[Learning Bytes] Tech Fails: If A, then… C?!?

Here’s a common and frustrating experience I’m sure you can relate to: What do you do when the technology fails you?

Recent example: This past weekend I was working on a script for another interactive game scenario. In this scenario, the player should be able to find Objective A, interact with it, and then move on to Objectives B and C. When they clicked to interact with Objective C, they would have a conversation dialog and finish the scenario with an interesting story reveal.

But every time I tested it, completing Objective A (talking to a helpful computer-controlled character) would suddenly auto-complete Objective C (rescuing the final character in the story), ending the scenario before the player even had the opportunity to get to that final dialog!

I tried changing the distance between the objective points, putting Objective C farther away, maybe out of detection range of Objective A. Nope. Didn’t work. It auto-completed anywhere on the map.

Aware that 95% of errors originate with the user, I looked up the scripting rules to see if I’d set it up wrong. No, the scripting chain was pretty straightforward and I’d followed the logic and syntax correctly.

I tried force-fitting extra objectives into the scenario to break that chain, but C automatically completed whenever the player finished the next-earlier objective, prematurely ending the story.

The only combination of options for these scenario objectives that would let me script a conversation also caused this strange “If A is complete, then complete C” trigger. The whole scenario revolved around the final dialog, so swapping out different elements made the story feel flat and unsatisfying.

Each time I tried to fix it and then went back into test mode, I got the same error and that flash of intense frustration. “Why isn’t this working?!?”

You’ve probably experienced something like this. That moment when you’ve done everything right but the script fails to run. Or the app does something other than what you told it to do. Or when you get to a variable or state that has been hard-coded and you just can’t get it to do what it’s supposed to do.

There are plenty of non-technical examples, too. You’ve followed all the directions diligently, but you’re told, “No, you need to do this other thing.” Or maybe you’ve got a permit from your local city office for a remodeling project and the inspector comes out and dings you for smoke detectors that are entirely unrelated to the project permit.

What do you do when this happens to you?

Maybe more importantly, how long do you stay frustrated, angry, or absorbed with self-pity?

It is completely natural for your Saboteurs to grab you and hijack you in this kind of situation!

But you don’t do yourself any favors by staying there.

I used two techniques. I wish I could say they worked perfectly, but that wouldn’t be true. They helped, though.

First, after the rush of frustration I felt when the error repeated itself, I did 30 seconds of PQ reps to let the negative emotional activation fade and get myself back into Sage mode. (Because this kept happening, it was so frustrating that I needed to use an intermediate PQ mindfulness technique: anchoring on breath with labeling.)

Then, I consciously activated my Sage explore and innovate powers to get curious and investigate the situation. I very intentionally asked myself the question, “What is going on, and what else could I try?”

Re-equipped with a sense of curiosity and play, I kept exploring the script and my options for making this scenario work in a way that would be satisfying to the players. “All right, what else can I try?”

I could not find a great solution. There is some hard-wired coding that affects this combination of objectives in the platform I was using. I could not get around that. But I did alter the starting instructions so that players would know there was a bug in the script. I asked them to continue to the end, despite the scenario triumphantly declaring “Mission Success!” before they could play to the end of it.

Sometimes, you run into a problem with the technology and there isn’t anything you can do to achieve your original goal. But there is always something you can do about how you handle the setback. That’s what I had to wrestle with.

Using these techniques made my recovery faster. I didn’t wallow in the negative emotions for very long. And I chose to see the problem as an opportunity to learn more about different scenario alternatives. (I also used the experience as an opportunity to find out where to report the bug.)

Gotta love technology, even while it creates plenty of new headaches for us.

We don’t always get what we want, but we can handle situations with greater ease and let the stress go if we choose to do so.

What do you do when you run into these frustrations yourself?

Feel free to let me know. I’m curious to hear how this works for you, too.

Working a bit more on my “Zen,”
–Steve

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