There's something wrong with my skills.

[Maltrich]

Okay, so I've been playing video games since I was four. Probably would have before that, but with no older siblings it took me that long to find out they existed.

Ever since I got my Sega Genesis, I've been what might be called an avid gamer. Gaming shares my free time with reading and foruming, but I believe that at times my playtimes have averaged well over eight hours a day. From kindergarten through tenth grade, I was freaking untouchable by anyone in my age group. Quite simply, I pwn'd.

Last year, in eleventh grade, I met several people who are better than me. To my surprise, most of them play less than I do. No big deal; ever since the rise of online play I had known that I would never be the best. But what bothered me was that I simply couldn't comprehend some of their skill. When they play SSBM it's a completely different game from when I play it. (I spent two weeks trying to learn to play like them from detailed guides and videos, and to this day I still can't wavedash.) When they play Soul Calibur 2, I get owned even though I can't tell what they're doing differently.

Then, this year, I found out that one of my friends who I used to trounce royally is much better than me at every game I've watched him play. He spends much less time playing than I do, and he was never so hot before, but now it's a feat if I can beat him once or twice in a night if we're playing anything he's played before.

I have a hard time 100%ing things.

To tell the truth, I'm becoming discouraged with the whole industry. I'm finding myself playing older games more than new (and disappointing) ones, and buying new ones very infrequently. I don't even have a memebership with any rental shops any more. My average play time is falling significantly and I'm at something of a loss, because I haven't really been able to get into any other hobbies (not for lack of looking), so I've been spending a lot of time refreshing forums and re-reading old novels.

Is this kind of burn-out common? Is there anything I can do about it, short of sucking it up and hoping some other hobby catches my interest before I become the world's most boring lazy person?

[Azisien]

Well, why do you find new games so unattractive? That's probably the key to addressing the issue, if you can't find another hobby (d20 is your friend!). I mean, yes plenty of games that release are really lame, but it's a multiple billion dollar international industry. There HAS to be a (new) game for you.

[xravi]

The problem may be because you stoped having fun. You stoped having fun when you started losing. Was winning the only thing that was fun to you? Are you a competitvie person? Am I asking too many questions?

[Maltrich]

I'm not sure. It just seems like every time I go out and get one, I'm disappointed. The only recent game I have that I like is FFIII DS, and it's a remake of a game that was released for the NES. I rushed out to buy Children of Mana and hated it. I picked up a copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World, and played for less than a week when I know I played the original for something like four months. I bought Phantasy Star Universe and my exact thoughts were "Why the hell do all the levels have the same monsters?" (To be fair, I haven't dropped the cash for a network adapter yet, so I haven't seen the online content.)

I think part of my distaste comes from not knowing how to get better, since I'm obviously practicing already. I could always play against people I know I can still beat, but there's not too much point in that. People who are better than me tend to stay that way. I spent almost every night last summer at my friend's house playing Halo 2 (which I hate, but I couldn't get him to play UT with me), and I didn't feel I was noticeably better when we stopped for the school year.

I feel like there's something that I'm just not getting that everyone else does. My fingers aren't fast enough, I'm not patient enough, new games seem unappealing... God, I sound like I'm old, and I'm only seventeen.

I guess what it boils down to is I'm begging for something to spark my interest. Currently I'm grinding Ragnarok Online just to get in some sweet, mind-numbing hours in front of a monitor, but I'm worried that in a few years, there won't be any games on the market that I'll be able to play.

I've always preferred GURPS to d20 games, personally. I like the added level of character customization. Problem is, I'm a terrible GM, but I can't get anyone else to GM a game, so I always end up doing it.

EDIT: No, winning was not the only thing that was fun. I play many more single-player games than multi-player games. For some reason, I have trouble finding most new single-player games fun. Also, I had fun playing UT2004 online for over a year, even though I could never keep up. Unfortunately, it eventually got too repetitive even with mods and such, and I mostly stopped. I haven't yet found a newer FPS I really like.

EDIT PS: I think, perhaps, I'm just in a funk and ranting. I'm going to go play Civilization III and come back to this thread tomorrow.

[Demetrius]

I would suggest taking a couple month break from games, put 'em up and don't even think about them. I do this all the time and when I come back to gaming I am once again refreshed and pwn. It makes no sense, but when I start dropping in skill again I walk away. Try other things it helps to clear the carbon outta your gaming engine.

[Arlia Janet]

It's simple economics, my friend. Eight hours a day of video games ( ), you've overindulged.

Think about a Chicago deep-dish pizza. If you are hungry, that first slice of pizza is going to give you much pleasure. That second piece will make you happier too, but not by as much as that first one did. The third slice may start to get you really full to the point that it is painful. The fourth slice may make you sick and worse off than when you were just hungry.

The point is that the more you do something, the less you enjoy consuming one more unit of it. Doing too much of something you earlier enjoyed may make you worse off than if you didn't do anything at all. Inversely, if you play less videogames, you will get much more enjoyment out of that one hour you play a day instead of those 8 hours that you felt were tedious.

[Mr. Smith]

I suggest you shoot the people that defeated you, lay there bodies on chairs and give them a controller and play multiplayer with the dead bodies. and of course you win!

but seriously ill stick to Arlia Janet's advice my friend

[Tokkie]

I've had that burnout before. Four day LAN parties are a bitch on the proverbial "gaming engine", as Demetrius put it. Many times, I'll not play CSS for weeks at a time, then completely own at it when I sit down to play at the LAN center.

Also, have you ever thought of trying a different genre? Seems to me that you're stuck on fantasy RPG's. Of course, I don't know ALL your games...

[Fifthfiend]

I'll second the advice to decompress. Hey go do something you know you'll be shitty at, like basketball or fuckin' golf. I mean hell everyone who plays golf is shitty at golf. Start going to a gym, take up swimming, whatever.

I mean hey and not just to decompress, if it feels like your fingers aren't as quick as they should be? A couple of dozen bicep and wrist curls a day will help shape that right up. Feeling like the reflexes could be quicker? Nothin'll do like some basketball for making those reflexes flex.

And since we know you're not actually gonna do any of that shit, here's a couple things to look at as far as sharpening up your gaming:

1. Don't try to play like your friends, try to play like what's going to beat your friends.

It sounds like you've gotten into the mode of thinking how'd he pull that off and how can I do it too? Try shifting your focus more to considering okay if he tries to do that, what can I come up with as a reply that's gonna make him look like an idiot for trying to do that?

2. If you're not winning, well... chill yourself out a bit, and try and not worry so hard whether or not you're winning. I mean if you aren't the best videogame player in the world, what, is someone gonna come to your house and cut off your dick? Is the government gonna knock down your door, tax you a hundred dollars every time you lose a deathmatch?

I mean this buddy of yours, if I'm taking your meaning, you pretty much spent ten years kicking the shit out of him, yes? Well apparently he managed to suck it up through ten years of ass-whoopings, 'till he finally hit a place where he was giving out better than he got. Maybe you just need to readjust your view to one suited to a world where you're not number one in the videogame pecking order. It could just be as simple as you're trying to brute-force a learning process that has to come naturally, so settle back, take your licks, and learn as learning comes.

3. If you really want a quick route to pwning N00bzorz, get into some fuckin' RTS/TBS action. Nothing sweeter in the world than sitting your friend up to his computer on some Warcraft 3 or some Starcraft or whatevs, him thinking he's a baddass cause he's gotten through a few of the single-player fuckin' missions, and just raining all manner of death and destruction on him before he can type out a WTF.

[synkr0nized]

ha ha ha ha
practicing video games