Trial and Error - Then and Now

t one point in your life you have either played an NEST (NintendoT Entertainment System) game or at least heard of the system. This is one of the video game systems that made video games more mainstream. As far as the actual games, they were quite possibly some of the hardest games ever created. Things such as A Boy and His Blob, Kickle Cubicle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and probably the best known, Super Mario Land, were all about trial and error. After you fell off the cliff enough times, you learned that it wasn't the secret passage to the final boss that your friend had told you it was. Strangely enough, after an evolution in gaming in which trial and error were slowly removed, WoW, and many other MMORPGs, still use trial and error on many of their encounters. It just seems strange that a new cutting-edge game would be using a formula that has become old. It can be compared to driving an Edsel nowadays. But unlike the car, trial and error still works, even though it has been around since the dawn of time.

Trial and error has been around since well before video games. It goes all the way back to our ancient ancestors who had to learn how to hunt and gather properly to offer the best yield vs. danger possible. This system is still in use today on many top secret and not so secret projects, such as new airplanes or new shampoos. Trial and error lets us learn from past failures so we don't repeat them, often with consequences. It is arguably one of the best teaching tools around today. As many times as a teacher can tell you something, very often the best way to learn it correctly and remember it is to get it wrong and have to repeat the 6th grade for a 3rd time. Some people don't learn from trial and error though, such as blondes, or petty burglars who rob the same person 3 times in the same spot. For most of us though, it is a great learning tool. It is also what helps us learn in most older video games and some of the newer ones.

One of my favorite games, and one of the best ways to demonstrate just how trial and error progresses through a game, is Kickle Cubicle. For those that don't know, you played as a strange solid white guy that wore overalls, ear muffs, could spit ice, and lay down frozen barricades. Every level was a real time puzzle in which you had a set amount of time, which was always more than enough, to collect 3 bags and ice cream bars that even I wouldn't eat. It started off easy, letting you get a feel for everything. Then it got HARD. Not only would it add new enemies, it would add ever more clever ways to make you want to throw it out the window. It even offered 100 "bonus" levels which required a master's degree in Crazy Logic to even figure out. It could take as many as 300 attempts to beat even one of these bonus levels. Much like the end game content of WoW, it got progressively harder and harder, requiring more and more trial and error, and less and less of a life. The way it works in MMORPGs can be far different, however.

Most MMORPGs add time factors to their trial and error, such as quick respawn times on mobs, or limits on attempts before a mob will despawn, as well as occasional lag spikes that wipe your group in very funny ways. A good example of the first would be the Imps in Molten Core who have a 7 minute respawn time, while a good example of the second would be Ragnaros who only stays up for a short while. Time factors are also called time sinks, meaning you have to sink a bunch of time to complete your goal. Throughout the community, time sinks are generally frowned upon, but it helps make the trial and error aspect a bit more beefy. Imagine if you could get hundreds of attempts at a boss without anything in your way. High end content would become a Sinbad worthy joke. Time sinks help the trial and error aspect of a game greatly by giving you a consequence for failing. Imagine how much you would have learned and still remember from school if your teacher slapped you every time you gave the wrong answer to a question.

Trial and error, while far rarer in video games nowadays, is still a great concept. How much fun would it be to be able to blow through a game in 30 minutes, or beat a boss on the first attempt? It would just suck if every game became so easy that a 5 year old could beat it without any effort. Trial and error is what makes a game worth playing, and what makes them such a pain in the ass at times. No matter how much you hate getting beat down by a mob or getting knocked into more mobs by a mob, when it happens you learn from it thanks to your guildies' taunts and terrible words. It's all about learning.