"Life doesn't matter, unless you're already dead."
-Old M:TG saying
This quote means knowing when you can afford to take a hit and when you can't. That is the central idea here in learning Mage Wars, folks; for the math illiterate like myself, this idea often is often learned and mastered the old-fashioned way; making bad bets that seemed like good bets in-game, and dying. A lot.
Unless you have a background in competitive gaming, this idea might initially seem far-fetched (after all, doesn't every point of damage matter?), but that's only because it's really more of a feeling than a thought process for players that know it. Despite Padawan's and others strong and genuinely valuable efforts at elucidating what this experience means on paper in other topics, I think the learning process is more instinctual or emotive than that, and requires a lot of in-game experience to really know what it means and more importantly, how it feels and how to act upon those feelings.
This might sound discouraging and intangible to new players, but don't be stressed; it's just a natural part of learning the game. Games are inherently an exercise of the mind and body (really
) and each game you play might require different muscle and brain memories and functions. Mage Wars is no different. What's more important here is that you realize three things:
1. It is a skill to know how to apply ethereal concepts like "Damage Threshold," "Mobility," "The Art of Mage Wars," and so on; thus, it takes time and experience to learn.
2. Losing is a big part of that learning process, so try your best every game, but also look at the big picture. You can't expect to be proficient at knowing the innate dos and don'ts of a game unless you play it and experience it, so don't sweat it if you consistently lose before you start to consistently win.
3. On the same note, actually having fun and remaining positive overall while you play is vitally important to remaining open and ingraining skills and experiences that you can draw upon in later games.
You can only improve when you have a genuine interest and desire to improve. That doesn't mean you should stifle getting pissed at really unlucky die results (I regularly roll one complete wiff every game, never fails), but that does mean you should look beyond such exceptions and study the rules as you have fun kicking ass or inevitably, getting your ass kicked.
Hopefully this makes sense to someone out there. A lot of the ideas on this forum are actually rather ubiquitous and fundamental gaming concepts, but they're nevertheless very complicated and difficult to express if you aren't familiar with the lingo or context in which they're used. I can see where someone would get overwhelmed or disheartened reading some of the pinned topics (mine try to be more down-to-earth, emphasis on "try"
) and wondering what the hell they mean.
Just be reassured that the value of these posts is most often there; it just takes time and experience to fully understand them.
Thanks.
