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I suggest a spotlight on this.
I'll give another hint which is less "mental" as approach:
Reduce the importance of each game just by cheesing for like 15 games in a row, or try out crazy strats.
Unless you are in GM, where ladder anxiety usually isn't such a problem, you really have nothing to lose.
I sometimes even just leave ladder games cause i don't wanna play a certain MU.
What matters is how you play, not your rank.
This might also help your general understanding of the game without following strict bos. Just make your own!
Also, with practice, you will be able to use the game like a third hand and feel comfortable at what you do.
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thanks for writing! this seems like a pretty common thing to experience
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For the most part im fine laddering, but sometimes, mainly when its slightly cold in my room, my hands feeling feel freezing and shake a little and it makes the mechanical part of playing really hard for me. I understand that its just adrenaline, but its still fucking annoying.
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you sir, deserve every bit of your psych degree. very good read!
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I ladder now, i got demoted from diamond and am in plat as my new race zerg.
This happened like a month ago..
The biggest comfort to me as zerg, is that because it is reactionary, i have to do something right to win. Either aggressively scouting weakness, or defensively having good positioning and decision making regarding drones and units. This makes me feel fulfilled about my skill level. Whereas in toss Or terran i could win with pushes a zerg didnt see coming, as zerg i can win because i saw a push coming.
But, good read, coulda used it last year.
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But how do I even get myself to press that Find Match button? I haven't played since Season 1 and I only played like 40 games back then too T.T I want to play...I just fear that button, and pretty much everything you mentioned.
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On December 22 2011 04:44 Fawkes wrote:
But how do I even get myself to press that Find Match button? I haven't played since Season 1 and I only played like 40 games back then too T.T I want to play...I just fear that button, and pretty much everything you mentioned.
I would suggest finding a practice partner your level. So both of you have qually good chance to win, and can talk about it afterwards. It less pressure that way. Once you played more 1v1 games, it will help let you to start league games. Take it slow. Even just 1 game a day.
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I wish this was a blog so I could rate it 5/5.
Good read!
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On December 22 2011 04:44 Fawkes wrote:
But how do I even get myself to press that Find Match button? I haven't played since Season 1 and I only played like 40 games back then too T.T I want to play...I just fear that button, and pretty much everything you mentioned.
you just do it, just like anything else in life
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I never really thought about laddering like this but I like it. I have not played in much since season 2 and I want to start playing again but part of me doesn't want to do the work haha. Not sure if it is fear or laziness though. Like my dad always said "That boy has a lot of quit in him". Sigh
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On December 22 2011 04:53 All.In wrote:
I never really thought about laddering like this but I like it. I have not played in much since season 2 and I want to start playing again but part of me doesn't want to do the work haha. Not sure if it is fear or laziness though. Like my dad always said "That boy has a lot of quit in him". Sigh
You should probably seek some kind of help about it too.
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Some good scientific information here. Well written. However....
WHY in the hell are people STILL posting threads about this?! For the life of me I will *never* understand why anyone would have 'anxiety' while playing a video game if there is litterally NO consequences of failing at it and virtually no reward for winning. You mentioned something about 'if we dont know the consequences, we make them up'. This makes no sense to me whatsoever. I am pretty sure that everyone knows they will lose ladder points and move down in rank if they lose; we know the consequence.
If I win a ladder game, I get some points, congrats to me! If I win 10 more in a row, I get more points! But, no one is going to bend over and give me a check for 10k and sign me to a team. That is one thing everyone needs to get out of their minds right now: success on ladder, especially for casual players, will not financially or physically benefit you in any way.
Everyone likes to win. I dont know a single person that thinks losing is more fun than winning at ANYTHING. However, there is no reason for this added layer of 'stress' because of a game. Honestly, if you are an average player and you are not contracted to a team or you are not in a tournament, no one is going to care if you win or lose. No one is going to hurt you for losing, it wont cost you money for losing, you will LOSE nothing but a virtual number that has no meaning at all.
Am i in the minority for thinking this way? Sure I love winning, and I dont particularly like losing, but it doesnt stress me! It does not cause mental anxiety for me! Why should it? Give me one reason why it would be *normal* for me to feel anxiety playing a video game under the circumstances that I previously mentioned. In fact, I have a couple friends that bought the game and have barely played it at all! They tell me "i'm not good...ill just lose..." and this is their reason for not playing. Even if they have nothing TO lose and virtually nothing to gain, they still wont play it reguardless if they are interested in it or not (obv they were because they bought it).
