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| retro-noob August 08 2010 02:09. Posts 110 | Profile # |
Have you ever been focused on something with such intensity and fun that you lose track of time, forget that you're hungry, and find yourself completely lost in what you're doing?
(EDIT: That describes one end of the spectrum of these kind of experiences. These same principles also apply to having more normal experiences of fun and enjoyment from something challenging.)
In extreme cases, everything becomes clear, and your actions seem effortless, automatic, and highly precise and efficient--things can even seem to slow down.
We call the more intense instances being "in the zone," "locked in," "unconscious," or "on fire." Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi named it flow. It is among the best experiences we can have as human beings.
More often, we just call it having fun.
That feeling is the reason we play Starcraft.
We are chasing those kinds of experiences, and this game is one of the best, most reliable ways to get to it if you approach it the right way.
I'm going to break down the ten factors that accompany these experiences of flow and show how they each relate to playing SC2.
The factors are:
- Clear goals
- Concentration
- A loss of feelings of self-consciousness
- Loss of a sense of time
- Direct and immediate feedback
- Balance between ability level and challenge
- A sense of control over the activity
- The activity is intrinsically rewarding
- Lack of awareness of your biological needs
- Your entire awareness becomes focused on the activity itself
1. ***CLEAR GOALS
WHAT NOT TO DO: Don't make winning your only goal. That's because you can't always control whether or not you win, you can't always get direct and immediate feedback on whether or not you are going to win, you'll probably NOT win at least 30% of the time, it isn't intrinsically rewarding (in the sense meant above), and the very idea of winning involves your ego massively--not good for losing those feelings of self-consciousness.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Focus on executing your build order. Focus on having a plan in advance for tactics and strategy. Have an idea for your early, mid, and late game. Pick some other things to accomplish each game (upgrades, expansions, scouting, harassment, micro, macro, building placement, etc.).
Make those kinds of things your primary focus before, during, and immediately after the game. Let winning and losing roll off your back completely, make them unimportant side-effects of all of these other goals--be zen-like about it.
Have these goals clearly laid out. Write them down. Don't change them too much until you've mastered what you were working on.
2. ***CONCENTRATION
WHAT NOT TO DO: Don't let yourself have too many distractions (obviously). Whether that applies to your music, your viewers, your friends, your chatting, or things in the game other than your goals (you get caught up in micro when you intended to work on macro). Don't focus on winning because that's always going to be a distraction from your real goals.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Get laser focused on your goals. Have the plan in your mind. Go over that plan constantly. Be looking for the cues and information that apply to what you're trying to do. Day[9]'s mantra of "workers, supply, money" is a good example of this.
3. ***LOSS OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
WHAT NOT TO DO: Don't rage. Don't focus on winning. Don't flame. Don't respond to flaming. Don't get caught up in your short-comings as a player.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Be polite. Try not to let flaming or opponent rage impact you too much. Pay attention ONLY to the things on your list of goals for the game--if you suck at micro and are painfully aware of it but that's not the thing you're trying to work on, then decide in advance not to sweat micro in the slightest.
4. *** DISTORTED SENSE OF TIME
WHAT NOT TO DO: Continue glancing at the clock while playing. Listen to short music tracks that break up your experience into 3-minute chunks. Get bogged down in build-order timings that you aren't super-familiar with.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Make your basic timings one of the first things you work on, so you don't have to focus on that any more. Learn it stone-cold. As more sophisticated timings become relevant to your game, roll back your expectations on other areas so you can focus on those, master them, and move on.
5. *** DIRECT AND IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK
WHAT NOT TO DO: Decide to practice sentry force-field micro by playing in ladder games. Never watch your replays.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Pick the right approach to working towards a given goal. If you want to practice with force-fields, open the unit tester. Find a map designed for force-field micro practice. Have your practice partner mass zerglings while you mass sentries and then see how long you can prevent him from getting into your base.
Or for a different example, if you really want to practice combating mech in your ZvT, don't hop on the ladder where you may go 8 games in a row without playing against a Terran only for him to do a bio-build. A practice partner or a special map would be the way to go there as well.
Also, it's hard to get direct feedback when you're not sure how you failed to reach your goal. Check out the replay when there's missing info that you need in order to improve.
