Since the rise of the digital age, many have made outrageous claims about video games. "They're rotting your brain," "Shooters like *insert FPS title here* make people violent." These comments always break my heart a little as a gamer. From someone who grew up playing just about every genre under the sun, I have actually felt like I have learned some very important life lessons from those games.

Here is a list of 10 life lessons I learned from video games.

1. If you encounter obstacles, you know you're going in the right direction.

No matter what game you are playing, be it a classic 2D Platformer or a huge MMORPG, the more enemies you come up against, the more you know you are heading down the right path. And this is true to life, in more ways than one.

2. Failure is just another step towards the end.

The most successful people will tell you that if you've never failed, then you've never truly tried. Game Over screens don't truly mean game over forever. You just have to pick yourself back up, start back at a comfortable spot, and attack the problem again. Sometimes it means starting over completely, but you still are more knowledgeable than you were before.

3. Sometimes the biggest problems have the easiest solutions.

There are countless times in video games where you get to a huge, scary looking boss and just as the fight starts, the beast falls in one hit, normally resulting in a big "Are you joking?" from the player. Daunting tasks you've never encountered before can seem impossible at the start. But once you take a stab at it (no pun intended), you could find that it comes with a simple fix.

4. The greatest friends come from the strangest of places.

Do you have a friend you met in a weird place? Or maybe through a outrageous circumstance? If so, you just might be a video game character. Not really, but it happens all the time in video games, and in our own lives. So whether you met your best friend after spilling your drink on them or saving them from the clutches of evil, cherish the ones you meet outside of your comfort zone.

5. The saddest people are the most compassionate.

They say that those who have suffered strive to keep others from suffering. And this is true to many degrees. Everyone has darkness in their past, but it's the ones that imbue those around them with light and joy that seem to have the most.

6. Life is beautiful, and it's up to us to explore it.

There is a huge, fantastical world around us with many wonders to explore. The best games show us this. They show us that when you stray from the set path and just let the winds carry you where you need to go, you will often find something that can change your life forever.

7. Honing your skills is the first to becoming great at something.

Anyone who's ever played a game with a skill system knows that. You don't become great overnight. And that applies to any practical skill. Want to play guitar? Probably going to break a string or two. Want to learn how to cook? Might want to keep a fire extinguisher on hand. Practice makes perfect goes the old saying.

8. There is usually more than one way to conquer an obstacle.

In many games, you are presented with a problem with no direction on how to solve it. This is normally because the game wants you to think for yourself and come up with your own ingenious solution. Be it brute force, stealth, or a balance between the two. Life is funny like this too. Sometimes it's best to do away with the instruction manual and think outside the box.

9. Our choices affect more than just us right now.

Many games like "Mass Effect" and "Heavy Rain" make sure that the choices you make in the game will have consequences, and not always good ones. It's times like these that truly show us our own character and teach us how to deal with what we have chosen. Life is full of choices. Which ones will you make?

And finally...

10. Sometimes it's best to turn off the game and live life for real.

It may sound cliché, but even though video games have taught me so much, they taught me to appreciate the life I have. To live it to the fullest. To fight my own evil, or embark on my own quests. The stories we experience through our favorite video should inspire us to make our own stories. Our own fantastic memories with those we love and cherish. So save the game, turn it off, get out there and live.