Levelling Up of a Noob.

Level 1:pa·thet·ic (puh-thet-ik) - adjective - miserably or contemptibly inadequate.

That’s me when I started playing Modern Warfare 2 – PATHETIC!  MW2 was the first FPS I really attempted to play and stick with. See, I had MW1 and
WAW before this, but never really got past the first two missions in the
single player campaign. Button controls were confusing and intimidating (what? I
have to use R1, L1 AND L3 at the same time just to kill a single person? With
a button combination like that to be completed in a split second - life or
death moment - I should be rewarded a game victory, not a single kill!). Maybe
I got sucked into the MW2 hype, maybe it was all those visits to my friend’s
house playing split screen and all the fun we had. I think it was playing with
friends that made me stick with this one. That, and the fact that no way would
his wife let us go to his house every weekend and take up their TV and
my wife would never let me go out every weekend to play video games, so we were forced to go online.

Level 2: Suck (suhk) - noun - to be bad or undesirable

After several weeks of online play and finishing the way-too-short solo
campaign, I achieved my personal best and leveled up to just plain SUCK! At least I was no longer pathetic. By now I was not only playing online with my friends, I was playing with complete strangers with no friends online. This was a big step for me – playing with strangers. These guys, or rather kids (some sound like 12 year old, smack talking, southern sounding boys trying to fit that one last game in before the street lights came on and they’re forced to finish their homework.) were good, nay, excellent. Well, at least compared to me, they were. How did they get this good? Did they have lives? (Probably not) Did they go to school? (Jury’s is still out there) How did they get so good and level up so quickly? And most importantly, why were they up so late? After several weeks, my friends and I started to make a regular date of Friday nights to play online. This, no pressure to
perform well, environment, would be perfect to hone my skills.<

Level 3: Ad·e·quate (ad-i-kwat) - adjective -  as much or as good as necessary for some requirement or purpose; fully sufficient, suitable, or fit

Welcome to adequate! That’s where I reside. How can I tell after playing for
several more weeks? I can still remember the one game I played (no friends
present) online, where I had the highest kill count of both teams, a low death
count, the highest score on both teams (got myself an MVP kudos from the game)
and I had a career high kill streak of 5 kills! Since then, I have never
achieved this again (note to self: start playing at 4am where I can be sure that
the best have all gone to bed in anticipation of a grade 8 pop quiz the next
morning) and may never again. But, I know what I am capable of (besides a high
death count)…adequate success. These days, I typically average a couple more
deaths than kills, but it’s getting better. I have learned to keep moving and
hide around objects when bullets starts flying in my direction (not always with
success, mind you), which will really helps me bring my B-game to the arena.

What’s next for me? One of these days I will be able to inform my teammate of a danger prior to his death as I strive for Level 4 : “performing well”.