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  Are you a good M.I.M.E.? Part 1
Bryan Camareno a.k.a. DeathJester
02.02.05

Hey everyone ... I’ve got another thought provoking subject for you. This time I won’t be analyzing decks, shattering stereotypes, or debasing meaningless social dramas; this time I’ve got a useful tool for you to use to gauge your individual skill level. The tool is what I call: The MIME system. In case you’re wondering MIME stands for:

Mentality: General attitude towards the game, situations, and opponents.

Impulse: The likelihood of a player reacting to certain situations with “pre-programmed” responses.

Mindset: Pattern of thinking in relevance to how you deal with in-game situations (Your evolving stratagem).

Efficiency: The overall effectiveness of a player’s moves and management of resources.

I’ve been developing this system of psychological and physical traits for about a month in attempts of finding a way to measure the skill level of any given player. This system utilizes my two areas of expertise: In-Game Skill and Game Psychology.

In my Yugioh career I’ve encountered those who are proficient in this game and those who put up a cheesy front. Most Yugioh players are instinctively cocky and arrogant like Kaiba from the show. Surprisingly, the TV show is the framework for the mentality a real-life Yugioh player may think he/she should have. As childish and unexpected it may sound, I’m sure many of you can nod in agreement when I say that there are more of these players than we would like to encounter in the Yugioh environment. Though I confess, the TV show is pretty cool and I do watch it on a regular basis….anyways…back to the topic.

There are those who talk and do nothing, and there are those who can put their money where their mouth is. This system will attempt to bring a reality check to all of us so we can finally know the difference between how good we think we are and how good we really are.

Introductions aside, let’s go ahead and get down to business. There are four different types of players or MIME types. These MIME types are: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Mastery. In addition, there are three levels to each player and the only exception being Mastery. Only one level of Mastery exists since you cannot get any better than Mastery. The tricky part is that you can fluctuate from Mastery to Advanced Level 3 and back, but I will reveal that to you in a later article. This applies to all levels of players for a variety of reasons including lack of practice, change in mentality, and other various psychological reasons.

Everyone playing this game will achieve Mastery at different rates. For some it may take 2 months and for some it can take 3 years! Keep in mind that everyone is different and learns at a different rate. The path to Mastery is a long process but worth the effort. Now before we get to the player types, here is the theory behind this system. It’s called “The Theory of the Evolution of a Player” or The T.E.P. theory in short:

Whenever any player picks up this game and learns the basic game-play functions that will be all they’ll ever need to rapidly achieve Mastery in Yugioh. Whenever a player’s mentality becomes consumed, subconsciously, with the possibility of winning or losing, that player essentially sabotages his/her own success and may diminish any hope of achieving Mastery.

In other words, your mentality is what ULTIMATELY determines your success in this game. Skill comes with experience through success and failure. A positive mentality will always be the key to achieving Mastery. Anything other than that will cause the process to prolong itself. Even someone with one thousand losses in a row can achieve Mastery and vice-versa. Now that you know the basics behind this system, let’s move on to discovering your MIME type and level by observing all of them in detail.

MIME Type: Beginner

Level 1

Mentality: The attitude of a player at this level will be optimistic or fearful of competition. An optimistic mentality is the way to go when attempting to achieve Mastery. When a player begins to doubt his/her skills this will prevent he/she from progressing any further in the process.

Generally, a Level 1 Beginner will doubt his/her abilities as a player when he/she plays against a player who is recognized as a skillful player. It is rare that this level of player is entirely optimistic and carefree about the outcome of a match.

Impulse: Beginners of all levels are extremely prone to adopting the popular or “cookie-cutter” deck type as their personal deck type. This decision is made with promises of easy victories and easier learning. A Level 1 Beginner will almost always imitate the successful plays of a skilled player, but most importantly the winning plays. There is nothing wrong with doing this as it is natural. The only problem with this method of learning is that the Level 1 will not attempt to fully understand why that player made that move. Also, developing any knowledge of deck mechanics will not be on the mind of a Level 1.

Mindset: The strategy involved in Yugioh will be relatively new to most Level 1 Beginners. Yugioh requires a player to think on his/her feet at all times which brings a larger amount of unpredictability than we are used to. Naturally all of us want to be in as much control of a situation as possible but due to the way this game functions, control of a game cannot remain established for very long.

