Patience has always been lauded as a virtue, one of the big 7 even. Treated as though it is an inherent characteristic one is born with rather than a skill to be mastered. I think this outlook does a disservice to the world.
I was an impatient child and clearly not gifted with the virtue of patience. I was always busy running to or from something to fill the boring spaces that litter life. I had no time for people who couldn’t understand things the first go round and felt that taking the time to plan something out was wasteful. Then my family bought a Super Nintendo Entertainment Console and one single game: Super Mario World.
Platformers, games where you navigate obstacles and pits to reach the level end, are very different from more modern gaming categories like shooters or grand strategy. Platformers have three simple demands: that you understand the limitations of your characters mobility, that you can quickly assess the safest path to take, and that you have the timing to make it all possible. That timing is where patience comes into this story.
For so many of the levels in Super Mario World the secret to overcoming the challenges is to simply wait a second or two and if you can’t or won’t the game is very swift to punish you with a death so you have to start again. This teaches you two things: one lack of patience results in extra work due to having to restart the level and two patience has a tangible value in playtime and progression. Without ever saying a word the game gave me a reason to practice patience and I do mean “practice”. It took years for me to beat Super Mario World and through repetition of levels due to impatience and learning to pause and consider my actions before taking them I learned not just how to beat the game but some tangible life lessons.
Whenever my friends and family comment on how I have so much patience and how they would never be able to deal with things as calmly as I do I tell them the best way to have patience is to practice it. They laugh and ask how you can practice it, since they aren’t always gamers it needs a bit of translation:
- When you start to get mad stop. Take a deep breath and let it out.
- Remember that what you are dealing with is not just yourself. You don’t have full control over it and it has to move at it’s own speed. The only thing you have control over is your reaction to it.
- Failure is not always the end. Most things you can start again and do better at.
Or if you are a gamer by nature, just look up some older platformers. You know which one I would recommend. :3