Do you find that other people’s maps look… smoother? Like they build the same jumps and transitions, and yet when you play them it just seems like on their map the same block combinations just work better? If so, you may be a wheel watcher.
The concept here is that when you are playing a map you are looking at where you are going, and when you are building a map and making jumps and transitions you are looking at the car. This means that you are less likely to notice small bumps or wobbles while you are driving, compared to mapping or watching a video and staring at the wheels of the car. This, at least according to the wheel watcher theory, means that you are more likely to see your own maps as bumpier and other people’s maps as smoother.
Now, even though I know this, I am still just as much of a perfectionist when it comes to landings. Even so, I think it is useful to understand the biases at play here and know that your perception may be warped. In some cases you may want to realize that what you built actually drives perfectly fine and you’re just being a wheel watcher.
Perspective can trick us into believing things are slightly different from how they are in reality, don’t forget that. It comes up time and time again even in trackmania.
More: TM Theory