Gamers of Reddit that are exeptionally good at a particular game/genre, how did you get good at it?

I like the way this question was laid out so props on that OP! I've always been fairly decent at any multiplayer game but I attribute that to having grown up playing video games. There is a skill to picking up and figuring out how to play a game on the fly just like anything else. The more games you play and learn, the better chance you have at understanding other games. So my the first point would be general, overall experience with video games. Can you pick up any game and become proficient at it in a small amount of time?

So proficiency is good. That's the beginning; figuring out the basic mechanics and becoming consistent at executing them. Then you can turn proficiency into mastery. Instead of just being consistent, you want to be absurdly consistent. A lot of games use timing as a mechanic. The more accurate the timing by the player, the better chance of success. So for the better players out there it comes down to first figuring out what the best timing is, and then executing that timing consistently. So I would say becoming really good requires mastery of the mechanics of the game on top of basic proficiency.

Another thing that good gamers tend to well is stay "hip" to the scene and to learn the game. Every little trick, every little bit of news etc., becomes important and possibly game-changing. Knowing the exploits or the times where the game doesn't perform as expected are just as important. This is your knowledge of the game. The more you know, the more you can use to your advantage. The more you play/practice, the more you should know, and the more you know, the better you can practice; it all plays off of each other. However, you have to play/practice with the intent to learn and the expectation of mistakes (that's how you learn what not to do and what better to do).

For example, if you wanted to practice and get better at shooting in an FPS game you wouldn't say "I'm going to get better at shooting today" and then just go play 2 hours whatever game you're trying to get better at. You have to figure out what you can focus on to make yourself better at shooting. One of the first tips for most FPS gamers is to "always be aiming." What is meant by that is to always leave your crosshair where you expect your next enemey to appear so you have as little aiming (mouse moving) to do as possible when that guy pops out. Your knowledge helps because you know the map, you know the areas where people can pop out, and you know the best spot to leave your crosshair to get a headshot. Your profiency with the mechanics helps because you know exactly how to aim at that guys head when he does pop out. And your experience helps because the more times you've done it, the better muscle-memory you have to execute. A lot of playing well can be attributed to having done an action so many times it becomes a reflex instead of a thought; in other words, the player is not conscious of it it is simply a reaction and that comes solely from repetition.

So I guess what I'm saying is there are many factors and they all contribute to one another. It also depends on how you play. Are you playing for fun? In Halo games I'd always like to get in the Warthog and bait myself. Was it fun? Hell yes. Did I get any better doing it? No, probably got worse. When you're playing to get better, you should be focusing on things to improve your game, not just having fun.

And then of course there's intangibles like better PC's, lag, better teammates, etc., but really it comes down to repetion, practice with a focus on improvement, and knowledge of the game. But I guess this hasn't been all that informative, mainly just glossing over what makes most people good at, well, anything.

The one thing I can say for myself is that when I play against other people and I don't do well I start to get competitive. When I get competitive I get upset that I lose. When I get upset that I lose I want to do better. And when I want to do better I start to focus on what other, better players are doing. I start picking up things, "oh that last time I died I should have done X", next time I try to do "X" even if it doesn't succeed. From there it keeps snowballing until I've learned a bunch more things and I'm able to finally hold my own. However, most the time if the game seems complicated, or if the competition is so fierce in a highly popular field that I don't play much, I focus on having fun and don't get overly competitive, which is why I'm not good at those games; because I don't want to spend the time trying to get better. I would say those games would be League of Legends, Super Smash, etc., The curve just seems so great I'm not even gonna try; I spent 6 years of my life trying to be the best Counter-Strike player in the world without so much as sniffing a tournament. I know how to better spend my time (I hope).

/r/truegaming Thread