80s and 90s video games fundamentally rewired children's brains differently from those of Gen Z and after

This sort of goes along with your thesis… I was surprised when I reupped my World of Warcraft subscription recently. I’d been away 11 years and of course the game changed a lot during that time. Sometimes in unexpected ways. TBH, I was just surprised the game I liked so much in my early 20’s was still chugging along all these years later! I recall before I left, learning a new dungeon or raid meant going in and mastering a new boss mechanic or gimmick. Trying (and failing) to kill the digital dragon a number of times with my squad before finally getting it right. Celebrating after that first victory before moving on to learn the next seemingly impossible challenge. When you finally slayed the last boss, it felt earned. You learned how to avoid the bad stuff and heal around the unavoidable damage and victories were a cause for celebration. Not everyone playing the game was capable of doing it, maybe just the top 10-20% of players. The ones who took the time to learn how to do it right by doing it wrong a bunch of times and learning/improving after each defeat. Now, 11 years later, there are add-on’s that basically play the game for you. Side programs considered essential by the WOW elite. With these programs, victories feel hollow. Boss is using a special ability? No worries. You have the boss add-on! An arrow appears on the floor, pointing at a circle you need to stand in to avoid the damage. An enemy is about to use an ability that will cause burst damage to the raid? They start glowing and an audio alert ensures someone interrupts the ability before it is cast. Audio and visual queues script out every detail of every fight. Boss mobs, packs of trash mobs, each one solved by a program within a program. These add ons tell you where to stand, when to move and where, what abilities to use at which time and even have built in timers so you know when one phase is ending and the boss is about to change tactics. It’s less learning the encounter and more following simple directions. Tutorial mode instead of using your brain to make order out of chaos. You go in, follow directions, complete the task flawlessly on the first go and leave with your loot. But there is hope for our world (of Warcraft)! About 2 weeks ago, WoW closed off parts of their computational API and a lot of the add-ons that play the game for you are no longer working. We are back to playing WoW the ‘old way’ having to learn from our own beats. And some of the younger (or more add on dependent) players are losing their dang minds! Calling the game ‘unplayable’ without their favorite ‘play the game for me’ programs running. But players in my age group know what to do. Because things are back to the way they used to be when we were in our 20’s. We may be rusty, but we can use our eyes and ears to read the fight without hints and hand-holding apps. No more arrows pointing at circles on the floor or timers counting down fight phases telling us when to move. Xennials seem to have a leg up in this new world (of Warcraft) and those younger have been frustrated lately by the add-on rug pull.