I don’t know how “Bruce-like” I am in issues of personal goals and so on—probably about average. But I have a freakishly bad case of the Bruce when it comes to competitive games.
I don’t win games. Ever. I played Catan every week for a whole summer—never won. I haven’t won a poker game since I was seven. You don’t want to know what happens if I try Mario Kart. I used to go bowling a lot—I never, ever won. I run slower in a race than when I time myself on my own. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever won an argument.
The variety of games I suck at is too broad for it to be a simple matter of lacking a skill: I lose at competitions of strategy, probability, hand-eye coordination, and fitness. No. I have some kind of hang-up against winning. I’ve won “competitions” that involve taking a test or mailing in an application, but I just can’t win if I can see my opponent face-to-face. On some level, I really don’t want to.
It’s got to be psychological. I suppose the cure would be to find a “game” of something that I actually am skilled at, and defeat someone face to face. The weird thing is, that sounds terrifying. Unlike MOR:Harry, I know how to lose; I don’t know how to win.
Interesting. I used to have a similar thing going on with competitive swimming. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to impress my parents, I wanted my coach to be proud, I wanted to earn my place at the team...but when it came to actually standing on a block beside seven other swimmers, the pressure would build until something snapped. I don’t think I ever really believed I could win, and thanks to my body type I rarely did. (I seem to almost completely lack fast-twitch muscle fibers; I once swam 17 km straight, at age 14, and I don’t think anyone else on the team could have done that, but even much slower swimmers would beat me easily in a sprint.)
I don’t know how “Bruce-like” I am in issues of personal goals and so on—probably about average. But I have a freakishly bad case of the Bruce when it comes to competitive games.
I don’t win games. Ever. I played Catan every week for a whole summer—never won. I haven’t won a poker game since I was seven. You don’t want to know what happens if I try Mario Kart. I used to go bowling a lot—I never, ever won. I run slower in a race than when I time myself on my own. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever won an argument.
The variety of games I suck at is too broad for it to be a simple matter of lacking a skill: I lose at competitions of strategy, probability, hand-eye coordination, and fitness. No. I have some kind of hang-up against winning. I’ve won “competitions” that involve taking a test or mailing in an application, but I just can’t win if I can see my opponent face-to-face. On some level, I really don’t want to.
It’s got to be psychological. I suppose the cure would be to find a “game” of something that I actually am skilled at, and defeat someone face to face. The weird thing is, that sounds terrifying. Unlike MOR:Harry, I know how to lose; I don’t know how to win.
Interesting. I used to have a similar thing going on with competitive swimming. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to impress my parents, I wanted my coach to be proud, I wanted to earn my place at the team...but when it came to actually standing on a block beside seven other swimmers, the pressure would build until something snapped. I don’t think I ever really believed I could win, and thanks to my body type I rarely did. (I seem to almost completely lack fast-twitch muscle fibers; I once swam 17 km straight, at age 14, and I don’t think anyone else on the team could have done that, but even much slower swimmers would beat me easily in a sprint.)