As a kid I played a lot of chess with one of my childhood friends. I was always (almost?) winning.
Imagine my surprise when in high-school I played with a guy who learned to play chess as a kid.
He beat me just as fast as Bill Gates got beaten.
Then he beat me, but slower in subsequent 7 games that day and then some over the following months. But one day I finally beat him. I guess he got a little careless after all that wins and I learned good bit from him.
Interestingly I beat his ass in checkers every time. Also interestingly roughly about the same time I played chess with an actual math genius (distance between two lines of his reasoning required whole page of careful explanation for me) and he was making dumbest moves I've seen because he barely ever played chess before.
Games are not about thinking. By thinking long and hard you can get to 5-10% of skill of a master. The rest is learning from books and stronger opponents.
I had another friend. He had played significantly more unreal tournament than quake, I just the opposite. I was kicking his ass 50 to 1 in quake even on a slower computer with smaller monitor and crappier mouse, but he was kicking my ass 50 to 1 in Unreal Tournament and I wasn't bad at that game. I was as good as any of my friends except for this guy.
I guess my point is that skill is very specific to the game and must be earned.
Imagine my surprise when in high-school I played with a guy who learned to play chess as a kid. He beat me just as fast as Bill Gates got beaten. Then he beat me, but slower in subsequent 7 games that day and then some over the following months. But one day I finally beat him. I guess he got a little careless after all that wins and I learned good bit from him.
Interestingly I beat his ass in checkers every time. Also interestingly roughly about the same time I played chess with an actual math genius (distance between two lines of his reasoning required whole page of careful explanation for me) and he was making dumbest moves I've seen because he barely ever played chess before.
Games are not about thinking. By thinking long and hard you can get to 5-10% of skill of a master. The rest is learning from books and stronger opponents.
I had another friend. He had played significantly more unreal tournament than quake, I just the opposite. I was kicking his ass 50 to 1 in quake even on a slower computer with smaller monitor and crappier mouse, but he was kicking my ass 50 to 1 in Unreal Tournament and I wasn't bad at that game. I was as good as any of my friends except for this guy.
I guess my point is that skill is very specific to the game and must be earned.