I’ve always thought that some of the best games are the ones that reward you for concentrating. Games that *can* be played with an idle mind but only those who fully focus will reap all the rewards it has to offer. It’s such a shame to know a game has more tricks than the ones you’re using. An example that always springs to mind is something like Devil May Cry 3 but not having played that much I can’t really judge either way. I think the sign of a really good game is one where you can’t breeze through it without thinking.

The purpose of this essay (and it is an essay) is to outline a theory I have about video game concentration and my lack thereof. The title, Autopilot, by now should be quite self explanatory as it is the state I often find myself in when playing games and not really paying attention to what I’m doing. Games inherently have your attention when you’re playing them, but I think it’s perfectly possible to be playing a game and not really playing it at the same time. I have played WoW after all.

It manifests itself in different ways in different games. Mainly, it boils down to controlling a game how you naturally think it should be controlled rather than how it is supposed to be controlled. Now you may think that the game should work how you think it should and they all do, but only on a basic level. The true detail, intricacy and joy of a good game is unlocked by coming out of Autopilot and engaging with it in a more purposeful fashion.

In order to balance this all out we need a term to attribute to when I breach Autopilot to actively engage with the game. I’m gonna be really clever and call it Active Engagement.

I piss myself off on a regular basis where I will repeat mistakes I’ve made a million times before due to being on Autopilot. Here are a few games in which I have suffered from Autopilot and what I experienced when I came out of this torpid state:

Ninja Gaiden

What a game. HARD. AS. NAILS. Button bashing got you nowhere, whoring block and countering got you a little bit further than that. It was a game where you had to keep moving, get in your hits but not get too cocky.

I had enormous trouble with this game at first. I left myself open far too much, far too often and was frequently handed my own bum on a platter. When I finally got to the first boss (pictured right) I got even more severely served. This is Autopilot.

It took a while but when I started thinking about what I was doing, picking my shots, blocking dynamically rather than just holding it, the game clicked and completely changed, this is Active Engagement. This shift in play was a revelation and it immediately became clear why this game was so good. It really rewarded playing in a way which engages the brain and I like that.

That’s not to say a game has to do that, but at the same time I do like it when a game knows what it is and doesn’t make any concessions. There are plenty of games out there for everyone, so for a few to be designed to only appeal to a certain group is an honourable pursuit and perfectly acceptable.

God Hand

I bloody love this game, mad as a mad mad mad thing. Wrestling Gorillas, women turning you into a Chihuahua and the ability to clobber people into orbit. Made by Clover Studios, a development studio that was closed all too quickly (they also made Okami which is the prettiest game ever made).

You play Gene, a brawler type whose arm is cut off by marauding twats. For a reason I can’t remember he is granted the God Hand, a super powerful arm of a self explanatory purpose.

Again this was a game where button bashing really got you nowhere as the enemies would pick the holes in your attack and make a mess of you. Autopilot strikes again. Being messed up by the first few guys on the 1st level because I sat there hammering the attack buttons. Like Ninja Gaiden the first few times I got served, really quite thoroughly, and like Ninja Gaiden after a short time it clicked and a broad grin stretched across my mug.

It was all about kicking lumps out of bastards whilst dodging their attacks and being applauded for doing so. Oddly it was more satisfying to dodge an attack than deliver one, though by that I mean attacking felt amazing and dodging felt amazing+.

I was consumed in building combos (yes, you can build your own combos) which would exploit the enemies weaknesses, stringing together hits that complemented each other and countered the enemies attempts to attack me. Simply marvelous.

There’s no game I’ve played in which it felt so cosmically satisfying to get it right, cheers from the fake crowd ringing out as your enemy flies to the moon.

Marvel vs Capcom 2

Now we’re getting into proper Autopilot territory.

I usually quote this as my favourite game ever. Whether that’s actually true or not I’m not 100% sure. If I sat down and had a right proper think about it I’m perfectly willing to believe something could overtake it, but for now it’ll do.

When it appeared on XBL, I played the balls off this game. I’d already played it to Hades and back way back when but I knew before I started with the new version, playing online was gonna be a whole other proposition. This is the chasm between Autopilot and Active Engagement.

Anyone who has played this game will know it’s a blur and this is where Autopilot kicks in for me. I can hold my own against a fair few people but I find myself making the same mistakes over and over and over again. Doing moves I know won’t work, rehashing attack patterns and the all that kit and kaboodle. It seems the more frantic it gets the more I phase out.

I know this is the case because I will occasionally flash into moments of Active Engagement and be really proud of myself but then in the same breath do something really stupid that I’ve done countless times before. It’s infuriating.

Now this isn’t *that* much of a problem with Marvel vs Capcom 2. I find my level of Autopilot with this game can win me as many games as it loses (with a 10 match win/loss curve), which I attribute to the sheer length of time I’ve spent playing it. Unlike our next contender…

Street Fighter 4

We’ve all played it in some form. This game for me is a cathedral of Autopilotism. No game has given me the red mist more than Street Fighter and it’s latest incarnation is no fucking exception. The void between being able to play it and being good at playing it is enormous and Autopilot will forever bar me from being good at Street Fighter.

Street Fighter IV is all about timing and opportunism, knowing what to do when and being able to do it without fail.

Now I know what to do when some of the time and I can do it with about a 50%-70% success rate. I will often miss my chance to do a move and instead of waiting again for my chance, I will keep repeating the key combination till I’ve pulled it off. This is full blown Autopilot as I stop paying any attention to the fight and focus on trying to prove to myself that I can do a Metsu Hadouken. This is the tip of the iceberg with regards to Street Fighter IV and I know I’ll never really get it, but I’ll keep trying.

Alas, Street Fighter 4 is not the biggest culprit for my Autopilisitc tendancies, that title is held by…

FIFA 10

Lord high master of games in which I struggle to concentrate. In my last blog I went on about how much I like it but I also touched upon how vastly frustrating it can be. This is all self inflicted. It is the perfect environment for Autopilot to bed in.

You have the length of a match. I have it set to 7 minute halves which feels about right. Any match will require your full acute attention for 14 minutes. That’s a long bloody time. It is beyond me for my brain to maintain that level of proper concentration required for Active Engagement.

With Autopilot I find myself making the same mistakes with mind bending regularity. Trying to dribble the same way, pass the same way, defend the same way. This default set of operations I have been programmed with for these tasks are all wrong. They can work ok to a degree, but if someone susses that out then it all unravels and you get nowhere.

I do actively engage with FIFA quite often and do some really good stuff which only serves to make the Autopilot blunders even more fucking annoying. That said, it doesn’t dissuade me from playing it, far from it. FIFA is my white whale.

So what now?

So. Getting beyond Autopilot. Is it possible? I think so. As it stands I can get beyond it, but not for long enough.

Now it is worth reiterating that I don’t mean this for all games, far from it. But I like playing games which reward you in some meager, self indulgent fashion for investing more of your time, enthusiasm and passion into it. They are the best kind of games in my humble opinion.

How do I sustain Active Engagement? I’m not 100% sure, just be more aware I guess. I hate to say “live in the moment” but I can’t think of a less twatty way of phrasing it. Use natural breaks in the flow of the game, whatever it is, to take stock every few seconds to remind yourself to concentrate. Possibly easier said than done, I’ve tried it in the past and it’s certainly helped.

If anyone has any theories I’d be all ears for about 20 seconds then I might glaze over, it’s been known to happen.