“Think! Brains are what’s sexy now,” calls Sherlock, the main movie character of the 2010s. Intellectual entertainment is becoming more and more popular. We spend evenings playing board games such as scrabble, in large cities there are quizzes of the format “What? Where? When?”, in March 2017, the first international Red Bull Mind Gamers championship took place in Budapest. Let’s try to figure out why thinking has become fashionable again.
We chuckle at The Big Bang Theory’s “nerds” but aren’t too surprised when they end up finding attractive girlfriends. It was impossible to imagine such a thing 10-20 years ago, as well as the fact that glasses would be considered stylish.
Why did this turn towards intelligence occur? Maybe it’s the new reality. Every day we are forced to filter a huge amount of information, build dams so as not to drown in the information flow. We read, switch from one window to another, comment, take multitasking as the new normal.
Psychotherapist Vladimir Dashevsky believes: “Intelligence is more likely not a fashion, but a pattern, an adequate response to the challenges of the time. Something like natural selection: the smartest survive. Our society as a whole has become smarter, there are more people with high IQ. On the other hand, for individuals it is a way of social marking and organizing into communities. In the 1990s, the principle “a fisherman sees a fisherman from afar” did not misfire: metalheads easily recognized metalheads in a crowd, punks – punks. Today, these subcultures have been replaced by intellectual communities.”
Intelligence is also a way of escaping reality with its pressing problems and challenges.
But if there are “insiders”: those who prefer intellectual work to physical ones, who spend time reading books, watching serials in the original, taking educational courses on Coursera, then there must be “strangers” as well? “Yes, today society is very stratified. There is an abyss between those who watch federal channels and those who receive news from the feed on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat. And the demonstration of intelligence is one of the ways to emphasize one’s opposition,” the psychotherapist is sure.
While some enjoy watching the news and TV shows, others enjoy solving puzzles and riddles. Read about who sapiosexuals are on the website in the article Sapiosexuals: in love with the intellect.
Finally, intelligence is a way of escaping from reality with its pressing problems and challenges. “People with a sophisticated intellect are often driven by fear of reality and the desire to hide in the saving world of abstract ideas,” Vladimir Dashevsky is sure. “However, this cannot be called a sign of the times – it has always been so.”
PEOPLE WHO PLAY GAMES
A clear testament to the fact that intelligence is in fashion is that Red Bull, the brand that sponsors and organizes major world sporting events, hosted the world’s first mind games championship.
Nine thousand players have been tested during the qualifying rounds for several months. As a result, 22 national champion teams were formed, which went to the semi-finals in Budapest – the European homeland of quests.
The semi-final and final game, Mission: Unlock Enoch, an augmented reality quest based on the sci-fi movie Mind Gamers, was developed by the MIT Games Lab and the Technical University of Vienna. The players had to solve a series of puzzles on a huge quest site: swipe a ball across a table made of electronic components, assemble a cylinder, pick the right combination of symbols in a rotating six-meter tunnel to open a combination lock.
The Russian team Sinyachok failed to reach the final of the Red Bull Mind Gamers championship. Teams from Ukraine and Slovenia fought for the main prize, a trip to Boston and participation in the development of puzzle design. The victory went to the Slovenes.
Yes, intelligence is back in fashion, but you can demonstrate your abilities in the office space during working hours. Why do many people make their “gears” work in their free time?
Alexander Salikov, a member of the Sinyachok team that represented Russia at the semifinals of the Red Bull Mind Gamers championship, explains it this way: “A person likes to win – and by and large likes to think. We love to feel smart. This is the basic principle on which any quests are built. Even if you had to use the hints, the player feels like a winner when leaving the room – this is not so often the case in ordinary life. Times have changed. Previously, people were focused on how to survive, to equip their lives. And now we can not only survive, but also live and develop. And it is very fashionable to develop now, this is a real trend. In addition, a generation of those who like to think and solve problems has grown up.”
Endorphins are released into the blood from solving any problems, and winning the quest is no exception.
Psychotherapist Vladimir Dashevsky agrees with this: “Endorphins are released into the blood from solving any problems, and winning the quest is no exception. When we solve a problem, we experience pleasure. In addition, this is an opportunity for us to be “among our own” – people with whom we share the similarity of interests and craving for intellectual pleasures.
Alexander Salikov has been participating in games and competitions for more than 10 years, today he owns 8 game rooms in Moscow. He is sure that the quest is a great opportunity to get to know yourself and the people around you better. In conditions of limited time, qualities hidden from him are clearly manifested in a person.
“In a game form, especially when there is time trouble, it quickly becomes clear who is the leader, who is more passive, who is the leader, who is the follower, who has better developed logical thinking. This is very valuable information, for example, for managers: this way they can quickly find out how an employee will behave in a stressful situation. That is why corporate quests are so popular.”
Quests: games of the new time
The quest in reality is an intellectual game, according to the rules of which the participants need to get out of the room within the allotted time, solving puzzles, tasks, finding objects and clues. In the West, the term escape room (a room from which you need to get out) is more popular.
On the quest site, decorations are usually created in the theme of the game, the rooms are equipped with electronic and mechanical devices. Classic quests have a storyline. So, the participants of the game Mission: Unlock Enoch in Budapest, once inside the computer, had to save their reality from an evil genius.
Also popular are performance quests (with the participation of actors) and action quests, in which you not only need to solve puzzles, but also complete tasks in the spirit of the Fort Boyard game.
The first quests appeared in Asia in 2007, in Russia – in 2012.
(DO NOT) EXIT THE ROOM
Of course, a “thinking person” feels quite free in the information space, however, he sometimes needs a break. Paradoxically, such an opportunity is provided by intellectual quests.
In any case, Scott Nicholson, professor of computer game design and development at Wilfrid Laurier University, developer of the Red Bull Mind Gamers quest, thinks so. He is sure: the essence of any quest is not to leave the room, but to get out of reality, to get away from problems for at least an hour: opportunities. An hour in the company of people close to you or just interesting people. Is this not a gift? So, if you are going to play, I advise you not to focus too much on the goal, but just have fun.
The quest for you and me is an opportunity to reawaken our thirst for knowledge
From the point of view of Professor Nicholson, the competitive moment and the presence of a prize generally spoil the fun of the quest: “Participants are too focused on the task and do not have time to properly explore the rooms, enjoy what we have come up with for them. The desire for a reward in general often spoils the pleasure of the process. I dealt with this issue a lot and realized how much, for example, school changes us. Preschoolers are very curious, they are happy to explore the world around and ask a lot of questions. But the grading system changes everything: children focus on grades and lose their love of learning. And it’s very embarrassing. The quest for you and me is an opportunity to reawaken this love in ourselves.”
So we’ve gotten smarter. Perhaps this is fashion, perhaps more – a new reality in which we unite in communities and choose intellectual leisure, play games. And these two hypostases, a thinking person and a playing person, coexist perfectly in us.