Image via PlatformNation
Snow falls over New York City, and a crow soars through the maelstrom to land near Doc’s Diner. An off-duty cop sits at the bar. The camera pans into the men’s washroom of the greasy diner. A middle-aged man in a suit finishes up and moves to wash his hands. Meanwhile, something is amiss in one of the stalls. A young man sits trembling, covered in his own blood and holding a knife. His eyes roll back in his head. We see flashes of darkness, visions of rooms filled with candles. All of a sudden, he gets up and leaves the stall. Before the middle-aged man knows what is happening, he is brutally murdered, right there on the bathroom floor.
Suddenly, you are no longer simply a spectator – you are the trembling young man. You have no idea what just happened or why you killed an apparent stranger. But you do know one thing: you’ve got to act fast.
So, what do you do?
Well, if you’re my friend Lopert, you quickly hide the body, clean up the bloodstains, conceal the murder weapon, tidy yourself up and casually re-enter the diner to finish your coffee as if nothing out of the ordinary occurred, waiting for your chance to slip out of the diner unnoticed.
If you’re me, you shriek “OMGWTF!”, bolt from the diner and sprint to the subway tunnel across the street, while the other diner patrons sit, slightly taken aback, wondering what that guy’s problem was.
This is the opening scene of Fahrenheit (better known in North America as Indigo Prophecy), a cinematic adventure game released in 2005. Though I could have picked another example, Fahrenheit is a favourite of mine for illustrating how video games give us the opportunity to see how we respond to situations that would otherwise remain completely unknown to us, and through these experiences we may discover things about ourselves.
For example, Lopert is a much more tactical thinker than I am.
What would I do?
Seeking the answer to this question is one of the primary reasons I like playing video games, and the reason I find myself particularly drawn to the high-stakes titillation of horror and thriller games, where the player’s choices don’t just influence the evolution of the character (like in the Fable series, for example), but can make a difference between life and death.
I like these games because they offer exposure to foreign situations (and cheap thrills) that allow me to stretch and grow in my self-knowledge. I like that they both entertain me and make me uncomfortable.
To quote Penny Arcade’s Tycho: “These are truly alien experiences for me, and I’m exposed to them and enriched by them because I didn’t have to fill out some questionnaire before playing the game to make it aware of my sacred boundaries.”
And in addition to getting to know ourselves better, sometimes video games can provide valuable learning experiences that can be helpful in real life.
The Left 4 Dead series (L4D and L4D2) offers an interesting example. While many view the game as a fairly unremarkable instance of run-and-gun, I see it as an exercise in teamwork.
The reason for this is that unlike many class-based shooters (such as the Team Fortress or Call of Duty series), the roles are not prescribed, intuitive, or in any way organized by the character you play. In a sense, you are playing as yourself.
Playing a character with a distinct class and set of equipment or abilities makes teamwork, in my experience, a little easier. People are given a part to play, a role and a set of tasks to go with it. In L4D, you can see this easily when playing as the Infected. Each special zombie has a set of abilities that can be used in concert with the attacks of your fellow zombies.
But things aren’t always so tidily structured in real life, and that’s why today we’re going to focus on the Survivors, who are no doubt much more stressed out anyways.
And so without further ado, I give you The Snarky Optimist’s L4D teamwork lessons, guaranteed to help you survive your next workplace transition, project crunch, or zombie apocalypse!
Check your fire. As I am somewhat aiming-challenged, my weapon of choice is generally the combat shotgun. Using a weapon with quite a bit of spray, it is important for me to make appropriate decisions about where to position myself (i.e. near the front) and keep track of my teammates. It is absolutely essential that you know where your teammates stand and how their work relates to your own. Not only does this help prevent conflicts and confusion, it is an important tactic for avoiding duplication of work… and filling your friends with shotgun pellets.
