Concepts of Improvement

Hi there,

Adam here once again with my third article on getting better at FoW. I think I was going to talk about one paper I'd read when I initially came up with this idea, but other things have become more interesting so I've scrapped that idea.

Instead I'm going to look at my progression from a FoW novice to an 'expert' (or maybe less of a novice) and one reason I think this has happened.

So I'm going to start by looking at some work by Dreyfus and Dreyfus ( referencing and everything I know!) they described something known as the 'model of skill acquisition'. In their model we all start out as novices, we know the rules. (Sort of) but trying to use them effectively? Or  winning a game vs an experienced player? 

understanding how overloaded and difficult terrain interact

But we improve, we understand how rules and models interact, how the game environment works. You stop doing a smoke bombardment because you read on a forum you should, and start thinking of how to use smoke. When the dice let you down you compensate with your tactics. It's the move to being an independent player who 'gets' the game.

So what has helped? Well I'd say a 'community of practice' (as described by Lave and Wenger). Locally there is a group of us who all play FoW, we talk about it (record is 60 emails in one day!) and learn from playing against each other. 

And if you look at the factors which make a good community we have a lot of them. Sharing ideas on how to beat a list - e.g 'Ben how the frak do I beat 7th AD?' We all can socialise to some degree together, we keep each other aware of projects and we work together - ok maybe not that last one.

my thoughts on how to deal with 7th AD

But we're all after the same end result and the games/email/banter all contribute to us being better players. 

Well I hope you've enjoyed my last three articles, I promise the next will be less esoteric, until then.

Adam