Playing Game Taught Me These Things!
Throw back to my first interview with Michael Page, I recalled an after experience-related talk in which the Hiring Manager asked me, “what do you do for fun?” I answered “I play games”.
He then probed a little more, “What kind of games?”
Before I continue with a thorough explanation, I would like to state the purpose of this writing. According to Johari’s Window theory, there are 4 types of relationship to self and others which are as the following:
1) Things that both other and yourself know about yourself,
2) Known by yourself, but others not known, or as we call it a secret,
3) Known by others but not known to yourself, famously known as Blind Spot,
4) The uncharted territory, unknown to yourself and unknown to others.
When it comes to figuring out your blind spot, I personally think it’s not as hard or mysterious. The phrase of “That’s What Friends Are For” or performance review are a few of relevant and proven ways to discover this area of self improvement.
Instead, this article is dedicated to Number 4: uncharted territory, and specifically a story of how I discover something new about myself.
For those who are a fan of mobile-apps game, perhaps some of you have played Clash Royale! Why Clash Royal? Well besides it being a fun, competitive game, it involves strategies and learning patterns with the objective of damaging enemys’ towers through a set of 8 cards/ a deck that you pick. (Add me and we’ll battle out. My ID : Petrichora94).
Cards come with various characters and objects, ranging from ground/air creatures, ground/air weapons, and potions. Each card have special abilities whether they can engaged both elements, attacking area or only able to go for one-on-one combat.
In order to issue a card, you have to wait for a couple of seconds to charge the elixir. In short, the game challenges you to manage these cards, deploying the right character at the right timing, adaptive with the deck shuffle and also respond strategically to enemy’s attack, with real aim of damaging their tower.
This is my favorite deck (don’t copy!). I like to keep the elixir cost at this average, in order to be able to shuffle the deck faster.
In upper left, with a cost of 4 elixir, there goes Hog Rider, a card that will go straight and being ignorant with surrounding attacks, focusing only to damage enemy’s tower. I like his focus, that’s why I keep him!
Next to Hog Rider, a bit costly but worth the waiting time for the elixir to recharge, is a Wizard. Wizard has the ability to attack area, lot of enemies at once, able to strike both air and ground creature. However nothing is perfect, other than being average costly, Wizard is still mortal, and can easily taken down by Knight-types or other warrior.
Hence, there comes a Mini P.E.K.K.A, just under the Wizard, the robot look-a-like creature, with ground element, which is an excellent combatant. Ideally if the deck shuffle allows, I’d like to put Mini P.E.K.K.A in front of Wizard, but behind the Hog Rider as it makes a good protector to both what is in front and what is behind.
Oops!
I almost got carried away and was going to explain all characters in Clash Royale. Now let’s get back to the focus of this article, which highlights the key take away that I got from this game.
Clash Royale taught me to be analytical, strategic, and adaptive. Analytical in a way that I learned to identify strength and weakness of all cards exist in the game. Strategic is taking these knowledge to create defense and attack plans. Adaptive is to play with uncertainties like when the deck got shuffled, or when I cannot counter my enemy with the ideal card!
Do you see these three things applicable in life? Cause I do.
Knowing that I have fondness with these three traits, which used to be my unchartered territory, I now try to implement and sharpened these traits in my life and job. At work, I look at obstacles or drawbacks as a conquest to complete, a part of the game that if I want to level up, I’ve got to “play” my ways around those obstacles. Hence the excitement comes along!
I’m sharing this to you, as it is no secret that we are all in an uncertain period of time. I hope this reading can make you see in another level, that life doesn’t always have to be so complex. And perhaps if it does get complex, play a game. Who knows what uncharted skills you may come across.
Wishing you staying safe and resilient 😊
