Mental and Strategic Game
I've noticed that most of the guides here focus on how to use a specific gun effectively, or how to snipe on a specific map. Well, that's all fine and dandy, however this will only get you so far. The player who can effectivly anticipate and exploit your game will always come out on top, and this is where one must focus their energy. These are a few simple rules and tips that everyone should follow if they want to make any noticable improvement in the near future.
1) Anger and its Effect on your Game.
Anger is undoubtedly your biggest opponent in terms of improvement. It demonstrates a lack of confidence in your game. It results from a feeling of helplessness against your enemy and frustration resulting from the incorrect thought that you cannot overcome it. Anger leads to many negative outcomes:
A) Stubborness: When one is angry that their playing poorly, they become determined to make their single game plan work. The feeling on determination is great, however the placement of this determination is terrible. If one game plan is not working, for example rushing, camping, sniping, etc., CHANGE IT! It could not be any simpler. Every time I play Fish Hook there are always a couple of people who rush the beach, get grenaded, and whine about it. Does this make any sense? Here's the solution: don't rush at the start of the round. Wait for the grenades to pass, and then rush. Wasn't that simple?
B) Drop in Skill Level: You may not even notice, but anger disrupts your thought process and your judgement. Ultimately, it just makes you play worse; I cannot make it any clearer.
C) Lack of responsibility: Possibly the most devestating feeling to one's game. Don't be the guy who gets killed, and then badmouths their team about it. Every time you die it is
YOUR FAULT. Of course there are exceptions (mines that were not called out, FF), but you must take responsibility for your losses. You can only blame lag, the server, the guns, your team, your enemy, glitching, cheating, etc. for so long. Everntually, one has to realize that there is no such thing as an M16 scrub or an M14 noob, and that everey problem has a solution.
How to Fix it.
That job is your responsibility, sorry bud. Anger is a human emotion and every person must learn to cope with it. I've experienced it too; I'm human. I know what it's like, you can actually feel this emotion. However, you must learn to deal with it. The next time you experience anger, hold it in and see what happens. let the feeling pass and realize this: how much better can the people on the other team be? Every problem has a solution, and it is your responsibility to analyze the situation and exploit any avalable weaknesses. If your playing crossroads and the SEALs just camp at their spawn and snipe,
DON'T GO THERE. Of course, you must eventually get to their spawn to plant the bomb and win, however it isn't necessary to try and rush their spawn head on when you will most likely lose. Try throwing some smokes, or coming over the half wall where sniping you is extremely difficult. Again, every problem has a solution.
2) Making Your Life Easier.
Preparation
There is a simple rule of life that applies to every single activity:
DO AS MUCH PREPARATION AS POSSIBLE BEFORE THE MAIN EVENT. For example, if you have a test, you study for it. If you go on vacation, you anticipate what you will need for the duartion of your stay and pack accordingly. Easy enough? Well, why is it that most socom players completly ignore this simple lesson? There are a few things you can do to prepare before you even see your enemy.
A) Place your crosshairs on the most effective spot: Let me elaborate. Say for example you're using an M16 on Crossroads. The terrain is basically flat, meaning your enemies will always be on a somewhat consistent level. Exploit this: Place your crosshairs where your enemy's head will be. This will eliminate any inconsistency resulting from moving your crosshairs up and down, because you will only have to worry about moving them left and right.
B) Know your reaction time: Adding to the above example, If I'm expecting an enemy to pop from the corner of a wall at any given moment, I can place my crosshairs at an appropriate distance from the wall. As soon as I see my enemy, all I'll have to do is press R1 and I'll most likely get the kill. Otherwise, I've already weakened him enough to get the kill anyway.
C) Grenades: These little mofos are especially good for taking out enemies before you even see them. If you're expecting someone around a corner, why not throw a nade. Either you'll kill any corner camper there, or at least draw him out, in which event you'll get the kill.
D) Reload and Restock (from dead bodies).
Strategy
This category can obviously cover a lot of ground, so I'll shorten it to the things I find the most important and overlooked.
A)
PLAY THE PERCENTAGES: Let's use an example: in Blizzard, why take on the responsibility of rushing for the bomb, dodging grenades and gun fire, and then escaping? I'm sure there are enemies much more willing to get themselves killed. You can apply this lesson to every aspect of the game.
PLAY THE PERCENTAGES. This means do the things which have the highest level of sucess and the lowest chance of you dying. Another example: as a terrorist, why rush the top of the fishmarket where the SEALs are throwing grenades? Either wait for them to pass, or go around the left side where the SEALs are more afraid of rushing.
B) Pick up on patterns: This is pretty simple; if there is someone consistently camping in the same spot, expct them to be there and throw a grenade or two. If one team is constantly quick planting, play defense at your base and prevent them from planting. If you're up against that guy who camps with the hostages with an M3 12-Guage and a load of mines in Fish Hook, pull them onto the offense by shooting blindly up the stairs or letting them see you in the building. This is a skill that must be learned, however it is invaluble to have the ability to anticipate your opponents most likely next move and exploiting it. This is why snipers have so much sucess, because they are anticipating an event with the highest likelyhood to actually occur: at some point in time, you will walk across the point of the map where they're sniping. Perdicting the future is an extremely important skill.
3) Making Progress.
Learning to shoot a specific gun or memorizing a map inside and out will only get you so far. If you really wish to improve, you must concentrate on your weaknesses and improve them, and you mumst elaborate on your strengths and make them weapons.
This improvement, though, can be stalled by "Mental Barriers." An excelent article, written here:
http://painkiller.gameamp.com/articl...ticles/118.php explains this ideal, which I 100% believe in. If you're to lazy, just read this excerpt, which summarizes the basic idea of this belief:
A Mental Barrier is something that halts a player’s progression to the next level of skill. No matter how many hours they spend practicing, different sensitivities or hardware configurations they may try, they just can’t seem to get much better as a player. This is because the problem isn’t sitting in front of them, it’s in their head.
Mental Barriers can cause a player to get very frustrated and have also been known to halt their progression indefinitely. Everyone has had that friend who has played for years, but they just can’t seem to get any better. This friend probably has hit his Mental Barrier and though he wants to get better, he simply doesn’t know how...
Keep an open mind! That means switch your style of play. If you want to get better as a player, don’t just stick to one game mode, find a new one every few weeks/months and play real hard at it. Discover the intricacies of it. When you go back to your desired mode of play, you may have an understanding you weren’t equipped with before.
If you can’t figure out how to get past your Mental Barrier, you obviously don’t know the answer. So trying new things and listening to different perspectives is the only real way to find a solution to your dilemma. Perhaps at one point something someone says will give you that one tool you need to understand what things you need to change in your game play to progress as a player. Hell, even this article may have that effect.
Basically, if you do not see any improvement in your game, you have hit one of these mental barriers, and the only real cure is to analyze the situation, discover the problem, and figure out the solution for yourself.
Other than eveything listed above though, there is a simple lesson that you already know:
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
4) Wrap-Up.
The most talented players not only have good shots, but they sucessfully anticipate the moves of their enemies, play the percentages, and have full confidence in their game. The most important thing to remember is to play smart. If you have a winning game plan, keep it. If you don't, change it. Very simple but often ignored. If you wish to improve, you must not only practice but practice with intent, meaning that you are practicing with a specific goal or objective in mind.
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