So last night I finally found myself with a clear evening and sleeping kids to play some God of War 2!  I was quite stoked -- the game has been getting rave reviews on the web and from pretty much everyone at Ensemble.  The opening didn't disappoint and I was back in amazing over the top world of Kratos...

... then I got stuck on like the third room of the game.  Embarassing.  Maybe I'm turning into an old man, doomed to watch my kids run circles around me in any video game we play.  My shame was complete when I consulted GameFAQs for literally, a puzzle that happens about 10 minutes into the game.

Interestingly, the thing I got stuck on is exactly the same kind of thing I've gotten stuck on in many games before.  Some unusual element X is introduced to the scene (in this case, a ballista on which Kratos can shoot himself at the giant enemy).  I fixate on how to use element X to solve the problem since, clearly it wouldn't have been introduced if it weren't relevant.  I may try a few other things when that doesn't work but the existence of this thing is usually enough to keep distracting me -- am I not using it right?  Maybe there is some key combo or timing I need to use it correctly?  In this case, nope... I use it later in the sequence and need to do something altogether more mundane first.  Sigh.

While I'm demonstrating some minimal level of self-awareness here, the other "classic" self-trap I fall into is when I attempt the correct solution on a problem, fail at executing it (but don't realize it), and then write off that solution path altogether.  Because I never make the connection that it was, I write off that part of solution space as "explored" and move on, more or less never to return.  This particular trap got me numerous times in Zelda: Ocarina of Time -- I vividly remember being astonished that jumping through the web from the top of the tree worked after I'd tried it 4-5 times unsuccessfully.

Of course each of those problems is a useful heuristic in other parts of my life (and even in most game solving).  The trick is realizing when I'm in a pattern like this and being self-aware enough to question my assumptions...