The Zen Of Button Mashing

Too Much Free Time

from the who-knew-it-was-so-cathartic dept

Can you get a sense of zen from a video game review? Clive Thompson is discussing his latest video game reviews for Slate, and notes that, while describing one of the games, he realized the zen aspects of “button mashing.” Button mashing, of course, is the experience of playing a particularly complex fighting game where the inexperienced player has absolutely no clue of the various combinations and how to use them, and is forced, instead, into random button mashing: just pushing all the buttons in a random order and praying that something actually works. Hardcore gamers, of course, recognize button mashing as the sign of a rank amateur who has no business being near the console. However, Thompson finds that button mashing is a form of zen learning — and that by continuing to button mash on a new game, one can get a grasp of the intricacies of the moves, and eventually learn to step out of the character and use the buttons more effectively. Of course, others might just call this trial and error, but it’s probably all relative anyway.