6. ***BALANCE BETWEEN ABILITY LEVEL AND CHALLENGE LEVEL
WHAT NOT TO DO: Don't build 5 bases if you have no prayer of managing 5 bases. On the other side, don't just do your cheesy all-in rush that you could do in your sleep every game without any other objective in mind to challenge you.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Take baby steps. If you aren't good at macro, focus on successfully spending all your money off of two bases. Maybe build 5 bases, but instead of trying to manage them effectively, see how quickly you can get 200 workers on the field. Or try to spend 5 bases worth of income with no regard whatsoever for whether that money is spent well. Build 30 command centers if you need to. Again, whatever you're working on, take baby steps.
7. ***A SENSE OF CONTROL OVER THE ACTIVITY
WHAT NOT TO DO: Don't play like your hair is on fire, giving yourself more things to manage and focus on than you can possibly feel like you have a sense of control over.
Also, don't be frantically mapping control group hotkeys without some kind of plan. Don't rely on the tooltips to give you the keyboard shortcuts for building a certain unit or getting a certain upgrade.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Limit the amount of stuff you have to attend to until you are very comfortable, then move up slowly. Have a solid plan for how you want your mechanics to go. Focus on learning hot keys, get comfortable managing control groups, etc..
This might be one of the most important things to do for a new player. If you aren't comfortable with controlling the game, you will have trouble doing anything else on this list of things associated with flow. You'll be self-conscious, it'll feel too difficult, you'll be distracted often, etc..
8. ***THE ACTIVITY IS INTRINSICALLY REWARDING
WHAT NOT TO DO: Focus on winning. Focus on your ranking. Focus on your win record. Focus on showing up a bad mannered jerk.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Play because you enjoy the sense that you're getting better. Play because you like reaching those little goals mentioned above.
9. ***LACK OF AWARENESS OF BIOLOGICAL NEEDS
This isn't something to strive for, more of a side-effect of being in flow.
10. ***YOUR ENTIRE AWARENESS BECOMES FOCUSED ON THE ACTIVITY ITSELF
Again, this is more of a natural product of all of the other things being put into practice. If you have clear, specific goals, and you put yourself in a position where you're focused on that and getting immediate feedback, you have a great chance of getting this effect from time to time.
The key here is the purity and intensity of the other factors. If you are really locked-in because you have a handful of these factors down pat, you're likely to get to this place.
~~CONCLUSION~~
Even if it's subconscious or they don't think in these terms, flow is often the secret sauce behind the performance of the top gamers, top athletes, top musicians, and artists in the world. It's why they can work for hours and hours on end with minimal fatigue or boredom. It's why they can remain passionate about something even after decades spent on mastery.
In fact, when it comes to Starcraft 2, you'll find a lot of these principles at work in the wisdom of everybody's favorite nerd, Day[9], and his approach to the game. If you pay attention to his advice, it's often about breaking things down into clear goals, taking baby steps, concentrating on specific things, being willing to let go of winning in order to work on new aspects of your game, and so on.
Furthermore, if you watch Daily #100, you can hear him talk about these sorts of moments and experiences throughout his career as a player in many of the same terms I've used here (loss of self-consciousness, total absorption in the task, feelings of control, his skill and the challenge at hand being perfectly matched).
You don't have to do ALL of these things to experience flow, even a handful can get you there. This approach to the game can help new players and pros alike.
By moving more towards these approaches to Starcraft 2, you are likely to have more fun, rage less, and actually get better at the game faster.Last edit: 2010-08-13 02:48:29 |
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| Bensio United Kingdom. August 08 2010 02:10. Posts 620 | Profile Blog # |
Gr8 post, +3  |
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| Moa United States. August 08 2010 02:11. Posts 763 | Profile Blog # |
| Quality read, I like the clear goal part. So much of the game revolves around the completion of tasks that will cripple your opponent in some way. Winning is the sum of these tasks. |
| | ^O^ |  |
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| thezergk United States. August 08 2010 02:18. Posts 481 | Profile # |
| thnks for this post it will really help me enjoyo the game alot more. I'm always so worried about m Win/Lose Ratio that I'm afraid of losing especially when I'm on a winning streak. |
| | Nada vs. TLO Results: "Nada 1 TLO 1 Bnet 2 KESPA 1" |  |
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| Asagud Sweden. August 08 2010 02:19. Posts 73 | Profile # |
| I really like this post, great advise! |
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| RickOrShay New Zealand. August 08 2010 02:32. Posts 128 | Profile # | |
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| Antisocialmunky United States. August 08 2010 02:34. Posts 5070 | Profile Blog # | |
| [ﾟnﾟ] SSSSssssssSSsss ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Marine/Raven Guide:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=163605 |
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| mrfixij United States. August 08 2010 02:39. Posts 18 | Profile # |
| This definitely reminds me of listening to people who are successful at what they do. Where I come from, in the music world, you'll often hear celebrity guitarists talk about the hours and hours they'd lock themselves away just practicing, playing scales, memorizing chords, working at the very building blocks of the art they've come to master. If you don't enjoy that, then there's no way you're going to go very far beyond just a few minutes locked up with your instrument. Likewise, if you don't enjoy SC, you're not going to go beyond one or two games before you lose focus. |
| | Random: because lets face it: I suck as all three races |
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| TheAngelofDeath United States. August 08 2010 02:42. Posts 2026 | Profile Blog # | |
| | "Infestors are the suck" - LzGamer |  |
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| Loranga Sweden. August 08 2010 02:42. Posts 82 | Profile # |
| Or: 1. Stop taking video games seriously and play for fun (which it's supposed to be). |
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| Jyvblamo Canada. August 08 2010 02:43. Posts 13669 | Profile Blog # |
![[image loading]](http://austega.com/education/articles/Flow2.gif)
Unfortunately, I'm usually sitting in the anxiety corner =P |
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| retro-noob August 08 2010 02:48. Posts 110 | Profile # |
On August 08 2010 02:42 Loranga wrote:
Or: 1. Stop taking video games seriously and play for fun (which it's supposed to be).
