Video games and how anything can be a teacher if you know how to listen

My family didn't have a television until I was 14 years old, and while I begrudgingly understand my parents' reasons (and have since thanked them for their gift), I did miss out on some prime movie-watching and video game-playing time in my youth. My wife Kristin would likely say that I've more than made up for it over the last few decades, and I would likely agree.

The debates about video game violence and the more recent arguments about our addiction to electronics and the corresponding erosion of social skills make the topic of video games an interesting one. In this post, I would like to set those debates, though certainly worthy of discussion, aside to talk about the many things I've learned while in front of the TV and other devices. 

When you play with a positive goal, games (video or otherwise) can become self-expansive - making us better, helping us learn, etc. When I started looking at games through that lens, I was able to learn quite a few lessons that I've taken with me in my work and life.

My thoughts on the topic first crystalized on a trip I took with colleagues at a previous job to meet Jane McGonigal, author of Super Better and founder of The Institute for the Future (the coolest name for an institute ever). To massively oversimplify Jane's story, after being laid up by a terrible accident, she became depressed for the first time in her life, and as a researcher, sought to figure out why that might be. She landed on the power of games, and how they affect our minds, and I have to tell you, I have rarely been more riveted by a discussion (to learn more about Jane's work on video games and depression, check out this Slate article).

To use just one example, she spoke about research on how playing video games with another person affects both players' brains. The study showed that, regardless of whether the players were playing against each other or aiming for the same objective, their brains began to sync up as they played. 

According to McGonigal, the areas that lit up in both players' brains were the same as those that activate when people walk and talk together. Even more incredibly, the players began to subconsciously mirror each others' movements and facial expressions. As Jane puts it, the activity of playing engages us in a state called flow, where we’re so engaged and absorbed in the activity that we feel in perfect control of our lives. 

I love this concept because so many things can and do seem out of our control - it is a welcome change to feel like you can make an impact and truly be the hero of your own story.

Jane also believes that whether or not playing video games can improve your life is based on why you play them in the first place. This also rang so true with me because, while I simply enjoy the total escapism that comes with playing games, I play them for other reasons as well. Among other things, I love seeing the amount of work and detail put into each game, including the impact of the player’s choices on a variety of rich and divergent stories. 

Thus, I wanted to share with you a few other things I've learned about myself in the hopes that you too can find something that makes you feel and think in the same way.

Raccoon City, Rapture and the Power of Curiosity

On a surface level, no wonder cities in video games are so dangerous - there are bullets, guns, grenade rounds and supernatural powers lying in basically every trash pile and plant in town. These items are available in this way because games Resident Evil and Bioshock, in addition to periodically scaring your pants off, reward curiosity above nearly all else. 

You can play these games in a completely linear fashion, accomplishing only the high-level objectives you need to reach the next level, but you are always rewarded for checking the locker in the far back of the room, going in a trapdoor that is far off the beaten path or listening to a conversation at the far end of the beach.

I've found that my curiosity has been similarly rewarded in business and in life. Yes, I'm an objective-based person, and always want and need to have the horizon line of my greatest goals readily available, but I also try to live like I'm exploring the floating city of Columbia or the Raccoon City police station. 

In trying to look at everything as an adventure, it makes me feel like there is no limit to the interesting things I can find. And all of those well-meaning throw pillows have turned out to be right, insomuch as that, when you approach things with true curiosity and a willingness to learn, the objectives we're hoping for like opportunities, leads or even just an interesting and satisfying rabbit hole, reveal themselves.

As long as we are still learning, we are always moving forward. Or, as William Arthur Ward so eloquently put it, "Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning."

The Legend of Zelda, Assassin's Creed: Origins and the Balance Between Objectives and Side Quests

The best video games also reinforce the lesson that winning is not everything. As mentioned, you can certainly "win" any game by following the primary steps from start to finish, but that often provides just one possible ending. The objective for all players is the same, but the path you take can be drastically different, and that provides an interesting lesson for life, especially in the ultra-competitive, ultra-comparative world that we live in.

My favorite examples of this balance come from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (more recently, the masterpiece that is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and Assassin's Creed: Origins. The worlds created by the designers of these games are meant to be explored, and the Easter eggs (secrets in video game terminology) are difficult enough to find and, in some cases, even more difficult to crack, that a player can easily spend more time on these quests than on the primary game. 

In the latter, I enjoyed riding aimlessly around the desert and searching in out-of-the-way caves and tombs more than I did the primary gameplay. Odyssey is worth your time for similar reasons, as well as its attention to actual Greek history. Seeing the Acropolis reconstructed as it may have been in its prime, and walking through the Parthenon as a video game character was deeply moving. As noted in the title of this edition, there are always things to learn if one is willing to dig a little bit deeper, and these games are a prime example.

