How to Get More Fun (and Less Rage) Out of SC2 - Page 7
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NoXious90
United Kingdom160 Posts
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StarBrift
Sweden1761 Posts
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niteReloaded
Croatia5281 Posts
I just wished it was visually edited a bit better. Perhaps like this: + Show Spoiler + Have you ever been focused on something with such intensity and fun that you lose track of time, forget that you're hungry, and find yourself completely lost in what you're doing? (EDIT: That describes one end of the spectrum of these kind of experiences. These same principles also apply to having more normal experiences of fun and enjoyment from something challenging.) In extreme cases, everything becomes clear, and your actions seem effortless, automatic, and highly precise and efficient--things can even seem to slow down. We call the more intense instances being "in the zone," "locked in," "unconscious," or "on fire." Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi named it flow. It is among the best experiences we can have as human beings. More often, we just call it having fun. That feeling is the reason we play Starcraft. We are chasing those kinds of experiences, and this game is one of the best, most reliable ways to get to it if you approach it the right way. I'm going to break down the ten factors that accompany these experiences of flow and show how they each relate to playing SC2. The factors are:
1. CLEAR GOALS
Don't make winning your only goal. That's because you can't always control whether or not you win, you can't always get direct and immediate feedback on whether or not you are going to win, you'll probably NOT win at least 30% of the time, it isn't intrinsically rewarding (in the sense meant above), and the very idea of winning involves your ego massively--not good for losing those feelings of self-consciousness. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Focus on executing your build order. Focus on having a plan in advance for tactics and strategy. Have an idea for your early, mid, and late game. Pick some other things to accomplish each game (upgrades, expansions, scouting, harassment, micro, macro, building placement, etc.). Make those kinds of things your primary focus before, during, and immediately after the game. Let winning and losing roll off your back completely, make them unimportant side-effects of all of these other goals--be zen-like about it. Have these goals clearly laid out. Write them down. Don't change them too much until you've mastered what you were working on. 2. CONCENTRATION
Don't let yourself have too many distractions (obviously). Whether that applies to your music, your viewers, your friends, your chatting, or things in the game other than your goals (you get caught up in micro when you intended to work on macro). Don't focus on winning because that's always going to be a distraction from your real goals. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Get laser focused on your goals. Have the plan in your mind. Go over that plan constantly. Be looking for the cues and information that apply to what you're trying to do. Day[9]'s mantra of "workers, supply, money" is a good example of this. 3. LOSS OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
Don't rage. Don't focus on winning. Don't flame. Don't respond to flaming. Don't get caught up in your short-comings as a player. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Be polite. Try not to let flaming or opponent rage impact you too much. Pay attention ONLY to the things on your list of goals for the game--if you suck at micro and are painfully aware of it but that's not the thing you're trying to work on, then decide in advance not to sweat micro in the slightest. 4. DISTORTED SENSE OF TIME
Continue glancing at the clock while playing. Listen to short music tracks that break up your experience into 3-minute chunks. Get bogged down in build-order timings that you aren't super-familiar with. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Make your basic timings one of the first things you work on, so you don't have to focus on that any more. Learn it stone-cold. As more sophisticated timings become relevant to your game, roll back your expectations on other areas so you can focus on those, master them, and move on. 5. DIRECT AND IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK
Decide to practice sentry force-field micro by playing in ladder games. Never watch your replays. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Pick the right approach to working towards a given goal. If you want to practice with force-fields, open the unit tester. Find a map designed for force-field micro practice. Have your practice partner mass zerglings while you mass sentries and then see how long you can prevent him from getting into your base. Or for a different example, if you really want to practice combating mech in your ZvT, don't hop on the ladder where you may go 8 games in a row without playing against a Terran only for him to do a bio-build. A practice partner or a special map would be the way to go there as well. Also, it's hard to get direct feedback when you're not sure how you failed to reach your goal. Check out the replay when there's missing info that you need in order to improve. 6. BALANCE BETWEEN ABILITY LEVEL AND CHALLENGE LEVEL
Don't build 5 bases if you have no prayer of managing 5 bases. On the other side, don't just do your cheesy all-in rush that you could do in your sleep every game without any other objective in mind to challenge you. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Take baby steps. If you aren't good at macro, focus on successfully spending all your money off of two bases. Maybe build 5 bases, but instead of trying to manage them effectively, see how quickly you can get 200 workers on the field. Or try to spend 5 bases worth of income with no regard whatsoever for whether that money is spent well. Build 30 command centers if you need to. Again, whatever you're working on, take baby steps. 7. A SENSE OF CONTROL OVER THE ACTIVITY
Don't play like your hair is on fire, giving yourself more things to manage and focus on than you can possibly feel like you have a sense of control over. Also, don't be frantically mapping control group hotkeys without some kind of plan. Don't rely on the tooltips to give you the keyboard shortcuts for building a certain unit or getting a certain upgrade. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Limit the amount of stuff you have to attend to until you are very comfortable, then move up slowly. Have a solid plan for how you want your mechanics to go. Focus on learning hot keys, get comfortable managing control groups, etc.. This might be one of the most important things to do for a new player. If you aren't comfortable with controlling the game, you will have trouble doing anything else on this list of things associated with flow. You'll be self-conscious, it'll feel too difficult, you'll be distracted often, etc.. 8. THE ACTIVITY IS INTRINSICALLY REWARDING
