Again, all this listing of who is better at something has become quite obnoxious. I find this list even more silly because of the fact that what is being called "skill" is actually just a combination of knowledge and practice/execution-familiarity.
People that pick up games quickly almost always have one of these two characteristics when it comes to the game they are playing. For me personally, I grew up with almost zero gaming in my background, so I knew I needed to learn a lot and play a lot before I would start seeing the fruit. I know that the only reason I am getting good at some of these games is due to much study of the techniques and much practice. After a while of doing this with certain games, it becomes easier to do this with others. Since I've done this with DK, it helps with DKjr. I'm sure if I did this with Galaga, it would help with Galaxian (since they are similar types of games). You get the picture.
Another example is that one of my personal goals is to master one of each type of classic game that I can find with a different control scheme. I am doing this very intentionally for the very purpose of becoming a better, all-around gamer since it will help with one of the aspects of a "skilled" gamer that I mentioned: Execution-familiarity.
What I'm getting at is that it's not like there is (generally speaking) really some sort of innate ability that some people have and some people don't when it comes to these games. This isn't poker; and none of us are Rain Men. We all simply draw off of the experience we have with other games to affect how quickly we can pick up a new game. We also draw off of the sources of knowledge that we have about the game we are trying to learn. If anything ought to be praised, it is a player's 1) perseverance/patience/practice, 2) knowledge, what is gained only by means of themselves, as well as from others, and how effectively/efficiently they incorporate it into their gameplay, and 3) their kindness to other players when they do choose to share what they have learned with others. These things are (generally) the only thing that really sets apart one gamer from another IMHO.
