Blog FeedGaming Skill Atrophy
While I’ve never been hugely skilled at First Person Shooters, I’ve always been pretty good. There’ve even been occasions where I was pretty damn godlike - getting a single frag in a game of UT when I had a ping of 2000 springs immediately to mind (No luck involved, of course), but they were more the exception than the rule. Basically - depending on the game of course - I’ve always been a pretty decent gamer.
As you’ve probably gathered from that example, I learnt my multiplayer skills in 56k hell, which always provides a handy excuse for extreme suckage (not that I ever needed one of course…); in all seriousness, though, I was pretty good. I could hold my own against the truly brilliant players, and won a few matches of CS in my day (no small feat when you’re playing against people who are more experienced than you and have a tenth of your ping)
Like all 56kers, I dreamed of the day I’d be able to game via broadband. And - eventually - that day came. It also pretty much coincided with a promotion - which meant an increased workload. I played a couple of games (how could I not?), and was awestruck by the way I could aim at someone and actually hit them! Hey - it’s exciting when you’re used to aiming where you think they might be in 10 seconds… Thankfully, I was still just as good - after the old habits of dramatically leading shots died down, at least . In the end, work took over my life and I just didn’t have the time to game - especially online (being in the UK and mostly playing with Americans generally means late nights)
Fast forward to last week. I hadn’t done any multiplayer gaming for well over a year, and haven’t even touched an FPS in 8 months (I blame Medieval: Total war for this). I get invited to join a game of Unreal Tournament (old skool, of course. None of this 2004 business…), and - feeling all nostalgic - I agree (I had to install it and everything). Obviously, I figured, I’d have experienced a loss of skill. I could barely remember any of the maps, and my ‘twitch’ reflex was way out of practice. Still, it wouldn’t take me long to get back into the swing of things, and I was still basically ‘pretty good’, after all. So we started playing.
I suck.
I don’t just mean “I was a bit rubbish”, or even “I came last” (which I did) - I mean I completely and totally suck. In my first game I got exactly -1 frag. I suddenly can’t hit the side of a barn door, and my reaction speed is… well let’s just leave it at ‘unimpressive’. After that first humiliating game I thought to myself “well, shouldn’t take me long to get back up to speed”
We played for a couple of hours. I may have avoided coming last in one or two matches, but don’t quote me on that. This is more than just being ‘a bit out of practice’ - it’s like I’ve had all my gaming skill ripped out of me. I can honestly never remember being this inept at a game, ever - what makes it particularly galling is realising that this is a game that I used to be, as I said, pretty damn good at. I should probably remind you that the guys I was playing with were also out of practice - it didn’t affect them anywhere near as much as it did me. Maybe I was just more out of practice. Maybe I was tired. Maybe I was never that good in the first place.
Then it hit me - maybe I’m getting old. Is this what happens when you hit a certain age? Do you suddenly lose all the skills that were so useful in your youth? Does your ability to circle-strafe effectively get replaced with … I don’t know - being able to smoke a pipe? I’m 24. I’ve been gaming for over 16 years. The idea that this is it; that I’ll have to hang up my WASD keys and trade my mouse in for some slippers horrifies me. There’s only one thing I can do - game as if my life depended on it. There’s no way I’m letting my youth go without a fight.
Sure, I’m being a tad melodramatic - but if you woke up one morning and realised that maybe - just maybe - you were dangerously close to being middle-aged, what would you do? Exactly.
I’ll see you in-game.
15th October | Reply
Well, this makes me wish we could both get decent pings to the same servers so I could whip your ass.
I was never really able to game until I did get DSL, and that arrived around the same time I got the UT2004 demo. I can generally manage to hold my own, but I’m nothing special. Playing CS:Source recently shows how out of touch I am after not playing CS for over 2 years (I was quite decent, the few times I did play multiplayer at LANs). But I’m not so concerned with that, because as long as the servers are filled with complete wankers, I won’t be playing often.
It just sounds to me like you need more practice. You need to stop bumming around in strategy games (like I’ve been doing lately) and get yourself into more action, more often.
15th October | Reply
I refuse to believe that mere age has anything to do with it. I’ll be 24 in about 2 1/2 years, so I don’t even want you to think that it’s a factor.
It’s all that Medieval: Total War. The strategy gamer in you has replaced your reflexes with tactics, and one thing you cannot do in a first-person shooter is think.
All you need is some concentrated action game time. Give it a solid weekend if you can and see how you are by 9PM Sunday.
15th October | Reply
There are so many games out there with different physics/gameplay that if you play one other game for a long time, then it’ll be hard to get back to another.
An example would be that earlier this year I got UT2004 after playing UT2003 a shitload, and I was pretty good at it and often came 1st or 2nd every time I went on a public server. However, many hours of other games such as Call of Duty, Far Cry, SC:PT and Raven Shield meant that I wasn’t concentrating on UT2004’s game engine anymore. I got back to it and sucked so much.
With some games they naturally come to you, with others they take a while to get accustomed to since your brain is probably running on another game engine. I sucked getting into Call of Duty, but I immediately own at Counter Strike: Source. A few hours a week of one game (no others) and you should be able to get back into the game.
The age theory is a bit far-fetched, unless you’re getting arthiritis.
15th October | Reply
yeah, you’re just out of practice. when I went to the USA I couldnt play UT2004 for 11 days. before this I played it almost daily.
When I got back, I sucked HORRIBLY in the first game. I played way below my normal skill level. I got back to my regular level after 5 or so games.
Now you havent play way longer than 11 days, and UT(200x) is a skill intensive game. Just play more and you’ll get back to your regular self.
Oh btw, you’re in UK right? I havent played UT (99) in a while, but I’m always up for a game
and this too: http://www.xs4all.nl/~zuidbuur/Shot00216.jpg
19th October | Reply
The story of suck, by Real
This is the account of a young UT player, and an old UT player. The young world versus the new. A battle of the minds, a battle of wills. Indeed, a battle of the ages.
When Pseudo first joined, I believed him to be the better. I had heard the legends of the 2000 ping player, told to me when I was still a kid. A certain respect is in order when a man does something like that.
The first time he logged on, this respect was deepened even more. ‘Omg server suckage’ was the first thing he said, something all true veteran players complain about when they first enter an unknown server. In a way, it’s announcing you are there, and that you are serious.
The game soon got under way, and all the players of 3DAP were focused. At times I saw pseudo hopping around, in what I thought was a nefarious plan. Often the thought “Goddamn what is he doing. He must be the best if he plays like that” came to me. In the end I was proven horribly, horribly wrong.
He ended up with a score of -1. This, in itself, is an art. In the following games, he did fare better, but mostly against bots. My heart was broken. My hero had died.
I stand before you now. All I can do is point and laugh to try and forget the anguish, the pain, and my broken hero, which all came to pass on that one faithfulnight.
All I can do. Is point. And laugh.