Let's talk about another game I play quite a bit, Overwatch.
If you're not familiar, it's a competitive FPS game, so there's a lot of strategic and mechanical execution involved in whatever it is you're trying to do.
Naturally, one of the best ways to get better at that game is to record your plays and watch them back. I do that sometimes,
and I make so many more mistakes than I realize in the thick of it.
I use Nvidia Shadowplay for that and it's a cinch to set up and use (if you don't have an Nvidia graphics card, there are plenty of other easy pieces of recording software out there).
I decided to record some of my games to put up on youtube. The idea being that people seem to want to see more play-by-play in high-level Dominion.
Dominion is different from Overwatch, right? There's no mechanical performance or reaction time required of you (unless you're revealing Moat to Minion 8 times a turn) so we figure there's no need to remove yourself from a hectic context. We remember the game, right? We know what we did right, what we did wrong, why we lost, why that shuffle went badly, etc.
WRONGJust like my Overwatch vids, watching my Dominion games,
I make so many more mistakes than I realize. You kind of assume that someone who publishes footage of themselves playing something is pretty good at it, right? That's why they're publishing their footage, but I think it works the other way around. I think analyzing your play in third person forces you to be a little more self-evaluating, which eventually leads to a more analytical approach to the game.
So, here's my challenge to you: record a game. You don't have to talk during it if you don't want to. Just record yourself and watch it back. There's plenty of easy ways and a quick google search will give you several options for it on your machine.
Watching it back, you'll have more time and hindsight for things like shuffle tracking, tracking your opponent's deck, optimizing mid-turn play, endgame evaluation, you know those nebulous concepts that win games of Dominion and inspire 3000 word articles? Read the articles, sure. But I think watching your games back is the best way to apply them to a real game.
In fact, let's take this a step further. Send me your gameplay (preferably upload it to youtube and send me the link, but if you want to get it to me some other way that's fine).
If you don't want them to go public, let us know and we won't make a video about it. And if you don't want to share them at all, at least watch them back for your own benefit.
I just started uploading games (you can check out my videos in the link below but I'd like to do some play analysis videos.
Adam Horton will do these with me as well when he's not too tied up with the Making Luck podcast we do, so let's get better at Dominion. All of us, as a community.
Email:
jakeschwartz38@gmail.comFacebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jake.schwartz.3139Youtube:
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Topic: Dominion Coaching Series: A tip for getting better (Read 2526 times)