chuckro | Getting Better at Games

I’ve never actually thought of myself as particularly good at video games. I mean, I’m certainly respectable, but that’s mostly from playing games since the early 90s—you practice long enough and eventually you get some platformer reflexes and a sense of typical tricks. But I tend to be lazy: I’m playing games to have fun, not to show off or earn any particular status. I don’t play hardcore. I play on Easy mode and if I get frustrated, I go to Gamefaqs or I pop in the Action Replay.

And yet, I occasionally surprise myself. I was trying to determine if the dynamic difficulty in Drakengard 3 was taking it easy on me, because once I got through the second area—and I had the dodge controls down—the game seemed to suddenly get much easier. Then I had several instances in Gemcrafter when I thought I’d hit a wall that couldn’t be beaten without paying for power-ups (which I refuse to do), but then I saw a trick to the stage that let me handily beat it.

And I’ll go back and play one of my old Game Boy games (because DS platformers are unquestionably easier than the older ones, which could explain how I can beat them), but amaze myself with how far I can get if I turn off the cheat codes and accept a little frustration.

I guess practice made me better than I “think” I am. When did that happen?