If i had a nickel for every ladder fear thread i would be rich 
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Very well done you have helped me quite a bit :D
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On December 22 2011 04:14 Frumsan wrote:Great write-up! There are many aspects of the cognitive-behavioral theory I don't accede to though, so my question as a non-psychologist but with a lot of experience and education in the area is: How would the views you've just described (very eloquently) differ from a psycho-dynamic point of view?
Thanks!
CBT can, in a way, be considered psychodynamic, but I assume you mean the original philosophies like Freuds psychoanalysis.
A psychoanalytic point of view would see your anxiety as a representation of inner conflicts based in childhood. It would send you into months and months of talk therapy until all your overt and covert conflicts had been resolved and you had become a more relaxed person.
However, a psychodynamic direction like Kohut's Self-psychology would focus very strongly on your narcissistic ego and ambitions. The "split" in personality many feel after a loss (where you become a different person for half an hour), would be considered a symptom of Self damage. Therapy would try to make your Self as whole as possible - and mutate your narcissistic drive to a healthy, productive narcissism (not to be confused with Narcissistic Personality Disorder).
But in general, cognitive-behavioral therapy is pretty much the most acknowledged method in psychology right now - it is highly acknowledged even outside of psychology - most strikingly when applied to the psychosomatic field; where it is far more effective than medicine. It is considered the most effective way to fix, for instance, sleep disturbances or irritable bowel syndrome.
TL;DR: CBT is pretty good! 
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On December 22 2011 04:53 NerZhuL wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2011 04:44 Fawkes wrote:
But how do I even get myself to press that Find Match button? I haven't played since Season 1 and I only played like 40 games back then too T.T I want to play...I just fear that button, and pretty much everything you mentioned. you just do it, just like anything else in life
That's not helpful advice at all. If people can "just do it", they wouldn't be here to ask advice on it.
To some it might seem rediculous, how hard is it to just move the mouse over the button, and press the left click?
But when your mind doesn't want to do it, it comes up with all sort of justifications, such as: it's too late tonight, I'm play tomorrow, or I'm little tired right now and won't be able to perform my best, or may I should go watch that day9 I missed on archieve, or maybe go see if there's any interesting posts on TL, anything that would trigger the "I just don't feel like playing right now" thought. It is that conflicting feeling that I want to play but at the same time I don't want to play.
There have been many useful advices such as don't play when you "feel" like it, make it a schedule. Start slow, even just one game a night.
I've seen too many people who don't understand the ladder aniexty just come to these threads and go: "pfff, just dot it, play to have fun, why the fear? or Just don't play if you can't handle it...derp derp..."
This is obviously a well established phenomenon that many people experience. Let's give helpful advices instead of dismissive ones.
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I laddered in season 1 to low/mid masters. Then I started getting matched more frequently with players who were streaming their games and the thought of being watched live by hundreds of people really screwed with me. To make it worse, immediately following the end of a game I would often get harassed by my opponent's audience with messages about how much I suck. I haven't laddered since, though I've been thinking for months about getting back into it.
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Huzzah, now I too know psychology and am nearly done with my degree!
Jking, nice write up and it's awesome to have it be interesting (related to starcraft). Thanks!
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Great writeup!
I've had my innitial ladder anxiety but when season 4 started I just thought: Who cares if I get demoted to bronze, I'm just going to play a lot of games and become better!
Today I've been promoted to gold and I know that if I keep playing, keep trying to improve, I can make high plat/low diamond!
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On December 22 2011 04:10 Hurricane Sponge wrote:
I noticed a fair amount of emphasis on pointing out that there are many people who placed high, then stopped playing for fear of getting demoted. These people play their one placement match a season (usually during the Ladder Lock) and will be able to float their league rank for eternity (~ 30 games to recalculate a player's league will mean that at 1 game per season, they will be demoted in roughly 2016).
If Blizzard's goal was to get more players active on the ladder, they could turn this rather sizable user base into active players by having their MMR's (and thus, their league placements) decay while inactive. There would certainly be a percentage who would stop playing altogether if this happened, but more likely, their desire to preserve their league status would compel a larger portion back into consistent ladder action.
if your blizzard dont you want thousands of inactive accounts that dont use up server time with matches?
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EPT
