5 Video Games That Influenced Real Life Decision Making

2. Added Jiu-Jitsu Skill - EA Sports MMA

Like anyone, I have the occasional hobby outside gaming. One of those hobbies happens to be Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so when an MMA game hits shelves you can rest assured that I'll be quick to the store to pick it up and give it a whirl. The criminally underrated foray into MMA that EA Sports put forth in 2010 was a source of great enjoyment for me, and it also gave rise to a fairly obscure real life decision that really panned out.

A certain variety of leg submission in the game came from you being on the ground and coiling yourself around a standing opponent's leg to put pressure on his knee. While it wouldn't work in reality, at least not in the way it did in the game, it made me see something that could only have happened through the interactivity of a game. I'd seen similar positions before on video and television, even been in similar positions myself, but the combination of controlling a character and seeing an animation at work allowed me to take the game a step further and into real life. This half-baked in-game submission, if tweaked slightly in the real world, could lead to a sweep in jiu-jitsu. When I found myself in that position during training soon after, I applied what I felt I'd learned from EA Sports MMA, trapping my partner's leg with my own and then adjusting my weight. The goal wasn't to submit him, as it was in the game, but rather to alter his balance, shift his weight, and bring him to the ground with me. It worked, down he came, and it's been something I've used on occasion ever since. Chalk another quality real life decision up to a video game, folks.