Do you ever feel you're a lot better than your high score indicates?

[Xermon54]

I do agree with that, Leo.

90% of the time, I play with Anger and Frustration.

But 10% of the time, like when I did my 1,135,900 high score, I was playing with Acceptance and Indifference  .

Reaching a new personal best by being in a good state of mind will take 5x less time instead of when you can't control your emotions!

[Leo]

I find I play way worse when I am "actively thinking" about decisions. This approach worked in the first 2 months of my game, but now not so much.

Fact is, the decisions should come naturally out of your aliveness as an intelligent organism. You can't tap into that deep muscle memory and intelligence if you're blocking out it with your chaotic thoughts.

Since I have been hitting the 100k mark more often, I am already making my state of mind the priority over my technical skillset, and I would recommend anyone who is not doing this, to try it. I was stuck at 110k for a few weeks, and now I am cracking it almost every day.

I believe Allen would killscreen pretty quickly if he was able to calm his mind. Anyone who gets 500k clearly has the technical know-how. It's just a matter of making it flower in its ideal efficiency.

[ChrisP]

Man, April 2011.... I get into DK to escape poker, and then poker follows me to DK!

[stella_blue]

I do agree with that, Leo.

90% of the time, I play with Anger and Frustration.

But 10% of the time, like when I did my 1,135,900 high score, I was playing with Acceptance and Indifference  .

Reaching a new personal best by being in a good state of mind will take 5x less time instead of when you can't control your emotions!

So, let's summarize, and add one more statistic:

10 = % of the time you can control your emotions while playing DK
00 = % of the time you can control your emoticons (those Twitch TV face icons) while watching someone else play DK

You might argue that the 0% number should be 100%, depending on how you define "control".   

[konghusker]

I definitely feel like I don't usually play to my potential.  I always feel like I can ks the game anytime, but I tend to make my own mistakes.  The game doesn't usually beat me anymore, it's usually me beating myself.  I know that I can put up a score around the 1.13-1.15 range, as I have had many games on that pace, but again beat myself either due to being to greedy in some situations, or just flat out not focused due to fatigue.  I know my current high score is nowhere near what I will end up with, but like everybody else said, it takes time, practice, and more time to get your score where you want it. 

[hchien]

Looking at your #'s from the other thread, your high score should be 430K.  Don't ask me how I came up with that #, it's based on some fuzzy statistics.  So you're right, your high score is not reflective of your skill level.  My guess is you have not played out enough full games at your current skill level, hence your high score is lagging behind.  Either that or Allen Staal stole all your luck.  "If all these balls have bounced in my favor... there is some poor bastard out there..."

My first or 2nd post to the old TG forums was directly related to this.  It was about survival percentages, average scores, and your chances of reaching the killscreen.  I really hope it's archived somewhere.  I seem to remember your survival needs to be about 93-94%, average score at least 300-400K to have a realistic shot.

The difference between average and high score is that you can improve your high score without improving your skill level by playing more games.  BUT you cannot improve your average without improving your skill level no matter how many games you play. 

Unrelated, but this reminds me of something Don Hayes told me when I was learning Centipede and stuck in the 300-400K range.  He said your high score will not improve for a while, even though you are improving.  He was right.

It's "How High Can You Get?", not "What's your average?".  Get high.

Yeah, agreed, the whole point is to get high in Denver.

[marinomitch13]

I'm just waiting for Steve Sanders to pipe in here and say, "Yeah, my score is lower than my actual skill level. I should actually have about 5.3 million!"

[ChrisP]

What is it about that 300-450K area?

So many people get stuck there for the longest time, and once they break out of it, they go pretty much directly to the kill screen.

Well, except for one guy...  But seriously, Mitch is definitely the poster child for this thread. If anybody is WAY overdue for a kill screen, it's him.

[marinomitch13]

Haha, honestly, yeah, I could get a 900kish KS pretty easy. It's just that, as soon as I realized I could get a killscreen with enough attempts, I just decided up my pace. I really feel no need to prove to myself or others that I can actually get one, when I am honestly reasonably sure I could if I wanted too. I don't know, I just feel like getting a 900k KS would do nothing for me, as I would just want to beat it the very next game. I guess I'm kinda like Dean in that now that I know I have the skills down for a big score, I wanna play at a high pace from here on out. It's only in these mini-kong-offs, where money is on the line, that I might contemplate playing at a significantly lower pace (first KS bounty, longest first/last man bounties, etc).

Does anyone else feel this way?

[Fast Eddie]

yes i am exactly the same, i scored 860k well over a year ago so i feel i am overdue a k/s...but i just dont have any motivation to play for a low k/s anymore...

i did run boards for a few games a while back and enjoyed it, but im just not bothered, mostly if i want to change things up i play no hammer and recently some one hammer 1m attempts...

theres no rush, it'll come when its ready!

 

[mikegmi2]

Haha, honestly, yeah, I could get a 900kish KS pretty easy. It's just that, as soon as I realized I could get a killscreen with enough attempts, I just decided up my pace. I really feel no need to prove to myself or others that I can actually get one, when I am honestly reasonably sure I could if I wanted too. I don't know, I just feel like getting a 900k KS would do nothing for me, as I would just want to beat it the very next game. I guess I'm kinda like Dean in that now that I know I have the skills down for a big score, I wanna play at a high pace from here on out. It's only in these mini-kong-offs, where money is on the line, that I might contemplate playing at a significantly lower pace (first KS bounty, longest first/last man bounties, etc).

Does anyone else feel this way?

Yea I know what you mean Mitch.  I got the 914k KS, and then was trying for a bare bones million...but have since given up on that and for a while was playing at 1.1+ pace...but then realized I should go for a solid score that might get me into the KO3...so I play at 1.05M now.

And yea, at the first Wildcard Rematch...even though I vowed to keep playing at 1.05M+ pace...at the end of the day I played a top hammer game because the high score was still in the 860,000s...but in the middle of my game I think it was Hank that told me Ross had just scored around 970k...but things were going well in my game so I decided to just go for the longest man bounty and got it.  I was so tired by that time I felt it would be foolish to start grouping.

I'm planning on doing the same thing Saturday...play at 1.05M pace, until the end is approaching, at which time I will lower/up my pace based on where the high score for the day is at.