After playing particularly bad at a multiplayer game and the day before playing particularly good I wonder what factors are involved that determine how well you will play a game on any given day.

I find that I play best after doing a bunch of stuff that I should have done. Such as be upto date on my study, or putting in a good solid day of study at uni. It also seems that the times when I play when I should really be studying or something else I play very badly.

I further put this down as the times after a solid day of uni/study I feel good about my acomplishments, where as when I'm not doing what I should be I feel bad.

I wonder to myself, does the feeligs of happiness/depression have a large impact on my ability to play a game well?

Taking a FPS for instance, When playing well, you seem to have more time to react. The moving of the crosshair is smoother, with little to no over/under movement. You also seem to be in the right place at the right time. Audio ques such as footsteps are easier to pick up on and estimating player positions is much easier and more accurate. It is much easier to deal with distractions without interrupting performance.
When playing poorly, reaction times seem to be much slower, other players seem impossibly fast. Crosshair movement is erratic with alot of over/under movement. You seem to walk right into the middle of firefights, and just be in the wrong place at the right time. Audio ques are hardly registered and estimations of player positions and how they move are very inaccruate. Distractions are very difficult to ignore and have large impact on playing performance.

These I belive to be the extreame of a good-bad spectrum. I also belive that differnt people will be better/worse in differnt areas at these extreme points.

I know that certain hormones and chemicals in the body have an impact on your mood and some of these also have an impact on movement. Dopamine for example, has been linked to mood and has other uses such as fine motor control, the ability to accruatly move the mouse.

It also seems that game performance is cyclic in nature, that is you could imagine it similar to a sin curve on a graph. The high points being when you are playing well, the low points being whem you play bad.



I wonder if some of you gamers out there have noticed anything similar to the above for yourselves? If so, or even if not, what have you noticed?

I seem to play CS best when drunk (no s***) I just seem to pull off lotsa random BS, its great

that plus being sugared up, i.e. eating a pack of starburst babies and drinking coke then playing games = winnar (for me).

Though I am trying to eat better, so that's going to go out the door now...

I've heard of many people claiming that they play better whilst drunk, and many, many more say they play worse.
When playing CS do/did you always, or the great majority of the time, play it while drunk, with little sobre playing?
How about the morning after a big drinking session?

absof***inglutely
i found between 12am and dawn was my hardcore time
any other time was really eratic, frustrating, great, gay, s***, awesum, etc.

When playing well, you seem to have more time to react. The moving of the crosshair is smoother, with little to no over/under movement. You also seem to be in the right place at the right time. Audio ques such as footsteps are easier to pick up on and estimating player positions is much easier and more accurate. It is much easier to deal with distractions without interrupting performance.
When playing poorly, reaction times seem to be much slower, other players seem impossibly fast. Crosshair movement is erratic with alot of over/under movement. You seem to walk right into the middle of firefights, and just be in the wrong place at the right time. Audio ques are hardly registered and estimations of player positions and how they move are very inaccruate. Distractions are very difficult to ignore and have large impact on playing performance.

so so so true

I rarely play CS drunk, well I rarely play it. I used to play it a whole heap, again not often drunk - generally Friday/Saturday nights and I think it was because I was more care free, wasn't over analysing things, just running in and shooting etc might have been 'no fear'

Generally though I suck at most games I play, so on the odd occasion when it all 'clicks' I am a happy bloke :)

Funny as well, when I am on a team of 'good' players I seem to play better, or for example if we are totally caining the other side I seem to play better as well..

heardy is a noob at cs

I play cs really well after not playing it for a while, if I play for long periods of time I become sloppy and not sharp. I also play really well on wiz.

i play video games when i most relaxed and have nothing else to focus on. i think thats the general rule with them, if you have nothing but the game to focus on such as real life distractions then clearly you will be playing at your best.

thats because you have money advantage over them.

im more bs when drunk, sometimes better, sometimes worse. i seem to get less frustrated when drunk though.

"man i own at counter-strike, but i had a bad game"

no, you don't and you didn't, you just played good people on a public server for once

trin knows ohh to well :(

I used to play a lot of WC3/TFT.

Practice + Strategy + Alertness = Win

TFT became such a methodical game after a while, which is why custom games rule.

dotaaaaa

im awsome at cs no matter what day it is. however i have good and bad days while playing ra3. one day im owning the next im being owned and playing really f***ing s***.

last edited by ravn0s at 23:04:50 12/Mar/06

dotaaaaa

DOTA fken cains, I was addicted to it for like a week. My anti mage is the pwnage

heardy is a noob at cs

double negative?

im re installing Warcraft 3 for some dota action, can't wait! just gotta wiat for the downloads :(

i play bf2 the best after work on sat mornings, basically when i know i have nothing on. cod i play best when drunk. SNAP!

I guess it's a bit like going out on the piss/party.

If ur behind at work/uni, have other s*** u should be doing, yadda yadda, ull have a lousy night out.

If you've smashed a hard week at work/uni, got ontop of everything u had to do, generally feel good, then u'll have a wicked night!

I guess it's the guilt factor of playing games or going out when u shouldnt that f***s things.

I used to always find that after taking a few months off, not playing, I'd play even better when I came back to it. Maybe it was all in my head, I don't know, but it certainly seemed that way.