When did you first "learn your place" in terms of how good you are at videogames?

[Asura]

Inspired by this thread...

https://bordersdown.net/threads/130167-Your-first-online-gaming-moment?p=2445580#post2445580

... I think, alongside our collective memories of our first time playing an online game, most of us have another memory:

When did you first find out how good (or not-so good) you really are at videogames?

I say this, because for the pre-internet generation I think we had a different experience to kids growing up today. For us, you only really got to see how good you were relative to people in your immediate circle/family, unless you were one of the tiny number who went to tournaments, or one of your mates was a champion from GamesWorld or something.

You might've been able to beat all your friends in the playground at Street Fighter 2, but then most of us were kids and if we won, it's largely because our friends were just crap at it.

But there are many of us who first went online on the Xbox with things like fighters and racing games who found out very quickly just how good people can actually be.

When was the first time someone gave you a bloody nose? Or do we have people here who have seen success in pro-gaming?

[charlesr]

I was best in the world at R:Racing Evolution, at least of those that uploaded their times.

Pretty sure no one ever beat my Ridge Racer arcade time on advanced course.

I thought I was good at shmups but then realised I was not....

[hudson]

I'll never forget playing against a Zangief player in the arcade on SFII. I had the characters down as easy meat, but I got absolutely destroyed through multiple attempts. I was the best out of my mates and I thought my guile was dead good. They witnessed the kicking I got from Zangief.

From that moment on I learned Zangief. I'm still crap.

[gunrock]

I'm crap at games. But I still love them.

Totally mediocre at every genre. Even as a young boy of 12 or so, 10p on Mr Do! and I was lucky to get past the 3rd level to see the interlude. Total pants.

Even used to mostly miss the ventilation shaft on the first run of the Star Wars sitdown cab.

I play for fun, not wins.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think my first realisation was at school when a kid had all the gold licences on Gran Turismo 2. I struggled to get bronze. I borrowed his memory card to use his save.

Another Gran Turismo one is the scoreboards on GT5. I thought I was pretty good at GT but I quickly realised if I got my times even close to the tens of thousands in the world I was really happy.
The Internet also highlights how much I suck. Street Fighter competitions and Dark Souls videos.

[Hirst]

I'm completely average at best, but there did exist a time where people would ask me to complete the car park training mission in Driver on the PS1 for them because I could do it easy. They would give me the memory card and I'd do it and bring it back.

[Soundwave]

I think I learnt this almost immediately as soon as I started gaming on the Spectrum I knew I was **** at everything

I honestly think I can count the number of games I have completed in my lifetime on my 2 hands

I am shocking at everything I touch

Neil

[Neon Ignition]

It really became noticeable in arcades, particularly with fighters. Someone else would pop on the machine (always irritating if you're already mid-play) and I'd regularly lose.

I learned fairly early on that I'm a deeply average gamer but likewise that in itself is a bar as I could never count the amount of other players I've come across who are much worse too.

It was the occasional game over my teens where I then learnt that I had the capacity to become higher levelled with enough practice. A few games where I spent so much time on them my skill level pushed higher and higher and significantly dropped off again once I stopped playing.

But that was soon followed by reaching the point of not caring anymore about it. You'd see someone absolutely boss it on Virtua Fighter on GamesMaster and it was impressive for those 2-3 minutes but you'd be left thinking 'why would I want to be that good at one game at the expense of experience other titles?'

It's more so the case now I'm older and have more time constraints with kids. I couldn't give a rats about hard modes, they don't make games more fun and I don't need to prove anything to myself in what I play. The biggest dissonance is with streamers. Hats off to ones like Ninja for making lucrative careers from it, I wouldn't turn down the millions.

But likewise, it's done by getting good and playing thousands upon thousands of hours of games like Fortnite, H1Z1 and PUBG. "This person is one of the best gamers in the world!" - They're not. Anymore than someone good at chess can lay claim to being global number one at all board games.

It's an ambition that serves gaming best when abandoned

[Atticus]

Me and a couple of guys from work got together for a LAN Halo session. This was before I'd played anything PvP before ... and I arrogantly felt I'd easily hold my own and show these guys what time it was. And I got shot to bits. Over and over. Proper leveller that was.

[fuse]

I did hold my own at pretty much every arcade I used to visit as a kid, but I also knew that this didn't mean much given even the best players are not permanently installed there to issue beatdowns on command. I fully saw it coming, and heck, absolutely wanted it to be the case, but going online for Quake was the eye-opener. Personally I'd say it was less of a humbling and more of a glimpse into the world of just how good the very best are, and I loved it.

[QualityChimp]

I've got a couple of hazy memories.

One was having some mates over as a teen and playing Mortal Kombat II on the Mega Drive.
Pretty sure it was II and we'd hired it for the weekend.
I was at the point where I was trying to do the fatalities from a magazine's tips section, but they were just trying to beat me.

Another time, we were playing Tekken 3 and one of the girls there tried out Eddie.
She managed to beat me by button-mashing, so I've always loathed Eddie for being the tool of the unskilled to defeat me!
Obviously, everybody loved me being knocked off my perch.

In Las Vegas, there was an arcade where you paid to get in and the games were on freeplay.
There was an amazing leather sofa with a controller on each arm, connected up to a massive telly running Tekken 4.
I asked the kid who was playing it if he minded me joining in, and he said "That's fine, but just to warn you, I've beaten everyone who's challenged me so far..."
So I brought my A-game, worried this kid was some kind of expert.
He was not.
He was taken to Tekken school that day with professor Chimp.
He was even begging "you're always kicking, you can't win without kicking." I punched and threw him into pain town.
Eventually he gave up and conceded defeat.
30 seconds later "I bet you can't beat me at foosball!"

