So the theme of today’s article is self-knowledge. Because, like they say in Chinese: Know yourself and know thy enemy, and you shall win all hundred battles. So, in the sense, I’m doing a bout of self-knowledge today and treating it as self-care that I’m luxuriating in. Ahh!
Alright, without further ado, let’s go!
So first of all, I’m gonna take a look at sports.
A sport that I do basically weekly would be badminton. In fact, it isn’t just badminton that I am interested in as I have also dabbled in tennis, pickleball, table tennis… anyways! I can say with firm conviction!! I have interest in racket sports.
So why do I have interest in racket sports?
So firsthand, my answer would be hold it nicely utilises my reaction time and such as I react to every single ball that comes my way.
And hmm… now that I think about it. This reaction time aka responding! to stimulation thing is quite true, actually!
For instance, two games that I enjoy playing on my VR headset, the Meta Quest, that I’ve probably written about before, are the games Beat Saber and Holopoint. Beat Saber is where I react and slice blocks which fly at me in sync with the beat of the music… my standard go-tos are the older standard Expert+ levels, and I hold no real ambition in improving my scores.
As for Holopoint, it’s where there are enemies coming at me from all! directions and I have to dodge, turn and shoot ’em down. The game has 30 levels, and I was actually one of the earlier ones to complete the whole game! Was in the upper parts of the ranking at the time…
But anyway. As I can glean from this, reaction time and responding to stimuli are definitely a favoured element of mine in games. So I think I’ll… call it Element 1.
Alright. Done!
So next, let’s take a look at other sports that I tend to engage in more…
So something that I quite like is swimming. At least, I like it a million times more than running!
Huh, something interesting is that I even attended an actual! swimming competition recently!
Yeah, but, ya know, not really to win but more for a me been there, done that, heh.
Anyway, back to the examination!
So, the last time I swam was just a few days ago, on Sunday. Now let’s break that down a little bit. Someone told me: You know, you could join some swimming course! Like, maybe, if they think you’re a good fit they’ll scout you into their regular squad!!!
And yeah, that sounds cool and all. But then I recalled why I swam on Sunday. In fact, it was more of purely to… relax.
And then comparing swimming and badminton, I feel that the immersion in the latter is much more real. There is a sort of like… understimulation in the former? Hmm… Oh, yeah, I think that if I examine it further, I get it now!
See, swimming provides me with none of Element 1 whatsoever. I merely do some motions, rinse, then repeat. So of course I know there are people out there for whom swimming is everything, but for me, it seems to be more relegated to the relaxing side of things! It’s has not that stimulus that serves as a factor for me to enjoy games in general.
Alright, next, let’s look at some other games or sports that also interest me to some degree…
Alright, one of them is rock climbing. Hmm. Why do I like rock climbing?
Well, I think I know! It’s that feeling of surmounting and triumphing over obstacles! Huh, another thing that doesn’t really exist in swimming unless you consider breaking old best times one!
Got it, so I’ll set Element 2 as a certain degree of challenge necessarily being present for me to surmount and overcome.
And what else. Oh! I thought of one! Archery is something that I do actually possess some sort of interest in, at least from playing that Holopoint game. And why do I like that?
Aha! I glean something!
For instance, when playing FPS games where you use guns! to shoot enemies, one of the things that I am better skilled at is doing these headshots. Like, if you shoot the head, you do more damage as instakills! are possible too!
Alright, so like, precision seems to be a factor, the thrill of hitting the mark precisely…
Oh, but ya know, I’m not really interested in things like bowling and darts and all that… come to think of it, in the FPS game one of the greatest factors granting me enjoyment is still none other than Element 1, the incoming stimulation outgoing reaction time thing!
And also, wouldn’t you say that Element 2 does truly exist therein as well, because there’s a certain level of challenge in all that gameplay? Somewhat like a duel and showdown of sorts! Now that’s kinda cool! Yeah!
So truly, I don’t think precision can be qualified to be marked down as Element 3. Alright. What about other games?
Hmm… when I was in high school last time, I actually joined Mindsports for a while and learnt Chinese chess. I never actually participated in any competition though, but I sure learned the basics!
And, come to think of it, I also learnt chess for a bit in my younger days and even attended a competition of sorts. Hmm… so, mindsports.
Nah! I think I can scrap that!
See, I myself have the sense that while I might have the ability to excel in mindsports if I were to truly commit myself to ’em, the thing is that simply put, I have not the interest to do so! Like, plain, simple, fact. Interest faded! No draw, no desire, whatsoever! Yep. Simple as that.
Okay, no element from here… oh, but wait! There’s something!
See, there’s something here about these games being something that require like super high IQ and stuff. And a sort of game where you similarly require lots of IQ, I suppose, would be those where you cultivate resources and build structures, and make commander decisions…
That’s another sort of game I totally have no interest in whatsoever! And I think I know why!
See, another sort of game I know that I have rather negligible interest in is fighting games. See, the thing about fighting games is that I absolutely refuse to memorise combos, like no thanks!
And with that, I know what Element 3 is! Yeah!
