Tag: Starcraft

[bctt tweet=” If we focus,our failures turn into pressure, not pain. “]

Took a break from gaming for a few months, no particular reason, other than time got in the way.

Recently, I changed that.

I got inspired to try to reconnect to playing video games as a reward, instead of an escape. The results have been great so far – I spent the weekend playing Starcraft 2, and entered into a flow state, something I haven’t had outside of coffee shop in a long time.

One of the great things about Starcraft 2 is that it tracks EVERYTHING.

Resources, army growth, even actions per minute are given to you, objectively, after every game. The game collects your averages. It rates your AI opponent against your skill. Even your replays become available immediately after playing.

There is a lot of insight in the data, and it goes beyond the game.

Playing Starcraft enough (I played about 20 games this weekend) laid some of my weaknesses bare.

 

• I let things lapse – During games, I let my resource collection lapse when I thought I did enough. This made me a one punch player. Meaning – if I didn’t land my first assault, I ended up in serious trouble. Little things matter here.
• I leap before I look – I know planning isn’t the end all be all, but I didn’t use bright rules when engaging. This left me swinging wildly sometimes.
• Gathering to gather –  Instead of seeing resources as means to an end, sometimes I found myself just gathering. Those resources mean nothing if they aren’t being used.

The great thing about having everything recorded is that I got to see this real-time. Then I got to investigate my replays.

[bctt tweet=”One of the great things about Starcraft 2 is that it tracks EVERYTHING. “]

Then I get the opportunity to fix. The fixes in my strategy go further, just like the flaws.

Life is like that, failure is feedback. We don’t have our complete lives recorded (yet) but if we focus,our failures turn into pressure, not pain. Pain clouds our judgement, pressure less so.

 

 

The stakes are low during a Starcraft game (just ego). Makes it a great training ground, especially since no one is chattering above you saying be better.