How to read people like a book in any game #1: Inductive Reasoning

In any game, whether it be Soccer, Street Fighter 2, Chess or League of Legends, the art of predicting your opponents movements is a vital skill. In fighting game terminology, we call this YOMI, which is a Japanese term that David Sirlin (a game designer) defines as “knowing the mind of your opponent.”

Before I teach you how exactly to figure out your best friends every single move, let’s clearly define what Yomi is and what it isn’t.

What Yomi is:
– reading one step ahead of your opponent’s predictions
– tricking your opponent to fall for a different move than what you intend
– trial and error: testing your opponents and learning
– adapting: always figuring out where your opponent is going to be and the best move in each situation
– a skill that requires intelligence and patience

What Yomi isn’t
– psychic mind reading
– super fast reflexes allowing you to react to any situation
– detailing the moves of your opponent four to five steps ahead, then writing an entire strategy guide to counter them
– a bribe where you ask your opponent what moves they like best

So now that we’ve defined what Yomi is and isn’t, let’s move on to actually practicing it. You can practice Yomi by using the techniques that I will be describing in these series of articles. However, before we get into these techniques, there is another element in Yomi. They are the three layers of Yomi listed down below:

Layer 1. Reaction (opponent reads me correctly/incorrectly and goes up to level 2 by performing a counter. eg. Trevin will block, so I will throw him)
Layer 2. Reaction to Reaction (I read my opponent reading me and I counter his counter. eg. Robert thinks I’m gonna block, so I’m gonna punch him when he tries to throw me)
Layer 3. Reaction to Reaction to Reaction (opponent reads me reading him reading me and he counters my counter with a counter. eg. Trevin thinks that I’m gonna throw him, so he’s gonna try and punch me in the face. I’ll respond by blocking.)
Layer 4+. Often not shown in games since it just becomes way too complicated, so Yomi Layer 4 becomes Yomi Layer 1.

Most techniques can be used in any level. One of the most basic techniques I’ll talk about now lies instinctively in every human and that is inductive reasoning.

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning is the process of coming up with a conclusion based on a numerous amount of events that have happened before. For example, let us say that I am undergoing a test where I try to figure out whether a Red Panda will attack you or not if you tap it on the head. If I tap the Red Panda on the head five times and it attacks me every time, Inductive Reasoning concludes that every time you tap a Red Panda on the head, it will attack you. 🙁

In a game, you would then use this knowledge to come up with an appropriate counter. Let’s use basketball as another example. “Every time Bryan has the ball, he has the tendency to pass to Robert.” In this example, you would use this conclusion derived from Inductive Reasoning to position yourself between Bryan and Robert to block the pass. Congratulations! You’ve hit the first layer of Yomi.

How does this work with Yomi? The application of Inductive Reasoning, which is deriving a conclusion and countering it appropriately, is most commonly seen in the first layer of Yomi. However, your opponents are human beings too – they can apply inductive reasoning to your reasoning and counter that, which leads into the second layer of Yomi. This can continue on until the third level of Yomi, in which it stops there since most games won’t support another layer of Yomi, and it loops back into a circle where the fourth layer of Yomi is the first layer.

Remember that all levels of Yomi are progressive (or at least you should approach them progressively) – use Inductive Reasoning to read your enemy before continuing on to try and counter your enemy’s counter, lest you be countered by yourself. We’ll talk about this in the next article. Inductive Reasoning is a very basic skill that many people forget to use, but a very vital one since people have the tendency to repeat the same actions, so try it out next time you see that noob Bryan get the ball.

In conclusion, Yomi is simply the skill of knowing what your opponent will do next. To achieve this skill, you can use other technique such as Inductive Reasoning which is what I have just explained. The practice of reading your opponents is quite complicated so if you have any questions, ask them in the comments. PEACE, OUT!

For more information on Yomi, you can check out David Sirlin’s article here:

Photo Credits:
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/288643-mind-blown
http://memegenerator.net/You-Just-Activated-My-Trap-Card/images/new/alltime/page/4