Skill In Video Games

PostSkill In Video Games by **Qikz** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:36 am

This thread has stemmed off of a conversation me and Karlprof were having over Steam. We were discussing what we thought about the skill required by games and how one comes by this skill. There are many different sides to this fairly pointless argument.

Some people believe you are naturally good at a certain game, while others say that anyone can become good at certain games by practicing with people their skill level or higher. From what I gathered is some people believe no matter how hard you practice, you will never go above a certain skill level, while others believe you can improve your own skill level with a matter of practice and doing whatever you can to improve your skill.

The reason behind this thread is as a gaming forum, what do the general consensus of people believe. Do you as a gamer believe that while playing games (multiplayer games i'm talking about here) you as an individual can only play to a certain standard and cannot surpass that, or do you believe you can improve your skill by pushing yourself and determination.

I would of added the complete and utter idiot response which some non gamers give. "I would be as good as them if I just played as much as they do". Everyone knows that is not true. You may of clocked 200 hours playing a certain game, but it doesn't make you good at it.

So, what are your views?

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Danzig** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:44 am

It's a trade-off between general aptitude at the core skills inherent in playing a game (reaction times, spacial awareness etc.) and familiarity with the input device.

I guess there's other factors as well such as the enjoyment of the playing the game.

In conclusion: I don't know

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Cropolite** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:44 am

Time and effort definitely improves my skill at a game, and having watched my friends play having done the same time - I know natural intelligence is also a factor. The smarter you are the better you'll be.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Raedus** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 2:04 am

I'd say that in pretty much every type of game there is scope to improve your skill. I used to play Call of Duty 1 2 and 4 competitively (my clan was ranked 5th in europe and played at invitationals at one point in my cod 2 career) and there was a definate improvement in my ability (until i started playing WoW and lost my soul and my skills judging by my recent return to the FPS scene). This came about through, improved knowledge of tactics, awareness, aim and general teamwork. Of course these specific skills can't be applied to every other game. But RTS, Driving games and beat-em-ups are genres that i feel you can definately improve in with practice. As to the limit, i reckon you can improve the aim, awareness, tactics and teamwork of pretty much everyone. However, improving reaction time past a certain point may be a lot harder. With twitch gaming i feel, you've either got it, or you don't.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **emilythestrange** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 2:18 am

I think in video games there's a small margin for natural ability, so you're own ability to play a game before you've picked up the controller compared to someone else is tiny. (Like the ability to hit a bullseye in darts, or shooting a target, whatever, the error margin can be really small)
That only applies if everyone is adept with the controller/mouse & keyboard.
But the small margin, like whether your bullet is going to hit the other player or miss by a fraction and go no-where, appears to have bigger consequences at the end of a game on a scoreboard. If the person you're playing against is only a fraction more accurate than you are, you may never be able to kill them, whereas if you were shooting a large target with cumulative points for accuracy, you wouldn't be that far behind- you would judge that particular skill more fairly.

I'm naturally very good with games on the Wii that use a pointer, like Resident Evil 4, and light gun games because of great hand eye coordination. So I suppose that would be natural ability.

Anything else would take practice, I'd imagine, both at the game and with the controller. If you're used to playing lots of FPS games on the Xbox, then you'd probably be better than someone who has never played with the controller before. But, at the same time, if you were to suddenly switch to an FPS game which uses, say, a completely different thumbstick sensitivity, it could really throw you off.

So lots of factors are involved in your overall skill level.

I would of added the complete and utter idiot response which some non gamers give. "I would be as good as them if I just played as much as they do". Everyone knows that is not true. You may of clocked 200 hours playing a certain game, but it doesn't make you good at it.

Except that is true, in most cases. Playing the game for lots of hours does have an impact on your skill level, be it from knowing tactics, or level layout, or just knowing that holding the cursor over a certain place will get you an instant headshot if a guy comes around the corner. There is thousands of tiny things you could pick up by playing a game for long periods of time.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **smurphy** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 2:53 am

I believe skill increases logarithmically, so there will be a point where you're increasing in skill so little you've effectively reached a cap.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **cooldawn** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 3:56 am

I think it boils down to the personal experience a gamer has. If you really enjoy the game you're more than likely good at it naturally but even with the greatest will in the world if the experience is sub-par or you simply can't get in to the game your skill level will suffer no matter how much practice and effort you put in to it.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **void** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 11:09 am

I think its not just the hours its the mindset as well. For example you could play PES for hundreds of hours offline playing master league etc just having fun with the game, building your team, trying out different formations, passing patterns and scoring angles. When you play a top level player online however, you need a different set of strategies to try to both block and utilise the cheap exploits that you just wouldn't bother with offline.

What I'm getting at is it depends on if you are playing for fun, or if you are playing to be more competitive. Multiplayer usually requires a different approach and sometimes different skills to single player.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Pred** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:51 pm

I don't think I'm very good at video games in general. For example I played Halo 2 quite a lot for 9 months, yet I didn't get that much better at it. Then again I was playing with the Random Fury guys so it was very easy to still look rubbish.

I thought I was okay at Guitar Hero/Rock Band on Expert guitar. But then geekboi came along. :cry:

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Jax** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:09 pm

It's different for everyone. I play an online game, and to begin with i'm doing badly. Then later after a few matches, i'm pretty good.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Banjo** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:16 pm

There is a certain amount of skill when it comes to gaming. I find it's similar to typing. When I first got a computer my typing was appalling, it took me absolutely forever to get sentences written as I couldn't find the correct keys. Likewise, with gaming certain games or challenges create better awareness with the controller layout. Earlier when playing Beijing 2008 over a relative's I found that I was beating everyone at the gymnastic events that required precise button presses, I was just that much sharper from the amount of benami-style games I'd played over the years. It also affects how quickly you pick up new control schemes, I can pick up any FPS and find myself reasonably skilled at it because I'm familiar with the L stick to move/strafe and R stick to look/turn.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **Exxy** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:18 pm

You get better as you learn the game. Racing games you learn when to brake, when to accelerate. FPS's you learn techniques, when to reload, where to stay in cover, where to cut off the opposing team. It just differs how long you take to learn these, in CoD2 I played with similarly skilled people every day and I eventually worked out tactics to beat them, be that running into an alleyway and waiting for them to follow me in, general bluffing, learning where to hide or learning to aim better and be more efficent with ammo. I eventually became pretty good at it.

So yeah, I would say the more time you put into a game the better you become at it as you refine certain skills and techniques.

PostRe: Skill In Video Games by **$ilva $hadow** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:49 pm

There is a barrier that every player will hit. You can't practice your way to the top, but you can practice your way to the height of your potential. That's about it.

Skill In Video Games

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