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Reading people

Spotting the habit before the move.

Play anyone at Street Fighter II enough and you learn them. They always jump in after a fireball. They throw when they are cornered. They panic after losing a round. Good players are not faster; they are better at watching.

Every two-player game is a crash course in reading another human being.

Train it on purpose

  1. Spend a whole round just watching your opponent. Do not try to win it. Name their habit.
  2. After a match, tell your mate what you think their habit is. See if you were right.
  3. Notice your own tells. Everyone has them.

Off the couch

This is the big one. Knowing when someone is bored, keen, nervous or done with the conversation is most of what makes a person good to be around. Most blokes are too busy waiting for their turn to talk. Watch first, then speak, and you will be better at dates, better at work and better at spotting when a mate needs a hand.

Sources

  1. Goffman, E. (1961). Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction ('Fun in Games').

Games that train it

Baseball coverBaseball
With two players the duel between pitcher and batter is real, quick and readable. You learn your mate's habits within a few innings.Bomberman II coverBomberman II
Battle Mode with three players and a Four Score, last Bomberman standing. Your mates have habits: one always rushes, one always hides in a corner.Castlevania II: Simon's Quest coverCastlevania II: Simon's Quest
Some villagers lie, even in the Japanese original. Working out who to trust is part of the game.Double Dragon coverDouble Dragon
Mode B is a one-on-one fighter with bigger sprites. Pick Billy or one of five enemies and duel a mate.Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Kōkeisha - Zenpen coverFamicom Tantei Club: Kieta Kōkeisha - Zenpen
A feuding family, a village ghost story and a growing body count. Any villager might be lying, and the game rewards whoever listens properly.Final Fantasy VI coverFinal Fantasy VI
Fourteen characters join for good, each with their own reasons. Locke steals, Celes absorbs spells, and every one of them is carrying something.Harvest Moon coverHarvest Moon
Behind the chores runs a slower goal: getting to know the villagers and courting one of the women in town. After dark only the bar is open, where the regulars gather to talk.Hogan's Alley coverHogan's Alley
Three cardboard cut-outs spin to face you, some gangsters, some ordinary people. Shoot an innocent and it counts against you, so you're reading faces in a split second.Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball coverKen Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
Against a friend, the bent pitches make the duel. Every mate has a favourite pitch when he's in trouble.Killer Instinct coverKiller Instinct
There are no rounds, just two health bars, so you get one long look at how your rival plays. Every combo breaker comes down to guessing when he'll start his auto-combo.Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! coverMike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Every opponent has tells: a twitch, a flash, a wind-up. Read it, dodge or duck, then punish.Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures coverPac-Man 2: The New Adventures
You never control Pac-Man, just a slingshot. His mood is the puzzle: too sad and he sulks, too happy and he gets cocky and stops listening.Pro Wrestling coverPro Wrestling
The referee has to run to the pin, so a pin on the far side buys your opponent time. The good player watches where his mate drags the fight and why.R.B.I. Baseball coverR.B.I. Baseball
The pitcher-batter duel is the whole thing. Against a mate, you learn whether he always swings at the first pitch.Star Ocean coverStar Ocean
Private Actions split the party in town so you find each member alone, and what happens shifts how they feel about each other, right through to the ending.Street Fighter II: The World Warrior coverStreet Fighter II: The World Warrior
The moment two players learn each other's habits, it gets as tense as it ever was. Every Guile has a favourite sonic boom pattern.Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting coverStreet Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
With a friend who talks a big game, you'll spot their favourite Chun-Li Kikoken or Blanka roll within a round.Super Bomberman 2 coverSuper Bomberman 2
In Battle Mode the other three players have habits: who chases, who hides, who goes for power-ups. Spot them and you outlast them.Super Punch-Out!! coverSuper Punch-Out!!
Every fighter has a tell. The shoulder twitch or the grunt before the big swing, and once you've spotted it the next bout goes differently.Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers coverSuper Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
The speed came back down to Champion Edition pace, so you actually have time to see what's coming. Use it to watch the person on the other pad.Super Tennis coverSuper Tennis
Against a friend, two good players can trade points for minutes. Whoever spots the other's favourite shot first usually breaks the rally.Tecmo Bowl coverTecmo Bowl
Four plays, and on defence you guess which one he picked. Right and the line collapses; wrong and someone's off to the end zone.Urban Champion coverUrban Champion
High and low, that's the whole system. Hit high when he guards low and low when he guards high, which against a second player is a guessing game with a real person.Zelda II: The Adventure of Link coverZelda II: The Adventure of Link
Armoured knights shift their shields to match your stance, so every duel is a small reading contest. High or low, and he's watching you too.