All downhill from there...

[Deathgeese88]

Whenever I start playing DDP, my first run of the day is always phenomenal (relatively). That's always the run where I break my previous day's record by accomplishing something I had been working hard on. However, after that first run, every subsequent run just doesn't compare. I usually have to play for a while before I get close to doing something awesome again. That's not to say my general skill at the game isn't improving--I can consistently get past the stage 2 boss without dying now and today I managed to defeat the stage 3 boss without dying (though I did use a bomb).

Anyway, has anyone else experienced this phenomena? If so, how awesome was it? Did you ever manage to repeat the same feat?

[kengou]

I do this all the time. Sometimes I'll step away from a shmup (and DDP often) for as much as a month, then come back and have one of my best runs of all time. And every play right after that I won't do nearly as well.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's been said that even the ace Japanese danmaku players who do a perfect 1CC no-miss session out of every 100 plays or so...there is the given chance that a potiental 1CC will end in failure. It is known as the "law of diminishing returns". I've run into that so-called situation back in my day.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[EinhanderZwei]

Hmm, a bit ago we had a series of 'artistic' threads, now it's time for 'psychological' threads

When I was playing Super Metroid, I've beaten it in 6 months. 5 months 29 days I was figuring out that you have to use the power bomb in that fucking underwater tube

As for shmups, there are some that make me just wave my hand ('OK, whatever, time to change the game or do something else') after first death. Such are Thunder Force IV, Zero Cho Aniki, and everthing by Irem except of R-Type 1

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Of course, once you "enter the zone" state of mind, then no matter what the CPU throws at you, you'll overcome it with ease. You'd have to know the game being played quite well "inside and outside" to achieve that state of mind though.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[elvis]

For me, Run#1 sucks. I write it off as a warm up. Run#2 is better, Run#3 I reach a state of zen and peak, and then I get cranky and it all goes downhill from there, which each run getting progressively worse until I throw a girly tantrum and walk away.

[cj iwakura]

I always do best on blind runs. Beginner's luck?

[neorichieb1971]

You think your going to do better by memorizing, but your skill lies more in twitch controlling. Once you do a good run, you try too hard to remember how you did it the last time and somehow end up cornering yourself. This means your not good at remembering, or your focusing too much thinking power on memorizing and not enough on eye hand coordination.

Games that jumble up the first 4 or so levels can help with this.

There is also that lapse you get after being a bit excited.. You feel proud of yourself and start again straight away not giving your senses a little time to relax. Your eye's will be first to strain and your fingers won't be too far behind.

[spl]

This happens to everyone who is human. I've not got that much experience in high skill shmup games, but I do have alot of time attack experience in games like Initial D Arcade Stage and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune which would be the same sort of thing.

I find with all these sort of things, you have to find a balance between improvement and frustration. Every time you play or go to the arcade, try to improve just a little bit and then be happy with that - Don't keep trying once you are frustrated as this will only give you a harder time. Remember you have to crawl before you can walk, NO ONE on this earth gets good at this sort of thing straight away - it takes ALOT of practice and perseverence.

I know when I have played Time Attack I might be stuck on the same time for weeks or months. It becomes very frustrating doing 100 or more attempts and not seeing the slightest improvement (most runs are force quitted as soon as an error is made) but then some days you go and then BANG you break it. It all becomes worthwhile even if it's only a very small gain.

Normally like you say - the good run will come normally pretty quickly (normally the 3rd one for me), and after that it can go downhill and I think this is mainly due to frustration setting in. I believe you can train yourself if you try hard enough. Sometimes I can break a record after 1 hour of playing but the feeling is definitely different to breaking it on the 3rd run - somehow I feel alot more tired? Must be mental exhaustion. I guess there must be a limit to how much your brain can take in at a time and we're probably hitting that.

Also I have found once I make an improvement no matter how small - I find it very difficult to try again straight after. It feels like I've put in all the effort already for 1 day and don't have reserves left. I guess energy comes into it too?

EDIT: Forgot to say but being in an arcade environment with alot of good players around to watch and compete with definitely helps. I know when I am frustrated and giving up - I can watch someone do a good run and immediately I will feel revitalised.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Even with the old-school shmup PCB titles like Sidearms, I could reach the final end-stage boss on my first life but it would require another credit to finish it off once & for all. I knew where all the small-fry enemies were going to be...it was them damn mechanized centipedes that changed the gameplay dynamics because they would follow your every move. If you screwed up during those dual centipede encounters, it wasn't anybody's fault but your own. Thankfully, the ol' trusty autofire power-up was my friend during those intense & heated bits of gameplay. This was back in late 1988 - early 1989 - definitely part of the 1980s arcade scene era. The days of before arcade emulation, Mame and arcade gamers used quarters to feed them hungry coin slots. You've probably heard of the term "Quarter Muncher" meaning arcade manufacturers would design arcade games to eat quarters by the handful. Other fellow shmuppers whom lived through the Golden Age of arcades era will know what I am talking about here.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[auryn]

Im pretty sure this phenomenon (which I recognize as well) has a lot to do with waning attention due to repetition/boredom... it takes a while to get back to the edge-of-seat moment you just reached (say in stage 4), you have to trudge through stages 1-3 again first. Because these stages are less intense your mind has room to wander, you'll get distracted, and performance suffers.

