Level 1: The Battle Royale (Melvin vs. Jacob)




Applicable video game titles:

Splinter Cell: Double Agent
NBA Live 07
Need for Speed: Carbon
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Trilogy
Any of the Tekken series
Ol Skool: Pac-man, Myst, Zelda, NBA Jams, Mortal Kombat

Growing up, I had a friend named Melvin.

He was a pretty cool cat. Fun-loving, energetic, gregarious guy. A lot of fun to be around. He was a good athlete, and he had a passion for acting. As a matter of fact, he excelled in most of his pursuits. In any given situation, when Melvin lacked expertise or experience in an activity, he made up for it by exuding an air of complete confidence.

One day this penchant for confidence came up when he came over to play some video games with me and some of the homies. We were arguing over who was going to play next. I use the word ‘arguing’ loosely, because each of us was really just proclaiming how much better he was than the others, and how it really wouldn’t be fair how badly we would whip the others if given a chance.

Naturally, Melvin jumped right into the fray.

“Hey, what are you guys playing?”

I told him.

“Oh, man!” he said. “I’ll kill y’all at this game. How you play?”

I don’t remember what I said next, or even if I said anything, because I was dumbfounded by the sheer idiocy of what he’d just said.

I’ll kill y’all… how do you play?

Being confident is one thing, but this guy virtually guaranteed that he could beat all of us at a game he obviously knew nothing about other than its name. It was the most ridiculous display of bravado I had ever seen. Every time I think about Melvin, I think about that line.¹

* * *

Much later, while I was in college, I met a guy named Jacob.

Jacob was one of the many guys that I played video games with. Only, he didn’t talk a lot of trash, like most of us did. As a matter of fact, he didn’t talk a whole lot in general. Sometimes you wouldn’t even realize he was there, until he would chime in with a thought or a phrase that brilliantly summed up what the rest of us spent hours trying to say. Cool guy, this Jacob. Very thoughtful.

Anyway, we would all be huddled around in a room playing a fighting game, taking turns fighting each other with varying degrees of success. The primal screams of victory and profanity-laced howls of defeat would fill the air as controllers were passed around the room. At some point, Jacob would put his book down and say, “Can I have a turn?”

This was a moment that we would try to avoid for as long as possible.

Because while the rest of us were laughing, joking around, and clamoring for a chance to bash each other’s heads in, Jacob would sit and watch. And watch. And watch some more. All the while he would be silently analyzing, breaking down all of our fighting styles and preferences, compiling mental scouting tapes of all his potential adversaries.

When he finally would get a turn, he would take all those mental notes and put them to good use. Starting with whoever had won last, he would proceed to systematically kick the crap out of everyone in the room, leaving all foes vanquished and all egos demolished.

Eventually, the rest of us would temporarily lose interest in video games and conveniently start remembering that we had other responsibilities to attend to², which is a nicer way of saying we were tired of getting our butts kicked.

Both Melvin and Jacob are my friends, and while they have never met each other, I wish they could. The contrast between their styles of play illustrates a very important life lesson. That lesson is this:

Sometimes it’s better to watch and listen than act or speak.

Video Games Reward Observation

It wouldn’t be too surprising if there were disproportionate numbers of adult scientists who played a lot of video games in their formative years, because many of today’s video games reward a skill that is often under-recognized in many youth: the skill of observation.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has studied the game industry as a whole. While the earliest video games of the late 70s and early 80s were considered to be little more than a passing fad, the decade that followed gave rise to the concept of video games as a legitimate form of big-budget entertainment. And game designers knew that before they could compete for our dollars, they had to compete for our attention.

So they had to find ways to keep our eyes glued to our games like we might be glued to a blockbuster film or a page-turning novel. If they didn’t keep rewarding the gamer with reasons to stay tuned in the gaming experience, then our short attention spans would run out, we’d get bored, and – horror of horrors — we might actually turn the game off and do something else with our time.

