I thought I was good on Donkey Kong but then.....

[danman123456]

That's the Vincent logic!

A "great" score is lower a "very good" score so mine must be in the "Very Great" range.

It depends what is your definition of "good".

Personally, a "good" score would be in the 500k range.
a "great" score would be in the kill screen range
A very good score above 1m
An awesome score above 1.1m
An incredible score at exactly 1,135,900
A godlike score at 1,139,600
And a Chuck Norris Super Kick score at 1,186,700

[Shane_NC]

I really think gauging improvement in days / months is very very misleading. There are some players that play upwards of 25 hours a week, and others who play 3 hours a week. You really cannot accurately gauge improvement in days; hours is much better measuring stick.

I have seen a couple of players who stream / play more than anyone else, and they have improved faster than anyone else, but its because they have sunk in WAY more hours than other ppl in those times frames.

[ChrisP]

This is absolutely correct.

Unless it's something really extraordinary, like Jeff Willms' one-month kill screen (or Allen's 15,000 games with NO kill screen ), saying that it took "x" amount of time to reach "y" milestone really doesn't mean much. (And even at that, Jeff told me he put a LOT of hours into that month.)

I got my first DK kill screen in December 2011, almost 2 years ago, and I haven't hit a million yet, but that's because I really haven't played very much DK since then, certainly not relative to how much I was playing between October and December '11. I don't touch it for weeks, often months, at a time. I was way more obsessed about getting the kill screen than I am about getting the million!

So if I were to get a million by the end of the year, saying that it took me 2 years to go from kill screen to a million would be technically correct, but really, what would that mean?

Hours played is the only way to get a meaningful gauge of a player's speed of progress relative to other players, but calculating that would require a great deal more attention and record-keeping than most would care to do.

Besides, I'm very much a fan of people NOT comparing themselves to other people... To me, that's the beauty of the CAG stuff. It's not direct competition. Or at least, it doesn't have to be.

[arnthestampede]

Okay thanks for all the info/help guys, I will definitely start streaming as it seems a lot of people improve by doing so. Sorry if this is lazy but how do I go about streaming? Is it using the twitch website?

[TheSunshineFund]

This thread helped me set one up.

Good luck.

https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=127.0

[corey.chambers]

Welcome to the Forum! That is a decent score for sure when you consider all the factors. If you had that score for many years with no improvements in game play... hmmm... I have nothing to say to that. There are some player progressions in this thread: https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=426.0. There are some good links on the High Score list to some outside sources especially the What to learn how to play DK section. Read the threads in the forum but take your time with it.

Jason, I was stuck at 500K for a year, but I continued to get better over time without any changes in score. I think that is where I am now, I can feel that I am getting better, playing more like Vincent , but not increased beyond 964K yet. Soon, very soon, I am hopeful.

If you have any operating system beyond XP then I would use OBS. If you have any questions then please let me know. OBS is very easy to use but some of the settings make a big difference. Once you know your upload speed then you would set things accordingly. But there are many factors, cpu processor, music can cause mame lag for some, especially youtube, upload speed, resolution, bit rate, server, resolution downscale, filter, FPS (frames per second), etc. But once you get all that set up right then you are gold. You will need a Twitch.tv account, and then you can use your stream key to put into OBS. Once again send me a personal message if you need help.

[up2ng]

Hours played is the only way to get a meaningful gauge of a player's speed of progress relative to other players, but calculating that would require a great deal more attention and record-keeping than most would care to do.

I'm seeing this crop up more and more on these forums.  Why in the world do we care how many hours it took someone to reach a certain level in a game?  WHO CARES?  What, we're going to start telling ourselves, oh, that guy has put three times as many hours into the game than that other guy and only has a slightly better score so that other guy must be a better player. . .

Wha da?

AND, again, WHO CARES?

We're really going to start criticizing each other now for how much time we spend on this HOBBY?  It's a hobby.  We play these games in our free time for fun.  The competition is fun too, but that's all it is, it's just for the fun of it.