Be flexible and change roles on the fly. Armed with my trusty shotgun, I tend to move near the front of the team. This enables me to drop into a crouch and mow down large numbers of zombies quickly, protecting my teammates and staying out of their way when the team gets rushed by the horde. However, if I am hurting for health or if the person taking point needs to be more precise (sniping a Smoker off a rooftop, for example), then it is best for me to drop back and temporarily switch to my handgun. This is true in most teamwork scenarios: as effective as your best practices and status quo may be, nothing is quite as valuable as being able to adjust and, if needed, jump right into a new role.
Communicate. L4D is one of the few games I know of that actually built helpful communication into the scripted dialogue. That said, nothing can compare to actually talking to your teammates, and the same is true in the workplace (or even on a sports field). Providing helpful status updates and letting your team know where you are at and what you need makes cooperation much, much easier.
Stick together! Sure, maybe you can run faster than your teammates. Sure, maybe you can rack up more kills if you hurry on ahead. But no matter how skilled you are, if you distance yourself too much from your team, there will be no one nearby to save you if you get pounced, snared, or otherwise incapacitated. This applies everywhere. Work independently if you like, but always keep a friend nearby to bail you out if you need it.
Challenge your teammates. Between L4D and L4D2, I noticed an interesting difference in the behaviour of the AI governing the zombie hordes in campaign mode. In the first game, the special Infected (super-powered zombies) would most often target the player with the highest score; that is to say, the player that the AI perceived as the greatest threat. In the sequel, the AI was more likely to target the weakest player on the team, because it had been shown that the strongest player will most often be the one to come back to help out the weaker player. In effect, the special Infected make two players vulnerable by strategically attacking one. So what is the solution? If you’ve got a weak link in your team, have them take point. Put them in a leadership position. Not only will this help them grow and improve faster, it keeps them where you can see them and easy to rescue without having to go backwards and re-trace your steps. Moving forward to help your teammate is better than rushing backwards to amend damage already done. Maybe you have a longer reach, but it’s probably better in the long run to use your height to give someone a boost.
Help each other out. One of my favourite things about the L4D series is how completely unproductive it is to go it alone. In fact, it’s downright dangerous. You are dependent on your teammates and they are dependent on you, so don’t be a jerk. Help each other out!
Don't interrupt when someone is on a roll. When I’m being swarmed by zombies, even if my health is getting low, the last thing I want is for some well-intentioned ally or brainless bot to waltz up to me and hand me pills. (This is known to some players as the awkward pill game.) Why? Because this makes me put my gun away, and I need to be slaying undead before they slay me, capische? I’ll gladly take your pills when I have a spare moment. This is true in most group work scenarios. When someone is on a roll, let them be. Make sure they know you are available to provide assistance if they need it, but don’t go jumping up in their grill and throwing off their groove.
Monitor your environment. I know it’s been said a thousand times, but once again: mind your surroundings. Listen carefully to what is going on and track changes that occur. This is not just empty social media advice, either; environmental scans, whether official or unofficial, can definitely save your butt and make you a more effective teammate. Keep your ear to the ground and your eyes open, whether you’re shooting zombies or working in a cubicle. It just makes sense.
That’s all for now. What real-life lessons have you learned from playing video games? Share in the comments!
Communicate. L4D is one of the few games I know of that actually built helpful communication into the scripted dialogue. That said, nothing can compare to actually talking to your teammates, and the same is true in the workplace (or even on a sports field). Providing helpful status updates and letting your team know where you are at and what you need makes cooperation much, much easier.
Stick together! Sure, maybe you can run faster than your teammates. Sure, maybe you can rack up more kills if you hurry on ahead. But no matter how skilled you are, if you distance yourself too much from your team, there will be no one nearby to save you if you get pounced, snared, or otherwise incapacitated. This applies everywhere. Work independently if you like, but always keep a friend nearby to bail you out if you need it.
