Where do you look while playing?

[kengou]

This has been bugging me lately, generally when the bullets are few and farther between I look near the top so I can shoot the enemies, and when the bullets get manic I find myself staring at the small area around my ship/plane to dodge the bullets. But lately I've been trying to watch the enemies during manic patterns more, so I can tell where the bullets are gunna come from. I'm not sure exactly where I ought to be looking for maximum dodging + shooting effectiveness. Now of course it's mostly preference, but where do you personally look at on the screen, when, and why?

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I tend to to use the bullet trail as a marker and focus on the center of the screen.

[cigsthecat]

I position my laptop behind me on the bed and line up the reflection of a superplay with the playing monitor exactly. So I just look at the ship, and follow that dude. Noobs, looking at bullets and stuff!

[mirkvid]

use your peripherals. tackle the gazelle. i usually focus near the top, i only look at my ship when i'm navigating really tight spots.

[Ozymandiaz1260]

I have absolutely no idea. I think I just kind of look at the bullets, and can then tell where I'm at and where the enemies are at from there. I just tried playing DDP to see, and I was just kind of glaring at the middle of the screen, occasionally following some of the more complex bullet patterns. That's kind of how I play DDR too, I just stare at the judgment (where it says perfect, great, etc.) and react to whatever color I see blurring up whatever column.

[shinsage]

I don't have to look, I feel.

[ccovell]

It might have been outdated by the manics, but I have an issue of a Japanese game magazine from around 1990-91, where they attach an eye-tracking mechanism to an expert gameplayer and a crap gameplayer, and compare where they look on-screen in several games.

In Gradius III, for example, the expert player shifts his focus from in front of his ship, to enemy shots above and below it, etc. The crap player concentrates her focus on every new object that pops on-screen, and during boss battles, only on the centre of the boss.

It's interesting to say the least.

[durias]

Use the force.

[Pirate1019]

I usually look roughly one ship length ahead of my actual ship. During more spaced out patterns or when I need to grab a powerup my attention shifts, but that's pretty much where I am during most manic games.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I don't have to look, I feel.

Indeed. Hahahaa.
I love the much sought after "Zone".

[shiftace]

Whatever's most interesting, which is determined by stage plan, familiarity, difficulty, etc. Which turns out mostly to be places I want to go or things I want to shoot. That becomes easier with practice, and then my mind wanders and I start looking for different routes to screw up.

[PFG 9000]

I'm pretty much shifting around constantly, using the position of my ship as a "baseline" that I return to every second or so.

[PROMETHEUS]

You die if you watch your ship, most of the time °0° !
I think where you should watch depends a lot on the pattern you're trying to dodge.

[LUNardei]

Global view, focus on the ship, global view, focus, global, focus, global...
Repeat this ad infinitum. Or something similar.

[powerfuran]

I look at my cell phone. I KNOW it will SURELY ring while I'm playing, it happens ALWAYS, in critical moments such bosses or leechings, of course. I just wait for the moment!!!

Seriously, eh-ehm.
I generally give a look at the ships and a "circle" around it, large moreless twice the ship itself. Bullets scare me, so I don't look often at shooting enemies. That's why I need lots of trial-and-error attempts, and lots of pattern memorization as well. And of course, I look very often at gauge-meter-homing bar-chain counter if the game has it.

[Icarus]

I look at the screen.

[Pirate1019]

I look at the screen.

Genius!

[Frederik]

I look at the screen.

Genius!

Har har.

Ccovell made a pretty good point. This gets even more interesting if we take screen size and our position to it into consideration. The bigger the screen, the more your eyes have to dart around - I always found a smaller easier to handle, contrary to what is the arcade situation.

And I always tend to play best with the trademark "bland empty stare", stop the thinking and let my instincts do the dirty work. Takes a while to get into that, though. And this wouldn´t work with sitting near to a big arcade screen, either. I always have the biggest problems in Touhou games, where I do tiny dodges while missing the unfolding patterns as whole.

I am also having issues with where to look in puzzle games I am enjoying more and more recently, Puyo Pop for instance. It takes a big deal of time to get my brain wrapped around all that chaining and such.

[LUNardei]

I always found a smaller easier to handle, contrary to what is the arcade situation.

Easier to handle at the beginning, but after playing the game for a lot of time, you already know what's going on. Therefore you only need space to dodge... That's why I say 28" is perfect. The bigger size you can still handle in some ways.

[Kaiser]

I manage to see the pattern and i focus my eyes on hitbox.... and bullets near it best way in verticals thanks to it i finished mushi arrange

[shoe-sama]

I focus on my shot to line myself up and dodge things.

[kengou]

I also notice I look at different stuff when playing a shmup with more memorization, like Ikaruga, than something like DDP. In Ika, I usually look sort of midway between my ship and the enemies and focus on the patterns, since I've memorized most of them. In DDP, the enemies actually sort of aim at your ship most of the time, and you need to pay a lot more attention to where they are shooting and where the bullets originate.

[dmauro]

When things get manic, I have a really hard time balancing looking at my ship to see where exactly my hitbox is, and looking at the whole screen to watch the bullet patterns. It would be really awesome to see a superplay of a cave game with where the player is looking superimposed over the image. Of course where they are looking and where their focus lies do not not necessarily coincide.

[MX7]

Dunno, lol.

Generally not the ship though, unless it's touhou or summut.

[RNGmaster]

And even if it's toohoo. The Stage 2 boss in IN is rather difficult mainly because she restricts your field of vision. Not like her attacks are fast or random or anything, but it's just hard when you can't see around you.

[chempop]

I take it allllll in, but when the going gets rough I look right above my ship and move towards the empty gaps.

Damn, serious thread necromancy!

[PsychoGun]

I stare at my cock when I play, it's never let me down yet.