New to the forum. I've been shooting both and frankly the game/winning aspect is irrelevant to me. My goal is to be able to draw my carry gun and hit a target with a modicum of speed and accuracy. The crucial personal rules are for me to not cover anybody with my gun, load and aim safety, reholster safely. The nuances of power factors and modified gamer guns - my guns are close to my carry guns and my ammo is practice ammo that is close to carry in terms of recoil. My holster is a workable carry holster carried on my belt that I can use on real world pants. The USPSA competition holsters are convenient if I had a gamer rig but I use a carry holster and realistic mag pouch.
The USPSA track meet aspect is not for me. Planning reloads and dropping mags with ammo is not real world so I don't think that 'problem solving' has any relevance to me. Getting Cs because my As are too slow - millisecond difference that probably won't change a fight. A bad hit will. The IDPA fault line, when to reload - stationary or on the move - that depends on the fight. In a fight, I will take cover has trained in classes that for that sort of thing. I will follow the game rules but they are stupid. Anybody with real world experience would think they are situationally dependent and you should be able to handle what works. Thus, they are just a game annoyance. Recalling the tactical reload stupidity vs. retention - when has this ever made a difference. In the vast majority of fights, the UPSPA planning your reload stream doesn't happen. You don't know where you opponents are. You would be a fool to attempt the complex tac reload under real stress. Shoot to slide lock and reload - that's probably real.
Anyway, I shoot for fun AND to get to the core of facing a target, drawing and hitting it well. Safety counts. Everything else is angles on the head of pin for gamers. Tell me the rules so I can shoot the targets and try to improve relevant aspects of shooting.