Do you "game better" when you aren't thinking about it and your mind is elsewhere?

Yah, usually if I zone out I'll do better. It's most obvious when I'm playing a racing game like Forza.

Needs an "undecided" option. Mainly because I haven't really thought about it.

Sometimes, yes.  Especially when I'm playing shmups.  I'll kind of intentionally zone out almost as if I'm looking past the screen, and then I find myself dodging all those bullets with uncanny ease.

No, I need to concentrate if i'm doing something tricky.

I chose "Nope" but I suppose I should have chose "Sometimes...".  It depends on the game.  If it's an RPG, I'll definitely need to think about what I'm doing.  If it's a fighting game, sometimes I zone out and the timing for combos and stuff just comes naturally.  I dunno, weird.

Yeah, I do. I've always found it interesting how that works.

I don't see how the lack of focus can make me play games any better.

I don't need to focus while playing a game.  I'm just that damn good.

When it's something incredibly tedious that I've done numerous times beforehand, my mind starts to drift and I play on "auto-pilot."

No way. I don't even bother with online games unless I know I'm ready to give it my all.  And I'm so OCD about playing single-player games that I have to pay attention to every single line of dialogue.

It depends.  I need to focus when playing something like Street Fighter, but I'm a lot better at Rock Band if my mind is elsewhere and while my hands/eyes do the work.

'Splosion Man, once I'd completed Hardcore and stopped staring at the screen not blinking for minutes on end and then relaxed - it flows.

I really really do. Dunno why, but having an interesting conversation with someone while racing or whatever improves my performance.  
 
Also my best game of DoDonPachi was on a crappy laptop in a car ride. I was just dicking around with it, and I beat half of it on one quarter. 

There is definitely something to be said about going back to a section with a fresh mind, fresh hands, and fresh insight. There has been times where I will fail at something 30 times, come back the next day and one shot the thing.

" Yah, usually if I zone out I'll do better. It's most obvious when I'm playing a racing game like Forza. "

I often play racing games to relax and just zone out and let my hands do the thinking. It depends on the game honestly. Braid takes a lot of concentration for me, but I can get through most any part of Peggle by just firing the ball where my hands think the ball should go. Games like Call of Duty or Gears of War take a lot of concentration, but something more simple like Doom I can play without much thought. So sometimes is the obvious answer for me.

If we're talking about girls, then yeah, I do game better when I start to not give a shit about how pretty they are and stuff. 
 
If we're talking about video games, it depends. Sometimes I can get into a trance, and I find that it makes me a way better player, since I'm blocking out absolutely everything else in my life. Other times, if I just dick around on a game, I'd find myself passing a part that I was stuck on.

" I don't see how the lack of focus can make me play games any better. "

" @Snail said:

" I don't see how the lack of focus can make me play games any better. "

Not necessarily the lack of focus, but the fact you leave your decisions to your reflexes, rather than thinking about them.  "

I play best when I'm thinking about the game, but not too much.  If I'm too distracted or my mind is totally elsewhere I play worse.
 
Best is thinking of the game, but not thinking about how I'm playing the game.

I play rts.
So... no.

well, it works the best on driving games, kinda like real life....

It really depends on the game.  Some games are more instinctual and allow for some auto-pilot, but other games are more about strategy and thinking through your actions.

I completely zoned out while playing Forza earlier. Was in cruise control.