The Correct Way to Play Street Fighter

[Maverick]

For those of you old enough to remember, remember how you played some iteration of SFII, whether Turbo or Super, and didn’t give a crap about frame data or what normal or special cancelled into what? Remember how fun the game was because of that??

Yeah, you can make the game fun again for you and for all. Just stop giving a f*** as much. Stop treating the game like there’s a $10,000 dollar reward at the end of each match. Calm down, relax, take things into perspective, and just play the game!

When you study the game like your whole life and self-worth depends on it, you ruin the game not only for yourself in the long term, but for every poor bastard that has the misfortune of encountering you. Being the best you can be at a freaking video game isn’t always a good thing.

Be a kid again! There’s more important skills in life to try to excel at than a fighting game!

[Creepy Internet Guy]

I agree, dude I used to play with my cousins or friends when I was a kid the arcade and no one knew the frames or what "cancelling" was. It used to be so much fun because anyone could win. Now mathematician wanna be's that memorize the frames of 100 moves are the ones that ruin the fun.

[Jaq]

It's a nice thought, but there's no going back to the days when you stood next to an actual human being at an arcade cabinet with 25 cents at risk, and you had to go to the back of the line if you lost. The newer generation will never understand, and it's not their fault. I'm honestly impressed that there's a newer generation of fighting game players at all. Had I been born during this era, I would not be a fighting game fan. Sitting alone in your living room hammering Next Match in frustration sucks. I really miss the days when you had a post-loss cooldown and got to hang out with the other losers waiting their turn and sharing ideas on how to beat the guy with the win streak. I genuinely think I might prefer to lose in an arcade than win online.

[Lysamus]

I absolutely cared about frame data, combos and match-ups back then. I just didn't have the vocabulary for those concepts then that I do now.

I wasn't counting frames in SF II. I was instead noticing quirks like how I could hit the Ryu with my Guile backfist if our fires clashed at close range. I didn't know what a link was, but I knew I could jump kick and sweep someone without them being able to stop me if I landed the first hit. I needed someone to explain what a 7:3 match-up was later in life, but I knew the best thing to do against a Zangief was throw fireballs at him from full screen.

The tech, and appreciation for it, was always there. Primitive, yes. Absent, no.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Lysamus:

I absolutely cared about frame data, combos and match-ups back then. I just didn't have the vocabulary for those concepts then that I do now.

I wasn't counting frames in SF II. I was instead noticing quirks like how I could hit the Ryu with my Guile backfist if our fires clashed at close range. I didn't know what a link was, but I knew I could jump kick and sweep someone without them being able to stop me if I landed the first hit. I needed someone to explain what a 7:3 match-up was later in life, but I knew the best thing to do against a Zangief was throw fireballs at him from full screen.

The tech, and appreciation for it, was always there. Primitive, yes. Absent, no.

I respect that and have no ill will against you, but players like you were the extreme minority back then in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Most players just wanted to master the moves and normals and beat their older brother, friend, or cousin sitting next to them.

This is how we all grew to love Street Fighter and why it survived past the 2000’s. Casuals made Street Fighter be a popular, beloved franchise. But eventually, highly competitive players grabbed hold of it and spoiled it, and the majority of casuals became alienated over time.

Yes, SF still has a large playerbase, but sooo many lovers of the franchise have left, never to return, and not because of age, but because of the overwhelming sweat. The playerbase could be SOOOOO much larger than it is today, but overly-competitive players ruined it.

[Lysamus]

I don't know what most players were like in the 90s. No internet back then for most of us to connect over and only our local arcade or school circles for references. But rest assured, I was not some junior league pro aspirant, but just some kid trying to make my quarters last as long as they could so I wouldn't have to mill around the arcade for too long before my folks picked me up (and while I did love me some Final Fight and its ilk, something about fighting games always called to me).

Lots of people appreciate games their own way I imagine. True, we're not all bloodthirsty killers, but its possible too that the overly-competitive sweatlord across from you (or beside you, as was often the case in my arcades) is just some other kid who worked out that Akuma's air fireball in SSFT is a royal pain to get around.

[Creepy Internet Guy]

Originally posted by Maverick:

Originally posted by Lysamus:

I absolutely cared about frame data, combos and match-ups back then. I just didn't have the vocabulary for those concepts then that I do now.

I wasn't counting frames in SF II. I was instead noticing quirks like how I could hit the Ryu with my Guile backfist if our fires clashed at close range. I didn't know what a link was, but I knew I could jump kick and sweep someone without them being able to stop me if I landed the first hit. I needed someone to explain what a 7:3 match-up was later in life, but I knew the best thing to do against a Zangief was throw fireballs at him from full screen.

