what is skill?

ASmith84

skill is defined as the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well. now how do we apply this to games? do we add levels and as you play more you get experience points to gain these levels? is this truly skill? i think not. when you gain a level you are better at everything. now how is this possible if you never use that one attack skill? how can you put a point in that skill to make it better if you barely even use it or havnt at all? you dont have the knowledge of it, you never practice it, so you really have not increased your skill. sure you can use your special moves or whatever all you want, the fact is you are still limited by your level. it is all calculated and rolling dice to see if you hit and how much damage you do. now how can you get better if the game pretty much decides who wins?

now lets look at a different type of game. one that has no levels or any stats. lets us look at first person shooters. since i have more knowledge of call of duty than halo ill use cod as an example. in call of duty its pretty simple how you play, you point your gun and shoot the other guy before he shoots you. a few things you have to keep in mind. aiming and shooting is more accurate than firing off of your hip but it slows you down. in this game you have the terrain that you can use to your advantage. this calls for stradegy and tactics that are use by the players to get into better positions to win. this also requires people to communicate to further increase their teamwork and chance to win. you can also go deeper into the game by memorizing the maps and develop plays on them but thats only if you really get into the game.

now this leads to my question, how can you say a game like warcraft requires skill and games like call of duty do not? what is the skill in warcraft be a higher level? whats the skill in call of duty shoot the other guy before he shoots you? that requires practice to develop faster reflexes and knowledge of the weapons in the game. leveling up requires playing longer pretty much. in warcraft you can tell who won by just looking at the other team. if they have all the cool gear on they spent months to acquire they will win you have no chance whatsoever. the only time you  hace to actually play the game is if two teams of people who put in the same amount of their life in the game go against each other. in games like call of duty someone who just started can actually kill someone who been playing for say a year or so.

i am hoping that darkfall will bring true skill to the new generation of mmo's.

 

wolfmann

"skill is defined as the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well. now how do we apply this to games?"

 

You said it right there, yet you managed to come to the conclusion that FPS hand to eye is skill, while knowing your MMO Skill/level characters abilities and using them to the better than your enemies is not skill.

So based on your post, a soldier shooting his rifle and moving about in a battlefield is skill, yet the generals using his forces, moving his forces, setting up tactics, planning ahead and executing his vast knowledge of military tactics and structure is not skill.

 

Played too much CS lately?

DragonMyth88

Hmm I see you have come across this aswell. As a console gamer my self halo 1,2 and 3. With gears 1 and 2 with a little of the old classic Knowledge myself but back to the point. Skill in an MMO is existant but a little different persay to the fast thinking required in a FPS. You need to preset your capailitys and moves to make your character move the extra split second faster in order to win positions,focus and even the swing of your sword need to be in account sure this goes deeper than the normal idiot playing an MMO but every game has different skill requirements. call of duty need suprise split second decisions with adaptation more than a mmo its becuase the genre is heading towards Hotels like wow the game may require less skill and more of the macroing, mouse clicking. I dont really know but I have a saying if it can stand still then it requires skill.

brostyn

You may not believe this, but not all lvl 80s in WoW have the same skill. Its assanine to say that no WoW players have any skill. If that was the case every PvP encounter that was equal would end up as a 50/50 chance, and PuGs would do just as well as the top guilds in raid encounters. This is not the case.

You feel that a skillful person in WOW couldn't become a skillful FPS player? You can't be that dense.

Skill is your ability to apply knowledge during real-time to achieve a goal.

 

 

edit: My typing skills are subpar.