[cools]

Time attack stuff is very different for me. I will improve gradually, then start falling back, then improve - it's a two steps forward, one step back thing - then I'll pull an absolute blinding time out of the bag beating my previous best (and gaining first place on the board, after all why bother playing otherwise) by a substantial amount. And then never be able to get close to that again.

[emphatic]

In my experience, the last successful game from the day before stays in my mind, and I find myself thinking about possible strategies on how to improve it. It's only natural to try and implement those on the next following credit. Back in the day of hangin' 'round the arcade, I had limited funds (and there was an age restriction in some of the local arcades) so I spent many hours just watching others fail/succeed. You can compare it to watching super-plays, with the addition of actually watching other players fail. This can be as important on how to improve your own game as well. Most innovations comes from near-accidents. Anyway, when your energy for playing the game runs out for the day, many of us shmuppers resort to watching replays (thanks, MrMonkeyMan for helping me improve on my ESPGALUDA score by 25M) and try to implement the best tactics into our own runs. In some way or another.

Another reason for the "first credit of the day = success" is that you're actually longing to play. You (hopefully) do better in bed if your lover is hot, but once you've "scored well", the concentration wears off, and your mind might start to wander towards more exciting stuff. So those of us that do better on the first credit doesn't need the foreplay, the rest like to take their time.

[Van_Artic]

my best run on a game comes randomly, usually i feel fresh on the morning so i do better
there are times when something is between me and the screen (my big sis using the PC) and strangely my results are far superior compared when nothing is on the way

[Jeneki]

I notice this more on high-speed twitch-heavy games, where you just react instinctively. I wonder if my eyes are just drying out from not blinking enough.

[Phil ver0]

This happens to me off and on. I'm going through this with Raiden IV now. On default settings I can make it to stage 4 without getting hit. A few weeks later I change the settings and added a bunch of lives and bombs, which result in me sucking balls (maybe its a mental thing of knowing I have extra lives to spare). I'll probably put everything back on default once I start playing again.

[Deathgeese88]

I think part of the reason this happens (at least to me) is overconfidence. When you start fresh, you don't usually start overconfident, which allows for an excellent run. But, after that excellent run, overconfidence sets in. The same problem can be created when you feel too safe as mentioned in Phil ver0's post. Also, I think was neorichieb1971 mentioned in his post is very true. I know that I try to replicate my run instead of relying on pure skill which is most likely why I've noticed I've gotten better at the boss battle and worse at the rest of the level.

[CptRansom]

I usually have my best runs on my 2nd or 3rd credit... and my 30th or so. My first credit of the day, I'm usually a bit jittery (I've been using a stick for about two months and it's still not quite second nature yet). I mellow out for the 2nd and 3rd and tend to do a lot better. Then I get frustrated and continue to play. Then I start to get bored. Then I play some more and get angry. Then something snaps upstairs, I completely quit giving a shit, and I succeed.

I was trying to follow advice given to me previously to only play 3-ish credits a day of a particular game in order to improve, but I WANTED to play more than that just because I enjoy playing the games.

Last night is a prime example. I really wanted to play Raiden IV. I've never been able to get past stage 3 on Xbox 360 mode defaults and my highest score had peaked at a little over 11 million. I must've played about 35 credits last night... I spent half of them dying on stage 1, another quarter of them losing all my lives somewhere in stage 2 (usually the boss), and the final quarter dying in stage 3 before I'd even seen the midboss. Then on that last credit, I managed to not only to get to the midboss of st3 without a single death, I also got past the stage 3 boss who I had only seen once before back when I first got the game and thought continuing was cool. Final score was 13 million and some change, and I went to bed happy.

The point of all this rambling? If you really hate yourself, play a game until your brain shuts off and see if you do better.

[man9child]

If you really hate yourself, play a game until your brain shuts off and see if you do better.

There's some truth to that. I only 1cc'd Ikaruga when I played the game to the point of burnout where the only draw to 1cc'ing it was that I could allow myself to stop playing it.

In general, I usually need a single warmup run, and then my next two or three are decent and then it just gets bad from there. I think the more you play in a short amount of time, the more comfortable you feel with the game, and therefore the more risks you're liable to take or the more minor niggling details you're apt to overlook. Like dodging stuff.

[CptRansom]

There's some truth to that. I only 1cc'd Ikaruga when I played the game to the point of burnout where the only draw to 1cc'ing it was that I could allow myself to stop playing it.

