Put if Off....Level Up?

Not many interesting things have been to me lately. This is not good for the blog!! Still, I have discovered a couple of things to discuss tonight.

- This weekend not only did I go out to an actual factual bar, but I ordered my first drink at a restaurant. Right nowI'm sure everyone older than me is thinking "Big deal, I do that all the time" and (most) everyone younger than me is thinking "Big deal, I do that all the time (with my fake...)", but that still doesn't negate the fact that it was nice to actually do such things and know that I can do it whenever I choose.

Protip: when you go to Outback, order a Newcastle. They give a pint bottle.


-I came in second place in a game of Monopoly that actually went by the official rules. As far as I remember, that's a record for such a situation.

And now for the topic I wished to discuss tonight; significant short term improvements in gaming ability.

We all know that we generally get better at most games as we get older (as long as you continue to practice; an adult that gets in two hours a week may not beat a 10 year old playing every day, but you get the idea). Often these improvements are gradual, over the course of several years.
It took me months to beat Ocarina of Time, but I beat Wind Waker in less than a week. The question I propose is this:

Is it possible to experience significant improvements in gaming ability in a relatively short amount of time (say, a few months)?

This question is the result of personal experience. There have been many games which I have struggled with, only to shelve it for several months, leaving it completely untouched and forgetting most things about it. When I finally decide to come back to it, 9 times out of 10 I play much better, despite being out of practice and having the game out of memory for quite some time. Usually this happens to me with RPGs and tactical games, but most recently it ocurred with Devil May Cry on the PS2.

And yes, I do mean the first one. Ashamedly, I never finished it when I last played it in the fall, and I refuse to begin DMC 3 until I beat the first one. Unfortunately, while my most recent save was close to the final boss, there was no way I would be able to beat him. So I decided I would replay DMC1 from the beginning, this time making sure to learn better moves and conserve items. Much to my surprise, it actually worked. I forgot almost all the strategies to the major bosses, but I can beat them without healing or using powerful support items. I've had to continue all of three times because I've figured out strategies that lay waste to the regular enemies. I've purchased all of the best techniques and can buy a couple more. Simply put, I'm kicking ass at the game, and I don't know why.

Why didn't I discover these secret areas back in the fall? Why wasn't I discovering these great strategies earlier? Why is it that all of a sudden I can dodge attacks that used to make me panic and choke? It certainly wasn't due to past experince, because I didn't remember much of the game after the first boss. And aside from a few hours of Ninja Gaiden, I haven't indulged in many twitch action games. The only answer I have to the original question is that these short term improvements aren't due to vast increases in reaction time or strategic abilities. Instead, I believe they are the result of a "lack of fear" of sorts. The first time you play a game, you often panic in certain hectic situations, because you just don't know what to do. The next time around, you may not remember specific things about a game, but all the knowledge is still somewhere there in your subconscious. Thus even if you don't remember the specifics of an area, you technically have seen it before, and I believe this causes the sense of fear to go away. You become much more willing to experiment and pay attention to what's going on, and all that time away from the game has allowed the action to sink in and stew for a while, so certain aspects may make more sense. All in all, I think you just have to let things cook for a while.


So there you have it. My ridiculous theory. Feel free to comment on whether you agree or not, or if you even believe that someone can get that much better after a few months. It'd be interesting to see what people think about this topic.