2old2play is not a decaying European monarchy with age old roots in a savage system of repression of ideas. We're a ployglot, an amalgam, a glorious salad bowl of heterogeneity -- Like America.
Our communities span dozens of games and even two or three different consoles. In celebration of our diversity we offer the first in a series of columns that will highlight our communities and the games we play. In deference to our long history (at least by internet standards) the first offering is about Halo. Tr1styn has been kind enough to translate his not inconsiderable skill into pearls of wisdom. Read on MacDuff, and behold the way of the warrior. -- Ed.
Most people think that in order to be good, you have to spend inordinate amounts of time playing. But think about it this way: how quickly would you become the best in the world if you never made the same mistake twice? Chess master and Tai Chi champion Josh Waitzkin remarks, "I have long believed that if a student of virtually any discipline could avoid ever repeating the same mistake twice--both technical and psychological -- he or she would skyrocket to the top of their field."1
The key that separates good players from everyone else is the "program" their mind runs when they play the game. Think of your mind as having a piece of software it loads when you sit down to play. This includes everything from how confident you feel about your abilities to your in-game decision making, how you respond to certain situations. For example, what do you do when two people are attacking you at once? Or when someone throws a grenade at you?
The way to improve your gameplay is to alter or recode the "program" your brain runs when you play the game. It sounds obvious, but most people play on autopilot, running the same routes, doing the same things over and over without a whole lot of thought. They hope that if they put in enough hours, gradually over time they will improve in the execution of their playing (i.e. reflexes, aim, etc.). They get stuck in ruts.
So how do you break up these patterns and form new ones? Here are several ways:
1) Take a break. After a few days off (or even longer), you will have a fresh perspective when you come back to play. You won't be relying as much on your habits and instead will be more actively using your mind when deciding what to do, who to shoot, where to run and so on. You may see different options you hadn't thought of before, notice new patterns you hadn't seen. I've often found my biggest leaps in ability come after a week or two off (except for my aim, but that comes back quickly enough).
2) Watch really good players. A great way to modify your brain's "Halo program" is to watch the best-of-the-best running their "Halo programs." I guarantee 10 minutes spent watching a pro player would improve someone's skills more than 40 minutes of playing the game without much thought.
Major League Gaming has a great section on their site called Video onDemand, featuring tournament footage for Halo 3, Gears of War, and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (free registration required). My favorite players to watch in Halo 3 are OGRE 2, Neighbor, Legit, ElamiteWarrior, Hysteria, iGotUrPisto1a, and Naded. You can also download clips from players' bungie.net file shares.
Neighbor
OGRE
Legit
Snip3down
Mackeo, aka Zerg
My personal file share has two Neighbor games worth watching.
You can also find games to watch on YouTube. For example, pro player Tsquared has several videos of him playing, some of which have very helpful in-game commentary. He narrates his thought processes on a 2v2 game on Guardian, gets an Untouchable Perfection and provides helpful feedback on someone else's game in a video made for Dr. Pepper. You can also find good videos from general matchmaking games, such as this 60-kill spree in a Banshee on Valhalla. Full-length games are more helpful than highlight clips because you can see how the player put themselves in position to be so effective.
3) Play against people better than you. This is a great way to force your brain to find new, better solutions to old problems. What may have worked before on your brain's "autopilot" way of playing won't work against people better than you (if it did, those players by definition wouldn't be better than you). So your brain is forced to wake up and actively think about what you're doing, which breaks up your old habits and allows you to form new, better ones.
4) Have someone better than you critique your gameplay. Often times, the thing that is holding us back isn't what we think it is. You may think you're playing poorly because of your aim, but it could be something else like positioning. A good player can help us see our blind spots, those areas that need improvement that we aren't even aware of. Halo 3's Theater feature is excellent for this.
By using these ways to break up your current habits, you will be primed for large leaps in improvement in a relatively short amount of time as you find more effective approaches to the game.
1 Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning (Free Press, New York, 2007). p. 108
