Passive Increase in Skill

[MechDeus]

A long time ago, I had two PS2 games stolen from me, Burnout and Devil May Cry.

I just bought Burnout for GC, and a roomie bought DMC (he wants to see the ending), so I got a chance to play both again. In Burnout, I've so far won every single championship race set with 1st place in every race, without continuing once, and in DMC (roomie got stuck and handed the controller to me after getting really frustrated) I beat the Spider boss only getting hit once (which wasn't my fault to boot, Dante suddenly decided that the jump button indicated he only had to leap three inches into the air when trying to get the spider's back), while I couldn't remember what the controls did or how Dante was even supposed to react. Both of these done after having not even seen either game in months, let alone used the controls.

This brought to something else I've noticed here and there, an increase of my skill when I don't play games. Something about not playing a game and coming back to it days later increases my ability to beat it, sometimes even over finding my groove.

Now, the bulk of what we learn isn't processed until we sleep, I know that, and as we get older our pattern recognition increases (though this seems far too soon in between sessions to actually have that effect this), but this still seems odd to me. Does anyone have any theories, or just found this odd to them as well? It rather bugs me...

[burgundy]

I think this is similar to that phenomenon where one gets though a hard level quite far, then dies, but has progressively less success after repeated tries, even in easier parts. I think we get tired of repeating segments of games, and get sloppy and do poorly. I also think we become stuck in a rut and see the same patterns/attack in the same manner over and over again - we tend not to innovate, and our play suffers. Breaks from playing refresh us and allow us to see things in a different light.

[Despair]

What difficulty did you played DMC on, just curios? Phantom is not very hard on Easy or Normal. You just need to time your jumping right.

And why was your friend frustrated with it? Camera issues?

I wonder why it didnt bother me at all. Maybe added an extra challenge to the game, but it wasnt anything that would make me frustrated.

[MechDeus]

Burgundy: True, my main thing here was that this was over a long period of time (probably over half a year), and I was better then I was before from the instant I picked up the controls. Wierd.

Despair: Normal, my copy was stolen before I could ever beat it. As for getting frustrated, he was just doing poorly and had trouble dodging the fire blasts. The main problem in that fight is the columns getting in the way (when you fight him again on the clear rooftop, he's one of the easiest bosses in existance).

In any case, I suppose my PIS has plenty of time to grow, as my TV burned out last night, and that's my only one. On top of that, I won't be able to buy one for another four months, so I'll barely be playing consoles until September (my only way is to rig them up through my All-In-Wonder, except for the DC VGA adapter). This sucks.

[Seik]

Oh man, I feel your pain MechDeus. Hope your T.V. situation gets better.

[dog$]

This happens all the time for me with certain titles...

I forgot the exact terminology coined for it, but there is a word/phrase that's used to express how the brain works on problems that you couldn't figure out earlier in other recesses of the mind while you're doing other stuff. Same phenomenon happens when you're working at Math homework for 4 hours, can't figure something out, go to bed and then suddenly know the answer at 5am.

[cigsthecat]

Great thread. This happens to me frequently as well- in most shooters/skill based games I play when I pick them up after a long break I see either an increase in skill and ability or pick up where I left off. Gunbird 2 seems to be the game that is least affected by this phenomenon; I always have to walk back uphill a ways to get back into it.

[MechDeus]

Seik: You know what adds insult to injury? We got cable hooked up today. The irony is killing us... On a good note, I now have it hooked up to my puter, so not all is lost.

Dog$: Didn't know there was a term for non-concious thinking (though should have expected there to be).

Cigsthecat: ESP RaDe affects me the same way. If I'm away for a while, I can't really remember the bullet patterns or little tricks to staying alive. More wierdness to add to all this.

[StriderKyo]

This happens to me all the time in racing games - I can be doing a track on free run, going for like 45 minutes and never nail a tough corner, no matter how many times I try. Then I can come back to it later and get it on the second try. It's gotta be mental, I know it has nothing to do with any actual fatigue. I think just doing something repetitive can get you into a rut.

[rezo]

Gunbird 2 seems to be the game that is least affected by this phenomenon; I always have to walk back uphill a ways to get back into it.

I picked up gunbird 2 after a 3 month absense and topped
my previous high score by 100,000 within the hour. After seeing
this topic, I pulled out a few old games that had annoying problems
that would always keep me back a bit, but they didn't bother me nearly as much this time.

I have an explanation for why this is in regards to art. But not really gaming. I don't think about new things I'd like to do in a game or techniques to try when I'm not playing. Not over a long period of time anyways. And certainly not when I file a game away.

It's interesting anyways.