Being able to make quick adjustments to stimuli is "twitch" gaming. I've never considered it much of a skill especially due to the fact that human beings will continue to get worse at it no matter how much they practice. (Aging is a bitch) If we were to say that twitch gaming takes skill, then quick-time events would be the pinnacle of that skill.
It's not skill because you get worse at it with age? What? You realize Joe Louis got worse with age, right? Pretty much every learned "skill" deteriorates with age. If worsening with age precludes skill, then skill doesn't exist. Being good at soccer isn't a skill? Marksmanship isn't a skill? This point is incredibly inane.
And where did I say that twitch-reflexes are the
only kind of skill? It isn't, but in a real time game, reacting in real time is pretty damn important. Certainly, quick time events, take a kind of skill. Being able to keep rhythm and react quickly in say DDR, which is essentially a giant QTE, is a skill. I didn't and wouldn't say that they are the epitome of it, though, largely because it's an entirely different category of activity. Just like being good at Chess, almost an entirely mental exercise, and being good at, say, Starcraft, one that combines physical ("twitch") and mental aspects, are both skills. One isn't more skillful than the other, they are different activities.
It's not so much a skill as how fast the different systems in your body can work together. It can be trained to a degree, the more you see a certain event the more your brain recognized the signs of that event and can prepare. But really, that's just a sharpening of our built in fight-or-flight response. Not really a skill. It's also something you can improve through artificial means. You can get a better surface for your mouse, you can purchase a better mouse, you can adjust your mouse's latency. All these things will improve your reaction times without any development on your end.
You just described pretty much every physical activity ever. You know, like soccer, tennis, rugby, baseball, archery -activities that are universally recognized as involving skill. Just because you can buy a better tennis racket doesn't mean that tennis doesn't take skill. And like it or not, video games involve physically manipulating controls in real time.
Timing, being able to read your opponents, knowing the capabilities of your tools and how best to use them...those are skills. Those are things that you can always improve and apart from getting dementia, you're not really going to get worse at it.
Being able to use that knowledge when it matters is what's skillful. More options and faster paced gameplay puts a strain on the player, he has to really know his shit to be able to utilize what you mentioned when the pressure is on. More options/speed, more pressure, more opportunities for skill to shine through. Anyone can read their opponent when they have the luxury of time. I think the word you used, "timing," is fairly illuminating. It is harder and takes much more refinement to time things when you yourself have limited time.
You can make up for poor gameplay just by having good reflexes. Honestly the slower this game gets, the MORE skill you need to beat a good opponent. At that point if you lose, it's because they are better than you or you made a mistake. It's not because of things like latency (which has a HUGE effect especially when the game is sped up) or the fact that some 12 year old has a faster reaction time than you do.
Actually this really is starting to sound like, "I'm a tactical genius, I'm only losing (to 12 year olds apparently), because they are faster than me." Um, if you think having faster reflexes than someone is somehow illegitimate and not part of "gameplay," well, maybe real time games aren't what you want. I don't know, that sounds kind of mean, but I really can't wrap my head around complaining about someone having better reflexes than you in a category of activity that is explicitly reflex driven. You can't be better than someone, but only lose because they are faster than you.
I will leave this thread with a video of Joe Louis. He was "slow" as far as boxers go...but god damn did that guy know how to fight. Skill trumps twitch any day of the week.
Jesus Christ what is this shit? Do you actually box or follow boxing? Did you watch the video you posted? As far as heavyweights go Joe Louis was incredibly fast, his handspeed was the hallmark of his style. He had a regimented, shuffling advance in early rounds but he's an archetypal small, fast heavyweight. He could TRIPLE up on left hooks, and throw them with power. Yes, he was incredibly solid technically too, but he was goddamn fast. In his heyday he was often hailed as the fastest heavyweight in the world. Faster (and not by much) fighters have come and gone since then, but it blows my mind that you would bring up the Brown Bomber as a slow boxer.