Back when I was growing up I had a Commodore 64 as my primary video game platform. Later I had a NES but overall I think I played the C64 the most. There were plenty of good games for the C64 but a far greater number of terrible ones. Being young at the time I never stopped to consider that there was such a thing as a poorly designed game. Whenever I ran across something in a game that I just couldn’t deal with I chalked it up to my lack of skills or perhaps owning an inadequate joystick.

This conclusion often led me to playing terrible games for months (some even years) under the assumption that with practice I would eventually finish the game. Looking back, I can’t remember a single “bad” game that I managed to finish.

I don’t know what this did to my developing mind but I like to think that it instilled me with persistence. When I’m genuinely interested in something I tend to work at it tirelessly until I complete whatever it is that I’m doing (of course, I also abandon projects in a cold second if they start to bore me but I’ll save that for another post.)

I propose that schools should challenge 1st through 4th grade children with video games that simply cannot be beaten either as a result of excessive length or difficulty. I think “length” would do more to foster collaboration. Imagine a class full of kids using their lunch hour to figure out some puzzle or maze that keeps stumping them. They think the happy ending may be just around the corner when, in fact, it just gets harder.  A generation of persistent children will result and ADD diagnoses will plummet.