This, of course, they could not allow to happen. So they kept coming up with little ways to reward diligent observers, and many of those rewards are now standard features in most video games.

Easter Eggs: The New Frequent Flier Miles

Sometimes they come in the form of what gamers refer to as ‘easter eggs.’³ These are little secret goodies sprinkled throughout the game that enhance the overall experience. They could be video clips, promotional tie-ins to other related games, inside jokes from previous titles in the series, additional weapons, unlockable characters, alternate outfits, you name it.

Game designers love to place easter eggs in the games just as much as the gamers love to find them. They enhance game’s replay value, because after you finish the game you can still go back and try to investigate all the nooks and crannies of the game that you skipped past while you were obsessed with finishing the game.

They also help to generate buzz on internet message boards, where people post about the easter eggs they’ve found and ones that they’re looking for. Modders will often create their own easter eggs, trading them over the net like underground stocks or black-market commodities. Within the fan bases of certain games, unlocked easter eggs become minor status symbols, on par with credit card reward points or frequent flier miles in the real world.

Easter eggs are also extremely valuable in games with a high degree of customization. A good example of this is EA’s racing title Need For Speed: Carbon. This game focuses on the underground racing scene, and playing through the career mode of the game allows the player to take a stock car and methodically add specific kinds of upgrades to the car. These upgrades change not only the car’s performance, but its appearance. And the more races you win, the more upgrades you have access to, enhancing your car’s overall rating.

Easter eggs abound in this type of game, because there are certain types of vinyl designs, decals, spoilers, etc. that cannot be unlocked through the normal means of winning standard races. And the culture of underground racing (which, on many levels, mirrors the overall game culture here in the U.S.) puts a premium on individuality and uniqueness. So having a special upgrade that other players don’t have access to is quite valuable. This is another way that the game rewards careful observation, because the players who find these upgrades are usually the ones who are keeping their eyes peeled for the clues that lead to them.

Loading Zones: The Future of Video Gaming

One obvious way that video games reward observation is through loading screens.

Today’s video games are very complex computer programs, and even on the fastest computers or top-notch game consoles, when you start a mission, it usually takes between five and ten seconds or so to load that particular level.

But designers would never just let you sit there and twiddle your thumbs. That would be boring. And remember, boring is very bad.

So instead, they will often give you helpful clues to the game. Sometimes they are just general hints that anyone with half a brain could figure out (“When being fired at by multiple enemies, try running away”). But some games will offer insightful previews into the scenarios that you are about to embark upon, and if you pay attention to these little clips of animation, you can get a feel for what you’re about to jump into.

This is especially useful in the stealth-action thriller series Splinter Cell. In it, you play as a highly-trained CIA operative who specializes in carrying out sensitive intelligence missions. This operative, our hero Sam Fisher, does a lot of sneaking around, climbing, rappelling, and knocking his enemies out from behind. This is not the kind of thing you want to be doing if you’re totally unprepared for what to expect. If you don’t act swiftly, decisively, and with precise timing, you’ll screw the whole mission up and have to start over.

Which is what kept happening to me. I’d get all frustrated when I start over – especially because I had to wait for the mission to reload itself, and I’d be thinking, hurry up, game… I want to try this again so I can get it right! It wasn’t until the eleventh or twelfth time I had to restart it that it hit me: Holy cow… this little loop of footage is actually showing me how to do the section I keep screwing up. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I could have been learning the whole time. It was like I was seeing into the future. I felt like Einstein figuring out his theory of relativity.

It was an epiphany I’ll always treasure, because it serves to illustrate this point: Video games tend to reward patience and good observation.

How Does This Apply to Life?

“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain

In life, there are many, many situations where the smarter thing to do is watch and listen before you try to do or say anything.

This truth seems pretty self-evident, yet there are tons of people who just don’t get it. It’s not that being decisive or goal-oriented are bad traits. Not at all. It’s just that there are some times when those eager impulses need to be reined in if we want to be successful.

Consider a typical job interview.