In general, I usually need a single warmup run, and then my next two or three are decent and then it just gets bad from there. I think the more you play in a short amount of time, the more comfortable you feel with the game, and therefore the more risks you're liable to take or the more minor niggling details you're apt to overlook. Like dodging stuff.

Dodging things is overrated.

I guess what it comes down to is that we're all different. We all learn things and improve in different ways. What works for one or even a hundred other people won't necessarily work for you, so try a bunch of different things and then just stick with whatever works.

If I could pry myself away from Demon's Souls, I'd do exactly that!

[nimitz]

Intense shmupping (or other demanding games) will do a number of things that will decrease your blood sugar levels faster than simply sitting watching TV or playing a "ordinary" game. Not as fast as doing actual intense physical exercise (obviously) but noticeably faster than at rest.

This varies between individuals though, depending on your insulin sensitivity. But if you are (like me) usually getting progressively worse after around 25 minutes of playing chances are your blood sugar levels are dropping a bit and this is part of the reason you are doing worse. Drinking some fruit juice or eating sweet fruits or snacks helps a whole lot.

That being said, there are obviously many other factors to take into considerations, but taking a 15 min break with a nice snack should make pretty much anyone perform better afterward.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

When you play a game too much, it feels like work and you do worse. Have a break for a couple days/weeks and when you come back, you'll have fun again and all the practice you did will show.

[drunken starsailor]

Very interesting thread. I now see that I am not the only one who gets burnt out from shoot-em-ups.
As for my situation, there are times when I feel more like I deliberately flew my ship into a bullet, then died trying to avoid it. Playing the 1st stage of Daioujou over and over again in one sitting is a nightmare, and will sometimes prove more difficult then the fucking 2nd or 3rd stages. (You know you're spending too much time with the game when you can't get past 1-1.) When I'm in an excellent mood, and not concerning myself too much with losing lives, I own. Anything less will fill my mind full of angst and stupid memories of people I hate/hated, making it very difficult to enjoy myself. (I am getting better about bringing this around.)

[drunken starsailor]

I forgot to mention how games like Gunbird 2 are refreshing because they mix the order of the stages up. I'm not 100% sure that this is a good thing, though.

[cools]

This varies between individuals though, depending on your insulin sensitivity. But if you are (like me) usually getting progressively worse after around 25 minutes of playing chances are your blood sugar levels are dropping a bit and this is part of the reason you are doing worse. Drinking some fruit juice or eating sweet fruits or snacks helps a whole lot.

That being said, there are obviously many other factors to take into considerations, but taking a 15 min break with a nice snack should make pretty much anyone perform better afterward.

Had never thought of this. Will see if it makes any difference next time I have a gaming session.

[ShmupSamurai]

To err is human...

[GrimoreLibrarian]

I noticed the longer I play a shmup bit over and over again the progressively worse I do. I then take a break from a few hours then return to near 1cc it.

[null1024]

It's usually my 3rd or 5th run of DDP that I do best in, either I screw up earlier, or just start getting mad at myself on the run after I got pretty far on [read: got to, but just barely lost to the 3rd boss].

Also, taking a break for ages really helps.

[njiska]

I noticed the longer I play a shmup bit over and over again the progressively worse I do. I then take a break from a few hours then return to near 1cc it.

Exactly how it works for me. You need to just step away and let what you've learned sink in.

[BrightSuzaku]

Yes, this is exactly how it is for me. Once, I got so incredibly burnt out over Raiden IV that I just decided what I needed was a nice dosage of... Training Mode. And amazingly, at one stage, I died. By whacking an enemy with my ship. This is exactly how far gone my brain was that day. Although I admit it's fun in a strange gut-wrenching way to shoot foes that can't shoot back, it made me feel guilty, and so I switched up to another game quickly.

I switch around my games whenever I do get burnt out, and games like shmups or Mirror's Edge (Haha! Yes.) can get me there rather quickly. When burnt out I try not to switch to something like Gradius, however, because that's a surefire way to make the burnout worse. To be honest, danmaku has pulverized what nonexistent skill I had with methodical shmups...

Gaming burnout can happen to me with all games, it's just that my level of burnout fluctuates with the game. I've experienced RPG burnout, first-person burnout, shmup burnout, Castlevania burnout, and overall videogame burnout before. It's not fun.

Interestingly, I once did really well in Stage 2 of Raiden IV right up 'till I got to the stage boss after royally messing up Stage 1 (at the time, I had no ore lives). It was one of my first times playing Stage 2 as well, but my hands and brain suffered a "TWITCH ATTACK!" and I began dodging stuff like a madman.

I'm trying not to let my stress regarding dodging get the better of me, since I think I do a lot of unnecessary dodging. This is another reason for burnout, hahaha. (But I love dodging, so this is hard!)