Then there's the fact that some people learn the basics of a game very quickly and then plateau while another player might learn the game more slowly but will not plateau as quickly.  So, who is really "better" in that case?

If a new player is legitimately asking the question about time because they want to know what they are getting themselves into before they get started, that's understandable.  But when people want to start saying how it took them this many days or this many hours to do this or that -- what a bunch of nonsense really.  Com'on man!

Like it or not, the way players are compared in the CAG world is based on their personal best score.  That's it.  Did one player get incredibly lucky and played uncharacteristically well at the same time to make the stars align so that just ONE time he beat another player who can rattle off million point games every time he sits down?  Oh well, tough cookies.  The high score is the high score.  That's competitive Classic Arcade Gaming.

Personally, I have my own subjective ways of determining how good players are at DK based on their knowledge of the game and based on watching them play.  My rankings are not based on the high score board and never have been.  BUT, again, that's subjective.  The only objective measure is the high score.  Not hours played.

[marinomitch13]

I think the ranking should be decided based upon who breathes the least while they play:

http://www.twitch.tv/marinomitch13/c/1443542

.

[arnthestampede]

How do you guys keep motivated? Has anyone had slumps where they feel they are getting nowhere?

I starting playing about 3 weeks ago and can see improvements over those first 2 weeks, now I'm stuck at 244k. I was playing on and off the last week or so, I got to 230k and a few games around 190k but the last few days I've been playing for hours and seem to be getting worse, been hitting 150k on average and sometimes even 100k, its starting to get to me and I feel as if I'm making no progress. I have just ordered a new webcam so I can begin streaming my games and hopefully get some coaching from some of you guys who know what your doing!

[mikegmi2]

If you're looking to improve quickly, take some time to watch other people stream their games.  I guess it depends on what type of learner you are.  I learn from watching others...and picked up on a lot of tips, tricks, and general gameplay tactics from watching people stream when I was getting started.

It takes time though, so don't get frustrated.  It's a tough game at first.  You'll reach whatever goal it is that you set with this game if you put in the time/effort.

Never give up, never surrender.

[TheSunshineFund]

Sometimes if I get stuck in one game, I'll move onto another for awhile, concentrate on that, then return to it.  Or, as in the case with Mappy, never again.

But in all seriousness, sometimes I find a quick break from the game does wonders for your scores.

[hchien]

I wouldn't really call it a slump... more of a plateau.  Everyone experiences these.  You just have to push through.  Even if your scores are not improving, it doesn't mean you're not improving.

Once you're in the 300K range, you've mastered all the basics and need to start understanding the more subtle things.  For example: not getting "1/16th" or the fireball AI.  It's one of the great things about DK-- the long learning curve.  If it was easy to get a killscreen, it wouldn't be so rewarding when you finally get there.

If all else fails take a break and come back like Steve was suggesting.  You start seeing things in a different way and it may help your game!

[gstrain]

Sometimes if I get stuck in one game, I'll move onto another for awhile, concentrate on that, then return to it.  Or, as in the case with Mappy, never again.

But in all seriousness, sometimes I find a quick break from the game does wonders for your scores.

I agree completely.  I definitely find a pause can refresh.  Improvement may take a returned concentrated effort, but sometimes a refresh lets you concentrate better and the muscle memory and deeper learning has a chance to gel, and when I come back to games fthings often just "work" with very little practice that didn't before.

In fact a lot of the time I find it more productive to work on a couple of different games in rotation exactly for this reason.

-George

[JNugent]

I agree with both of the above suggestions.  Sometimes, it's best to press through and keep playing, even when it feels like you're getting worse.  Other times, I play another game for a while.  For me, I play Zookeeper or Tetris when I'm sick of what that dirty DK bastard is doing to me.

[arnthestampede]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm going to stick at it and hopefully push through!!