HOWEVER, I've never really played against anyone pretty skilled until we organised an online NTSC-UK session on Dead or Alive and I was thoroughly trounced by [MENTION=3332]MrKirov[/MENTION]. Not demolished, but lost what felt like every match!

Then again, I thrashed [MENTION=11673]monel[/MENTION] (Shinobi7000) at Tekken 7 after he begged me to get it, so he begged me to get Soul Calibur and I thrashed him on that, then Mortal Kombat and finally Street Fighter V, which he did manage to beat me on once or twice.

During Lockdown 1.0, my mates IRL and I started playing online more and CoD WWII was one of the free PS games.
Hooboy, things got tense!
It was fairly evenly matched, but I was definitely one of the better of the four of us, however one friend had been rinsing the game, unbeknownst to the rest of us and turned up to one match with some triple-barrelled explosive crossbow!
A 5th friend joined us and he's so good at these kind of games, he used to get reported on Counterstrike as having a aim-assist hack (he didn't).

We then swapped to co-op games!

Realistically, apart from these few games where I've been slightly better than my mates (valley of the blind, scenario), I don't really play much competitive stuff online because people are always better if they have time to practice and in all my years of gaming, these are pretty much all I can think of.

I did have a stint on Lost Planet 1 where I was pretty good, until I came back a year later and I was just assassinated by level 99 players that I couldn't even see killing me!

So, I usually have a lot more fun on co-op games.
I just find it's a different attitude and people are more likely to work together and you walk away having had fun, rather than getting humiliated on Vs. games by people with more spare time than me to git gud.

[monel]

I've got a couple of hazy memories.

Then again, I thrashed @monel (Shinobi7000) at Tekken 7 after he begged me to get it, so he begged me to get Soul Calibur and I thrashed him on that, then Mortal Kombat and finally Street Fighter V, which he did manage to beat me on once or twice.
d.

This imposter of [MENTION=16924]QuantityChimp[/MENTION] has some b@lls as the mafia films say. He plays me once a year, although he's permanently logged on it seems. And he is a cheap player, Eddie Gordo fan. What does that suggest. I concede he is good with King in Tekken but during any risk he will start hitting that numbing sweep kick repeatedly.

I told him I have fun even if I lose but as soon as he comes close to losing even a round he stops talking and has a laser like focus. I had to wait like 4 hours for him to play once, while I assume he was applying heat pads to his hands and cleaning his eyes with Optrex or something.

QC is cool I do not come online usually. In the 360 days he messaged me, looked at my game list but I waited a year till my 360 died, no games with QuantityChimp.

He's a good dude he should admit I'm usually talking constantly while he is focused completely on not losing a game.

I was only ever decent at games when much younger, visiting arcades daily and playing consoles for hours every day. Local versus games were always realer. Even then a friend or two or strangers I met were like cyborgs, one crediting Shinobi in the arcade. They spent a lot to get that good, and much time. One of them, his family asked the arcade to ban him. Not a joke.

[QualityChimp]

This imposter of @QuantityChimp has some b@lls as the mafia films say. He plays me once a year, although he's permanently logged on it seems. And he is a cheap player, Eddie Gordo fan. What does that suggest. I concede he is good with King in Tekken but during any risk he will start hitting that numbing sweep kick repeatedly.

I told him I have fun even if I lose but as soon as he comes close to losing even a round he stops talking and has a laser like focus. I had to wait like 4 hours for him to play once, while I assume he was applying heat pads to his hands and cleaning his eyes with Optrex or something.

QC is cool I do not come online usually. In the 360 days he messaged me, looked at my game list but I waited a year till my 360 died, no games with QuantityChimp.

He's a good dude he should admit I'm usually talking constantly while he is focused completely on not losing a game.

Crying at this!

It's so funny because we'll be chatting about some pretty deep stuff, checking we're both OK mental health wise, then Monel will get on a roll and I'll have to concentrate and it'll be like "Oh I'm really sorry to hear that, but at least... they're... seeking... medical........ help...... AH YOU BEAT ME!"

My PS4 says what I was last playing, even if it's running Netflix for the kids, so it does look like I'm always one, but it's just that sweet gaming spot between about 9pm and yikes-I-really-should-go-to-bed-I-have-work-tomorrow.

We should play again soon, partly to catch up and partly because you make me feel like a pro gamer with how easily I beat you.

[speedlolita]

Stepping into some arcades in London, even now. I understand that it takes time and dedication in an environment of high level play to get truly great at certain games (Third Strike) but I enjoy trying my best at really great players offline all the same. Even if it means 40 losses in a row.

[monel]

Crying at this!

It's so funny because we'll be chatting about some pretty deep stuff, checking we're both OK mental health wise, then Monel will get on a roll and I'll have to concentrate and it'll be like "Oh I'm really sorry to hear that, but at least... they're... seeking... medical........ help...... AH YOU BEAT ME!"

My PS4 says what I was last playing, even if it's running Netflix for the kids, so it does look like I'm always one, but it's just that sweet gaming spot between about 9pm and yikes-I-really-should-go-to-bed-I-have-work-tomorrow.

We should play again soon, partly to catch up and partly because you make me feel like a pro gamer with how easily I beat you.

You're a top guy. But you always busy. Having kids can do that. You didn't notify me of the Kung Fu Stunts film showing, or a magical hidden arcade you kept to yourself. I'm gonna report you to [MENTION=7343]prinnysquad[/MENTION]

And play me at SFV even though I've become an amateur you go down in flames.

I woke up one day and realised I'm a casual gamer now. I didn't play a single game for 5 years.