Undeveloped minds

It is said that the male brain doesn't fully mature until the age of 22 to 25. That age seems like an extraordinary long time however it is reasonable to believe it takes that many years for a man to experience enough of the world to develop some sort of wisdom. In some cases, it is really apparent to see basic levels of understanding in young kids.

A year or two ago, I was visiting my friend up by the lake and he had some guests visiting him as well. There was a young boy about the age of six that spent the whole time playing PlayStation. That night while at a Wal-Mart, his dad bought a copy of Soul Caliber V for the PS3.

Soul Caliber has a lot of unique characters but there was this one female fighter that used some sort of razor bladed hula hoop as a weapon. While I was fighting this child, he repeatedly spammed the O button and destroyed me before I could make any moves. On round 2, I made a quick back dash and lunged forward with a strong attack and won the match within a minute.

The next bout, he chose my character, Ezio from Assassin's Creed but he still lost the fight while trying the same tactic. Just mash the O button. After he lost, he was bewildered and he thought he had chosen the best character. After playing the game for a few matches, he found it harder and harder to win.

I won't brag about beating a 6 year old kid at some fighting video game on a PlayStation but I will state that I had vastly more experience playing a variety of fighting games over the last 20 years. And in that time, I noticed a lot of similarities and recurring patters. There is usually a way to block, special moves are usually mapped to quarter circle forward attack, heavier fighters usually have greater health but slower speed, and you can sometimes let the clock run out to win a match. All of these observations were picked up through trials, errors, and experiments.

But, I remember when I was young, and I was absolutely horrible at video games due to undeveloped thinking. I was 9 and the first game I ever owned was Need for Speed II for the Sony PlayStation. It was a racing game and I would usually play the tracks Proving Grounds and Outback. I'd pick the McLaren F1 and usually win the races because these track had very few turns which would let you go really fast.

Go really fast and never brake, this is how you win races. Unfortunately, this will not work if the track has a lot of hairpin turns. Its almost embarrassing to admit this but even with the tracks that had sharp turns, I would be driving my Ferrari 200 miles per hour and try to make a 90 degree right turn.

Needless to say, it never worked. I always crashed right into a brick wall and flipped my car dozens of times. And this is how I played the game for months and I would always come in last place on most of the tracks because of my flawed logic.

In order to win races, you have to go as fast as possible and never press the brakes. I guess it wasn't until months or maybe years later when I thought it might be a good idea to slow down and not crash into brick walls. When I first started trying that strategy, the game became much more fun.

Instead of crashing into walls, I experimented with using the handbrake around corners versus just slowing down before hand. I tried each time to figure out the best way to take a turn. I also experimented with the strengths and weaknesses of each car. This experimentation leads to observations which leads to learning. And without this willingness to experiment or learn, we could spend our lives driving 200 miles per hour straight into a brick wall.