Trial and Error

When I first started playing NBA 2K10, I struggled immensely. The game controls were new and difficult to grasp, the computer was much more challenging to play against, and I felt completely out of rhythm. Not only did I struggle when I played, but when I simulated games, my teams were losing and I couldn't understand why. My players had solid rankings, I had a combination of youth and veteran leadership, and players with a variety of talent. Unfortunately, the first two seasons I played ended with me losing the majority of my games and winding up with a top 5 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.

Just like in life, my gameplay experience taught me that I needed to make changes. I used the "trial and error" method to see what was wrong. First, I noticed that my payroll was way too high and that I needed to clear up cap space and avoid overpaying veteran players. Second, I found out that instead of progressing as the season went on, players like Shaq and Steve Nash were not performing to the level that I had expected they would play at. As soon as I traded them, I noticed a positive jump in my teams performance. By the end of the season, we had made the playoffs, and although we didn't make it to the championship, we were heading in the right direction.

This was the first real life application that I was faced with in the game. When we experience hardships, we need to find a way to get through them and the trial and error process helped me analyze the situation, explore my options, make a critical decision, and use statistical analysis to weigh the outcome. This process is something we do every day of our lives whether or not we are subconsciously aware of it.