(While the following is somewhat personal, it is in fact Mesmer-related and I feel a good lesson/reminder to everyone. Us in the Mesmer forums are more than just a bunch of strangers around the world, we’re a community that looks out for one-another as been proven many times in the past. Also, I find venting my frustrations out through writing to be oddly therapeutic. )
A lot of times when I play vs other players, my inner snob comes out and I immediately assume they’re not as skilled as myself (that, AND if they’re not a Mesmer/Engineer/Warlord of Chaos then they they have little chance. =P). So needless to say when I get put down fairly in a 1v1 I’m usually a little surprised…
Today I found out that the Ps4 I was trying to sell on ebay got bought by a scammer using a fraudulent account. I always knew about those dangers but assumed it would never happen to me. ‘Lo and behold, I got careless and it did and now I’m struggling to figure out how to get an express package back from Nigeria and the $100 I spent shipping it there back. Dude I was SO kitten ED!
There’s a key word in both those stories, and a key fallacy there that makes for both stupid players and stupid people (which, in both of these cases, is me):
“ASSUME”
A wise woman (the front desk clerk @ my job) once told me. “When you assume, you make an A*_SS out of U and ME” and only now did I realize how true those words are. How often do we assume in this game?
“Mesmers OP, of course I’m gonna lose this match.”
“Only skillless players and cowards run PU builds.”
“Everyone hates on the Scepter so I’m not gonna use it.”
And how often do we assume in real life? .. Whats soap made out of… Clean stuff? How healthy is this Chinese food? Has Pyroathiest really set something on fire? Does Chaos really rag on Pyro every chance he gets? (Yes!)
The Mesmer class is all about exploiting mental weaknesses in your opponents, but what about our own mental weaknesses? When that situation happened to me, I was ANGRY, and I realized right there and then that my emotions dictate my desires. I was angry, so I wanted to fight, so the guy sitting next to me on the train who coughed on me almost got punched in the face. Sure, I likely woulda got arrested but that first hit would have felt so good. When we’re sad, how easy is it to fall into a deeper pit of despair and depression.. flipping anything we see into something negative? When we’re happy, how generous do we become? We’re more giving and less selfish. It seems to me that our emotional states perpetuate themselves in this way, which is what makes it so important to really think thing’s through before acting. To realize that your thoughts while angry are NOT the same as your thoughts while happy, or while sad.
At the end of the day, there’s several things to learn from this:
1) Never assume! Never assume an opponent is weaker or greater than yourself. Go through real life taking as few guesses as possible (assuming is just an educated guess after all).
2) Don’t let emotions cloud your judgement. As Mesmer we should be able to recognize and understand our own emotions and desires while screwing up opponents. Getting angry means making mistakes, so get the opponent angry!
3) Every loss is a lesson. There’s a reason you lost, and there’s a way to improve it it: be it tweaking your build, improving reaction time, or even just knowing when you’re overmatched. Even after losing the Ps4, after my rage played itself out I had to accept that it was my own ignorance that caused it. I assumed everything was legit, so I didn’t ask questions when I saw odd things in the transaction that made me curious.
I may have lost a lot of money and valuable merchandise, but I’m a smarter, better man because of it. Every altercation, every crisis has the potential to make us better people either internally, externally, or sometimes even both.
.. Whew! That felt better.
