GamerSushi Asks: The Plateau?

plateauAs you all know, I tend to move from multiplayer game to multiplayer game, stopping and camping out on one of them at a time for a few months. Right now, the game of multiplayer choice has been Halo Wars, and so far I’ve been really into the versus modes.

However, my 2 v 2 teammate and I have recently moved into a new skill tier of players, and we’re finding that our tactics aren’t working as well as we used to. Try as we might to adapt and test new strategies, we’re only winning about half of our matches, and just getting crushed by some players. I wonder if we’ve kind of topped off in terms of how good we are, which really isn’t all that great, all things considered.

So what was the last game that you guys have played where you felt this kind of noticeable plateau in your skill level? What did you do? Did you fight through it, or just accept it and move on? Go!

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

16 thoughts on “GamerSushi Asks: The Plateau?”

  1. I had this happen to me too with many of the valve games. When i felt that i reached that plateau i would switch to TF2 or Sourceforts. When i went back i found that i lost most of my skill and then would work back up usually higher than before.
    Such a vicious cycle.

  2. I just accepted that in CSS that I’d never be one of those guys with stupidly good accuracy. What did I do about it? I liked playing alot, so I’d buy guns that weren’t known for their uberness and be one of the grunts who never shines but never sucks either. If you can’t lead the team, just be a good team player.

  3. You can only get so good without being blessed with a godly amount of skill or an ungodly amount of free time. When you get that good, shelve the game for awhile and move on. When you come back you can get better all over again. And if it’s a game like TF2, try getting better at a different class. Like the impossible to master demoman… or in an RTS try a different race. Or if it’s a game like COD4, play some easy matches and level up some. The point of games is to have fun, not to stress about how good you are.

  4. For games like TF2 and CS, there’s always a fluctuation. I think everyone who plays those two games will understand. Course, the advantage with TF2, or any multi-class game, is that if you’re sucking with one class, you can switch to another and do better in comparison. With CS, all you usually have to do is screw around in fun maps until you get better.

  5. It depends… Those things happens when you don’t have enough experience on the game yet. So getting past a problem depends on how fast you can get better at the game. If it takes for ever to figure out the game, and fail the problem time after time, I accept it.
    Foy, I hate mine sweeper…

  6. Thing with games like that is that people figure out what works and just spam it until they win. It’s why Starcraft got boring for me. I chalk it up to that.

  7. I don’t think I have ever really hit a plateau in a game in terms of skill. If I keep playing a game, I keep getting better and better. My problem is, is that if I play a game that much, I get bored, stop playing it for a few months, then when I come back, I’m terrible. Thats what happened to me with CSS. In high school I was Godly, played in tournaments, etc. Now, I’m lucky to not sit at the bottom of the rankings. Similar thing happens when I play TF2, but just when I switch classes. I play the sniper alot and occasionally I’ll switch to scout or engie. But when I do, I go back to sniping and get my brains splattered all over the wall behind me. (I only play 24/7 2Fort) Kind of went of on a tangent there…oh well.

  8. [quote comment=”6080″]You can only get so good without being blessed with a godly amount of skill or an ungodly amount of free time.[/quote]

    I don’t stick with any game long enough to reach a plateau because my younger brother is blessed with both a godly amount of skill and an ungodly amount of free time. Therefore, he beats the shit out of me on every game I own.

  9. Well, I can’t say for any kind of MMORPG or RTS games, but certainly for FPS… I’ve always said “you’re only as good as the kids you play with”.

    If you start to feel like you’re better than most of the people you play with online, move to a new server that you always get Slaughtered in. This is very frustrating if you’re used to owning, but it will make you a better player, and you will only learn to understand these ‘better players’ moves and strategies and tendancies, in turn, making you a better player.

    I can’t say how many times I’ve “upgraded” myself, by accepting the ownage against me, only to eventualy match them in skill after a short time of frustration.

    I’m referring to CS in all of this, of course each game has its conditions/limitations, but, this is always how i’ve felt about CS and the people who have listened to me have agreed later that its true. Eventualy you reach the top15 in a server of 1000 regulars and its time to move on (or stop playing 8 hours a day, lol)

  10. Silent Hunter 4. I dropped it for awhile and finnaly just quit becuase it was so repetitive and evading DDs (Destroyers) was so bothersome. But I hope when I feel an addiction to sim games coming, that’s the first thing to hit my disk drive. Then FSX.

  11. Halo 3, I cant get to 40. Had to have a friend who was in MLG go and play two roudns to get me to forty. I made 39. Coundlt do 40. I had it though but thats a long story involving LEGIT LAG. ANyone who plays Halo 3 knows, that one guy with the red bar….he cost me 40 XD XD

    Thats about it really.

  12. Man, do I know the feeling. I used to be a GOD (Kinda) at CoD4. I never whored the noob weapons either. M4 Silenced, MP5 Silenced, R700, or occasionally the P90(Nooby, Nooby) if I was in more of a chill out mode, was all I ever needed after I got good.

    But, my unwillingness to accept noobs and their nooby ways (I’m looking at you, M16 users. Learn to use a gun that takes skill, K thx bai) and my unwillingness to adapt by using different perks (I only ever used Second Chance, Bandolier, and Stopping Power on ALL of my classes, which I now see is a BIG no-no.) ruined the game for me. I was just so pissed and disgusted at all of the noobs, I (thought) the only thing I could do to save myself some frustration was to sell the game. Biggest mistake I have EVER made.

    I bought WaW, thinking MAYBE it would be a bit more balanced, but I was so wrong. The only thing I like more about WaW is sniping, which I am now a beast at.

    So now, I’m actually tempted to go buy back CoD4. Except I’m actually going to pay MORE this time, because the last copy I got was Game of the Year edition, which was on sale when I got it at $40. So now I’m going to have to pay $20 more for a game I sold, just because I miss the multiplayer. Otherwise I have no reason to buy the game. I have the full 1000 GS. I loved that game.

    Indecision FTW.

    Now, I’m not sure whether to get it for 360, or for PC. >.<.

  13. [quote comment=”6112″]
    Now, I’m not sure whether to get it for 360, or for PC. >.<.[/quote]

    FPS’s belong on PC… If you really think joysticks > mouse/keyboard… I pray for this earth…

  14. Even though since i have a worst internet connection since im in australia i tend to do better than most in multiplayer games even though i rarely play multiplayer cause i am an antisocialist (and my little bro puts me off multiplayer and coop)[quote comment=”6112″]. So now I’m going to have to pay $20 more for a game I sold, just because I miss the multiplayer. Otherwise I have no reason to buy the game. I have the full 1000 GS. I loved that game.

    >.<.[/quote]

    How the hell can you get 1000gs in that game veteran mode is so hacked. Pomer lets be friends so you can tell me your secret. Oh that also includes the epilogue of COD4.

  15. [quote comment=”6115″][quote comment=”6112″]
    I pray for this earth…[/quote]

    Start praying, that’s my opinion!

  16. I must have missed where he said joystick > keyboard, because I don’t see it.

    Come on, people. There’s nothing wrong with playing FPS’s on consoles. Get over it.

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