Comments on: Shine and Shine and Shine and

By: peterb

peterb — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 13:28:23 +0000

In fact, we’ve even reviewed the book:

http://www.tgr.com/weblog/archives/000293.html

By: Willberg

Willberg — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 07:55:17 +0000

I got the game a few weeks ago, and the same happens to me; except I sink into ‘The Zone’ much more often.

WipEout:Pure for the same platform is essentially the same game but with cars; just watch the shiney colours. You can only win the faster speeds by being in The Zone.

For some reason, Unreal Tournament (DM only) does this to me as well.

Also the same when playing a musical instrument.

If you’ve ever read ‘His Dark Materials’ Trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) by Phillip Pullman, you’ll notice that Lyra can only read the altheiometer by sinking into the same kind of trance. If you’ve not read these books, then do.

By: rlink

rlink — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 18:30:06 +0000

I had the reverse experience with Rez on the Dreamcast: I started out trying to think too much about the game. Several attempts at playing led only to frustration, until I realized that the game was designed for ravers who take a lot of drugs. When I shut my brain down and tried playing without thinking about the game mechanics, and just let myself groove to the music, my scores improved dramatically.

By: Andy P

Andy P — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 11:44:03 +0000

I remember playing Killer Instinct on the fourth difficulty setting, button mashing and winning. I dropped down to the third setting to learn the game, and worked out all the combos. Went back up to the fourth setting… and couldn’t win any more even though I was “better” at the game.

Not sure if that’s good design (immersion makes you better, too much knowledge ruins the flow) or bad design (button mashing is a viable tactic).

By: Adam Rixey

Adam Rixey — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 03:27:16 +0000

I’ve noticed the same thing when I play pinball. If I come to a new machine, one of my first three games will be incredible. I have no idea what’s going on, but I’ll have an excessively long game, extra balls, replay, everything. I’m IN THE ZONE.

And around that time I start to figure out the flow of the table, what the different modes and bonuses are, what shots are worth going for…and that knowledge screws everything up. It’ll be weeks or months before I ever approach my score where I was just flailing about and didn’t know what was happening beyond the basic pinball “shoot stuff, don’t drain” ruleset.

Alas, I still haven’t played Lumines, since there just aren’t enough good PSP games or hours in the day for me to justify a purchase.