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I had a Starcraft epiphany just now. I notice when I start playing again after taking a break (few days, week, whatever) I have much better big-picture play. I'm scouting often, applying pressure, using a variety of tech paths, all of that.
Then as I play more and more, all of this big picture stuff starts to fade as I get caught up in minutia: "first 100 gas to speed, next for lair, gotta make transition to hydra immediately." It's some kind of practice fatigue, I think. I take a lot of breaks from playing to work on mapping, and the trend seems consistent.
What really brought this home for me is that I realized I experience the exact same phenomenon in my golf game. After a break of weeks or months, yeah I need to warm up a little, but overall my swing is just fluid and I can concentrate on course strategy. If I play a lot or spend an entire afternoon hitting balls at the range, my swing just goes in the toilet. All of the sudden I'm hyper-aware of my stance and balance and whatever.
Anybody else experience this? Anybody have a method to deal with it when you feel it coming on? Other than just taking another break, of course!
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This happens to me too. After vacation my first game is always somehow the best game I play of the day =/
No current solution for me. Maybe someone else can elaborate
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Yea it happens to everyone, but you can recover your skills pretty quick
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Yeah, I can only play so many games in a row before I feel fatigue. That's kind of the downside to mass gaming.
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This is actually a common thing in all sports / learning. Try doing a 12-hour marathon of quantum mechanics studying, you quickly get to the point of diminishing returns as mental fatigue comes in.
As it applies to starcraft: I just stop playing and calm myself down when I start to get frustrated. When you feel yourself slipping, get out of ladder, watch a few replays, then do something relaxing. I've noticed that starcraft is really mentally taxing, it's like taking a freaking test.
Additionally, keep your brain in good shape. Get plenty of sleep (your brain cements what you learned during sleep), make sure you're well hydrated (your brain really needs this, especially if you're getting headaches), and feed yourself well (omega-3s actually are proven to help). Also, very important, get some basic exercise in.
This sounds a little silly applying this to a game like starcraft, but it'll help you in all areas of your life. I'm just taking care of my brain to get through school, but if it helps my gaming then that's a great bonus.  I'm a brand new player, so I still have a lot to work on, but I've been able to go from copper to gold and I'm pretty happy with that.
Good luck.
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honestly, ive not had this happen on sc2 but once, i took a 1 day break and came back to winning after losing like 6 games for every 1 i won, on sc1 though it was quite a common occurance for example i got stuck at C- losing 2 games and winning 1 but i took a break for 2-3 days came back and got all the way to C, really cant explain why it works like that though lol.
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Additionally, if you're interested in mental health, I recommend the book "Think Smart" by Richard Restak M.D. I thought the book was a little silly at first, but it covers all the basics I've only outlined here. Additionally, he uses sound science, which I appreciate in a day and age where every self-help book is full of new-age stuff.
As for starcraft, I've noticed that when I game a good while (when I have the freaking time) and hit that mental fatigue point, just stopping, reviewing most of the replays I lost, then getting a good nights rest that evening, really helps. I've noticed through all my studies that your brain doesn't truly learn something until after a good sleep, that's where everything goes from the ram to the hard drive so to speak.
I think that book even advocates 30 min naps. Checking, not sure but I think it's there.
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i've noticed this as well... i used to play wow and pvp pretty intensely but nothing is as fast or taxing as starcraft is imo.
after i play for like a couple hours or so i start to lose focus and i have to go watch tv or do something else for awhile or risk losing matches that i shouldve won.
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On June 06 2010 02:41 AceMgy wrote:This is actually a common thing in all sports / learning. Try doing a 12-hour marathon of quantum mechanics studying, you quickly get to the point of diminishing returns as mental fatigue comes in. As it applies to starcraft: I just stop playing and calm myself down when I start to get frustrated. When you feel yourself slipping, get out of ladder, watch a few replays, then do something relaxing. I've noticed that starcraft is really mentally taxing, it's like taking a freaking test. Additionally, keep your brain in good shape. Get plenty of sleep (your brain cements what you learned during sleep), make sure you're well hydrated (your brain really needs this, especially if you're getting headaches), and feed yourself well (omega-3s actually are proven to help). Also, very important, get some basic exercise in. This sounds a little silly applying this to a game like starcraft, but it'll help you in all areas of your life. I'm just taking care of my brain to get through school, but if it helps my gaming then that's a great bonus. I'm a brand new player, so I still have a lot to work on, but I've been able to go from copper to gold and I'm pretty happy with that. Good luck.
Yup, hydration, sleep and breaks are huge. I've been amazing at writing tests my entire life, and instead of cramming I run over things that I'm 100% sure I know for only a couple hours, then ill just relax, stay hydrated, and get 8-9 hours of sleep before every exam. Youd be amazed at how much better you do on tests with a good nights sleep & going in with minimal stress. Even if you don't know half the shit that is going to be on the exam, staying up till 5am cramming isn't going to help you imo. It's even harder to stay hydrated and well slept when practicing SC because it keeps you awake and at your computer lol.
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Another thing that helps (me anyways) is drinking about 2-3 beers or a whiskey on the rocks or a glass of wine (bleh am not a fan of wine); basically just enough to help loosen up but not enough to get tipsy. I actually would do this before going to exams both in undergrad and through graduate school because I realized that the more I "try" to focus and do well, the worse I actually do. Conversely the more I kind of just "zone out" and stay calm the better I do. Sounds somewhat counter-intuitive but as you guys've pointed out that's just how it is. And just for the record I obtained my MBA while maintaining a 4.0 GPA so I did at least something right. Besides, if you play SC2 while you are moderately drunk at least you will be amused when/if you get roflstomped... either that or break your keyboard. On second thought, if you are a violent drunk this might be a bad idea.
