Be The Best?

I'm usually interested in observations of human nature - observations of our minds ability to understand, our ability to process and store information and how the evolutionary theory allowed our brains to come to what it is today. Lately, the male's nature in gaming, competition and brain activity during these moments of activity has peaked my interest. I've always seen guys to be more competitive than the female. But why? What does it mean to males when they win or lose? I believe males all naturally possess the "instinct" to win, overcome an opponent of some kind, gain territory. I started a bit with this excerpt. I've read that one's testosterone level is correlated to mental depression, irritability and other things. This brings to my attention that maybe winning, overcoming opponents, and rising in some kind of social hierarchy makes a male's life more worthwhile and cheerful. Whether it's through hunting, gaming, swimming, golfing, scrabble, whatever. We should be good at something and pursue being the best or one of the best. We should find people that are close to our level and overcome them (in whatever it is we decide to do), or maybe just learn to be satisfied in all that we do, even in failure.

I see this in almost every male. They build up the "respectability" in whatever it is they are interested in (what is usually what they are better than most at). Even when it comes to academics, many of the intelligent glow in their intelligence or in some kind of mental ability (eg. highest ACT score in school). I highly doubt that if these "intelligent" people were surrounded by people surpassing even them they would glow as much. If they were thrown in a city of geniuses, there is less of feeling of being at the top of an hierarchy, thus no more glow. I've seen in others and myself the let down in growing up, realizing that there are people that are better, faster and more intelligent than you, no matter what you do. I've heard becoming wise is really us realizing how little we know; it's our ability to deal with these realizations. It can really hurt depending on how much importance one puts on being special in some area of interest.

We are all social animals, we all have some instinctive pressures to be the best or 'better'. Is it worth all the effort to be good at something knowing full well you will still be sucky (that's a current problem I'm having with starcraft)? Even if it isn't your overall life goal to be the best in gaming, I believe even the smallest of wins can be beneficial to one's wellbeing. It's all about receiving just the right amount for yourself. It's okay to believe there's respectability even in D ranked iCCup gameplay.

On the internet, watching videos on youtube and reading comment sections of gaming pages, there are all kinds of people trying to build up respectability of games they play and love, even if they aren't 100 percent serious in gaming, it still brings a certain feeling to themselves that they like, otherwise they wouldn't say anything.

I'm throwing out some ideas and will probably think of more things to say just as I publish this.

Season 10

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I want to talk about a special apm- the vapm (Valid Actions Per Minute). You can see this with BWChart and it's one of the most important things in one's game. It truly says something about your macro. It's one of the things that have gotten much better in my TvZ. As far as I can see, the main way you can raise it is to find a build that works well. Don't try to do anything too fancy while your working on this build. Keep a tab on how soon you get certain units out, you can check BWChart to see how soon you hotkey your first templar, vessel, mutalisk, etc. If you feel you are slacking on your timing, try to pay more attention to activity in your own base, one of the toughest things I've learned is how to work in some macro in the midst of a big battle. I'd have to force myself to pay attention if any further micro or screen time in one area made any significant difference. Question if you can attack/move through the mini map to bring a position into full view the moment you run into something. This is much easier to pull off when you know what your opponent has and their current location, it leaves you more time to focus on macro. Lots of these things become obvious when you record one of your games. I use Fraps.

When you're trying a set build and micro becomes crucial, you want to make sure your micro is top notch. I recommend getting a micro-oriented UMS map, specifically made for the races you're interested in, find a friend and do it over and over until desired satisfaction. Or just simply consider, before any moves, what the most effective way to handle the opponent can be. This is a game of execution with micro and macro. Always remember that what you do with each second matters in your overall game. Don't be nervous if you think you'll lose. Back in my wrestling days, when I knew I'd lose, I'd figure I'd give my opponent as much hell as I could. I proved to be satisfied in my losses when they lose their next match due to spending too much of their energy on me. In the face of defeat, raising hell can leave you satisfied, it's when you screw up normal things that should bother you the most. Just be careful.

I want to do another 100 games of TvZ. I've learned to look at Starcraft as 9 separate games: TvP, TvZ, PvZ, etc. As a casual gamer, I feel I should master one of these games before I move on to another. I want to work on taking down 2 Hatchery builds. The game is becoming more technical, I remember when I referred to every Zerg build as just Lurker/Muta build. Some folks seem not to think it's a big deal to become a decent D+ in just one match-up, I agree. Even so, I'm just a casual gamer. To become a C- in this one match-up but suck at the others... the hilarity of idea will makes my eyes glow. I'd rather be deadly in one match-up than mediocre in all MU's. Many top level players go hours on end playing a certain MU or map - it's a smart thing to do. I haven't even branched out to other maps! I plan to do some map switching in my next 100.

My blog is now 1 year old!