Concentration - "zone" effect

  • Thread starter Thread starter dkstz
  • 63 comments
  • 2,477 views
dkstz

dkstz

Messages
413
Brazil
São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Messages
arten_v
I'm creating this thread just to share a few thoughts I had after running
some endurance races. It's about that "zone" we players got into, when we're really concentrated on the race. I'm sure the most serious players had felt those things, and in GT4, concentration has a great importance on the results we get. Give your thoughts later!! 💡

- lost of surrounding awareness. Noises, smells and other external things
sometimes is like they just "disappear". People can keep talking but you
don't hear a word, or doesn't remember anything when the race ends. Usually, if asked anything we can only answer a few yeah's and nope's :)

-the time stretches and shortens. In a close race, the adrenaline and
excitement make hours fly. A short 2 hour enduro looks more a 10 minute
sprint. This everyone knows... :sly:
When on the "zone", a string of almost identical lap times might
happen. Then, suddenly we feel that this lap is really slow (looking at the
times), but actually is just .5 or 1 second slower that the previous ones.
And we can feel if this is going to be a fast lap or not way before the
start/finish line. It's really interesting!

-different perspectives. If someone is watching us play when on the "zone",
they might think we're doing things perfectly (lines, speed), we're racing
mistake free. But who is playing has a clear perception of those things and
often thinks taht isn't doing so well and knows when a corner was bad and
could be done faster... <- that's when thay call us "nerds" hehe :trouble:

-increased reflexes. When playing on the "zone", we do many laps and our
lines are amost always perfect, or at least is much better than usual. Also,
we can predict the car behaviour and knows before it happens an oversteer or understeer. Because of this, we make instantaneous corrections to line and speed. From outside, others can't even notice we was about to make a mistake. :cool:

-greater control of the race. This one only happens on endurances.
When playing really concentrated, we know wich dot is what car on the
mini-map. We know how much our tyres can be affectiong our lap times, and
opponents too. Also, we know the average times of each partials on the track, and the average lap times too. You can puposedly start doing laps 1 second slower to save tyres or push that little more to gain some advantage.

Thats it. Many of those things we had felt already right? That's what differs
casual players to hardcore gamers I guess. And is that what makes the
endurances one of the best things in the gamee... to some people :dopey:

Wan't to say anything? Add something? Has it happened to you?? Post here!! :cheers:
 
This happens to me sometimes, not in endurance races, but when I'm doing a time attack. I get into the zone, and I run perfect lap after perfect lap, and as soon as someone intturrupts, I crash or screw up.
 
i get into the zone sometimes when its a close race or im trying to get a sick time... but other times im driving unconciously fort example i zone out and i finish the race and i didnt even know what happend i like loose focus and continue to race unconciously:sly:
 
I agree 100%. It happens to me all the time and apparently my facial expressions change. My wife is always making fun of me because when I get in a "zone", she says I don't blink for a long time & I'll have a weird look on my face.
 
When I'm in the zone the world around me dosen't matter anymore and all that matters is driving and winning. It's an intoxicating, passionate feeling that I wish I had about everything, but my only passion is cars and driving. I spend hours of time I could be using for something more "productive" but I don't because in my eyes, this is productive and it's my passion and I love it for all it's worth. :) GT FOREVER!!!
 
Almo600
Happened to me TOO MANY TIMES. VERY true mate:) .


Alex.
Click to expand...
Almo, please reduce your signature down to 6 lines maximum. Also, oversized font tags count as double lines. GTP guidelines are available on the Feedback board.

Thanks!

On the original topic, I've been playing GT3 and GT4 for the better part of 4 years, and I never notice any of the hundreds of little graphic things people mention like airplanes, blimps, monkeys, robots, cars, etc in the scenery. Some people complain bitterly about the cheezy 2D spectators and such but frankly I'm concentrating way too hard on the driving to begin to notice things like that.
 
A lot of times I'll get into the zone and not even no it, and then if I even hear a single sound, I majorly screw up bigtime. It happens more in enthusia for some reason, it just stresses me more.
 
hmmm i get into a "zone" but its like i phaze out, i cant rember doing the race iv just done like i blank out,( happend on the 24 hr ring came to almost 4 hours later in the lead with laps i still cant match)

its weired but your right about nothing else mattering, when your in the zone, food, water, bodily functions beome obsilete, you can almost tighten every muscle in your body, and not even flinch,

yup the zone is my happy place :P
 
I hate it when I'm in the zone, battling for first place against an ai car with a car that's as evenly quick as mine. Lap after lap us two are neck and neck pushing the limits of our car and suddenly....a knock on the door.
 
I think a lot of these effects can be more a psychological trick you play on yourself than anything else. I've obviously not been playing GT very long, but I played single-player Doom competitively for many years, and psychologically speaking it's quite similar. After seven or eight years of playing, what I noticed was that *while I was playing* I would believe in and perceive similar effects, but if I then after a session looked back and objectively analysed what had happened, the evidence didn't really support my perception. My average times for a run when I felt I was 'in the zone' would actually turn out be very similar to those at other times. I also set many records on runs that felt bad, or when I was distracted in the middle, or when I didn't really feel like I was focussing very hard on the run. It is interesting to try and test your perceptions objectively.
 