The tech, and appreciation for it, was always there. Primitive, yes. Absent, no.

I respect that and have no ill will against you, but players like you were the extreme minority back then in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Most players just wanted to master the moves and normals and beat their older brother, friend, or cousin sitting next to them.

This is how we all grew to love Street Fighter and why it survived past the 2000’s. Casuals made Street Fighter be a popular, beloved franchise. But eventually, highly competitive players grabbed hold of it and spoiled it, and the majority of casuals became alienated over time.

Yes, SF still has a large playerbase, but sooo many lovers of the franchise have left, never to return, and not because of age, but because of the overwhelming sweat. The playerbase could be SOOOOO much larger than it is today, but overly-competitive players ruined it.

Competitive players ruin almost every game, Halo, CoD, Tekken. You name it

[Lysamus]

As an aside, for those panged by nostalgia, I offer you a portal back in time.

https://www.start.gg/

Click Find Events, then Near Me. The door to the past is not closed. It's merely hidden behind the untended shrubbery of abundant online convenience.

[Maverick]

Originally posted by Creepy Internet Guy:

Competitive players ruin almost every game, Halo, CoD, Tekken. You name it

Very true!

[Creepy Internet Guy]

Originally posted by Lysamus:

As an aside, for those panged by nostalgia, I offer you a portal back in time.

https://www.start.gg/

Click Find Events, then Near Me. The door to the past is not closed. It's merely hidden behind the untended shrubbery of abundant online convenience.

Thanks!, Will check it out

[Doc Holiday]

I get what you are saying Mav. The big majority of the players are studying and memorizing their character frame data on Super Combo Wiki, memorizing techs from Discord, Twitter, watching pro players matches non stop etc...
Pretty difficult fighting those guys who dedicate their life to playing this.

[Mr. World]

Originally posted by Doc Holiday:

I get what you are saying Mav. The big majority of the players are studying and memorizing their character frame data on Super Combo Wiki, memorizing techs from Discord, Twitter, watching pro players matches non stop etc...
Pretty difficult fighting those guys who dedicate their life to playing this.

^ This.

Mindset is so different now. And the sources are so easily accessible on internet. Pros making guides day and night. Not necessarily a bad thing but we’re talking about a gen who reads/watches playthrus on their cell/tablet while playing the actual game. Games like those produced by FromSoftware normalised this behaviour as official/necessary, they made them a habit.

And as a result, we have this game that can’t be played intuitively. Shame, because SF was the only fighting game that didn’t rely on nonsensical and arbitrary ‘mechanics’ to be advanced and deep.

[DoDonPachi]

Your entire post is nonsense. Im old enough to remember when fatal fury 1 and sf2 were released, the arcades were super competitive back then. Everyone had some tech to show off or something to brag about. I was the first person in my friend group that could perform a shoryuken consistently and everyone was jealous. The only difference these days is that frame data information and tech are easily accessible so people swat up on it in the exact same way they would have done years ago.

[Peddie]

Most any east coast FG player over 35 has some stories to tell about how hypercompetitive the arcades in NYC were. Similarly in Japan arcades in the cities were highly competitive scenes (albeit with fewer stories of getting followed by the guy you beat after hours), Daigo is, after all, a beast forged in the arcade scene of the time. All that modern fighting games have really done is democratise the information needed to get good.

Even Tokido has said in the past it was really just split between the haves, and the have nots. If you had the frame date, if you knew which attacks were minus on block, you already had a huge advantage over your opponent because you knew what could be punished and what was safe. And now everyone has that information right in the game. They levelled the playing field, and if you choose to not make use of the information provided, well, that's not your opponent's fault now is it?

[MamboRat]

There’s no correct way. This game is ass. U can win without trying or getting locked in

[Wormerine]

It is the nature of games that as they continue to exists people figure them out. SF2 was revolutionary, so it is natural that many players didn't understand how the game works - from what I understand cancelling into supers was more of a happy mistake that devs kept, rather than intentional design. I suspect even devs were discovering a game alongside their audience.

However, there is subset of players for whom figuring the game out and pushing it to the breaking point IS fun - and those players figured out how the games work, and figured out how to play to win. And what they uncovered made it easier for others to get better by imitation.

With an easier access to information, easier access to good players and better tutorialization it is only natural that playerbase as a whole got more efficient in playing the game, if not more creative (I also think SF6 by nature doesn't allow for much creativity).

I honestly get your point - I used to play a lot of RTS very casually and badly with my friends on lan, and playing online VS randos is a very, very different experience. The only suggestion I can make, is that if you can find a group of like minded people you can create a private lobby and have a good, oldfashioned fun unburdened by optimisation and game knowledge. Online, however, you are likely to meet people who will play a competitive game... competitively.