Q: A gamesplayer's mentality and its effects on performance

[DJ Incompetent]

I would say Mr. Randorama is quite right.

Frankly, I wouldn't give a shit if 'the zone' or 'being on fire' existed in the books, competitive sport & hobbies, or was scientifically backed or not. We're not the IAU discussing planet dwarfism, nor are we gettin' paid to talk on here. When I hear of a concept, an ability, or a strategy that sounds like it brings benefit to myself or my game, I seek within my convenience & within my scope of laziness if it's true enough to passively follow-up on. And if it looks good enough on paper, then I ask myself,

"Ok, how can I exploit this."

With all those words I wrote a few posts up, I'd say I found out a general guideline on how to do it for myself. It's too bad there's nothing qualitative or quantitative about it. I hear and know of people following Buddhism and I haven't exactly seen scientific evidence of "a state of Nirvana."* At the end of the day it's the individual's call if he wants to spend time on it.

*a loose example to illustrate the general purpose of points before it. If you feel it's an apples-to-oranges thing, ignore it.

It tends to manifest itself during mentally or physically demanding activity, and typically takes the form of a dream-like state or a state of perfect concentration in which the individual's ability to perform that activity is dramatically enhanced.

So if you want to put yourself in the position to maybe trigger that, go ahead and think about narrowing down variables. Maybe it's best to ask yourself things like "ok, do I want to setup a shmup atmosphere in the same environment as my study habits?" or, "do I prefer a silent room or a crowded room," "general background noise or isolated headphones with nothin' but the game sounds" "do I eat before, after, or while I play." "do I make some wack-job voodoo doll of myself holding a controller, sit it next to me, and load it with good luck charms or do I down three shots of bicardi before I play." Who knows, maybe you can trick yourself into doing better by believing in superstitions and placebos. It's all about your state of mind, isn't it. So maybe knowing yourself or doing the exact opposite can put you in the position to play the best you've ever have.

But that's just some guy's advice on a forum. And I don't even care if it's labeled good or bad advice. It's your choice to take it or leave it. A beauty of teh internets.

[Neon]

The zone is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together....

...or that's how I believe Rando thinks about it and is the reason he calls it mumbo-jumbo.

Well, if you re-read the thesis you linked, you may find that its references are not exactly "hardcore science". If you want to believe to conjectures and wild ramblings as some kind of ultimate proof ( trick hidden in this comment!), it's up to you. I can safely say that science works in a slightly different way. Whatever high levels of adrenaline (induced by stress and tension) may do to a brain/mind when performing a difficult task, i'd wait a few gazillions years before claiming mystical powers and omg the zone.
Also, repeating the same argument 100 times won't make it true, so i can't see why i should take seriously 100 people talking about the omg zone without even showing some basic knowledge of basic neurocognition...i'm snob enough to think that arguments should be based on facts, which is like saying i loathe the intarweb


Beside that, my shmup skills come from my quite lenghty shlong, so there you go

Well I can scientifically prove precisely dick as I don't have the proper equipment to do an MRI, so I guess you're right in saying it's silly. It's just a feeling I get. No real point in discussing it as I'm not sure how it's triggered, anyway.