Hi,
This will be quite a long message, because I'm starting to realise just
how complicated spatial awareness can actually be.
This is a thing I've been struggling with for years. I only managed A
Hero's Call because following a beacon is like playing a reflex game. It
says north, you turn around until it says north. Even then though,
someone had to tell me that. I have no real understanding as to what
that means or where I'm going. In fact, during times when you can't rely
on beacons to get you places (like the goblin campsites and so on),
someone actually had to do that for me!
As for Tank Commander, if it weren't for Raul's playthrough, I would
have never beaten it.
Same in the real world, I always struggled with mobility. When I learned
a route it was a case of remembering a set of instructions. That's why I
often call it the "Bop-it dance" or the "Robot's dance". Think about
it...Walk 20, turn right, walk 10...Just a glorified algorithm.
If someone tells me to try and do the route in reverse, I wouldn't have
a clue.
You tell me to turn right, and I can do it. You ask me what's to the
left of me, or what direction are the stairs from my front door, I'd
have no idea, without physically going there. When my mum used to tell
me to get out of the car and walk round the back, I wouldn't know what
direction that was, because once I'm out of the car my direction has
changed. And then there's the big one. If cars are moving forwards then
why do they pan left to right? Or, if I'm sat in a vehicle that's
reversing, why does it feel like it's moving forwards? What am I told?
Surprise surprise, it's to do with directions again. And they all have
one thing in common - it's the direction your facing.
I always thought that, although I could move in a given direction, I
always struggled when I faced a different direction to what I'm used to.
My mum disagrees, and puts it like this: I don't have any "mental
mapping skills". Thinking about it, I guess I can say that's accurate.
I never know where I am relative to other things, or where they are
relative to me (Unless of course I can reach out and physically touch it).
I guess that's why I wasn't taught other forms of navigation. compass
directions are just a series of meaningless words to me. All I know is
that the compass has something to do with the sun.
And don't even get me started on the clockface...When I tried 3d
Velocity and it told me there was an enemy at 06:00, I actually went
looking in the manual for a way to check the gametime! Of course there's
nothing in there, then someone corrected me and said, no, it's
referencing direction, not time. As far as I know, I hit a button on my
clock or computer and it tells me the time. What on earth has that got
to do with directions? I guess the only thing I can think of is that
they say the past is behind you and the future is in front...Headache
tablets anyone?
I've also seen things like turning to 90 or 160 (they just sound like
arbitrary numbers to me). Eurofly deals with latitude longitude and
altitude. There just seems to be so much to consider with space.
I'd just say give me an x and a y coordinate. But then I've seen that in
different ways (0 0 being bottom left in some cases, and top left in
others, and then someone told me that could also refer to the centre
under some circumstances as well). Also I've had disputes in the past as
to whether the Y coordinate represents forwards and backwards, or up and
down. I always thought z was up and down, but they'd argue that when
you're talking 2d, y is up and down. But I thought if you're working
with 2d, you're talking about something that's flat (unless of course
you're playing BK3!)
Then, as if that wasn't enough, even my certainty about up and down came
into question a few months ago when I learned that the world was just a
big ball. In that case, people on the other side of the ball would say
that their up was our down...And then they told me the earth is
spinning, so our directions are always changing anyway...Sheesh! Thank
goodness we don't have that level of complexity in games!
Honestly. Sometimes I think I ought to have a physics degree if I'm
going to understand all this! And there was me thinking that spatial
awareness was meant to be a basic skill.
As it is, I'm determined to learn this. I've gone six or seven years
without any mobility training now because I just can't get my head
around it. Now I'm trying again, and I thought that if I can understand
how these games work, maybe it will improve my mental mapping skills and
thus my mobility training, and stop everyone getting impatient with me
and telling me what an idiot or slow learner I am.
Cheers,
Damien.
On 27/07/2020 04:08 pm, Luke Hewitt wrote:
I've found myself, that practicing has actually improved my ability to
navigate in games.
When I started with shades of doom and gma tank commander, I was having
trouble, and it wasn't until I thought out the physical spacial
awareness test myself that I managed to get my head around the idea,
since my own comprehension of space is actually pretty crappy.
What I do do though, both in games and rl, is to use landmarks as
guides, sound sources, smells, and working out what direction I have to
go from such and such is often a good way around.
A hero's call I can't speak about as I've yet to get into that game, but
I know in shades of doom, using the sound sources of the corridors and
many of the tools already provided like coordinates and the reminders of
where I've gone before, helped considerably.
All the best,
Dark.
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