How do you manage stress?

[Zappa]

Competitive real-time games can be stressful, and with FA being as complex as it is, I tend to forget commands and lose sight of the big picture when that happens. Feeling drained can make it harder to progress along the learning curve as well: I will often stop playing after just a few games because I am not relaxed enough to start off with a clean slate again in the next one.

Some things I've found useful are

• play team games: but they are more time consuming and less useful to improve your 1v1 skill
• play music: I was hesitant to reduce my game volume and replace some of the cues it provides with an online radio station, but I actually find it easier to focus on the big picture and remain indifferent enough to make clearheaded decisions in game situations that would otherwise have me scrambling to resolve them. I tried this after seeing Zock do it.
• play zoomed out a lot: on top of other advantages, this reduces the persistent humming of battles and factories

It has occurred to me that the sound effects in FA are quite tiring: it may be too much work for what it's worth, but a mod that would reduce persistent or drawn out sounds with others that are clear, distinctive and pleasing to the ear might be an interesting proposal.

So how do you combat the build-up of distracting stress: do you have pre-game rituals, drink herbal tea or do you actually find stress helpful?

Cheers,
Bart

[D4E_Omit]

fooooooooooood

[Aarhun]

Unfortunately I have not found the miracle recipe/state of mind that allow me to easily press the find game button yet.
The bad feeling is however prominent when loading the game. When I am on the map, giving orders I tend to be nervous but in a good sort of way which made me play quicker.
Anyway each game is still pretty stressful and tiring to me.
I even had to make a sort of a deal with my wife, doing some household chores if I do not play at least one 1v1 per day

I use also some good musics, and play zoomed out too. (but that's more the way the game should be played for me than a trick to be less stressed)
I am also hiding the top right panel with the name, race and ranking. It helps to play just at my best without taking the ranking differences into account.

The thing that is harder for me on the long term is to have not many friends interested in the game. (playing SC2 instead )
So nobody cares about my results, if I succeed at improving or not. I am not talking about some groupies, but just some people to talk about the game. Telling stories about epic games etc...

[Zock]

For music, i actually play more concentrated without, i just put it on when i'm streaming to cover the background noise of my mic.

I don't really know stress from playing myself and in general, a lot needs to happen to make me stressed, but i see people getting stressed (in my lessons) often because they think they play badly, or they don't know what to do. Remember losing will help you improve much more than winning, and there is nothing bad about it. The stress will disappear once you learn how to react to certain situations, and you will start playing more calmly. Give it the time it needs, don't expect too much of yourself. Don't get stressed when things go wrong in game - they always do, all the time, even for the best players. Just keep playing, don't worry about what a stupid mistake you just did. You can do that after the game, if you want.

Also take breaks, if you realize nothing is working today, don't force yourself to play 10 games, do something else for a bit, and then try again.

The thing that is harder for me on the long term is to have not many friends interested in the game. (playing SC2 instead )
So nobody cares about my results, if I succeed at improving or not. I am not talking about some groupies, but just some people to talk about the game. Telling stories about epic games etc...

Maybe aim to join a clan, or hop on mumble and find some nice people - mumble doesn't work for me, but i'm sure there are some that will like to hear about your progress with the game. Else if you just write in Aeolus, chances are quite high someone will not only read, but be interested in it and answer you. If it's not enough, i do care about your results! I hope everyone learns to enjoy the beauty of the game as much as possible, and keeps the community alive, maybe creating one or more "top players" somewhen to keep competitive play interesting.

[galacticfear]

I usually play TO relax... never really found the game stressful apart from in a select few insane games where my apm is going through the roof. Even when I venture into the 1v1 realm I play it with same level of stress as 20 minutes no rush. Don't treat it as if your life depends on it, even if it does (hehehehe).

[Zappa]

Zock gives some good advice, and indeed I find it helpful to occasionally play 'just for the learning' rather than to win. I don't play any worse this way, since the detachment required to focus on discovering game mechanics and watching the replay to learn strategies makes for a more carefree game experience.

The deal with my girlfriend is that sometimes I play with headphones because the FA hum drives her more crazy than me! Maybe a more modest sound system is the answer...

Evidently the top players get to stress less and focus more.

[RK4000]

I found it easy to manage stress by not caring too much about whether I win or not, but just having a good time... Don't care about winning or losing too much, just give it your best I guess. If you win, awesome, thank your team and/or yourself (if it's a 1v1) for playing well... If you lose, the other team can also be happy for that, but more importantly, if you lose, it means you did something wrong, and if you did something wrong, you can improve, which is a reason to be happy, because there is still opportunities for you to get better

Improving will come naturally if you analyze what you did wrong (or get someone to help you with that, if, like me, you're not that great at analyzing but rather play off "feel", albeit a bad one ), but more important is to have fun playing. Whether that means you do goofy stuff (cheeky drops, stealth fire-bases etc), then do that... maybe you can get so good at it it actually becomes a valid tactic!

[Aarhun]

Maybe aim to join a clan, or hop on mumble and find some nice people - mumble doesn't work for me, but i'm sure there are some that will like to hear about your progress with the game. Else if you just write in Aeolus, chances are quite high someone will not only read, but be interested in it and answer you. If it's not enough, i do care about your results! I hope everyone learns to enjoy the beauty of the game as much as possible, and keeps the community alive, maybe creating one or more "top players" somewhen to keep competitive play interesting.

Yes thanks for the advice. I will try to make some contact within the game. (I play 1v1 only for the moment, so it does not help)

(...)
Don't care about winning or losing too much, just give it your best I guess. If you win, awesome, thank your team and/or yourself (if it's a 1v1) for playing well... If you lose, the other team can also be happy for that, but more importantly, if you lose, it means you did something wrong, and if you did something wrong, you can improve, which is a reason to be happy, because there is still opportunities for you to get better
(...)

I do not care so much about winning or loosing. Except if I feel that I am against an opponent which have clearly a much better level than me and that he is toying with me instead of killing me quickly
Otherwise, I don't know why it's stress me so much. Maybe like Zock said, it's mostly because I think I play badly and am a bit ashamed of it. And that's why it is so hard to launch a game, thinking I will have to do all that I can in concentration and play level to show my best.
Anyway I know it's stupid, but I cannot help myself, for the moment...

[Zappa]

Aarhun: I honestly don't care that much about winning either, I usually don't even play for more than a week a month. But there's something about time pressure and not being able to sit back and think things through that tires me out. I think knowing the responses to situations, like Zock said, can help. Still I feel like when I know the response, in those cases where it doesn't work out I am easily distracted from things I would prefer to focus on. I guess it comes down to shifting focus between micro and macro thinking.

[ZLO_RD]

control your breathing, and try to concentrate... but mostly experience helps