Yourself?

Getting older

I've been playing Unreal Tournament 2004 quite a bit during the study period, just to get the old adrenaline up, and get back in the zone for some more fact cramming. Used to be really good at it. Now I'm just all right. I am not yet at the level where I am in the game, but my mouse and movement control is getting better.

First person shooters helped me hone my mental perception of the world. In the game you see only one perspective, however enemies can come from any direction, and your only guide to where they are is a stereo sound image (which tells you left and right to how many degrees of rotation, by way of timing delays between the left and right audio channels), and a memory of where the potential doors in the map are. You control the aiming reticles, and based on your gun, you might shoot at where they are, or at a surface to where they might be.

I used to be consistently first and second on these sorts of games when playing against other human players, and computers used to be really bad. But now with the increase in computing power, I find myself falling back on the leaderboards. It's strange to see yourself struggling, or the pinpoint accuracy you once had with the mouse, deteriorate to a slow stumbly almost comically clumsy stroll along the level.

But what tells me most that I've aged, is that I no longer see myself hitting the target. When i was younger, being in the zone meant that I had all the time in the world to put my mouse precisely over the enemy and click; hitting his head (no bigger than a few pixels) and killing him instantly. And I would see that entire sequence of events that takes place in a few milliseconds. Now, I swipe my mouse across the enemy and tag him. But each time I do, I'm surprised, because I can't see it happen. I still hit my enemies, but I can't see myself doing it anymore.

I wonder if that's age? I hope I can still do things consciously when I get older, but we all know we lose things along the way.

posted by Downhere. @ 1:11 am