To Whomever Has The Patience,
As I have often sometimes written about, games are a great way to pass an afternoon. In fact, we as a species seem to have a predilection for anything that puts our or someone else's mettle to the test, in any context. Heck capitalism, the basis for the American economic system, is basically just a giant contest of who has the best combination of hard work, product, and sheer dumb luck. And most of America revels in that thought! Everything is a game, and if that's true then it stands to reason that games have things to teach us, almost as much as people themselves might. In this article, we will explore the lessons often taught both by fathers, those pillars of wisdom and bad puns that we perhaps don't give as much credit as we should, and by various types of games.
1. No Man Is An Island
In tabletop role-playing games, there is a saying that is often rendered "Don't split the party," and it means that you have friends and companions who can do things that you cannot (and vice versa). As a result, together you are stronger than the sum of your parts. My father taught me this lesson years before I was introduced to tabletop role-playing games by showing me the importance of working in and on a team in everything from little league baseball to wrestling. There was no way my brother or I could take him down by ourselves, but together? Every time. That's an important lesson: in this life everyone will face adversity. It's just how it works, and frankly, you will sometimes screw up in the face of that adversity. Again, it's how it works, and a man can only get up so many times before it starts to seem hopeless, and that's when having a support system of trusted friends, family, or even pets becomes vital to both surviving and thriving in this otherwise hopeless world of ours.
2. Trying Your Hardest Is All Anyone Can Ask For
My dad and I hate the saying "You've got to give it your 110 percent." It's probably the most overused, stupid '80s jock thing that remains in our language today. The saying is ridiculous unless you are talking about a comparative amount of effort (which nobody ever is). One cannot physically give 110 percent. My dad likes to say that "If you're giving 110 percent, you're actually giving 100 percent. You were just only giving 90 percent before." Regardless of the stupidity of that particular saying, trying your hardest to do anything is admirable, and though exhausting, can have fantastic results. I won my first game of "Dance Dance Revolution" that way. It's the only way I can beat my grandfather at chess, and it's how my dad led a water polo team to State Champions a couple years back. Trying your hardest works, but the best thing about trying your absolute best is that at the end of the day, you can come home even if you feel like you've failed beyond belief, even if you threw everything you had at that good-for-nothing, stupid, glitchy Frost Troll in "Skyrim" and still came away dead for what is definitely the 27th time that night, you can look yourself in the eye and say "Well, I gave it my all, and I'll give it my all again tomorrow (or when I level up)."
3. Sometimes You Have To Do Things You Don't Want To Do
So fathers and games seem a lot like the metaphorical odd couple, and I'll be honest: that was at least partially in an attempt to weird you out enough to look at my article and share it, but whatever — that's the game. The saying above was, and still is, commonplace at the Roberts household where pride and stubbornness swim through our veins like Olympic swimmers on rabies. But a lesson hard-learned is a lesson well-learned, and between the many times one has to pay for landing on Boardwalk, attend a funeral, discard a card at random, clean their room or listen to an unskippable cut-scene in a video game, one would do well to learn to grin and bear the little things every now and again.
Sincerely,
Brad, Son of James, Son of Nancy
