Author: Kevin Dickinson / Source: Big Think
- When we fail at video games, we discover an inadequacy (however small) in ourselves — yet a growing number of people continue to seek out these digital challenges.
- Game designer Jesper Juul calls this the paradox of failure and argues it offers a unique space for personal growth.
- By using the paradox of failure as a tool, video games could teach us to develop open mindsets and evade the pitfalls of learned helplessness.
Ask someone why they play video games, and they’ll likely say it’s a fun way to spend an evening. Watch that same person as they play, and you’ll doubt they possess an inkling of self-understanding.
Fully engaged, a player’s face doesn’t register mirth but the focused eyes and pursed lips of deep mental exertion. Losing one round may result in an exasperated sigh, but as the losses stack up, you can see the teeth-gnashing, controller-smashing scrublord begin to emerge. Push some people far enough, and the rage-quits are truly a sight to behold.
And players submit themselves to this for fun? As a way to chill out? Really?
Danish game designer Jesper Juul doesn’t think so. While enjoyment certainly plays a part, it is failure, not fun, Juul argues, that ultimately keeps players returning to the battle royale or going another round against a baleful boss.
The paradox of failure
(Photo from Valve)
Before playing a game in the Portal series, we probably did not consider the possibility that we would have problems solving the warp-based spatial puzzles.
Failure feels awful, so people avoid it as often as they can. Even when we fail out of sight from others, our minds try to maintain our self-image by elaborating excuses for why the failure either wasn’t our fault or was completely unavoidable (i.e., motivated reasoning).
It’s interesting then that players seek out a pastime in which they are guaranteed to fail and willingly pay the price for that failure—whether it’s another quarter, lost time, or being forced to reassess one’s skills. In his short book The Art of Failure, Juul labels this phenomenon the paradox of failure, the clash between a player’s desire to avoid failure and their drive to seek it out.
When failing a game’s challenge, Juul notes, a player discovers a deficiency in their ability or approach. Although having little importance outside the game, these deficiencies, like all inadequacies, are unpleasant to discover. Ironically, a player is never required to explore these personal inadequacies as they relate to a skill set they would never need had they not pressed start:
Before playing a game in the Portal series, we probably did not consider the possibility that we would have problems solving the warp-based spatial puzzles that the game is based on—we had never seen such puzzles before! This is what games do: they promise us that we can repair a personal inadequacy that they produce in us in the first place.
The same goes for slaying dragons, commanding hordes of space marines, or discovering our princess is in another castle.
Have game players simply learned to not mind failure? Not at all. Many players engage in vocal motivational reasoning after choking the win, complaining about lag, controls, or hacks in blatant attempts to save…
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