Gaming helps people escape...
...from painful mistakes.
In this clip, you get to see me mess up (which actually happens a lot more than I've been showing so far), and thank goodness it does! Mistakes are a very effective way to learn, provided you can recover from them, and that's exactly what games allow you to do. When I lose on Black Ops, I just start a new game. Everyone deserves a second chance, but in games, I get infinite! This lets me practice learning from hindsight without painful consequences, and that practice allows me to handle mistakes in life much easier than if I had no practice at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGHgiibFwO8&
So lets talk about what happens. I start off well, taking a position that is vital for map control (see the post before this one), providing cover for my team using tactical grenades, and cleaning up what gets through. I'm practically dominating. Then, for whatever reason, I decide to get self destructive. I use the mini-map to locate enemies approaching from the "firing range". Good.
I fail at using my claymore to protect one of the three entryways leading into my location. Starting to look bad.
I fail to "look before I leap", preparing a flash grenade as I step out into the open without knowing what I'll be stepping into. Getting worse.
I let excitement override my logic and chase the enemy I got lucky enough to escape from the first time. My mini-map shows several red dots in that direction, but I fail to heed its warning. My heart pounds so hard I can't hear my brain telling me to slow down! get to cover! stay in a safe location!
I drop down, firing wildly.
I get double teamed.
I lose a vital spot for my team and a life.
Bright side: I get to respawn immediately!
Silver lining: I learn things--
-evaluate the situation before leaping blindly into it
-don't give up a vantage point just because you see a temporary opening in an enemies defense
-make them come to you
-don't get double teamed. ><
The game doesn't punish me very harshly. This allows me to move past what just happened. I'm not so concerned with the mistake I just made that I get hung up in an emotional response. The consequences I receive don't hinder my thinking ability, and so instead of worrying about what is going to happen (as a mistake in real life may have caused me to do), I get to objectively evaluate what just happened. I get to practice doing this in a safe environment. In this way, gaming becomes training wheels for real life! I'm allowed to practice steering without worrying about falling over. This practice will translate into tougher, real-life situations.
Now, these aren't things that just immediately popped into my brain. It's not like learning is automatic. This applies to all things. No free lunches. I worked for them, let retrospect guide me. Captain Hindsight is useful in gaming. One thing a lot of gamers do is chalk events up to circumstance, WHICH IS NOT EFFECTIVE. This only promotes learned helplessness. "There's no way I could have won that." "It was lag." etc. etc. One thing a lot of people do is attribute negative outcomes to others. See what I'm saying?
Gaming can be used as a tool for learning responsibility. Since the consequences are less dire, less permanent, it's easier to say, "Wait, I could have done _______ to improve my situation."
Learning is active. This is the difference between gamers who use games as an escape and gamers who use gaming as a tool to learn. This is the difference between who go through life bored and people who use EVERY event, every conversation, every new experience, to learn.
My favorite poet of all time, Mevlana Rumi, says something like, "Learn from everyone you meet. Some people will teach you what to do. Some people will teach you what not to do. They will all teach you something." I've been trying to live like this, not only with people, but experiences as well. Sometimes you learn what you should do, sometimes what you shouldn't do. Games allow us to do both, without permanent consequences, and therefore with less pressure.
In this case, I learned a few things not to do. I practiced analyzing my behavior. "What could I do differently? Better?" I practiced recovering from a situation that could have been very frustrating. I practiced crisis management techniques. The majority of life's experiences have a lesson hidden in them. Gaming teaches you to learn from the hard ones without being exposed to resoundingly negative consequences.
Thank you, as always for reading! Feedback is very appreciated. Suggest topics, suggests ways I can improve my blog/writing style/content/argument coherence. As much as I've talked about learning from my mistakes, I can't see them all. Help me out! (Help me out with things I'm doing well, too!)
:D
Ben
