The Learning Curve

As I was walking through the airport the other day on my way to the ‘states to kick off a project there, I caught myself thinking that my confidence and comfort at the various processes involved were not born out of some innate measure of inner peace – anyone who knows me knows that that certainly isn’t true. No, my smooth transit through bag-drop, security and onwards towards the lounge and my flight were due simply to the familiarity I have with everything involved.

When I thought about this, I immediately drew a parallel in my gaming life too. You know how it is, you get a new game and you have to learn the button presses, combinations, moves, strategies and in a lot of cases the foibles of the game mechanic itself. It’s only after climbing that learning curve that you actually start to enjoy the experience.

Of course it’s the goal of game designers to make sure that the curve is as short and/or shallow as possible so as to draw you in and speed up that path to enjoyment so that their product is recommended to friends and the next release goes onto the ‘must have’ list. But I remember my first hour in Assassins Creed: Revelations un-learning what I thought I’d remembered from the previous titles and learning the new button combos to make Ezio and Altair do their stuff. I was the in-game equivilent of the person standing in the middle of the concourse looking at all of the signs in a state of mild panic because they just aren’t positive that they’re in the right place!

I recently switched from auto to manual gear shifting in Forza 4; again a new learning experience which saw me sliding off at more than a few corners but one which was ultimately wholly gratifying as it brought a new level to my driving enjoyment.

Of course it’s easy to draw grand parallels, but here’s what I’ll be remembering: the more I play, the more I’ll enjoy playing, and frankly that’s all I need!