Day of Defeat Success

Last night I played a round of Day of Defeat and I must say, I was alarmed by my own performance. I don't know if I was just in a very chill and concentrated mood but I felt myself actually playing better and it showed on the score chart.  I was in 1st or 2nd place during several matches.  During game play I found myself using little techniques that made a huge difference. Corner hugging and using hidden areas in the map really helped me stay ahead of the game.  It feels great to play well.  I hope this becomes a common thing for me.

Shooters, OMG I have potential

So, I still kind of stink at shooters...but not as much as before.  At least I'd like to THINK I've made SOME progress.  I'm trying to not be all "hi I'm here out in the open now shoot me" because that's what makes me die so much.  I sort of assume that this is like any other game and I can just walk out there and be all fine and dandy when all of a sudden I feel this sharp pain in my abdomen, look down, and notice I'm leaking like a faucet.  Good thing I'll respawn soon.  No real death in a video game. *phew*  I'm going to start watching more professionals in action.  It would help to see people playing games like CoD and TF2 in order to get a grasp of how they manage to 1. Stay alive, and 2. Rack up the k count.  We shall see.  *logs out*

Shooters, things are looking up, sort of.

Ever since I started playing shooters with reduced simulation sickness issues I've realize one very large flaw.  I sort of stink at them.  Don't get me wrong.  I have improved a lot.  When I first started playing multi-player shooters the only place I would remain on the scoreboard is on the very bottom.  That has changed significantly.  After many months of practice, I am somewhere in the middle. Hooray!  You see, I learned how to sustain a somewhat decent amount of kills.  However, my big problem now is that the amount of deaths I have are a bit too significant.  My kill/death ratio is usually 1/2 or more on the DEATH side which is pretty bad.  My goal?  To learn how to survive, how to play defensively.  I'll update my blog as I progress or digress, whichever.   Stay tuned.

Shooters, the sickly side effects

I want to say I really started to attempt shooters back in late 2009 or early 2010.  The genre always interested me because I saw how much skill it involved and it seemed fun to shoot aliens in a fast paced world or just moving targets if you're shooting other stuff.  

In order to play shooters you need concentration, twitch accuracy, some stealth skills depending on the game, to learn your arsenal, etc, etc.  You get the idea.  Jumping into my first shooter, which I believe was Metroid Prime on the Gamecube (alright so maybe it's not a shooter in YOUR eyes) I was excited to say the least.  Just a few minutes later, maybe 5, my stomach was so twisted and my nausea so intense that I needed to turn off the system and lie down.  Sadly, I was never able to beat the game because of this intense illness that later I would research and learn to know is called "simulation sickness".  It's very much like motion sickness but in a simulated environment. Apparently the mind can't handle the sound/video interpretation because it isn't "real" and makes your body do strange and bad stuff. 

I laid off the shooters for a bit and later tried again because I was determined to beat at least one throughout the course of my life.  To my deep sadness, again with the simulation sickness.  Of course, nothing had changed.  I decided to research some remedies to it.  Surprisingly I found some.  Even more surprisingly, they worked.  It's quite simple actually.  I learned to always do the following:

1. Make sure I'm well rested before playing

2. Drink a lot of water before, during, and after playing.

3. Take a break the second I start feeling ill

I am pleased to inform you, reader of my humble blog, that simulation sickness is a concern that is somewhere on the back burner now.  My body got used to the simulations, I still follow the remedies just in case, and when the situation of illness does arise it's few and far between.  I probably feel the illness once every few months.  That's a huge improvement.  Stay tuned for more on my slippery road to the land of shooters.  

The Humble Beginning

At the age of -childhood- because I can't remember the exact age for the life of me, my father introduced me to the Nintendo Entertainment System.  I want to say I was under 8 years old?   It was a nifty device and he had amazing skill at the games we owned.  I recall Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, The Legend of Zelda, and Load Runner being the primary titles played in our house.  It was so amazing watching him play.  We would spend a few hours every day just sitting in front of the television playing those games.  Dad would place the controller into my small hands and I would fail miserably at every game I tried.  He would then patiently walk me through it or help me pass the areas I couldn't.  It was at that moment in my life that I began to appreciate video games as a form of entertainment.