StarCraft 1
I won dozens of tournaments at BYOC / LAN parties.

Really good? No.
So I got referee at German WCG events, and once in Switzerland and Austria too. And one referee participation on a WCG grand final.

I don't think I've become really good at any game. When I was a kid, I'd just play everything on easy mode. I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to games as an adult, and I'd rather tackle my backlog than focus on a single game.

FPS have always been my thing, and played pretty competitive counter-strike in europe in the 1.3/1.6 era, 2000-2008 roughly. Was in semi-professional sponsored teams and participated in some "high" level LANs. On the side, loved me some mutiplayer Quake/original TF, Quake 2, Action Quake 2, Q2 Chaos, HLDM, Q3A, Urban Terror, Rocket Arena, UT, UT2K3/4...amazing times and memories 😁

On the other hand, I loved RTS and have always been utter shit at them unfortunately. Still played and enjoyed all of them, but mostly single player as I grew tired of having my ass handed to me 😁 being "good" at RTS just never clicked as naturally as FPS to me.

Boohyaka wrote on 2022-11-09, 19:34:

On the other hand, I loved RTS and have always been utter shit at them unfortunately. Still played and enjoyed all of them, but mostly single player as I grew tired of having my ass handed to me 😁 being "good" at RTS just never clicked as naturally as FPS to me.

Me neither. I was never good at micromanaging multiple units throughout the map. I would usually just focus on one fight and ignore everything else going on. I prefer turn based strategies because they give me the time to think.

Not "really good" as in: any kind of competition level, but I've spent a lot of time in these games and probably got close to what I personally can achieve:

• TIE Fighter - really stood the test of time, and I got toally into it again for multiple weeks just a few months ago
• Descent - played it a decent bit when it was pretty new, but also got into it again with DXX Rebirth, with HD resolution and modern controllers. It's awesome with pedals from steering wheel together with joystick and keyboard - never had better control over those six degrees of freedom
• C&C - I learned this game inside out, made missions with external editors and messed around with the game files for months on end. Was still surprisingly playable and fun when I picked up the remaster. Really holds up today.
• Hollow Knight - not retro, but no other game has captivated me this much in the last ten years or so. Put in way over 100 hours and got much better at it than I ever thought possible.
• Honorable mentions: Civilization 2, Master of Orion 2, Colonization, Transport Tycoon. Really loved these games and spent quite a lot of time with them.

I think the only game I really got good at is the first Doom game, except for Thy Flesh consumed. I can play the first 3 episodes fine on Ultra Violence, but Thy Flesh Consumed really is a pain.

I was actually big on StarSiege (the mecha one, not Tribes). I got to know the weapons so well that I often was able to leg opponents before they got a shot off.

I was also pretty good at MechWarrior 3 (are you seeing a pattern here?).
Granted, these were never massive competitions but I have fond memories...

an interesting selection of games to read about!

one aside is that games i became good at are ones i am still good now, and quickly get back into - that's part of why i go back to old games, to get into the rhythm again

Disruptor wrote on 2022-11-09, 18:08:

StarCraft 1
I won dozens of tournaments at BYOC / LAN parties.

Boohyaka wrote on 2022-11-09, 19:34:

FPS have always been my thing, and played pretty competitive counter-strike in europe in the 1.3/1.6 era, 2000-2008 roughly. Was in semi-professional sponsored teams and participated in some "high" level LANs.

i'd say this is in the really good category! 😀

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2022-11-09, 20:04:

Me neither. I was never good at micromanaging multiple units throughout the map. I would usually just focus on one fight and ignore everything else going on. I prefer turn based strategies because they give me the time to think.

yes me too, i stopped short of being really good by being unable to keep up with the sheer click rate of some gamers! on single player rts always felt mor well paced though

BraveToaster wrote on 2022-11-09, 21:14:

[*]Honorable mentions: Civilization 2, Master of Orion 2, Colonization, Transport Tycoon. Really loved these games and spent quite a lot of time with them.[/list]

some strategy games are very absorbing and once you 'get it', ie the method for doing well, they beomc very satisfying to play

I have a problem with getting "too good" at games.

Urban Assault:
don't ask, I can't even begin to explain. Go watch my twitch highlights, they contain successful runs of every mission.

Unreal:
I really appreciate using "bot logic" for monster AI, but it's still not quite hard enough, even on the eponymous "Unreal" difficulty.

The Ultimate DOOM / Doom II: Hell on Earth / Final Doom:
Too easy even on Fast Monsters with Nightmare's reaction speed bonus. The reaction speed can even be used to effectively immobilize certain monsters by just constantly moving into and out of view.

Quake:
Somehow more boring than Doom, Nightmare difficulty completely breaks the AI, Shamblers become borderline useless if you have somewhere to dart into view and out of view constantly.

