Are Strategy guides useful ?

[oliv]

In the old days of tetrinet they were plenty of guides around.
Except for the very beginning when I still played tetrinet with special blocks, and I read a strategy guide about it, it has never helped me improved my gameplay.
In fact, I think past the time when you are a very beginner, only experience can help.
Most things you can write on paper/computer are obvious for the most of us since we are experienced tetris players.
What I would find more interesting is ideas on how to train for certain types of skills.
For example downstack, t-spins, hold, more than 1 piece preview etc...

I'd like to train my ability to handle more than 1 piece preview for example.

[Corrosive]

keep playin multiplayer... and 40 lines. there are a lot of people your skill level to play, take advantage of that and try to beast them. try to play smarter. that is the point of us analyzing defensive play and other strategies. go for accuracy and smarter block placement.

[clincher]

yeah i would actually like that some guides would talk about specific subjects like downstacking/diggin

[Rosti_LFC]

I'm planning to write a guide over the next week or so that should hopefully be of actual use to people. Something which goes into far more depth than just covering the obvious "play faster and tetris moar", and actually goes into things like how to drill, finesse, and more detailed strategy. There are plenty of guides stating obvious things like how you should play fast, but none that actually go into detail into how to play fast. The info is there on the TC wiki, but you need to look for it and know what you're looking for.

Not that I'm the best player out there, but I'd like to think I would be a lot closer if I actually applied some of my own principles when I play .

[oliv]

Not that I'm the best player out there, but I'd like to think I would be a lot closer if I actually applied some of my own principles when I play .

Thats basically what I stated. We almost all know how to play better (use garbage, play faster, stuff like that). the difficulty is to apply these things, and it implies alot of training to actually "get" the skill and get better at it.
But of course these strategy guides are very useful for beginner players imo.

[Digital]

From your first post oliv, it seems to me like it's just a matter of semantics. When I think of a strategy guide, I don't consider it to just be general and overarching in topic. The level of detail and specificity are arbitrary. So yes, all the stuff you mentioned I can see as capable of having guides dedicated to them.

That said, I do agree that we should get up more specific guides. That's how I imagined this section would look like in the first place. There can only be so many general guides before you start seeing a ton of recyled material.  

[oliv]

For example, a tip to train for speed for intermediate players that I saw on some old site about tetrifast was to download a metronome and put it on a certain speed. then, try to keep the pace. This seems stupid but I think it helped me increase my bpm a little.

Tips like that I would like to see on this forum.

[jujube]

For example, a tip to train for speed for intermediate players that I saw on some old site about tetrifast was to download a metronome and put it on a certain speed. then, try to keep the pace.

that sounds like it would work. the fastest players never take too long on one piece. i used to do similar training in Lockjaw, but with 20G and entry reset lock delay.

[clincher]

For example, a tip to train for speed for intermediate players that I saw on some old site about tetrifast was to download a metronome and put it on a certain speed. then, try to keep the pace. This seems stupid but I think it helped me increase my bpm a little.

Tips like that I would like to see on this forum.

Thats always a good method to train speed but right now I'm more concerned with my downstacking
watching awake play shows me how important it is

[Rosti_LFC]

that sounds like it would work. the fastest players never take too long on one piece. i used to do similar training in Lockjaw, but with 20G and entry reset lock delay.

Seen any videos of Jono? All I remember about is style is that he seems to play with flurries of insane speed punctuated with sizeable pauses.

[jujube]

Seen any videos of Jono? All I remember about is style is that he seems to play with flurries of insane speed punctuated with sizeable pauses.

i think those pauses just seem long by comparison to his quickness most of the time  but yeah, he's a little different from players like Mas, Blink, Caffeine, Digital. he still puts up some mean times anyway. Digital has talked about how he speeds in bursts, but i see that more in his Texmaster Sudden Ti vids than his 40 line vids.

and i've noticed the pauses getting shorter in Jono's more recent vids.

Jono's 2nd run in this video was played at a pretty steady pace:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jono103#play/u...s/1/U1H1AJqbTHQ

[Magnanimous]

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]For example, a tip to train for speed for intermediate players that I saw on some old site about tetrifast was to download a metronome and put it on a certain speed. then, try to keep the pace. This seems stupid but I think it helped me increase my bpm a little.[/quote]
It might be worthwhile to start a thread specifically for "training" tips: I'm sure there are tons of practice exercises like this out there, and they can help just as much as reading veterans' testimonies. (And yes, playing with metronomes is stupid... But I've done the same thing. XD)

And here's another vote for more specific strategy guides, especially detailing the methods of play. (ST Stacking, some of the weirder T-Spin setups...)