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running up against "the Wall" in video games
Just to be safe: "The Wall" (no, not the Pink Floyd movie) is an athletic term that refers to a limit an athlete has extreme difficulty overcoming. It's kind of like the real-life version of a statistics cap.
Lately I've been playing a lot of shmups and fighters, and again and again I run up against forms of it. Like in one game, I can't get past stage four. I've played it so many times that I've basically memorized the level and patterns, but somehow I just can't get past it. Then, in a fighting game there is one boss character I can't beat. Even when I've fought him so many times that I've started to recognize his A.I. patterns and actually know some weaknesses and ways to counter his attacks. It's like something has just put up an arbitrary roadblock.
(Personally, I blame this on being raised on RPGs and adventure games--genres that train you to be mentally weak)
Anyone else have recurring problems like this?
Comments
Also, this is about being unable to continue even though you should be good enough, not "wah this is too hard!" Not that I'm surprised a comic book fan missed such a subtle nuance as that.
Nonononono, that's the problem! A man should have no failures and a human who aspires, should be able to trounce any challenge! From where does this abominable wall come? How many hours of training shall I have to put in before it crumbleth away into the dust?
No! I shall not be beaten! *goes to tackle that fighting game one more time*
Fighting games routinely handle that far better than any comic book ever did.
Not that I've played Disgaea, but based on the sort of game it is... I doubt it. This is about your own skill at a game not improving past a certain point, making further progress in the game impossible. Being an SPRG, this sort of situation really can't occur, since you can just grind moar to get past more difficult challenges, no? Of course, as I said, I may be mistaken, especially since I haven't played Disgaea and also am not Dantes.
(EDIT: Ninja'd about this)
Anyway, more on the point of the thread... Yeah, I definitely understand. This happened (and still does) with me all the time in the various rhythm games I play (and to a lesser extent, shmups, but I don't play those as often). I get to a point where I can almost beat one song or whatever, but I can't actually do it for sometimes weeks at a time (or longer). Granted, I can still make some progress as far as slight improvements in scores on other songs, but that doesn't really feel much like the sort of progress that I want.
On the other hand, when you finally do get good enough to do whatever it is, it does usually feel pretty good. (though, often you immediately run into yet another roadblock)
"Granted, I can still make some progress as far as slight improvements in scores on other songs, but that doesn't really feel much like the sort of progress that I want."
You know that patience is a significant part of the skill required, right? Whenever I'm doing worse, I just take a break.
In fact, whenever I can pull myself away from the internet I'm gonna do just that...
Disgusting
Happens to me too .
Like in one game, I can't get past stage four. I've played it so many times that I've basically memorized the level and patterns, but somehow I just can't get past it.
So why not just drop the hateful chore altogether?
That happen to me just yesterday. I have this PC game and there was a part I got stuck on, and the game would keep crashing after like 5 minutes, so I didn't feel like trying over and over. Much later, like a month, I figured out how to stop the crashing and I beat the part pretty easily.
R-Type - having trouble with level 5. It's not that I can't memorize the patterns, but just that for some reason by the time I've gotten this far my brain is getting weary.
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior - I've gotten as far as the guy with the claw (whose name is either Vega or Balrog depending on which region you're playing). I'm playing the Capcom Classics Collection version, which is arcade-accurate, and I'm using a stick. My main problem is that I'm having trouble mastering my own moves so I always wind up pulling a different one than I intended. As the stick is a Hori, I don't think I can blame it.
X-Multiply - I think I've gotten to stage four. I don't remember what the holdup was, except for the same sort of mental weariness which bereaves me in R-Type.
Look at the three games I listed. Would you stop playing them?
I'd say some do. JRPGs are of course the "go do whatever the plot demands" genre where you're very much a passive participant, and Adventure games are the "logic rarely works so just keep clicking around until something works, and when you finally give up just buy the strategy guide" genre. These, as I said, are what I was raised on and probably why I'm at such a disadvantage now.
When you've seen Mega Man infinity combo the Hulk into oblivion, that just about says it all.
I haven't had much experience with this "wall" you speak of, partly because I almost never play fighting games (nor do I have much of any interest in them), and I only rarely play shmups, which I'm no good at anyway.
> (Personally, I blame this on being raised on RPGs and adventure games--genres that train you to be mentally weak)
Uh, that's kinda like watching a random animé series and complaining that it doesn't teach you about the political dynamics of the French Revolution. The skills you're implying--pattern-learning and pattern-based reaction--aren't even the point of RPGs. I might disagree on adventure games, though, depending on what sort of adventure games you mean--if you mean platformers, then there're definitely quite a lot of platformers that demand pattern-learning and good reflexes.
Or you can just savestate your way through everything and be done with it if all you're concerned about a smooth play experience. Which would be me sometimes.
Learning patterns also sometimes benefits from taking a break--I know that from learning stuff on the piano. If I keep on hammering away continuously at a difficult passage, after a while I'll start to make more mistakes.
That sounds... ridiculously pointless. Might as well just not play the game and save yourself the trouble.
Also, playing a game is always different from just sitting through someone else's playing of it.