Thoughts on Sirlin's "Playing to Win" Book

Thoughts on Sirlin's “Playing to Win” Book

February 15, 2023

You can read the whole thing for free here, if you're curious: https://www.sirlin.net/ptw

2023-02-15

The idea is to use the beginners as a way to get an extraordinary amount of practice in the tactics that win the game in a short amount of time. The experts rarely allow such situations to arise, but when they do, you will need to capitalize on them professionally. When the opponent makes a fatal mistake, you need to be able to confidently take control of the game and win it. This act must be natural, something you’ve done a thousand times before.

For some reason, the above quote made me smile from ear-to-ear. The concept of punishing (what the above passage is talking about) is something that I know about very well, but when Sirlin referred to punishing “the experts”, it really clicked with me just how important this concept is.

A novice player with a bad neutral game could perhaps find himself in a situation where an expert opponent makes a mistake that could be capitalized on. If that novice has practiced their punishes, then even they can take the expert for a ride, even though they aren't anywhere near the expert's overall skill level.

It's such a simple concept in a lot of ways, but when you think about it, punishes undergird so much of high-level play. It's the reason why players strive to develop solid neutral games: They NEVER want to be caught with their pants down.

2023-02-16

Thought #2 From What Makes the Best Player?

And then I realized that all my #1 players displayed unusually good Appraisal skills in some way. In fighting games, they often tended to play characters that others didn’t think were good, or characters no one else could play well. These players are just a little out in left field with what they’re doing, because only they know what really is good to be doing in the first place. Many of them were not “innovators” since they didn’t personally discover these weird things, but they all were able to recognize a good thing when they saw it, more readily than their peers.

This passage, particularly the part about, “[playing] characters that others didn’t think were good,” immediately made me think of ComboFiend, who always uses mid-tier characters to great sucess. Perhaps he has more of a grasp on the value of those characters than a tier list could ever tell.

2023-02-18

Thought #3 From Getting Started

In some games, it will take quite some time to overcome the feeling of awkwardness of a beginner.

As someone that is currently learning how to play Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, I can definitely feel that “awkwardness” that he's talking about, and it does indeed feel like it's going to be “quite some time” for me personally.