Tic-tac-toe was a childhood favorite for almost every kid, but not for the reasons you may think. It is said to be a simple game for passing the time, similar to what playing on a playground implies today—it is played when the lights go out and there is nothing else to do.
The significance of playground time and the ostensibly simple game of tic tac toe has been eclipsed by the development of mobile gaming apps. Children are trained to be digitally literate from an early age, learning their ABCs or listening to bedtime rhyme audios on tablets or smartphones. This is concerning, especially if it deprives youngsters of time spent outdoors having pleasure, such as playing with other children at a commercial playground or with their parents or teachers while playing games and puzzles.
While the game of tic tac toe was invented by the ancient Egyptians in 1300 B.C., its essential elements have remained unchanged. The game seems to be simple to play. On a 3 x 3 grid, two opponents, one using By and the other using O, mark their symbols. The game is won by the player who collects all three of his or her symbols in a row, diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. The game’s brilliant hook for kids, which adults overlook, is that it’s set up in such a manner that it’ll end in a tie. Only if one of the opponents makes a mistake will the other opponent win. The basic game of tic-tac-toe is made a bit more difficult here.
When playing against a single opponent, you have two objectives: to win and avoid losing. As an adult, you realize that tic-tac-toe will always end in a tie, so you create a strategy that ensures neither you nor your opponent wins. You’ll assume that this is the best compromise between your two goals. Children, on the other hand, strive for both goals. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, for example, let a 5-year-old girl play tic tac toe against a computer program in a 1993 experiment. According to statistics, when a child tries to win, she loses because she is unable to stop her opponent, but when she tries to avoid losing, the games finish in a draw. For 16 games, this process was repeated alternately. This experiment revealed that what you believed was a simple goal integration procedure was not always accurate.
