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How to play with people who are better than you

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Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#113
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> half the posts are just frustration in dealing with the drudgery of playing so many matches to even climb This has nothing to do with skill floors or ceilings. Then play newer or different games. Overwatch has been out for a while by now. Chess has been out for a rather long time by now. > The issue is that when you play chess, all you can play against are wanna-be grandmasters who drive the skill floor up to the p…

I would think the ideal to aim for would be an "easy to learn, hard to master" type game. Chess fits this model well, especially with the ELO system matching you with players of similar skill levels so you can improve incrementally. CS:GO, which I used to play, had a similar thing (though it was plagued with other issues). TF2 doesn't seem to have this option and thus new players don't get much of a chance to learn b…

Of course. Matchmaking is another issue. Even the new call of duty has had issues with its Super Balanced Matchmaking (SBMM).

However I disagree that people don't get a chance to learn. Unlike chess, tf2 is a team game, so even if the teams aren't super balanced it's still possible to play. Unless one team is absolutely stomping the other, which happens more frequently ever since tf2 made some matchmaking changes in the Meet Your Match update- that's a different can of worms.

Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many boards games attempt to make things fun even if you’re losing. One of the best games for this is Concordia, where you don’t count up the points until the end. You always feel that you have a chance. Once you get fairly good however, you can scan the board state and do some rough guesstimating to see who is in the lead. Other games can be quite brutal. You make one wrong move and you know you’re in for 2.5 hrs of…

> You make one wrong move and you know you’re in for 2.5 hrs of pain ... I mean, why continue at that point? That just sounds silly.

Not a Settler of Catan fan, then?

Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I find that stupid. If you want a chance to win, do not play against Tiger woods but play against your peers at your club and have different tiers so that the better players seek to not play in the games where the not so good ones play.

Well, sometimes a local league just isn't that big. Like I remember when I was in a bowling league as a kid that was just whoever signed up to be in it at that one bowling alley. We had a guy in the league that eventually went Pro and I remember watching him score his first perfect 300 game in person way back then, but there was people like me that were just ok. I think the highest my average got up to was around 130…

Yeah, I play on a couple APA pool leagues and the handicap system for 8-ball and 9-ball makes it so pros and beginners can play against each other and mostly have a good time.

Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#116

Years ago i used to go bowling with a few friends, i would get like 80 or 90 points and they would get around 225ish. Several months later i was up to getting around 200 points per game. Granted it was all for fun, but just playing with them made me a better bowler (i have not been bowling in a decade now so i would probably be getting around 100 points again). So yeah i lost, but it made me better. As long as you ar…

How do you know your increase was specifically because of them and not practice only?

Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#118

It's about game balance and design. If I was to play tennis against a professional, it wouldn't really be tennis, it would be a game of 'can I get anywhere near to returning their first shot'. I'd have to play that 'mini-game' for a long time before I could play proper tennis with such a person ( where tactics of the rally come in ). Obviously in reality the professional player would ease up - cos actually just hitti…

You think you can tackle Messi without committing a foul? Keep in mind he's a stereotypical small striker, very high speed and acceleration, he dodges world-class athletes routinely...

Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#119
Starcraft is an incredibly challenging game. I've been playing SC:RM, that's a remastered version of Brood War, the original expansion for SC1. The MMR system is not great because there aren't many players with which to find an even match, so I often get SPANKED in 3-4 minutes, especially by Protoss, with me playing Terran.

Still, there is nothing so instructive as a spanking in a balanced game. If I played 100 games vs that guy... There are little roadblocks the whole way that I can learn and conquer, which would RARELY be exposed by another bad player on my own level.

Here's all the ways you need to play in a TvP gasless expand build: can you scout their base with an SCV? Can you identify it's ranged-dragoon 2gate (and not reaver drop or early 3rd or DT rush or air rush)? Can you get your bunker up in time to prevent the goon rush? Can you repair the bunker constantly with the right number of SCVs? Can you do all this while teching to siege mode and tanks? Can you keep those tanks alive if Toss dives with 4 goons to pick the tank? Can you then get your third base up, which is just as technical as holding the initial goon rush?

Playing vs way better players than you is the fastest way to improve, but it's also the most ego-crushing, so you simply need to leave ego at the door and acknowledge your skill-set is lower and your experience is lower. Great lesson for life!

Re: How to play with people who are better than you

#120

Years ago i used to go bowling with a few friends, i would get like 80 or 90 points and they would get around 225ish. Several months later i was up to getting around 200 points per game. Granted it was all for fun, but just playing with them made me a better bowler (i have not been bowling in a decade now so i would probably be getting around 100 points again). So yeah i lost, but it made me better. As long as you ar…

Not sure if that's the same thing, because each bowler plays in complete isolation from their competitors. It's much harder to improve in competitive games in which playing against stronger players makes it harder for you to practice your own skills.
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