Friday, August 14, 2009

How do I stop my fear of the arena?

Question here from ms. Shy,

Question=Hey Thomas, I need a little help here...

I just started enjoying the arena
as of late and I'm trying my best for
my wings. Really excited, but it
seems, every other battle I have is
against a team (I fight with someone
instead of just myself) that is
rude, or something! And it aggravates me
so much, and I end up losing so much
rank, I'm back to private after I've
worked hard to get up to the ranking I
was at. What am I suppose to do? I'm
starting to get afraid of the arena,
but I really want to reach my goal of
Commander with my wings..
So, basically, if you didn't find the
question in there, How do I make myself
not afraid of the arena any longer? I
really like it, but dislike being
afraid..


When you're talking wings, you're talking this cool wing trophy right here, right?


That would be cool to have in your house!

So from what I'm gathering is that you're letting people's comments (rude or otherwise) get to you.

Right. I'm so with you because (gauging on what I know about you and me) we're empathetic people. So, we can get a million good comments and then that one bad comment is the one that sticks with us. In the arena you get hammered with comments. If there's ever a time I want to turn off chat, it's during pvp. Unfortunately if you're 2v2, you need chat on to communicate with your teammate.

You see, in some games they separate communication from the "bad guys" and the "good guys" when it comes to PvP. For instance, Lord of the Rings Online has a big battlefield that you run around in and "the creeps" (people playing monsters) have no way of communicating with "the freeps" (slang for "the free people" aka people playing the regular character classes). Also, in The Game Which Shall Not Be Named, you have alliance races (the good guys) that battle against horde races (the misunderstood guys). They can hear each other speaking, but the game garbles up their speech so you can't understand what it is they're saying.

In other words, communication is separated between opposing teams.

(Then the worst that happens is that you get slammed on a message board after a fight or your own teammates are rude to you.)

I like separated communication myself. KI, I think it would help a lot with the smack talk. And I don't want the other team to sit there and ask me questions or try to influence me not to heal myself or to agree to certain rules they want me to abide by during our match. That stuff always drives me crazy. I remember dueling a guy in Guild Wars and he was trying to get me to not use ranged attacks as a "Ranger" . . . GAH, I hate that.

So, now to answer your question.

The only way to decrease fear is to somehow increase confidence.

Here's my recommendation: build a team and a strategy . . . and work to refine your strategy. Only go to the arena with your team. When you have a strategy, you do two things mentally. One, you increase your odds of winning if it's a good strategy and you and your teammate execute the strategy well. Two, you decrease your fear because if people beat you or are rude, mentally, they are now defeating and being rude about "the strategy" and not you because you've taken a good chunk of "You" out of the picture and instead put "the team's strategy" at the forefront.

Look at something like football or basketball. They usually have complex patterns they run in order to win. Sure, there's usually a star in the mix, but usually the real star is the play and how the players execute that strategy.

Now, if that doesn't work . . . there's always self-hypnosis. LOL.

I do sympathize with you though. I don't like that feeling of anger or over excitement that happens with pvp sometimes.

/shrug and /hug

Any suggestions from the crowd?

Happy Dueling!

11 comments:

Cheats and Crackers said...

Uh, I don't think she means an Angelic trophy... She's talking about the Commander gear. lol

Cheats and Crackers said...

Oh, and the only way to stop the bad comments is I think this: You would have to ignore anyone you were facing that were making bad comments, and put your partners in a group with yourself. That way, no bad guy talk, and conversation with your friends privately and easily.

My only suggestion, at least.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Shy..... There's the most EASIEST WAY ever to stop it. Ignore :-] its easy and affordable lol. Just click ignore, and continue dueling. Oh and try the Ticket Trade. I have it in a guide on central, its the easiest way for the robe.

~Val

Lyssie Silverheart said...

I just get mad and if they say somethin I just say you trash talk me I trash talk you deal with it that would be if I had text chat :P but it does really bug me when people say to me Hastalavesta baby but thats mostly that I'm a girl.

Shy said...

I mean the Commander wings. lol

But thanks. I am one to not put people on ignore, because I dislike to do so, and thus, don't do it. The group chat was changed, so even if you turn off chat bubbles, you can see what they are saying in group chat (but not as a group chatter).
I know most people would tell me to be a little tougher and ignore them, but I really don't like to do so.. so I eliminate that option. I get angry if they start trash talking friends or me particularly because I am usually the attacker..

@Val - I might do that with someone, but as of recent, I get to Corporal, then lose and back to Private. Its gone on back and forth a lot, so never close to Commander..

I guess, just have to toughen up some :P

Thanks Thomas

Stingite said...

sorry I couldn't be of more help, shy.

PvP is a bit out of my realm of expertise. . . . as evidenced by not knowing what the heck commander wings are.

Is it a robe that has wings on it?

Cheats and Crackers said...

Yeah Friendly, there is a set of Commander gear for both boys and girls. Boys get a cape, and girls get a winged robe. It's the same celestial gear that Lord Nightshade once dropped, except this time with insane stats.

Cheats and Crackers said...

Oh, and Friendly, if you wanna see them, you've got two options:

Watch a duel with a bunch of girl warlords in it, or get on your wife's wizard, go to Diego and look at the "coat of invincibility."

And then you can say, "I know what wings are now!:

Shannon said...

Even people who have menu chat can be rude sometimes. I remember one time when I was a little level 7 (I lost) playing 2v2 with my brother (we have different accounts) one of the guys said "Sean Head use storm attack on shannon willowblossom" It was rude, but funny.

AbusedLifeWiz said...

The most I do for a somewhat weak player ( I am 31.. I call that weak). When someone smack talks me I would hit them hard with a strong life attack... life characters get the most of the garbage people throw in, like HEAL ME!,give me health dang life! All the rude language people can throw in I would get all the time never can end for a life... We life players can get grouchy at times but ends nice if you be nice to us... all I say to them is "all is fair in war and more WAR!" its a mouth shutter... try it sometime works great for me.

Brooke Legendblade said...

You know, if you are one of those people who isn't satisfied by just letting the comments pop up on the screen and ignoring them in the real world, then ignore them in the game. All you need to do is click the person's name in the chat box and click ignore. If they are using bad language, report them as well. I would suggest not telling them that YOU reported them, or they will attack you with more verbal abuse (and may possibly report you back, which is nothing to fear as long as you haven't done anything wrong). I do not go into the arena very often for the same reason you are scared of it, plus, I'm just not a big fan of the arena in general. But if you are in a group where you're teamates and the other team are having a verbal fight, just stay out of it. If they start attacking you with verbal abuse, just defend yourself, but don't strike back. At the risk of sounding like a fortune cookie, lol, if you fight fire with fire, all you get is a bigger fire that may not be put out. But if you fight fire with water, you will probably put out the fire, or the fire will leave you alone. By water, I mean just trying to resolve the problem without hurting anybody's feelings. And (to wrap up this EXTREMELY long comment) remember if they are just saying "You're going down!" or "I have better cards than you do." it's no reason to be mad, they are just trying to intimidate you for the battle.