I used to have this odd misconception about people who wrote about games. I had always assumed that if you wanted to write about games, or even be involved in the games industry at all, you had to be insanely good at games. I mean obviously if you wanted to write about a game you had to be the best, to be able to beat just about any title effortlessly. For some odd reason writing ability never actually entered into the equation in my young mind. Perhaps this is why I’d never really considered writing until Peter asked me one fateful day over two years ago now. I expect he still regrets the decision.
See, I’m not particularly good at games. I’m not awful, I mean I’m capable of playing pretty much anything you put in front of me with different levels of success. However, that’s more competent than good; a far more important skill in reviewing games. You need to be able to force your way through a game, no matter what it throws at you. There are a handful of times we haven’t given a game a formal review because we couldn’t beat them, most notably Super Meat Boy, but those are games which require you to be far more than just competent; in fact they require a level of skill that glimpses ‘good’ as a distant speck in its rear-view mirror.
[drop]For most games though I’m good enough to push through the campaign and write a review. That’s just the campaign though, throw me into multiplayer and things become a bit different. In fact this topic sparked in my head after I was beaten 7-2 at FIFA 12. This wasn’t horribly unbalanced teams, it was a London derby with Tottenham facing off against Chelsea, but FIFA has never really been my game.That’s not really to say that I really identify any game as being something I can breeze through. I adore Halo, but I’m hardly the best player in the world. I can happily have a laugh with friends but I get easily frustrated if you put me in a competitive situation. Gears of War? Again, it’s fun to play when no-one’s taking Horde too seriously, but I fall to bits when people try to get me to actually play like it matters. Some of you may even remember my brief foray into the world of Killzone 2 for the King of Killzone competition. That didn’t go so well.
Of course I do have a tactic if I’m playing badly and people seem to be caring a little too much. If you’re one of the very small circle of people who’ve ever had the joy of playing FIFA with me you’ll be familiar with my particular tactic in a footballing situation; essentially it boils down to getting bored and trying to get as many players sent off as possible. This is highly amusing for me, although people seem to get terribly annoyed when they’re playing on the same team as me; I can’t imagine why.
I do wonder what it is that frustrates me so much in multiplayer gaming though, my lack of skill is hardly contained to multiplayer sessions. Perhaps it’s because you actually lose in a multiplayer session, when you’re going through single player you just have another go at it. Or maybe it’s because if you die in single player you have a motivation to keep going, there’s a story to work through; when you lose at multiplayer you’ve lost and that’s it.
A better response to all of this would probably be to try and get better, but my hands just won’t let me. They’re horrible, clumsy things, and I doubt I’ll ever make them any more accurate. For now I’ll just content myself with blindly flailing through single player games, and occasionally mucking about in multiplayer. But taking things seriously? Never.
bacon_nuts
Love how I read the title “Sunday Thoughts: Losing” not 5 minutes after I get off the phone with the girl that just dumped me. Lol. Lost at that one.
Aaanyway. Good article. I never really thought about this, but you’re right. Sunday thoughts is probably my favourite feature. :)
blackredyellow
*winning* :)
Origami Killer
I’m not bad at most games. In many multiplayer games I will storm a few rounds and then become shit for the next few. I just have no consistency when it comes to online gaming. At FIFA I used to be good, nearly unbeatable amongst my friends, now I’m just bad, I usually have about 4-5 sending offs and have had many matches abandoned. It;s not because I’m tw@, it’s just because I become really competitive and when I start loosing I myself lose discipline in most games, this is the same for F1 2011.
As for single player aspect of gaming I don’t mind when I lose or die. Demons souls is basically the culprit for this as I died so much. So overall I’m generally quite good at gaming but when it comes to multiplayer i’m very competitive and loosing is annoying.
StevenHibs
I hate losing online in fifa ranked games! however in a 2v2 i can handle defeat, i never get worked up in any online game bar fifa!
Crocadillian
“essentially it boils down to getting bored and trying to get as many players sent off as possible”.
Hehehe, i’ve never liked sports games, and when I do, I usually try to get players hurt for amusement. Its soo much fun >:)
Sympozium
I’d rather have games that just had one difficulty level, while shooters can get away with many..because what else could you do in Single-player mode?
wonkey-willy
im a lot like charlie sheen but only better!
I AM TRI-WINNING!
thay nancy was only bi-winning!
wonkey-willy
*that*
maneorix
I think that was the Killzone 1on1 tournament we had, and not the King of Killzone – I distinctly remember hammering you 7-0, so – sorry about that ;(
Mind you, that was throwing you in the deep end, KZ2 plays like no other game this generation – so it was a big ask to play someone who’s played it quite a lot ..
Delriach
“Or maybe it’s because if you die in single player you have a motivation to keep going, there’s a story to work through; when you lose at multiplayer you’ve lost and that’s it.”
For me, there is no motivation in single player. I know I’ll eventually beat the game no matter how many times I die or lose. Eventually I’ll get it. Most of the time it’s just a matter of exploiting a weakness in the AI and that’s it. Most games are so much easier now too, so it’s not like it’s much of a challenge.
Multiplayer is a completely different story. When you lose you know it’s because the other player was better than you. That’s when I actually get motivated. I have something to work towards. I have to figure out how to beat my opponent by coming up with new tactics and tricks. And it’s not like that person is going to stop improving either, so it’s constantly an uphill battle.
That’s what makes competition so interesting to me. You always have something to work towards. Something to improve. Even if you beat someone once that doesn’t mean that you’ll beat them again. That’s why I have hundreds and hundreds of hours in fighting games. It’s my motivation to get better and losing is only going to help you in the long run. “Why did I lose and what do I need to work on?” are the questions I’m constantly asking myself. It helps when you watch yourself play after the fact. Then you can analyze your mistakes and make a note to not make them again.
There isn’t a single way to play a game and new tactics are constantly being discovered. It’s just a huge time investment. If you’re not willing to make that investment then you most likely won’t do well.
The Mysterious Phantom Bear
I would consider myself pretty decent at most games I pick up. With Call of Duty for instance I have about a 50% top 3 finish ratio across all game modes and competition is particulary high with all those COD obsessives out there.
FIFA 12 at the moment is killing me, I lose 2 games for every 1 that I win and I know exactly why.
My control system is a hybrid between semi and manual. When I play the game offline this balance of settings makes the game feel like a balanced game of football to me and increases the challenge which I like.
However, online because every setting is not fully manual I obviously can’t search to play against manual players otherwise I would be at an advantage which leaves me to play against the automated masses with their 90+% pass completion ratios leaving me chasing the ball for 60% of the game as they happily press X and turn their side into Barca on crack.
However, I’m too stubborn to change my control to the default automated settings and I have never in a hundred games disconnected in frustration. However, my language is colourful to say the least.