"Truth is not elusive.  We avoid it.  We do not desire honesty, as it makes us aware of our complicity.  Truth is a singular shining light that burns away our comfortable illusions.  Therefore, a child is not healthy to absorb the whole of any truth, and not one of us is yet fully grown."  - Nights In Forever

In those formative years just before high school, I had next-door neighbors with a son a few years my senior.  The only electronic entertainment in their home was a simple 13" color TV in his room with an NES and three or four games.  Normally he'd come over and enjoy our larger gaming library and bigger TV, but my own family strife meant every now and then we'd grab a few games and head to his house, sacrificing screen size and gaming access for peace and quiet.

One day after school, I stopped by his home and found an unusual sight; his mother and older sister were in his room, boxy grey controllers in hand, playing the original Super Mario Bros.  I'd known my friend for over a year and had no clue anyone else in his family played games; no one in mine ever did.  I was further surprised to realize that his mother was in world six; who went there when the warp pipes bypassed all of that?

My friend told me we'd have to game at my place, seeing as his mom and sis would likely be at this 'till past bedtime.  They took over the NES on occasion, and would exclusively play through Super Mario Bros. several times in a row, from the beginning until 8-4, and loop again. 



So many questions lingered in my young mind!
 
Me: Didn't they know about the warp pipes? 
He: Yes, of course, but they don't want to skip most of the game, they wanted to play it! 

Me: But, surely they don't know about Mario 3, right? 
He: Wait, is that the one about throwing food?  Because they didn't like that at all, totally different from the original.
Me: No, no, Super Mario 3.  It's like the best game ever.  So, so much more to it than the first Super Mario.  It makes the first one seem so simple!  They'd never go back! 
He: I actually bought it for mom for her birthday, and she played it a while, but she lost interest and went back to Super Mario Bros.

My middle-school mind was blown.  I just didn't get it.  They're doing it wrong!  If only they understood the complexity and depth of the clearly better, later, newer game!  Why are they fulfilled on this simplicity?  If only they could stop being so happy with what they have.  They need to be entertained like me!


I brought it up in conversation with his mom and sister one day, and they confirmed what he said; they loved the original Super Mario Bros. and that was pretty much it.  They'd been playing it for several years and still loaded it up every few weeks.  And even after putting time into a few other titles, there was no desire to play much of anything else; always back to the occasional Super Mario Bros. marathon.

This enjoyment of simple pleasures, of finding annoyingly complete contentment with the familiar, grated against my character.  I was all about deepening the well; furthering my experiences, pushing limits and moving onward and upward.  That was life, surely.  How on earth would, could, someone decide to simply be fulfilled?

Thus came a gradual examination of the difference between a healthy innocence and an unhealthy ignorance.  Change came slowly, and my perception shifted as other examples came into focus from all sorts of experiences.  Here are three in shorthand:

1. For years I enjoyed cheap steak at family buffets, until I pursued a few tastes from dedicated steak houses.  Suddenly those cheap steaks, which were all I could afford, just didn't taste that enjoyable anymore.  And while I assumed the fact that my palate was stretched and refined meant I was better off, I was now grumpy and unsatisfied at having to settle for something I'd have very much enjoyed before 'deepening the well.' 

2. I spent a summer with a buddy who just acquired the new-on-the-block Sega CD.  He loved the thing; Sewer Shark and Night Trap were all he wanted to play.  During overnights, after he fell asleep, I'd stay up and log hours on Sol-Feace and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.

A few months later a different friend got the Turbo Duo, and I was blown away.  When I got one myself shortly thereafter, my Sega CD friend came over and saw the likes of Gate of Thunder, Ys Book I and II, Lords of Thunder, Loom, Cosmic Fantasy II, and especially Dracula X.  The poor kid's heart sank.  He became bitter towards me, and I didn't know why.  Then one day he picked up Sonic CD and came around in a perky mood, bragging how it was a system exclusive and much better than any Bonk game.  Thing is, he was completely satisfied with the Sega CD until that day he came over and played the Duo library.  Hate to say it, but I think he carried a bitter jealousy about it for years.