See, Element 3 is that I kinda hate! games which require me to like, memorise stuff and all that. I mean, it’s fine if I got to memorise some basic rules only, like card games in general. Still, while I know there are some people who like going into detail and min-maxing everything and making their own builds, that’s simply not for me! See I just like games that are more intuitive!
Element 3: The game must be intuitive!
Just think about the 2 VR games that I mentioned earlier. Aren’t they kinda brainless in terms of memorisation needed and hardcore intuitive? So there are a number of blocks coming at you, and you just gotta manage to slice all of ’em. Shoot!! the enemies coming at ya from all directions!
Yeah, simple as ABC!!! Nope, IQ games where I have to be like super precise and allocate everything to the correct slot are just not my thing!
Oh, speaking of which, is not that I totally don’t play games that require me to use my brain, no! I actually do play RTS or real time strategy games somewhat, even! However, aha! I think I know what I’ll elucidate! it by now!
See, in terms of scale, I more or less only plan on the micro or in-battle level and much, much less on the macro or overall team composition level. Like, one super braindead example to explain! what I mean.
Now, surely you’ve heard about Pokemon?
See, the thing about Pokemon is that while I may enjoy playing the actual battles themselves, I don’t ever do the super macro team of deciding I’ll have a team of this element or this Pokemon really synergises well with this Pokemon! I simply choose whichever Pokemon I happen to like!
See? Now I think that is a brilliant way of explaining my game style, ha!
Oh, I’ve got another one! I used to play FIFA a lot back in NS. However, something about how I differed from the norm was that a typical person will like, you know, actually choose formations that the football players will use! However, not me! I simply randomly choose a team that I feel I like and a formation that I feel I like, without really knowing about what it entails whatsoever! Substitutes, I don’t even care who they are!
And that’s why I don’t play Football Manager. Ha 🙂
But anyway, see?
That’s why my Element 3 is: More intuitive games, feel and whim! Hah!
And by the way, ya gotta know, there’s no need to feel ashamed or anything just because I don’t like playing these super brainy games. That’s just how my profile is, what do you care?! Like hah, hah, hah!
Alright, moving on…
Alright, so let’s talk about a game that I played for quite a while, LOL. Basically, it’s this game where you choose champions with their own abilities and duke it out 5v5 until one team wins. So just what can I glean from this?!
Ok, so I think the best way would be to look at the champions that I like to play from my general impressions alone.
So one type that I really like was the mage where you’d just string combos together and burst the enemy down from like 100-0 health.
What do I like about that? Erm… flamboyance? Sheer sleekness of everything just oh so nicely flowing into one another?
Hmm. Let me see.
Sometimes, I even played support. However, if there was one rule underlying everything, that’s generally that the support itself also possesses such burst damage and is not completely without any damage!!!
Oh wait! Now that I think about it, there is an exception!!!
See, an observation that just popped up in my mind. Be it LOL or the FPS aka shooting game that I was mentioning earlier, a type of character that I really like to play for some reason is the type of character with crowd control! Like, they can maybe stun! the enemy and such.
Like, crowd control and being able impede the enemy’s usual movements is a common characteristic of my fav LOL champs!
Alright, so, Element 4 is: Preference towards crowd control, that restriction of the enemy’s unimpeded flow.
Hmm, got it.
But anyway, let’s look into LOL for just a bit longer to wrap it up.
So in contrast to burst damage, there’s also this thing called sustained damage where generally, it’s just the champion attacking with normal, basic attacks over time! It’s not like the combos I mentioned earlier as that is more like skill reliant already.
Huh, now that I think about it, my favourite sustained damage character that relies on basic attacks for damage is also very skill reliant! And my other often-used sustained damage character was actually!!! also played by some in an alternative way where they dealt damage through skills rather than basic attacks!
Woah!
Alright, so there we have it! Element 5! Preference for burst damage and combos!
And as I see it, 5 is already a very good number to sum it all up!
Alright, so let’s do a quick conclusion. After this self-knowledge exercise that I randomly decided to do today as a form of self-care, we’ve come up with 5 elements of my gaming profile, which does!!! include sports.
Element 1: Stimuli, execution of response, reaction time
Element 2: Surmounting and triumphing over challenges
Element 3: Intuition, no memorisation by flow and whim
Element 4: Preference for impeding opponent’s free flow
Element 5: Preference for burst damage via the combos!
Alright, and now my little self-knowledge is over! It totally didn’t feel like work at all, because it’s kinda like a self-exploration that helps me understand myself better see.
But anyway, basically, you can kinda use this as a template to discover! what your gaming profile is, what sort of things you like to play forfun!
Huh! Oh, I just remembered. I kinda do like playing like mahjong and even card games like bridge as well, huh. Now, is there any sort of additional element that I should be adding hmm… let me think.
Alright, no! I’ve decided! I’ll be allocating all those strategy games under relaxation just like swimming!, akin to casually drinking a glass of water! As easy as that, see!
So food for thought, huh. Maybe in addition to stuff that you really enjoy in gaming, maybe also one for chillaxing is in order too?
Er… hmm. Whatever. I feel pretty relaxed and content and happy now that I’ve done this article. Yoohoo! Alright, for those who did read this article, thanks for reading now and do have a nice day ahead! And also, yeah, meta saying: self-knowledge itself is a fun game of sorts too yo! 🙂