First time experiences

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance of first time experiences.

The first time of doing something can be a very exciting experience. For example, riding down a steep slope, driving a special car or just visiting a new location for the first time causes in most of the cases a special first time experience. The excitement of these first time experiences comes mostly from the fact that we are experiencing something unknown and we are not really sure about how things will evolve. Of course, driving a special car for the second time can be still very exciting, but at this point, the driver has already gained some experience about the behavior of the car and can rely on this knowledge.

An even better example might be the landing of an airplane on a short runway. Although the length of the runway provides more than enough space for a safe landing, it might look really unusal for the pilot who lands on it for the first time. He knows that it is no a problem at all to land on the runway, but he has never done it before and thus experiences something unknown. If the same pilot does the landing on the same runway for the second time, it might still look really short, but at this point, the pilot can rely on the knowledge he has gained during the first landing.

These special first time experiences do also occur during the gameplay of a computer game. Computer games evolve around certain challenges and tackling these challenges for the very first time can be a very intense moment. For instance, surviving the first night ever in Minecraft [1] can be a very scary and intense feeling. The first day passes relatively quickly and the player has only a limited amount of time to prepare for the first night as evil creatures are spawning in the darkness. A new Minecraft player has no idea how to deal with this situation, hence the first night is a unique experience. After having survived the first night, the player has gained some knowledge on how to deal with this situation. This will not decrease the danger of a night in Minecraft, but it will allow the player to act differently as he no longer deals with an unknown situation.

Minecraft

These special first time experiences do not only result in great memories but provide a special meaning for certain activities. The experience of driving a special car will provide a special meaning to the general activity of driving. This is also true for computer games, as the computer game that has caused the special first time experience will always cause a special feeling once the user starts to play it again.

Kerbal Space Program (KSP) [2] is one of those games that causes all the time a special feeling once I start playing it. Every time I start this game, I have to think back to my humble beginnings and the first landing on the „Mun“. Although it is no longer that adventurous to land a spacecraft on a celestial body, playing this game still brings back the great memories of discovering spaceflight.

Successful landing on Minmus

In the end, these great first time experiences are causing a passion for our favorite activities as we do like to gain more of these first time experiences.