Though I'm not the greatest GT racer, I do get into the 'zone' occasionally. Whilst there I have observed many times (and with other games) that I play better if I'm thinking about something else! When I concentrate too hard on the game, I screw up more than If I devote only part of my attention to the game. Sometime I even wander into day dreams, and snap out of them to find myself half a lap ahead from where I thought I was! I know it sounds a little odd, but I've found that I can play games better sub-consciously than I can whislt concentrating on them totally. Has anyone else noticed this? :dopey:
 
thats exactly how i feel more or less mag but only it doenst last for half a lap, it seems to only happen on endurance races or races that are evenly mathced, especialy those peski 200 points ones lol
 
One thing to add:

-When you are in that "zone", you dont close your eyelids so when you blink, it hurts.
At least it happened to me.

Nice!
 
yei!!! this is really interesting when we get in 'zone' and just awesome the feeling... thats all right what my friend said... sometimes i laught with the 'zone' face of him...
 
Two phrases: Tunnel Vision/Hearing and Black-Outs.

@magburner: Yeah, definitely, I've noticed what you put up. Only the words of a fellow gamer could say that so well. I wish my fiancee would understand. :lol:

It's really amazing, once you hit that zone, lines that seem initially odd (especially if you save the replay and view it one morning later) trace themselves out into true works of art. So smooth are the lines that it seems slow in comparison to the usual monkey business that conspires behind the DS2/ Wheel. I love that trance-like calmness you get, as well. Your breathing becomes very tranquil and your heart beats begin to turn in tune with the raising/ lowering tachometer.
 
I just relized my "zone" face looks like the face I make when I'm bored in school, weird :confused: . Also, when I'm in my "zone" state I daydream aswell, I don't concentrate when I'm in it, I just feel relaxed and more capable and pull out good laptimes. (for me anyways) It feels good to be a "hardcore" GT fan and it's nice to go to a place that has people just as crazy and obessed as you. 👍
 
Smoke_U_24/7
I hate it when I'm in the zone, battling for first place against an ai car with a car that's as evenly quick as mine. Lap after lap us two are neck and neck pushing the limits of our car and suddenly....a knock on the door.
Click to expand...

Happened very often,i`m in the zone,losing my nervs with licence tests and somebody knocks on my door,and i lose my concentracion and that pisses me off!
 
also if someone asks you a question, you either always reply "uh huh or yeah"
or you reply with a monotonous "ugh"

if ANYTHING touches you, you will instantly crash, burn, fail:dunce:
 
RICHARDO
When I'm in the zone the world around me dosen't matter anymore and all that matters is driving and winning. It's an intoxicating, passionate feeling that I wish I had about everything, but my only passion is cars and driving. I spend hours of time I could be using for something more "productive" but I don't because in my eyes, this is productive and it's my passion and I love it for all it's worth. :) GT FOREVER!!!
Click to expand...

i cant agree more. the zone is awesome. now if only i could put the zone in science class...lol
 
Duke
I never notice any of the hundreds of little graphic things people mention like airplanes, blimps, monkeys, robots, cars, etc in the scenery. Some people complain bitterly about the cheezy 2D spectators and such but frankly I'm concentrating way too hard on the driving to begin to notice things like that.
Click to expand...

:bowdown:

On the subject of the thread though... :sly:

I find my results in the game are directly related to my concentration levels. If there is another person in the room, no matter how deep I am into a lap, there is no way for me to finish the lap as clean or fast as I would have if that person had stayed out of the room. :irked:

All's well. :cheers: :lol:
 
when i get in 'THE ZONE' my eyes tend to get strained to the point that when i pause the game to take a break or go into the pits, all i can see is this big square inprint in my line of vision, its really funny because once i had just finished a 9hour enduro and turned off the PS2 when into the living room, and my mom randomly comes from nowhere and asks me if i'm doing drugs or something, because my eyes were blood red, and when i told her i was playing GT for the last 9hours (which sounds really sad) she said that i got high off GT (corny joke) but yeah...
 
Am I the only one here that DOES blink when playing GT4? Wow, you gotta learn to blink when racing (at least on the straightaways). I typically blink more because the microwaves from the television make my eyes dialated and sore.
 
Yea bro i can get in the zone on norm tracks, and run nasty laptimes. But on the RING that track beats my ass. This guy runs a 6'08.*** with a fully tuned evo 8. The best ive ran is a 6'30.***. What wrong?? Why cant i run faster?
 
Very true!!!
I've experienced this many many times. I do the same thing on the road... the miles just seem to fly... It scares me sometimes... I'll realize that I've gone a few dozen miles, and I don't remember a single mile or even manipulating the steering wheel or gear shifter...
 
I got in the zone for hours at a time when i ran the LaSarthe ll 24 hours full a-spec in one sitting. The only thing that would break my concentration was pit stops. I felt like a real race car driver after about 4 hours when the FF was starting to wear me out and the august heat was taking it's toll and after 8 hours the lack of food was weakening me, but it didn't matter, my lap times stayed consistent and mistake free and the only incident I had in the race was on lap one I spun coming into the last set of S curves on cold tires. It was a 200 pt a spec race in my stock + rigidity increase AMG CLK-GTR. I won by less than a second after putting in 2 hours of perfect hot laps and perfect pitting strategy at the very end. It was awesome. I still think about that race almost every day now almost a year later.
 
Sometimes I get into a slightly different kind of "zone" when playing a racing game...for example, I can hold conversations with friends and other people while racing around the Nurburgring, only to eventually "snap back" and realize that I've driven through over half of the course without even realizing or being able to remember it. :lol:

And the laps aren't horrible, or strewn with mistakes/crashes, or anything...they're just subconscious. :D
 

Latest Posts

Back