Taking a Strategic Approach to playing Video Games
Everyone in the developed world has probably played a video game at some point in their lives. Mobile gaming is the largest platform in the gaming industry and gives the wrong impression of video games as a whole. Most mobile video games are two-dimensional (2D) and use relatively simple controls such as tapping and dragging. Think Candy Crush or Pokemon Go. Most games you play on the phone are relatively simple because phones have small screens, are optimized for texting, taking pictures and surfing the web, and don’t have much memory. On other platforms like on the desktop (PC), more powerful processors allow for more intense and complex programs, which makes it a stronger platform for substantive gaming experiences. Since fewer people have experienced desktop gaming, the expectations are much lower than they should be. To play video games, players must build mastery of many skills including their spatial awareness, muscle memory, and communication skills.
Negative opinions and stereotypes created about video games fostered poor attitudes towards people who play video games and prevent the people who believe those stereotypes from trying out video games. When the computer came to the public, it was not user friendly (and remained that way until 1975), and the people who spent time learning to use the computer were labeled ‘computer nerds.’ Dictionary.com defines a ‘nerd’ as “an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit” (“Nerd”). Computers at the time required some programming knowledge to operate, which only the ‘computer nerds’ had. Because of this stereotype, there was an “us versus them” mentality when it came to computers as a whole. Today these stereotypes and opinions exist mostly for video games. According to PEW, “About one-quarter of all adults think most video games are a waste of time… [and] [o]ne-third thinks some video games are a waste of time while others are not” (Duggan, par. 2). Combined, that is about 59 percent of adults who believe that at least some games are a waste of time. Of that 59%, at least 24% don’t play video games because of their beliefs about it being a waste of time, allowing a negative mentality about video games from decades ago to remain prevalent today.
To start playing, players must first identify the type of game they are playing and break down the skills needed to play the game ‘correctly’ and otherwise understand the objective of the game and how to achieve the goal. The first thing to understand about video games is that no matter what type of game you are playing, there is always going to be a skill divide and to cross that gap, you will need to learn and master fundamental skills of the game. The skills required to master will change depending on the type of game you are playing. A First Person Shooter (FPS) will require skill in accurately moving your mouse crosshair — a custom cursor for video games — to enemy bodies (aiming) and shooting quicker and more accurately than opponents. A Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game will require skill in timing different keypresses to execute combos. Identifying what skills you will need to master is a core part of learning to play video games. To most gamers who have played other games of the same genre, the fundamental skills are mostly the same, and they can skip the learning phase. After figuring out what fundamental skills to learn and master, it is essential to understand the objectives of the game and to “play the objective.” The phrase “play the objective” refers to doing what is needed to win. If eliminating all enemy players is the goal of the game, then your job in the game is to go hunt and kill all enemy players. However, most games have secondary objectives, which may distract players from the primary, and it is good practice to distinguish between primary objectives and secondary objectives. A great example of this is bomb defusal games where your main priority is planting the bomb (as an attacker) or preventing the bomb from being planted/defusing it (as a defender). In this game mode, eliminating all players is not a priority. You can technically win or lose a game without killing a single person — making it a secondary goal to achieve after you succeed in the primary objective.
In video games, it is essential to understand where other players are most likely to be depending on the objective of the game, and what routes and strategies these players will employ to complete their goal. Just like you will have tasks to complete in video games (assuming multiplayer), so will other players. In most multiplayer games, you are pitted against opponents, and your success is directly tied to the failure of the enemy players: If you complete your task, the enemy players fail their objective and vice versa. These games are intentionally made to motivate players to work their hardest at completing their objectives, or else the enemy team will win. Another important aspect to video games is strategy. Most players develop strategies to improve their chances of winning. . In the bomb defusal game mode mentioned earlier, a strategy might be to fake out the enemy team by shooting and making your presence known, then quickly sneaking out to the other side of the map. The hope is that the enemy team comes to the side of the map where they see activity and leave the other side unguarded, allowing your team to complete their objective. If someone on the enemy team guesses correctly that your team was faking a push, he would be demonstrating a great understanding of counterstrategy. The tension between strategies and counterstrategies is precisely what makes video games so exciting, especially with exceptional mechanically gifted players where strategy is what decides wins and losses, not mechanics.
All types of gaming demand mastery of the controls and that players build muscle memory for any interactions they can have with the game. Players who build solid muscle memory spend more time thinking about the objectives of the games rather than the controls. An excellent analogy for muscle memory in gaming: is writing. When we write an essay, we focus on completing our objective (writing a paper). We do not actively think about how we are forming each letter or word, how much space we are leaving between words, or how we are holding the pencil. Instead, we leave that up to muscle memory. The Oxford Dictionary defines muscle memory as “the ability to reproduce a particular movement without conscious thought” (“Muscle Memory”). Similarly, in gaming, building muscle memory for moving your character, aiming, and other custom interactions is crucial to winning since the factors that determine wins or losses in games depend on strategy, not merely mechanics. Most players get used to movement controls relatively quickly, mostly since movement controls have been long standardized as the WASD keys on the keyboard. Once interactions, movements, and aiming solidify into your muscle memory, your job as a player is to focus on creating strategies and communicating your plan to your team.
Online multiplayer games depend on teamwork to complete objectives and require that players communicate the vital and relevant information clearly and effectively for their team to act on it. Everyone on your team will have information that you do not have access to, or as a figure in the gaming world, Justin “Jayne” Conroy, explained: your teammates are another set of eyes and ears for your team. In professional play, teams are structured around player strengths in regards to communication. One player may create strategies based on information that the rest of the squad provides them with, and another player will execute those strategies. For the average gamer, this is not a realistic expectation due to the chaotic nature of matchmaking systems that pair you up with random individuals in your region. Still, there is a lot to be learned from the professional gaming community in regards to building better communication skills. Being able to formulate words and communicate them coherently is a difficult skill to develop. However, when done accurately and precisely, it can give your team a severe advantage over the enemy team, sometimes defining wins which would otherwise be losses.
The most important skill to learn when playing video games for many hours at a time is being able to keep yourself mentally stable and recognize when you need to take a break. As you invest more time and effort into mastering the various mechanics and learning new strategies, you are more likely to be emotionally invested in your games and feel very frustrated or angry when you lose. “Tilting” is a term from the gaming community which refers to someone who is visibly upset and at the point where they are making rash decisions and not playing logically. At some point, every gamer has had bad games where they got stomped by the enemy team and were unable to do anything about it. However, seasoned gamers move on from these awful games and can continue doing their best for hours at a time, even after devastating losses. Having a healthy approach to gaming will allow for a more pleasurable experience; after all, that is the whole purpose of playing games — to have fun!
To begin and improve at playing Video Games players must learn to be spatially aware, build muscle memory and develop great communication skills, but the most important thing to learn is to have fun with video games. Playing video games requires lots of work, but there is no point to doing all that work if you aren’t having fun.
Works Cited:
Duggan, Maeve. “Americans’ Thoughts about Video Games.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 30 May 2020, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/12/15/attitudes-about-video-games/.
“Muscle Memory: Definition of Muscle Memory by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com Also Meaning of Muscle Memory.” Lexico Dictionaries | English, Lexico Dictionaries, www.lexico.com/definition/muscle_memory.
“Nerd.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/nerd.
Zimmermann, Kim Ann. “History of Computers: A Brief Timeline.” LiveScience, Purch, 7 Sept. 2017, www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html.
