It's Okay to Make Mistakes; Both in and Out of Tarkov

One of the unfortunate aspects to playing Tarkov, that we all end up having to experience eventually, is making mistakes and feeling the consequences of those mistakes. With how complex Tarkov is and the lightning-fast decisions you will be making, especially should you get into a fight with someone, it only makes sense that you won’t always choose correctly. And in those moments, Tarkov will remind you that mistakes hurt. A lot. Death in Tarkov while painless for many players, still stings for those who may not have the experience or knowledge to know what they did wrong, or have the funds in game allowing them to bounce back relatively unscathed. But every so often, we all have one of those moments where we just choose completely wrong, make a huge mistake and we feel the ramifications of it for a while, even after we close the game. I know I’m guilty of this myself. I’ve had many deaths that linger with me even a day or two after it happened. But this is just a gentle reminder that it’s okay to make mistakes. Both in Tarkov, and especially outside of the game. More on that at the end.

We all make mistakes in every game we play. Whether that’s something simple like pressing the wrong button, or maybe deleting something we wanted to save. Or, maybe a little more intense like dying and losing an entire attempt at something that revolved around having only one life. It happnes. Luckily, these kinds of situations, in the grand scheme of things, have little impact on your experience with a game. I understand that they may be important to those that it directly affects, and in the moment feels like and insurmountable loss. But even in games like Tarkov that have actual loss when you die, it’s important to remember that those things you may not be getting back have no value. They are just items in digital world. Again, this isn’t to downplay when you lose stuff because it hurts. Those moments when I decide I want to go huge, run a level 5 or 6 armor, big beefy gun with strong ammo, and then die in the first 2 minutes of that raid, those still hurt. Even after almost 6 years of playing, and almost discourage me from using that kind of gear ever again. But, if I don’t use it, if I just let my powerful gear sit in my stash, it’s going to collect dust and it’s already gone. It isn’t so much gear fear anymore, because I know that’s still a real thing for players, but more so I want to have an opportunity for the gear to shine, to not lose it before that opportunity presents itself. If I get a couple kills in a raid with some strong gear and then die, I’m not even upset; I’m just happy I was able to use that stuff and have it not only take those out around me, but keep myself alive and in the fight too. There is also the element of time in these kinds of situations.

The last thing you want to feel as though has been lost or wasted, is your time. And this is something that has been a topic of discussion for years now. Let’s be honest for a moment; the last thing Tarkov respects, is your time as a player. Tons of loading in between raids, the amount of it can take to rebuild a kit after you die if you aren’t properly prepared; these time sinks really add up if you take notice of them. I can only imagine the number of hours, days and potentially weeks of time lost to loading into raids. It honestly might be so much more than that, but I’m trying to be reasonable here. When a game, or honestly anything wastes your time, it feels like such a gut punch because you literally cannot get that back. Time is the one resource that goes on regardless of if you want it to or not. You don’t get any more of it. So, when a game is so convoluted and built ass-backwards to requeue for another play session, it hurts the most when that time is spent getting ready instead of playing the game. I mean take Battlebit for example: I load up the game, I press any of the quick match options, and usually within 10-20 seconds, I’ve spawned in and am actively playing the game. Like look at that! It’s so fast. Now, to be fair, there have been moments where it takes much longer to look for a server that isn’t full, but that’s the exception not the rule. There are lots of games out there that respect your time, and whenever I’m having bad raids in Tarkov, or just need to take five from it, those games are usually my go to until I get the itch once more.

Now, I said this at the start, and this is something I wanted to talk about last, but this mentality about mistakes goes just beyond Tarkov. It goes beyond games. It can honestly be applied to life as well. I know this is going a little out of our normal conversation topics, but hear me out. I don’t know who might need to hear this, but let me be the person to say it’s okay to make mistakes, especially out in your day-to-day life. Unfortunately, it feels as though mistakes have been turned into this taboo thing that no one is really allowed to have happen to them. At least, that’s what it feels like to me. Maybe this is just from when I was in school, and mistakes weren’t just something that happened and people frowned upon. No, they were actively punished. And I can only speak for myself here, but it made me absolutely terrified to make mistakes. Because I've been conditioned to expect something to happen should a mistake be made. It’s warped my mentality to basically seek out and do everything thing in my power to not let them happen. And when they do happen, it rocks me to my core. And I think about it for a while after it happens. Again, this might just be a me thing, but I wanted to at the very least say it’s okay to make mistakes. They don’t make you dumb; they don’t make you any less than you were before it happened. Mistakes are opportunities to reflect; what you did wrong and how you can improve next time. The goal shouldn’t be to belittle or put you down. If you can take something away from that, then that mistake was worth it in the long run. Because you just grew a little. Even if it’s a teensy, tiny amount, anything is better than nothing. And that mentality should be reflected in everything you engage with, especially videogames. If you can learn from your deaths in Tarkov, and hopefully it wasn’t the game out to get you in that one particular instance, then you’ll just naturally become a better player. You will have more knowledge; you be able to take better fights and opportunities to come out on top and have good raids. So, remember; mistakes shouldn’t be seen as just that. They are learning opportunities. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to watch this video, and be sure to subscribe for more sentimental messages behind the things in life that we sit down and try to enjoy. I hope to see you in future ones.