The lesson here is that it's OK to focus more on what's interesting to you than on beating the game in the fastest time possible or being on the leaderboard in one capacity or another. Video games and games in general often give players more than one ending and many more than one way to "win," and that's something we can all take with us as we wind our way through our work and our lives.

Minecraft and the Mindset of Endless Possibilities

Since he was very young, my son and I have a special time every evening that we call Banshee. It started as a way for him to expend some energy before he tried to fall asleep, which at that time, was a process that could take many hours. I would run around the house carrying him in my outstretched arms and making airplane noises while he screamed like a banshee (hence the name).

Since that time, we've kept the name, but made it a brief time in the evening where he can choose what the two of us do together. Sometimes, we stage Jedi vs. Sith lightsaber puzzles, sometimes we go looking for buried treasure, and most of the time recently, we play Minecraft together. 

If you haven't experienced Minecraft, TIME magazine recently ran a special issue on the game that's absolutely worth a read. It's far from a traditional video game, and that goes well beyond the fact that its visuals look like a title from the late 1980s. The game allows players to build whatever they want, wherever they want to build it, with unlimited resources (in certain modes), as well as the chance to interact with villagers, many different kinds of plants and animals, and varied stones, ores and gems. 

When we first started playing the game, my son, who is six years old, preferred for me to play while he directed my actions. We started on Survival mode where, in addition to only having the resources you can find and mine yourself, you can be killed by many different types of monsters. Now, he plays while I watch and help as needed, and we play in Creative mode, where he can create anything he wants the way he wants to create it.

It's been fascinating to watch his skills grow and mature. Where before he could slowly build a square (or, in some cases, asymmetrical) home out of a single material, he is now creating complex underwater mansions with multiple levels constructed of different materials, that include docks, automatic doors, pets, tenants and more. 

What's been even more instructive (and joyous) for me is seeing how the game amplifies his innate creativity. Simon has always had an engineering-focused mind. When he was very small, before zooming his Hot Wheels around the room, he would turn them over and look at the wheels and the chassis as if divining how the little cars operated. He has continued to show that curiosity and instinctive understanding of systems and connections over his brief life, and Minecraft provides the perfect sandbox for his imagination.

His excitement and passion for exploration reminds me of how I felt the first time I played certain games as a teenager, and it truly is infectious. More than that even, I feel an incredible sense of pride and wonder when I watch him build something out of nothing. The chance to watch him bring his visions to life on a grander scale is something I cherish, and something I know not every parent has the chance to be a part of.

It's not to say that Simon doesn't use his imagination elsewhere. Not a day has passed this summer where he hasn't turned his fingers bright green from drawing in his book or put on his ski goggles and taken his cardboard sword into the backyard to fight all manner of imaginary foes. Minecraft is simply yet another way for him to put his creativity to use, and I see it as a great gift to us both for that reason.

My Wishes For You

This blog tends to focus on the professional, and while it will continue to do so, I always hope you read these musings and choose to apply them however you see fit. In this case, there are so many applications to the personal or professional that, similar to a Minecraft player, this newsletter is your oyster.

Using the lens of the many games I have enjoyed, here are some things that have helped me see the world in a different way, represented as my hopes for you, dear reader:

• May you read between the lines enough to find the path to the proverbial custom magnum parts - things are not always as they seem.

• May you be curious enough to search every, barrel, hedge, provision crate and suspicious block of sand - who knows what you may find?

• May you have the fortitude to stick to your most important objectives, as well as the determination to go fishing in that terrible, terrible pond until you hook the Silver Scale.

• May you get mad enough when you stumble to plan your revenge, and be smart enough to know when to quit.

• May you understand that, even if the finish line is set, there are many different ways to get there.

• May you realize that winning in the right way is more important than winning outright.

• May you never give up. Even if you feel like you've fallen behind, life may give you a spiked shell or two (for all of you MarioKart-ers).

• May you seek to understand not just whether you can do something, but whether you should do it (and vice versa) - thank you, Ian Malcolm.

• May you pursue joy for yourself, regardless of how others perceive you. I grew up aggressively trying to hide my nerdiness and suffered a lot more than if I had just had the courage and confidence to be myself.

And with all of these in mind, may you go forth and change the world!

Thank you for reading!

If you’re interested in talking through any specifics or have questions for me on applying any of this information to your work or organization, email me at dan@heliosmarketingllc.com or send me a message through my contact form.

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