Video games are one of the few places where failure motivates us to get back up. It's a temporary setback that allows you to keep going, teaching us resilience and the power of a second chance.

StewartGilligan@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 301 points –

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Video games are (usually) designed in such a way that there is a guaranteed path to victory. You just need to find it. So failing means you found one more path that doesn't lead to victory. That mindset helps motivate me to keep trying until I find the path that the designers made for me to find.

Life is not that way, unfortunately. There are plenty of no-win scenarios. Running into those makes me want to curl up in a ball under a blanket and run away from my problems.

I'm currently experiencing this, which is why I'm on lemmy instead of working. I'm currently in database hell and I can't find the way out.

I'd say in video games you can always find a way to win a battle. In real life more often you need to find a way out from the battle.

There are plenty of no-win scenarios.

This was something great about the Witcher 3. More than one quest, you end up with choices between one shitty outcome or another with no happy ending. For a fantasy game in a magical world, it wasn't afraid to be realistic.

In life there's no isolated consequences neither a guaranteed path to success

This is a critical piece of the puzzle and I love that you pointed it out. Bare necessities aside (shelter, food, etc), we start out with a set of win conditions (from parents, friends, etc), but ultimately we can determine them ourselves. In most democracies, nobody can tell you how to live your life.