The majority of plays made at Level 1 will not consist of personally devised plans; More like mirror versions of plays that have been previously seen. This is due to the fact that the majority of people are followers not leaders. Most of us will watch someone else do something before we decide to do it. This functions much like a check to see if something is “O.K.” to do. This “approval seeking” mindset is detrimental to any player’s success and must be kept in check to proceed further in the Mastery process.

Efficiency: Impulsiveness plays a large role in the improvement of this area. The effectiveness of a Level 1’s moves are based on what he/she perceives to be the right move rather that what really is the right move. Hand management at this level will be poor as well as field management. The pressure to make a big push to gain an early advantage TOO EARLY is immensely high.

Level 2

Mentality: At this stage a player will have gained some skill and will start to enjoy the game, but will still be fearful of serious competition. A Beginner is very likely to be intimidated by a player of greater skill. Though doubtful of his/her skills, a Level 2 Beginner will have gained some confidence through practice and fun duels.

Impulse: Impulsiveness will be slightly less than a Level 1. As a player grows in skill and participates in constructive practice, there will be some understanding of why certain moves must be made and why some should not be made by skilled players.

Mindset: At this stage, a player will learn to develop specific strategies of his/her own. A Level 2’s mindset will focus on learning proper implementation of skilled plays and begin to utilize them as efficiently as possible.

Efficiency: The efficiency of a Level 2’s moves is closely related to the number of times they implemented that particular move. At this stage Intermediate level strategies are going to be used repetitively in order to learn them.

Level 3

Mentality: This is the stage where a Beginner begins to develop one of three separate mentalities. A Beginner will develop either a Cocky and Arrogant mentality, a Confident and Humble mentality, or a Doubtful and Fearful mentality towards the game, opponents and situations they encounter during the game. Cockiness and Arrogance is by far the most common mentality among Beginner at this level because they are too proud of what they have learned from skilled players. Confidence and Humbleness is the least common mentality found. Most Beginners are too concerned on preventing defeat and grasping victory rather than establishing a positive mentality.

Beginners with Doubt and Fear are slightly more common than Confident players. This mentality will be the hardest to work through since it’s a self-defeating mindset as well as a negative mindset. This mindset will make it difficult for any Beginner to get to the Intermediate levels.

Impulse: Like Level ones and twos, a Level 3 Beginner will use moves copied from skilled player but more than ever in attempts to win frequently and bolster confidence.

Mindset: Strategic thinking, at this level, is greatly affected by the type of mentality the Beginner has developed. If a Level 3 has developed a Cocky and Arrogant mentality then he/she is prone to unnecessary overextensions and overzealousness. A Level 3 with Confidence will be successful more often than the other two mental patterns. A Confident player will strategize more and make the best plays to extent of his/her abilities. A Doubtful player will likely fall prey to insecurity and avoid making an effort in fear of losing any advantage. Bluffs and mistakes will bring this player’s confidence low and be the cause of defeat.

Efficiency: All Level 3 Beginners will begin to play dramatically better and their success rate will grow higher in turn. Threes who continue to practice their plays and gain experience will eventually ascend to a Level 1 Intermediate player.

In summary there are 3 different types of mentalities at Level 3. Whatever is chosen, it is not chosen consciously. The best way to adopt a more successful mentality and mindset is to grow aware of your current pattern and attempt to change it in a way where it does not hinder your success. Once a player becomes aware of their mentality, it would be wise to realize that it takes time to “reprogram” your pattern of thinking into a more positive one.

These are characteristics that Beginners on each separate level will share. I’m not saying that all Beginners must act this way as everyone will be slightly different. All I’ve mentioned are the glaring commonalities and traits each level will experience and show. If you have any questions about this, please email me and I will be glad to help you out. Also, in your emails this week let me know what level of Beginner you are at. If you’re not a Beginner, then let me know if you have experienced or had any of these characteristics I’ve named.

Next week I’ll be covering the Intermediate and Advanced levels. Lastly, I will be covering Mastery in Part 3 of the MIME system. At that point, things will be getting pretty complicated. So keep checking for my next article about MIME and remember to play hard, think about your moves and most importantly, have fun with the game.

If you’ve got any questions, comments, or want to say hi email me at deathjester@yahoo.com