Focus on winning. Focus on your ranking. Focus on your win record. Focus on showing up a bad mannered jerk. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Play because you enjoy the sense that you're getting better. Play because you like reaching those little goals mentioned above. 9. LACK OF AWARENESS OF BIOLOGICAL NEEDS
10. YOUR ENTIRE AWARENESS BECOMES FOCUSED ON THE ACTIVITY ITSELF
The key here is the purity and intensity of the other factors. If you are really locked-in because you have a handful of these factors down pat, you're likely to get to this place. ~~CONCLUSION~~ Even if it's subconscious or they don't think in these terms, flow is often the secret sauce behind the performance of the top gamers, top athletes, top musicians, and artists in the world. It's why they can work for hours and hours on end with minimal fatigue or boredom. It's why they can remain passionate about something even after decades spent on mastery. In fact, when it comes to Starcraft 2, you'll find a lot of these principles at work in the wisdom of everybody's favorite nerd, Day[9], and his approach to the game. If you pay attention to his advice, it's often about breaking things down into clear goals, taking baby steps, concentrating on specific things, being willing to let go of winning in order to work on new aspects of your game, and so on. Furthermore, if you watch Daily #100, you can hear him talk about these sorts of moments and experiences throughout his career as a player in many of the same terms I've used here (loss of self-consciousness, total absorption in the task, feelings of control, his skill and the challenge at hand being perfectly matched). You don't have to do ALL of these things to experience flow, even a handful can get you there. This approach to the game can help new players and pros alike. By moving more towards these approaches to Starcraft 2, you are likely to have more fun, rage less, and actually get better at the game faster. | ||
Cerety
Canada5 Posts
I let that got to my head so I would be striving to win every time to keep up my image, and I raged a few times when I lost some games. However, I had an epiphany yesterday - I shouldn't worry about win/loss. It's dumb to judge people like that, but we still do it subconsciously - it's like judging people on what they wear without getting to know them first. Sure, the friends will criticize, and perhaps doubt that I'm not as good as they imagine, but screw them - at least I'm learning. Even if I'm dropping games now I feel that it's just going to be temporary. I treat it as an investment - an investment towards the future, since I'll be learning the timings and getting a sense of how the game is going to flow so I'll be able to apply the knowledge to future games and win (hopefully). I did just that yesterday. I was learning how to play Zerg and I decided to give ladder a try. I was paired up with another Zerg, and I had never ZvZ before. I scouted a fast pool (probably on 13), but I still laid my pool down after my extractor because I want to see how many drones I can get away making and still be able to defend it. I got out a queen and two zerglings and took my natural. Shortly after that, his zerglings came marching into my base (I had to cancel my expansion, I think he had around six or eight). I used my queen and two lings, as well as the rest of my drones to defend, and I managed to hold him off! Even though I ended up losing that game, it felt extremely rewarding since I did not over-commit to get up a fast defense. I took a look at the replay, and we were neck to neck the entire game when I felt that I was extremely behind - my drone count outnumbered his by three (I had ninety-one and he had eighty-eighty), and the only reason why he was able to win the game was because he had mutas while I only had roaches, zerglings and banelings. It's a lesson towards the future that I'll need to scout with an overlord or overseer I had fun, and I look forward to playing when I get home tonight! | ||
Pobearo
United States351 Posts
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Naftali
United States54 Posts
Over the long weekend I played a bit of SC2 (finally got my fifty wins as Terran achievement. yeah, I'm awesome , watched Mad Men and practiced the piano. While Mad Men is pretty cool, it has nothing to do with this post. As I practiced a Bach Invention, it occurred to me that playing the piano as a hobby is actually alot like playing Starcraft for me. I'm not going to be a concert pianist, and I'm not going to be a pro Starcraft player. Heck, I'll be lucky to ever make diamond, frankly. But I've found that I get intense enjoyment out of both activities if I'm in the right mindset while doing it. If I play Starcraft to enjoy the feeling of seeing my APM rise naturally, of making smoother opening builds, of transitioning better, of scouting and reacting to the information I gain better, and in micro-ing better, then I enjoy the game whether I win or lose. Likewise if I play the piano to appreciate the genius of the composer and my own patience in training my fingers to pick out difficult passages, then I don't need to have anyone tell me I'm good. The OP makes interesting points about practicing as well. If you try to sit down and play a piece of even moderate difficulty that you've never seen before straight through, you might be able to make it sound alright if you're a very good sight-reader, but you'll never really make it sing. However, if you break it down measure by measure and phrase by phrase,concentrating first on fingerings, then on rhythm, then on speed, and so on, it will quickly come together and you'll play it like you were born knowing it. Just as you'd never practice playing the whole piece until the very end of your time with it, playing solely to win at Starcraft only leads to disappointment. | ||
geek0
Denmark32 Posts
just have fun with sc2 your way if you like winning , try to win if you like playing 3v3 and massing void rays do that.. whatever obviously if you become frustrated with the game change how youre playing | ||
Spiffeh
United States830 Posts
#1 thing - most important - Don't focus on winning. Focus on the process. and, Your skill ceiling will become larger if you intrinsically like performing the act itself; not what the act results in. | ||
dekuschrub
United States2069 Posts
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rea1ity
United Kingdom385 Posts
Winning is just an after-effect of achieving your smaller goals. | ||
Antoine
United States7481 Posts
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ChoboCop
United States954 Posts
Articulating 'the zone' is very difficult. Bravo. | ||
pRo9aMeR
595 Posts
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Eka
Sweden71 Posts
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Salivanth
Australia1071 Posts
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Mr.Brightside
Australia317 Posts
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KpR
Romania14 Posts
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Dexterique
Malaysia14 Posts
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kankerganker
Denmark58 Posts
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sammy5222000
United States44 Posts
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