In The Zone

[Blaze163]

I'm sure this has happened to all of you at some point in your gaming lives. You've been playing a game and you're doing ok, getting by but not exactly tearing it up. Then all of a sudden you have some sort of flash of inspired gaming brilliance and you go from getting by to being a temporary gaming God. In my childhood this lucky streak was referred to as being 'in the zone'. I'm curious as to how others experience this. Here's a few examples of mine to get things started, and I encourage everyone to post their own stories.

- Playing the original Tetris on gameboy, which I normally suck at. I suddenly found myself playing mcuh better than usual and got to beat my high scores. New top score is 96,240, and if you don't get over 60k my scoreboard won't even talk to you.
- Solitaire, on my laptop. Suddenly found myself playing really well and broke my high score. Now stands at just under 9000. Been trying to get it over 9000 if only for joke purposes for weeks, can't beat my score so far.
- Uncharted 2, playing online. Whether it was a lack of skill on the opponent's part or a sudden influx of skill on mine, I found myself completely untouchable. Of the 50 kills the team required, 29 of them were mine. Nobody could get close to me. Unfortunately this lucky streak didn't last long. In the next game some jackass threw a grenade at the door frame as we were spawning, killing us all.

That's just a few examples I have of being 'in the zone'. What are yours?

 

[its xNIGHTMAREx]

Well I can't think of any specific examples of getting in the zone but when it happens to me usually I start totally sucking, and I keep dying or losing. Then suddenly I totally start kicking ass. I become an unstoppable beast until I get nervous and lose or die from something that usually wouldn't get me.

 

[ENDscape]

Me and my friends call it addict mode.

 

[Rayder]

Seems like I used to get "in the zone" with games in my teens and 20's. But now at 41, I start out OK and degenerate into totally sucking rather quickly anymore.

Actually, now that I think about it, when I lost my right eye in 1991 (age 23), that is when I started sucking at games....especially intense action games. The only reasons I can think of for that to happen is because I only have one eye and can't track the action on screen as fast, or because only half my brain is "seeing" the action and my reactions suffer because of it. From what I've read, it seems I lost vision to the imagination side of my brain and now only see with my logical side. As anyone SHOULD know, fast actions require no thought, if you have to think, you're dead. I don't know, sounds logical to me anyway.

Maybe someone could get an eye patch and do some tests playing games with the patch over one eye for awhile, then switch to the other eye to see if my little theory holds water. Test would be invalid if the patch does not stay over the eye for at least 2 hours for each eye.

 

[Sterling]

Well many of the times I have been "In the Zone" I was playing in Super Smash Bros Melee. My friend and I always play that game for at least an hour every time I go to his house. Up until recently the only times I dropped him to less than 3/5 lives were very far and few in between. Then I stopped playing for a month, when I finally dropped by his house to play, I completely owned him on the first try. This time he only dropped me to the three life mark, and I didn't SD once. Now, when I get into the zone, he says, "Oh fuck not again!"

 

[themuddaload]

yeah... when i play tf2 i generally have 1 map where i rape, pillage, and rape the other team again, getting a k/d of like 5, then like 3 maps in a row where i get about a 1:1 k/d