#skill expression

Beginning my journey of thinking about games in an analytical way with Overwatch has made me pretty sensitive to how skill is expressed in a video game. Mario Kart World has been something I’ve been watching a lot of recently and so ive thought a lot about how skill is expressed in the game, especially compared to more competitive games like Overwatch or just the whole genre of serious fighting games.

I dont really know where to begin, but there are elements of MK World that cater to a high skill expression and elements that dont. As a gut reaction, RNG and skill expression are clear opposites. RNG or any sort of random outcome in a game takes away from the players agency and the impact of their decisions aka taking away skill expression AND skill expression requires the player to be the locus of change in the game.

The spectrum of skill expression

To elaborate: on one side of the scale is fighting games, in which there are almost no outcomes truly decided by RNG or other people. every move, combo, and outcome is dictated by the players actions or non-actions (and sometimes internet connect but thats a global factor). Thus, extremely high skill expression which leads to an extremely unapproachable higher level of play (or with OW/some fighting games really any level of play.) On the other side is stuff like Mario party, or to give a better example flipping a coin. The amount of random luck or outcomes in those games is extreme, and often the player has to search and make it their goal to express their skill over the noise of RNG.

Skill expression in MK/MK World

Mario Kart has always had a surprising amount of skill expression in the games. In earlier games theres item management, drifting/handling skill, certain techs like shortcuts and smuggling powerful items to higher ranks to widen your lead, character and kart set ups. These being said, the king and queen of skills expression in MK has been the aforementioned shortcuts and my personal favorite blue shell dodging. These are things the are almost untouched by RNG besides from a required item. In MK World theres a new dark horse of straight drifting and grinding that upset this.

The new grinding mechanic for MK world is like a shot pure concentrated skill expression for the game, suddenly shortcuts are expanded as people bounce off walls and grind across rails. Some skip major portions of the map, or complete a course in a minute thirty.

What does this skill expression mean

…..I dont know lol. Theres a chance MK Worlds community may be stuck in a pendulum. The casual audience, aka the kids playing, will be getting stomped on by the higher skilled people really putting time in to learn optimal shortcuts, correct character and kart combos, etc. That’ll be frustrating for the kids playing, no one likes losing a bunch. On the other hand, I’ve already seen people get frustrated or feel helpless at the RNG that is in the game (aka items) and this’ll especially affect the people who want to have agency over they’re win or loss.

But, realistically, instead of being all doom and gloom, It’ll all be fine. The items act as a good neutralizing agent for both sides. Skill expression can be neutralized with 3 red shells or a well timed bullet bill, while a mushroom is needed for a bunch of shortcuts. Luck, like time, takes from everyone.

Conclusion

The will and determination to do something, not because you should or have to, but simply because you want to.

There is a reason it's called martial arts. Art isn't what you make, it's doing it that's art.

Skill expression is a term usually used in the context of video games, namely when talking about complex mechanics that requires practice to use effectively, like rocket jumping or combos. Does it not stand to reason that with this definition, that competitive gaming could be considered an art form?

Art takes practice, determination, and passion. That's exactly what it means to play at the top, against the best who have done the practice, have the determination and passion to be where they are.

I just find really fun to consistently and relativetly fastly be dealing small ammounts of damage that when they add up its just A LOT, feels really satisfying and more fun than just doing a "really big unga bunga swing that deals a lot of damage" cause it gets old pretty fast and you arent actively doing much.

However, I do think its really fun and engaging to not actually do a lot of attacks but the ones you do are a reaction or a punishment to your opponent's misstakes and oppenings, and doing a really big damage from that is more interesting bc is more situational and requires more skill than just have that fuckload of damage at will with no throwbacks besides sometimes being a little slower to hit than average.

In the end its just two sorts of skill expressions that I really like. The first being strenght in consistency (your offense is good and you dont commit enough misstakes or take unecessary risks in bad cenarios that can heavily punish you or just break the flow of your attacks) and the second being captalizing on every opportunity and opponent misstake as well as "reading"/predicting your opponent.