Put your controllers down and read this right now. Reddit user DavyBingo has uncovered the key to video game success: How To Master The Video Games, by Tom Hirshfeld.
This book, unearthed from the mythical copyright date of 1981 A.D., features the "Seven Steps to Mastery," which may as well be the "Seven Commandments of Video Games."
The "Steps to Mastery" are Reconnaissance, Teamwork, Concentration, Tempo, Observation, Experimentation and Memorization.
Some of the best tips in the "Steps":
- "Once you have selected a game to try, you need a friend. Even aside from two-player cooperative games such as WIZARD OF WOR, game mastery at its best is very much a team effort." Take notes, guys on my Titanfall capture the flag team that are always more concerned with killing people than completing the team objective!
- "Before you spend any money, you should watch other players, experienced and inexperienced. From observing other beginners, you will learn a game's pitfalls; from observing the experts, you will learn how to avoid them." Wow, that advice would have really come in handy before I bought Two Worlds for full retail way back when.
- "When you are learning a difficult video game, you should not be thinking about Bar-B-Q-flavored potato chips. You must learn to channel your attention into the new world you have entered, be it outer space, undersea, or elsewhere." DAMN YOU, BAR-B-Q-FLAVORED POTATO CHIPS! YOU'VE MESSED WITH ME FOR THE LAST TIME!
If this is a book you just can't live without, it appears to be out of print but available from a number of pre-owned sellers on Amazon. Mine's already in the mail, and I will soon be number one in the world... in everything. Thanks, DavyBingo.