3. When 5.1 Surround Sound prices went cheap around the mid- to late-nineties, I was hooked.  If I watched a movie in plain ol' stereo it just wasn't worth it.  It didn't matter if I was watching Jurassic Park or Looney Tunes, if I couldn't hear separate sound channels I didn't want to bother.

And then I met my Beloved.  A little interesting note about my favorite person; she's completely deaf in one ear, and has hearing loss in the other.  This lovely woman didn't even need both sides on a pair of headphones, much less another box under the TV separating sounds.  She could tell the extra fidelity on a nice mix, to be sure, but it wasn't something she was particularly worried about.

 
The corollary behind these nostalgic vignettes is how I came around to rethink my philosophy on pushing the envelope vs. being satisfied.  Oftentimes, exposure to something new, different, and arguably better is inevitable.  Yet like all unprompted thoughts, we may not control the origins but we certainly control the destination.

The older I get, and the more critical of consumerism culture I find myself, the more I realize I have no right to be indignant of other people's contentment.  I'm not necessarily helping someone by trying to 'improve' upon something of which they're already satisfied.  If my niece is happy with Candy Crush, maybe Diablo III will be that 'gateway' into gaming bliss, but I shouldn't be too disappointed if she just doesn't get into it, or 'worse,' doesn't really care.  If she's having fun and that's enough, I have no inherent sacred duty to 'set her straight' about what gaming should or shouldn't be. 


However...

There is an important counter-argument to have here, and more is at stake than the willingness to try new things, get out of one's shell, or take a chance on new things.  That's important, to be sure.  But of far greater importance is the intentional skill to let every loop remain fragile instead of closed.  There's a dark, even dangerous element to some people when their assumptions are stretched, the status quo challenged. 

It's how we end up with hundreds of developers having to call out the nonsense behaviors of some gamers,

http://kotaku.com/over-60...to-hateful-har-1629371868

or a critic of common gaming threads having to pack her family and leave her home because of hideous threats and insinuations.

http://boingboing.net/201...ats-drive-anna-sarke.html

It becomes clear that there are some forms of personal ignorance in gaming that need to be overcome.  The default should be common decency and respect for differing opinions, without the assumption that the other person is somehow less than yourself.  For heaven's sake, if a subject as benign as video games, a luxury entertainment, can elicit rape and death threats and force people from their homes, what hope do we have to discuss relevant matters such as politics, religion, and if my Beloved's favorite sci-fi cliche machine will be renewed?


It also needs to be said, repeated, and shouted from bullhorns, that there is no longer any excuse concerning naivety about gaming content, particularly when it comes to parenting.  In these days of supercomputer media access phones, I should not have had this real-world conversation;

I was at work and a kid (whom by appearances couldn't have been more than eight or nine) asked about Watch Dogs for the Wii U.  I said it wasn't out yet, and seeing his mom next to him, warned that it carried an M rating.  A familiar half-shrug I see from too many parents compelled me to continue, "and not just for violence, but, for example, a sex-trafficking ring complete with a scene of topless, 'broken' (as in their resistance) women nervously standing on a walkway, being auctioned off.  Meanwhile one in-game character tweets about purchasing several women because of how quickly he goes through them, and another buys a woman because she's an organ donor match.  On the way to the auction you pass through a hall where you can hear the women being 'sampled,' complete with sexual sounds, whimpering, and crying."

There was a quiet pause, and then her response.  "Is it bad?"



This happens all too often, but that's another soap box.

There is a destructive ignorance born from either apathy or maliciousness.  But, there are also some forms of naivete that are healthy innocence.  And finally, there are some things we find contentment in that grant a satisfaction otherwise unattainable when we stretch beyond our means.  The first desperately needs to be overcome.  The latter two are worth defending.
 
And I'm truly sorry I ever thought my buddy's mom and sister were ignorant. They had it correct all along; in my own ignorance, it took me years to see the difference between the need to deepen the well, and realizing that when you have all the water you'll ever need, digging deeper only muddies what you have.

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