Challenges

You know, it's funny. In real life, I like things to be easy. I like consistently doing well on tests, exams, and writing assignments. I like getting my work done without too much trouble. I like having my tasks be simple and straightforward. In real life, I don't like challenges much at all. But in games, it's a different story. In games, I enjoy an occasional challenge. And if a game is too easy, I sometimes make up extra rules and handicaps to challenge myself more. I wonder why that is. I wonder why I enjoy challenges in games, but not in real life.

One reason might be the lower stakes. If you lose a game, it's no big deal. None of it was real anyway. The failure doesn't matter. It's like losing your balance on a tightrope and falling into a net. Real life doesn't have many safety nets, and even when there are, there are consequences for falling into them. When things go wrong in real life, bad things happen, and there is real-world suffering as a result.

Another possible reason is that failure in games doesn't feel personal. Often, in games, the player is controlling a character, who is the one who succeeds or fails. If Mia fails a Stealth check or a Medicine check, that's not because I'm not stealthy enough, wasn't careful enough, or didn't spend enough time studying medicine. It's because Mia's skill modifiers (and her luck, as revealed by dice rolls) were too low. Also, in games, it's easier to acknowledge the role of luck, rather than skill (or the lack thereof), blessings, or curses. If the dice are against me, I can blame the inanimate dice. If fate (as controlled by God) is against me... I'd rather not think about that possibility.

Another reasons to prefer a game's challenges over real-world challenges is that game's challenges are meant to be overcome. Players are supposed to win games. The games are supposed to be beatable. That's not always true in real life. Some of life's challenges are obstacles to be overcome, but others are afflictions to be endured, and it can be painful and frustrating to confuse the two. Trying to "solve" an affliction will get one nowhere and only waste their time and energy, and merely "enduring" an obstacle leads to the perpetuation of needless suffering. Hence, the Serenity prayer asks for the Wisdom to know what can be changed and what can't.

All in all, games' challenges are greatly preferable to life's challenges. Games' challenges are easier, less important, and less personal than life's challenges. Yet, life has plenty of challenges, whether we want them or not. Maybe I can try to worry less about the stakes of failure and stop taking it so personally when I fail. Maybe then I can chill out about life's challenges and learn to enjoy them almost as much as the challenges in games.