Persistence Pays Off

Or How a Videogame Enemy/Boss Can Drive You Crazy

It sounds cliché, I know.

But I think it’s one of the great lessons that some videogames can leave us. How so?

The Equation of Perseverance

The equation is simple:

There’s a problem that can be solved, and the player can try to solve it infinite times.

You try, you fail, you try, you fail, and so on… in a loop, until at some point it gets solved.

In programming, it would look something like this:

var attempts = 0;
var solved = false;
let problem = “some problem”
while (!solved) {
    solved = tryToSolve(problem);
    attempts++;
}

Hollow Knight

Recently, I decided to give the spectacular game Hollow Knight another chance.

After watching the following video, I went back into the fight.

Metroidvanias aren’t my favorite genre, but they can still be fun.

My Encounter With Hornet

While playing the Greenpath level, I ran into Hornet at the end, and things got pretty complicated. It had been a long time since I’d had such a tough encounter. Usually, I play games on medium difficulty and get through them without much trouble.

Examples From Other Games

For example, last year I enjoyed Last of Us 2, and only one scene gave me a hard time—barely—fighting a horrifying creature that was tough to kill.

I also remember really enjoying a PlayStation 3 game years ago, Remember Me, with enemies that required you to study their movement patterns and react accordingly.

I suppose this is one of the essences of Dark Souls, which I think is way too hard and dark for my gaming taste.

I loved the character of Hornet. Hopefully, she’ll appear again somewhere else, or in a new version of Hollow Knight.

But some people say Hollow Knight has a lot of Dark Souls in it. I couldn’t say.

The Tactic That Worked

Back to the enemy called Hornet in the Greenpath level: it was several hours of trying and failing, trying and failing. Changing tactics, and so on.

The tactic that worked best for me was not attacking directly, but waiting for the enemy’s attack, dodging it, and striking at that moment. One of the things I practiced was dodging only, without attacking, just to see how long I could last. It turned out to be very effective for learning.

It’s like a choreography, and the interesting part is that once you lose focus, the whole choreography falls apart.

I think it must have been several hours in total of trying and failing. Coming back later, trying again, and failing again.

And at some point, your brain starts coordinating better, dodging better, understanding which attack is coming with Hornet’s shout and reacting accordingly. With each attempt, you get a little further; you can notice an improvement in skill. Until eventually—poof—with only one life left, Hornet was defeated.

Lessons for Life

This little metaphor for life’s challenges is brilliant.

Sometimes I realize it’s things like this that explain why, after decades, I still enjoy videogames.

Brute Force With My Son

Playing with my son (I think it was Machinarium), we had this interesting exchange:

Dad: (after seeing the stage) Great, now we can brute force it.
Son: What?
Dad: Yeah, brute force it, go for it!
Son: What’s that?
Dad: Try every possible combination, there aren’t that many.
Son: Ah, ok.

Another problem solved.

Not every problem can be solved with brute force, or with infinite opportunities to try and fail, but when that’s the case, the videogame experiment works as an excellent model to prove that solutions are possible. You just need to persevere, try, try, and try again.

And always keep playing!