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Thanks for all the responses. I do want to clarify one point: I think there are two time scales here.
When you play 20 straight matches of Starcraft you will get exhausted, as many are pointing out. I like all the suggestions for simply smoothing out your thoughts, get rest, eat well, etc.
The effect I'm getting at seems to happen at a larger scale. Let's say I play 5 matches a day. That's not particularly stressful, unless you have the five longest, zaniest matches of your life. If I play 5 matches a day, every day for a week, I'm pretty certain the quality of my games on the last day are worse in terms of big-picture play. As in I might be executing my build or microing well, or executing some drop or whatever, but almost certainly my feel for what the other guy is up to and making good high-level decisions starts to slip.
I get this feeling like if I played 5 matches on Monday, and then one game a day for the rest of the week, the average quality of my play would improve. I can't really figure out why more practice, even in reasonable sittings, suddenly backfires on me! I have to back off for days and let it percolate or something.
Oh, and AceMgy, Wr3k, I'm going to start drinking water at the computer to keep hydrated, that seems like a good idea in general for someone who's work and play include a lot of hours in front of the monitor.
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I usually just play maybe 1 or 2 games at a time, then take an hour long break and keep doing the same thing so that im able to maintain that "big picture" thing.
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On June 06 2010 03:08 sage22 wrote:
Besides, if you play SC2 while you are moderately drunk at least you will be amused when/if you get roflstomped...
I loved playing Modern Warfare 2 with my Xbox live buddies, until at some point the community just got too good and all the noob-to-moderate players left. But I agree, jumping on MW2 slightly drunk does become a hilarious past time in spite of getting destroyed. I used to jump on Halo 2 multiplayer when I got home from a night out, and that was hysterical, too. Never tried drunken RTS--sounds frantic!
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GREAT THREAD! I have always noticed this but never though tot search for something on it on TL. It is actually so weird how much better I can play after a long break (a week or more).
I think the explanation is something to do with how habits take away necessary mental stimulation. So I mean if you don't have to think about something that hard to do it, then your mind will more easily shut into a power-saving routine ish mechanical mode.
its really affected me especially though (adhd player finds it hard to always focus). So yeah it hink it comes down to how weakened stimuli become through habit.
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lol its all mental. your first game of the day should always be your worst. I mean yea you can win that game, but you know what i mean.
not being warmed up should be a bigger deal than being mentally tired. unless you are like exhausted from a 3 hours boning session.
if you are tired of gaming go eat a sandwhich and come back
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I feel the same way. I usually just watch some t.v to take my mind off of playing or exercise. I usally exercise to warm up though since it gets the blood flowing.
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try just getting up walking around pissing eating calling your mother after each game. anything that allows your heart rate to drop back down and your mind to become clear. this helps me alot especially after very close very apm intensive games.
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On June 06 2010 03:29 Soel wrote:
lol its all mental. your first game of the day should always be your worst. I mean yea you can win that game, but you know what i mean.
not being warmed up should be a bigger deal than being mentally tired. unless you are like exhausted from a 3 hours boning session.
if you are tired of gaming go eat a sandwhich and come back
you're making it seem like "mental" is not relevant to discuss. mental is pretty much entirely what starcraft is. Explain the phenomenon of players slumping and then streaking if mental is less important than other aspects.
I guess this isn't that common though. I think part of it might be physical fatigue too. You don't realize it a lot of the time but your wrist really starts not wanting to go as fast as it can if you play a lot.
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On June 06 2010 03:29 Soel wrote:
lol its all mental. your first game of the day should always be your worst. I mean yea you can win that game, but you know what i mean.
not being warmed up should be a bigger deal than being mentally tired. unless you are like exhausted from a 3 hours boning session.
if you are tired of gaming go eat a sandwhich and come back
I think you are missing the point, amigo. I'm not talking about getting worse because I played for 10 straight hours. I'm saying that after a BIG break, like 6 days, my game is suddenly fresh and fluid, and slowly (over days, dude, days) becomes more and more mechanical, focused on details. Its so strange to me, but I see this perfect analogy to my golf game so I suddenly wondered if other people experience this.
I will, however, run extensive experiments to test your 3 hour boning session hypothesis.
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dont take a break, and watch replays or talk about the game or whatever SC2 related. take a break from the computer.
also I can completely agree, when i take a break for a week, or 2, and come back I am extremely clear minded.
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its a perfectly natural thing to happen with anything one does that requires alot of practice, just taking a quick break can sometimes be all you need to be efficient again.
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The improvement you get from the break is because while you're sleeping in the REM phase, new connections are formed between your neurons related to whatever you did during the day, specially to those done before going to sleep. That's why people seem to improve overnight, or over days and while they're not practicing whatever it is they practice. However, those connections are somewhat unconscious so you just feel it, but normally don't gain any new rational knowledge. As you play more, the rationality comes in, and pushes those unconsicous learnings aside.
There are some cases where those connections can transform into palpable knowledge, which is related to creativity, and when people suddenly have new ideas that relate lots of things, in a broader way which is normally called epiphany.
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This only happened in BW for me...
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It makes me wonder, in the case of professional players that practice over 9 hours a day, do they actually just chain-game? Perhaps, they take small breaks between games? I guess it may be different when you are working on one particular strategy against a specific race over and over.
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Hmm... as far as the "long term" fatigue I think that's just falling into a strategy/mechanics rut. It's easy to just concentrate on one thing to improve and not move on. I'd tell myself before every game "Okay, this game I'm working on probe production," "Okay, this game I'm building out of gateways only," "Now I'm working on timing." Got this idea from Day 9, watch episode 121, helped me.
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EPT