Challenge your teammates. Between L4D and L4D2, I noticed an interesting difference in the behaviour of the AI governing the zombie hordes in campaign mode. In the first game, the special Infected (super-powered zombies) would most often target the player with the highest score; that is to say, the player that the AI perceived as the greatest threat. In the sequel, the AI was more likely to target the weakest player on the team, because it had been shown that the strongest player will most often be the one to come back to help out the weaker player. In effect, the special Infected make two players vulnerable by strategically attacking one. So what is the solution? If you’ve got a weak link in your team, have them take point. Put them in a leadership position. Not only will this help them grow and improve faster, it keeps them where you can see them and easy to rescue without having to go backwards and re-trace your steps. Moving forward to help your teammate is better than rushing backwards to amend damage already done. Maybe you have a longer reach, but it’s probably better in the long run to use your height to give someone a boost.
Help each other out. One of my favourite things about the L4D series is how completely unproductive it is to go it alone. In fact, it’s downright dangerous. You are dependent on your teammates and they are dependent on you, so don’t be a jerk. Help each other out!
Don't interrupt when someone is on a roll. When I’m being swarmed by zombies, even if my health is getting low, the last thing I want is for some well-intentioned ally or brainless bot to waltz up to me and hand me pills. (This is known to some players as the awkward pill game.) Why? Because this makes me put my gun away, and I need to be slaying undead before they slay me, capische? I’ll gladly take your pills when I have a spare moment. This is true in most group work scenarios. When someone is on a roll, let them be. Make sure they know you are available to provide assistance if they need it, but don’t go jumping up in their grill and throwing off their groove.
Monitor your environment. I know it’s been said a thousand times, but once again: mind your surroundings. Listen carefully to what is going on and track changes that occur. This is not just empty social media advice, either; environmental scans, whether official or unofficial, can definitely save your butt and make you a more effective teammate. Keep your ear to the ground and your eyes open, whether you’re shooting zombies or working in a cubicle. It just makes sense.
That’s all for now. What real-life lessons have you learned from playing video games? Share in the comments!
What I learned from video games is that the perception that you can actually learn something from video games is rather illusory.
ReplyDeleteFor example: nobody who's ever held a shotgun would use the word 'spray'. Tight vs. open pattern, or choke, yes, but not 'spray'. Not that the terminology is terribly important, or difficult to learn, just you won't learn it by playing a video game.
I happen to be of the old-fashion, cranky, senitudinal opinion that you learn things by doing them, not by pretending to do them. It doesn't particularly matter what you do, but you're going to do it a hell of a lot better if you do it in the real world.
If you want to be a team player, join a baseball team, or guard a quartered moose carcass from bears and wolves while your buddies are trying taking meat back to the truck.
Do what you want; just don't pretend that video games are anything but what they are: a fun waste of time that you're free to indulge, or not to indulge in as you please.
I never said that I learned anything about firearms from playing video games, nor would I.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to assert that there are *more* benefits to physical team-oriented activities, go ahead (muscle memory, dexterity, coordination, etc.); but the idea that teamwork is something that you can better learn playing baseball than L4D is debateable, as everyone learns differently. Having played in several organized sports leagues (namely soccer, tennis [doubles] and ultimate), I can say that many of the *teamwork skills* you pick up playing sports are also emphasized in many video games: coordinating your actions to those of others, planning for certain contingencies and executing said plans, maintaining a position, adapting on the fly, and communicating. If you disagree, I suggest you increase your exposure to competitive gaming (or the relevant research concerning the matter) before you say it doesn't effectively teach teamwork skills, and teamwork -- not muscle memory, dexterity, or terminology -- is what we are discussing.
Obviously guarding a moose carcass would be more useful in terms of learning the skills necessary to fight in the zombie apocalypse, but that's not really the point.
We can learn a lot from recreational activities, so I will grant you that video games are just for "fun" and I'm not trying to take things too seriously or to justify my video game habit. I don't feel the need to justify it, because in my opinion nothing from which you derive pleasure is, in my opinion, utterly devoid of value or "a waste of time".