If you're playing for fun, you're doing at least some of this stuff already. Some people find the game frustrating more often than they'd like.
This post is about HOW they can find that fun more often when they play. |
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| retro-noob August 08 2010 02:50. Posts 110 | Profile # |
On August 08 2010 02:43 Jyvblamo wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Unfortunately, I'm usually sitting in the anxiety corner =P
Good find on the chart. The thing to keep in mind is that the frame of reference on that graph is entirely relative.
Even someone with objectively low skill can find the right amount of challenge for them, begin experiencing growth, and creep into the flow territory.
Probably the game that makes this easiest for players is the Rock Band/Guitar Hero genre. You've got 5 difficulty settings, and then a dozen or so difficulty levels for the songs.
That gives you over 60 progressively more difficult phases to work through. Not to mention that you can always do better on % accuracy at any given level.
I think naturally, the multi-player aspect of SC2 is WAAAAY better in this regard than SC1 due to the match-making algorithm, but as I argue above, just getting closer to a 50/50 win ratio does not always a fun experience make.Last edit: 2010-08-08 02:57:57 |
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| sekalf Sweden. August 08 2010 03:00. Posts 367 | Profile # |
Great post!
I really recognise this same thing when painting, I get into "the zone" and lose all sense of time. I'm not really there in SC2 though, but with more practice I hope I will be soon. |
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 NonY August 08 2010 03:03. Posts 6923 | Profile Blog # |
| I think Liquid needs to hire this guy. E-sports psychologist! |
| | "Fucking up is part of it. If you can't fail, you have to always win. And I don't think you can always win." Elliott Smith ------ Yet no sudden rage darkened his face, and his eyes were calm as they studied her. Then he smiled. 'Witness.' |  |
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| stafu Australia. August 08 2010 03:09. Posts 1180 | Profile Blog # |
| Very good post! I've experienced being "in the zone" a few times in Quake and other FPS games, but unfortunately as an RTS newbie I haven't quite gotten there yet in BW/SC2. I think a large part of it is the level of comfort I feel in FPS, whereas in RTS I have all these thoughts in mind of how much I suck and how I'm not totally comfortable with the system, and of course focusing too much on winning and worrying too much about losing. I suppose your level of confidence in yourself regarding the task at hand factors in attaining that flow too. Last edit: 2010-08-08 03:10:53 |
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 MuTT United States. August 08 2010 03:11. Posts 398 | Profile # | |
| | MC's strength: confidence weakness: over confidence |
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| imPERSONater United States. August 08 2010 03:11. Posts 1323 | Profile Blog # |
| This is brilliant. Most of it is intuitive things we would notice on our own if we thought, but putting it in such a concise and informative format is invaluable. I imagine I'll be back to this page when the game just becomes too frustrating and everything here should help that state of rage. Well done sir! |
| | Fan of: IdrA, Sen, Stephano, Snute, Axlav, Hero | |
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| cr4ckshot United States. August 08 2010 03:14. Posts 291 | Profile Blog # |
| mmmm flow...takes me back to my psych courses in college. |
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 travis United States. August 08 2010 03:16. Posts 20425 | Profile Blog # |
| This was an absolutely terrific post :-) |
| | http://images.4chan.org/b/src/1339390772371.jpg |
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