“We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played.” ― Alan Watts
I've had certain questions and ideas about arcade gaming bouncing around in my head for a while, wrapped around a core mindfulness and meditative practice, and I wanted to start sharing these by focusing on 'resets'.
Most of us know there is no single method when it comes to enjoying games - focusing on the 1cc; ignoring the 1cc; WR goals; high scoring; searching for exploits and glitches, TAS, ROM hacking, etc. I'm not at all presenting arguments against resets and save states as the best way to enjoy games, but as a way to help transcend, more and more, the frustrations that will appear during the process of playing these difficult games and to enjoy them more. This transcendence is intrinsically easier for some and more difficult for others, and yet it's always available within a state of mind.
When playing a game we enjoy, there is the phenomena of 'loss of self', where we forget who we are for some moments and our attention is funneled almost completely into the game we are playing. That's probably the reason why we enjoy games so much: we aren't paying attention to ourselves; we are paying attention to the process of actions on the screen and reacting to them (hopefully successfully). Often enough, we will get into this flow state of 'loss of self' and feel like progress has been made in understanding the game we are playing. Bit by bit we are conquering each enemy and stage, creating that feeling of accomplishment we enjoy so much. Of course, the more we fail at mastering a difficult game, the less we have that sense of accomplishment. We will keep hitting a wall over and over and over until we get through it once or twice only to then keep hitting the same or a different wall again and again and again.
Save states are invaluable when it comes to understanding these parts of the game. It's an incredibly efficient way to train yourself quickly. It also breaks the game down into smaller game pieces which reduces frustrations significantly. However, this training can also be done without save states or continues, though admittedly at a slower pace. So why would one choose to play arcade games in such a way?
The mastering of the game at a slower pace is only in regard of a particular goal of either clearing the game or scoring or whatever other particular goal you have in mind. Only when there is no conscious goal in mind will we enjoy them in a more 'complete' way. The efficiency in playing with save states, or resetting on the first death on the first stage for example, bypasses a lot of potential discovery, learning and enjoyment compared to playing the game from the beginning again, or continuing after a death
you caused, or continuing after a death
the game caused. Invaluable wisdom and joy can be acquired when continuing in the face of certain defeat on your last man near the beginning of the game.
A good game will have countless discoveries hidden in the beginning of the game, let alone throughout the rest of it! These can only become apparent when letting the game punish you for your experimentations and mess-ups. And these punishments are not negative! They can be surprising, illuminating, thought provoking, and exciting if you let them be. An unintended exploit or strat can be discovered during these 'failures to win' which only enrichens the gaming experience even more. Plus, these failures are guaranteed to happen which only makes these discoveries more likely to happen.
Exploits and strats can also be discovered when save stating difficult sections of the game, but they are discovered within a more narrow field of play, potentially leaving exploits and strats undiscovered in the easier parts of the game. The monotony of playing the same first two stages over and over again can be reduced by simply paying attention to countless other elements that are not obviously apparent at first. Such as how much score certain actions give; getting familiar with hitboxes; hidden objects; mastering mechanics; noticing enemy behaviour; noticing your own character's behaviour; paying attention to background, foreground art, music etc. It might seem obvious to highlight these things when presented like this, but it's the obviousness itself that makes it so easy to ignore while our focus keeps being pulled by the monolith of failure which can cloud our enjoyment of the game.
This pivot in perspective will not always alleviate those moments where you want punch your screen in frustration, but they will open up the gaming experience to something more than a limited set of direct goals you have in mind. It will help with taking whatever game you're playing at face value and understanding it instead of trying to bend it to your assumptions and expectations of what the game is.
Thanks for reading! <3