and the difference in picking up procedural skills between a casual and pro gamer would probably not amount to much. I never said they would. I never said people should play video games to get good at these procedures either. All I said was, people who are skilled and awesome in video games will be awesome in video procedures. You can still be awesome at procedures without being a gamer for sure. But I have yet to see someone who is an incredibly skilled gamer completely suck at any video related procedure.
 
Ok, I do have to mention that competing in certain games such as League at the highest levels requires a LOT of thinking, creativity, smarts, etc. I don't think most adcoms could ever fully grasp how much brain goes into playing at the highest levels in certain types of gaming lol.
 
Think stereotype of pale, fat, sweaty white kid in parent's basement, covered in Doritos dust

Not an attack on you, Tenk, but if something has a negative association with it (such the "video games = immaturity"), it should be left off of an app form.

FYI, I know how popular computer gaming is in South Korea, so for you to have competed there...that's no small feat!



Tenk said:
Waste of time is relative. If you enjoy something, how is it a waste of time?
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This thread is so accurate. Kappa
 
Goro said:
Think stereotype of pale, fat, sweaty white kid in parent's basement, covered in Doritos dust

Not an attack on you, Tenk, but if something has a negative association with it (such the "video games = immaturity"), it should be left off of an app form.

FYI, I know how popular computer gaming is in South Korea, so for you to have competed there...that's no small feat!
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More like skinny, pale asian kid in a crazy gaming apartment paid for by huge multinational companies, covered in their tears and sweat
 
Don't mention it unless you've won any money or prizes from tournaments.
 
Tenk said:
Also, I don't need a study to show that professional level gamers will be naturally better at endoscopy, laryngoscopy, and laparoscopy because 1) there's no point and 2) I already know that a Starcraft Gosu is going to wipe the floor with someone who has never even picked up a Nintendo controller. You are absolutely right that there will be diminishing returns though and the difference in picking up procedural skills between a casual and pro gamer would probably not amount to much. I never said they would. I never said people should play video games to get good at these procedures either. All I said was, people who are skilled and awesome in video games will be awesome in video procedures. You can still be awesome at procedures without being a gamer for sure. But I have yet to see someone who is an incredibly skilled gamer completely suck at any video related procedure.
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I've always been interested in the cognitive effects of games, and wrote a bit on the effects of poker experience. Obviously not the same as video games, but two crucial elements are present in any competitive game: 1) imperfect information, meaning that players must make decisions based on both revealed and hidden information, and 2) opponent modeling, meaning the player must predict the enemy, requiring pattern recognition and theory of mind.

I wrote about four studied effects of poker play: (1) a reduction in estimation and decision biases, (2) a reduction in hindsight bias, which may reflect enhanced working memory capacity, (3) adoption of adaptive learning (adjusting learning method in response to change in demands), and (4) increased emotional regulation (less internal attribution for random events). Although you were mainly talking about mechanical reflexes, I believe that there are a lot of cognitive benefits to games that can be generalized to other tasks. I think more and more research is being done indicating both positive and negative effects of gaming, depending on what area you focus in (eg. pathological gaming is almost always negative).

A good way to spin game-playing is the potential for games to be used for brain training in the future. Little kids start playing on their iPads as soon as they figure out how to press the Home button. Games are incredible motivators and it would be stupid to not encourage their use in education and cognitive therapy.
 
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I say go for it. I was involved in esports and definitely mentioned it. A lot of interviewers aren't as oldschool as you think and as long as you aren't using any obscure words to describe what you play they usually took interest in having me explain at a superficial level.

During a sit down with the dean and the rest of the interviewees at a school, we were asked about our hobbies. Nervousness took over and out of the things I could've chosen, I decided to talk about esports and competitive play and described it since people were like what the hell is that lol. Turned out fine and got in haha just my n=1 experience.

Tl;dr if it's an important part of your life (which it seems to be) then just describe it in a down to earth way!
 
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