If you’re up for a big job interview soon, I suggest getting there early. Not so you can impress people and make them think you’re always early wherever you go, but so that you can just look around and get a feel for the place.

Bear in mind that just as whoever is conducting the interview is going to look you over and decide if they like you, you’ve got to do the same thing for them. They’re going to ask you questions, and they expect you to do the same. And the questions that you ask will also influence their opinion of you, so you’ll want to make sure you don’t ask any stupid questions.

Sounds like a lot of pressure, right?

That’s why you show up early. Because if you know what questions you want to ask, you might be able to get the questions on your own by simply taking a seat in the lobby and observing what’s in front of you before you actually talk to anyone.

Want to know what they’ll expect you to wear? Look around at what other employees are wearing.

Want to know if they’ll allow you to listen to music? Listen to hear if any music is playing. If so, then they probably will. If not, they probably won’t.

Want to know what the work environment is like? Try to listen for conversations between workers. Do they sound quiet, reserved, and professional? Is there a lot of laughing and joking around? Is it somewhere in between?

All it takes is careful observation, and before long you’ll have answers to many of your questions. More importantly, you’ll be better prepared for your interview. And that little bit could make the difference between getting the job, or getting disappointed.

What Does This All Mean?

The fact of the matter is that a finely-tuned sense of observation is a valuable life skill to develop.⁴ Not only can it bring unexpected benefit, but it can set us up to visualize our future success. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so valuable for parents to bring their children to work. If we can see it, we can be it. As a kid, my friend Charlie always used to love watching cop shows. Now, he’s a cop.

It says in the Bible we should be quick to listen and slow to speak.⁵ I’ve heard it said that this is why we have two eyes, two ears and only one mouth. Even if we don’t spend a long time doing so, sometimes watching and listening even a little bit can make all the difference in the world.

It’s a simple principle to grasp, yet so many fail to do so. There are those who rush into situations, hoping their enthusiasm and confidence will carry them through. Others make time to watch and listen, saving themselves the embarrassment of having to learn lessons the hard way.

In our society, we have a way of describing these two groups of people. We call them losers and winners.

If you can win with a controller, you can win without a controller.

As it is with the game, so it is with life.

continue reading Come With It: Lessons Learned in the Video Game Arena

1. Jomo: You might think though, that Melvin was the best gamer on the planet. He wasn’t. You might also think that Melvin was an arrogant person. He wasn’t that either. He was one of our really good friends who happened to talk a lot. I don’t remember him backing it up though. I could beat Melvin with my eyes closed, with one hand, upside down, with a bad case of pneumonia. And I could beat his mom. And his baby sister. You might think I am mean for challenging Melvin like this in print. Yes I am. I am a bad man. Very dangereous. [↩]
2. Jelani: I suppose all of us guys should partially credit Jacob for helping us to graduate from college. If he didn’t consistently beat us all into submission, forcing us to redirect our attention to more important matters, we might have kept playing that game all day every day. Who knows, we might still be playing today. And you wouldn’t get to read this book. [↩]
3. Jomo: At first, I didn’t even call them easter eggs. Nobody did. They were simply examples of hidden content that programmers put into their software. When I was teenager, some friends of mine and I wrote a program to track NBA game statistics on the Apple IIe. Well, I added a secret. If you would hit a secret keystroke combination the word BENSON would appear right next to the basketball. In this way I was able to send a shout-out to all the Benson [High School] Techmen out there…as well as a dig at students in my group who went to the other high schools in the area. Of course it was successful…on both counts. [↩]
4. Jomo: There is value in being able to see what others cannot. For example, custom ringtones for cell phones is now a hot topic. You see it everywhere. Everyone and their grandmother has some new ringtone for sale. But that entire business model didn’t exist until someone noticed that people enjoy unique ringtones more than the standard digital ring-ring’s everyone was used to. Nothing groundbreaking in that. Simply an observation. Except that observation sparked a multi-billion dollar industry that is challenging CD sales for growth worldwide. [↩]
5. James 1:19 [↩]

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