Last week was about Super Mario brothers and finding the humanity in evil fish.  This week we will look at challenging assumptions, changing perspectives, and a game called Braid. 

As we mentioned last week, Super Mario is about saving a Princess from an evil monster.  Braid is very similar.  You play as Tim, and your goal is to save your girlfriend who has been kidnapped by a monster.  Here come some spoilers.  Braid feels like a new and improved Mario until it comes to the ending.  After defeating all of the evil monsters and conquering the trials and tribulations, you finally get to your girlfriend.  You think you’ve saved the day, but then the game reveals something to you.  The game reveals that you are actually the evil one.  This entire time you’ve been chasing after her thinking you are a good guy going to save her, but actually you are an extremely possessive boyfriend trying to get back the woman who left you.  You aren’t saving her.  She is running AWAY FROM YOU.  #Mindblown.

Assumptions, plot twists, and perspective shifts.  The developers of the game were familiar with the assumptions we usually make when we play video games, and then they leveraged those assumptions to create an experience that turned those assumptions around.  Our assumption in a game is that we are the hero, and if we are the hero it means we will save someone.  The developers took this assumption and flipped it upside down.  What if our character wasn’t the hero?  What if he was actually the villain?  What if the entire time the “hero” was trying to “save” her, he was actually chasing her because she wanted to get away from him?  How would that change the experience?  Those simple questions completely shifted the paradigm and the experience playing the game.

How does this connect with work?  Think about all of the assumptions we make in our work.  We assume that customers want X.  We assume that we need to develop A in order to be successful.  We assume great leaders do Q.  Do we know those assumptions are 100% true and accurate?  Do you ever spend time questioning those assumptions?  What if X isn’t true?  What if our customers really want Y instead?  What if we don’t have to be great at A?  What if we really need to be great at B?  How would this change things?  How would this information change the games we are all playing?

The challenge: Are you accepting reality as it is presented to you or are you challenging the assumptions we make?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry