Games are undoubtedly the best means of relaxation in our uncertain environment. There is some comfort in devoting numerous hours to your favorite games or picking up a beloved classic. Playing innovative games like Among Us or Fall Guys at home might provide us with exciting new social experiences. In terms of indoor family activities, board games reclaim their throne.
I’ve always been a huge gamer, just like many others, and I could easily spend hundreds of hours playing one particular game. It is quite satisfying to gradually gain more information and expertise until you are an expert in every aspect of an activity.
I enjoyed the various methods and learned a lot of new board games during the time in quarantine (some of my favourites are featured in this post). You cannot acquire mechanical talents; instead, you must determine the winning strategy.
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I find it fascinating as a game designer that there are elements in games that you cannot control, such as unfair matchmaking, unfortunate events, and unpredictable opponents. However, some athletes are able to routinely win more games despite lacking any hereditary or physical advantages. In what way are they able to?
This article presents three basic and universal ideas that you may use to dramatically improve your odds of winning any game, including sports, board games, and digital ones.
Step 1: Expand your range of choices
Games are, at their core, about choices. All video games require you to make choices about where to go, what to do, and what to use. Decisions affect how the game is played and, ultimately, how it ends. Making the best decisions is therefore your aim as a player in order to swing the scales in your favour and ultimately win.
Games, on the other hand, prevent you from doing anything at all. You have a limited number of options and must make the most of them based on the game’s current condition and your past decisions. To ensure that you can always make better decisions, the first general method to learn is to always try to enhance your possibilities.
Increasing possibilities is a clear way to win in card games; in fact, the term “card advantage” refers to this phenomenon. Have you ever questioned why, in most games, there is a cap on the number of cards you can hold in addition to the number of cards you can play in a turn? Since having more options is a big plus.
In the early days of Hearthstone, I was a heavy player and would frequently encounter opponents who were drawing cards more quickly than I could play them. They would have an early edge, but they would also have empty hands and would have to rely on chance for their next turn draw. The paucity of options causes people to make worse decisions, which frequently results in failure, even when they appear to be closer to the winning goal (having your opponent’s health at zero).
Step 2: Increase the Amount
You have additional options at this point if you followed the first step. Fantastic. Opportunities alone, however, do not translate into success. The next stage is to maximise the usefulness of every “tool” or “asset” that you possess (equipment, cards in hand, advantages in position, etc.).
In theory, a game has “contexts” in which you can apply “tools.” A particular tool may usually be used in multiple circumstances (otherwise there wouldn’t be many options), but some are more deserving and will help you win. Your approach is to become well-versed in both the game’s tools and situations, then maximise how you pair them together.
Consider a game with a straightforward combat system in which you can eliminate a minion with a weaker defence by using a weapon card with strength 4. Its worth is maximised when used against an opponent with four defence points; however, dropping it against a minion with one defensive point is a waste of potential.
It’s more effective for players to hold off on using a black Wild or Draw Four card until they run out of colour in a UNO game. Nonetheless, they would use one, which is the better option, if they knew that one player might win with the present colour. The best way to maximise a tool’s value varies depending on the situation. Although it seems straightforward in theory, mastering this idea necessitates having a firm understanding of all the rules in order to identify less obvious scenarios to take advantage of.
I find the echelon in cycling to be an intriguing illustration, this time outside of the game realm. In case you’re unaware, it’s a sport in which the majority of the peloton benefits from aspiration, making individual effort incredibly disadvantageous. As a result, riders ride in multiple echelons to be protected from side wind and to frequently relay. Sophisticated cyclists can take advantage of this situation by accelerating to try to break the peloton, which will make it difficult for the group behind to catch up.
Step 3: Recognise when to take chances
You can make sure you have adequate options and utilise them to the fullest by following the first two stages. It’s still insufficient because most games have difficult, unpredictable features and aren’t that basic. You must know when to take risks and when not to in order to improve your chances of winning.
Then, you have two options: play conservatively if you are ahead, or take calculated risks if you are behind to turn the tide of the game in your favour.
I played a lot of team-based first-person shooter games, which are a good example of this concept in action. Based on who needs to take the initiative (place the bomb or defuse the bomb) and how many people are killed, you can determine which team is winning the round in Rainbow Six: Siege or Counter-Strike very quickly. when you know you’re the final member of the team still alive in a group.
Final words
The general principles for approaching any game are the three ideas I outlined in this piece. Try to expand your options, maximise their value, and know when to take a chance (usually in this order of precedence). Once you’ve mastered them, you should eventually be able to win every game, including the ones you play for the first time.
Do you have a 100% chance with this? Naturally, no. It would not be enjoyable to employ a strategy in a balanced game to regularly defeat opponents with similar skill levels. Gamers enjoy completing difficult puzzles because there’s always potential for surprise, even with well-known answers.