I think a lot of it is intrinsic to how we learn at a very fundamental level that we put together what are essentially low risk pretend scenarios that we can then practice with for when we meet the real thing. Really that is what games are and what the scenarios are may seem silly that Pac-man or Grand Theft Auto for that matter that the scenarios there are something you will run into in real life. You are not likely to run into a giant red ghost while you are eating floating yellow dots, nor are you shaped like Pac-man. But there are things that they are teaching you at a underlying level about prediction about where do I think of someone dangerous to me might be moving if they are moving at this trajectory at this rate. About territory and about spheres of influence and very abstract stuff that actually if you studied on a black board you might be there for days. And I think that is actually the magic of games is distilling incredibly complex concepts into something that you can practice with and get the gestalt of them with out having to learn how they work in a mechanistic, explainable way.