I used to be a huge fan of fighting games and I'm quite competent playing them compared to the average Joe, but after playing them online for years, I got to a point where I'm stuck because:
-Playing against people outside the fighting game community became too easy, sometimes I have to hold back a lot to play against family and friends.
-Playing online against people inside the fighting game community became too stressful, because modern fighting games tend to match people with similar skill levels, meaning most matches are really tough and require constant focus.
The funny aspect of online play IMHO is to practice and keep improving, problem is that after you are familiar with the basics and used to controlling the characters (execution), then the next step involves diving really deep into the game mechanics. Things like using the training mode to recreate specific situations over and over to condition yourself to counter different situations, be on par with most optimal strategies and knowing what counters what and what what are the advantages/disadvantages one character may have over another (matchups). And all those things you spend so much time learning may become irrelevant after some update or simply if you decide to play a different fighting game.
In the end, I'm kinda stuck in being "just good" at such games, but never becoming "great" because I'm not willing to do the extra work required for that as it feels more like a chore to me. And trust me, people who practice and study the game DO destroy those who don't.

Any car racing simulator - particularly Test Drive II and later the earlier Need for Speed games.

Been a while since I've played those games, though. Will probably get my ass kicked if I tried to play them now 😊

I was pretty good at C&C Generals... Until I stopped playing with the OP Overlord tanks.

I got really good at THPS2.

I got really good at Mafia 1, mostly from memorising the game and getting really good at the driving and shooting mechanics which are not very good (or at least take a lot of getting used to).

These days I'm not very good at any games!

I've gotten to a point in SimCity 2000 where I can make a city sustain myself. Godlike compared to 11 year old me.

I also feel like I can fluently move around in Quake and Half-Life, and enjoy them for the movement, even if I'm still terrible at deathmatch.

What's the standard of being "really good"?

Probably nothing. I was firmly in the TOP 25% fastest in Forza Motorsport 2 leaderboards with clean laps... which is inflated by tens of thousands players who didn't play the game all that much so probably painfully average among those who actually did. And I had fairly fast non-speedrun playthroughs in a couple of games like Half-Life 2, The Sands of Time, Max Payne 2, but none of them are exceptionally fast.

In general I never played competitively and never attempted to be exceptional. Gaming was always something I did for fun, even when challenging myself so I never got better than an average enthusiast at anything.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-11-11, 06:50:

What's the standard of being "really good"?

it is a bit subjective, maybe being able to 'complete' a game like an FPS, RTS or action game wihtout needing (many) re-loads or retries - or creating self sufficient sim cities, that's a good example

so not really competitive, though that's a good indicator of "very very good"

DracoNihil wrote on 2022-11-10, 17:22:

Unreal:
I really appreciate using "bot logic" for monster AI, but it's still not quite hard enough, even on the eponymous "Unreal" difficulty.

I became pretty good at UT99 single player - which translated poorly into online play!

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2022-11-10, 20:43:

I got really good at Mafia 1, mostly from memorising the game and getting really good at the driving and shooting mechanics which are not very good (or at least take a lot of getting used to).

that's a goods point - becoming good sometimes means mastering poorer game mechanics. I liked mafia 1 but was always awful, never felt fully in control while playing

Once upon a time I was quite good at UT99, I'm not anymore.

don't think I was ever really good and I'm only getting worse.

I played the death out of C&C and RA, finished the campaigns multiple times, beat my friends in LAN games most the time. but outside our small circle of 2 mates and my brother I sucked.
We had "build time" and tended to make bases rather then tank rush. -ahh the days before internet gaming when you had small pockets of people playing, ignorant of how others played .
These days I struggle with the campaign, just don't have the patience.

Need for Speed 3, 4 Porsche I still seem to be able to get back into fairly quick. Again not to the same levels as late 90's early 2000's when I was at my peak but start doing well in the campaign modes only after a race or 2

Funny enough GTA3 and VC I'm probably pretty good. I know that turismo mission, not saying I'll get it 1st try but usually any mission I'll get in under 5 attempts.

This game:

Hostiles spotted.

Hostiles neutralized.

The game is quite frustrating sometimes: you cannot save, a single shot or two can kill you, and the weapons are so imbalanced that anything other than M4 carbine is practically useless. But somehow the game is very addicting that I keep playing it over and over again. Now I've become pretty good at moving cautiously, spotting enemies from afar, as well as anticipating hidden enemies that would otherwise kill me.

gerry wrote on 2022-11-11, 10:24:

I became pretty good at UT99 single player - which translated poorly into online play!

Unreal Engine 1 has very shoddy networking code that somehow got worse in UT99. I have much better luck in deathmatch in Unreal 1 over UT99.