Every kid loved tic-tac-toe, but not for the right reasons. In the same way as playing on a playground implies today, it is played when the lights go out and there is nothing else to do.

With the advent of mobile gaming apps, the value of playground time and tic tac toe has been diminished. Young children are taught to use tablets or smartphones to learn their ABCs or listen to bedtime rhymes. The loss of time spent outdoors enjoying fun, such as playing with other children on a commercial playground or playing games and puzzles with parents or teachers, is concerning.

However, the game's essential elements have endured since its inception by the Egyptians about 1300 B.C. The game seems basic. On a 3 × 3 grid, two opponents label their symbols with By and O. He/she who collects all three of his/her symbols in a row wins the game. The game's smart hook for kids, which adults miss, is that it's organized to end in a tie. The opposing opponent only wins if one of them makes a mistake. Tic-tac-toe, the basic game, grows increasingly difficult.

When facing a single opponent, your aims are to win and avoid losing. As an adult, you realize that tic-tac-toe is always a tie and create a means to avoid it. You'll assume this is the best way to achieve both goals. Children, on the other hand, aim for both. In one 1993 study, a 5-year-old girl play tic tac toe versus a computer program. When the child tries to win, she loses due to her incompetence to block, but when she tries to avoid losing, the games finish in ties. This pattern repeated for 16 games. This experiment showed that a seemingly simple goal integration procedure is not always accurate.