Current Events > Why Are Most People Bad At Fighting Games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

One of my exes watched me play MKX back when we lived together. She was a casual gamer, and wanted to learn fighting games too. She chose Mileena to be her main. She struggled so hard with QCF inputs. I didn't judge her, but at the time, I just couldn't fathom how she couldn't do it. But that's because it's been natural to me since literally the age of 3, and I've been playing fighting games my whole life. I tried to tell her to just roll her thumb over the d-pad to do QCF, but she still couldn't get it.

https://www.psypost.org/2020/04/playing-a-violent-video-game-makes-people-view-themselves-as-a-better-fighter-56386

says people view themselves as better fighters when they win but does not say that it helps.

If someone could show that the time sunk into the game actually makes you a better fighter ...

lennethsoki posted...

Fighting games, however, you lose and it's YOUR fault you lost.

Well, you're not wrong, but sometimes lag can be an absolute issue online because it took forever for Japanese devs to implement rollback into their game.

But for the most part, you're absolutely right. Hence why it's a barrier of entry that a lot of people don't like.

Jupiter posted...

I changed my mind.

@Trickfinger (who apparently turned @ off)

I'm calling you out. Where you at? Hop on the sticks bruh. Pick your poison. I got most fighting games on Steam. Only a few on Playstation and apparently I gave my playstation Tekken 7 to my sister a couple years ago. Explains why I couldn't find it.

It's up to you. Street fighter, KOF, Multiversus, it doesn't matter...

Some people don't have the motor skills to do the complex inputs. Add in 30 years of evolution and progress dedicated primarily for the hardcore and you create the hardest genre of video games to get into.

ForsakenHermit posted...

Add in 30 years of evolution and progress dedicated primarily for the hardcore

Think you've got that backwards. They're been getting more simpler.

Oubliettes posted...

fighting games are the second worst genre of game

What's the first worst?

Trickfinger posted...

Think you've got that backwards. They're been getting more simpler.

And honestly, that's fine. Casual finance the games while competitive players give and extend the life of the games. As long as there is something hard for the competitive players to do while casual players can feel like they're making some progress by dedicating some time to the game, I think you'll have a recipe for a great fighting game.

They're pretty hard, especially when you can get fucked up and not even understand how it happened.

Fighting game tutorials are kinda poorly thought out. They are immediately available for newcomers yet most will binge it in a hour and retain nothing but basic controls.

Finis-XII posted...

What's the first worst?

open world

im terrible at fighting games but i enjoy playing them
when i was a kid my mother owned a laundromat
but she had it set up so you could kill time when doing laundry
there was a couch and cushy chairs with a coffee table in the middle of the room with a tv. set up like a living room so you could watch tv while you wait
she also had a little concession stand where you could buy chips and pop.

but she also had arcade machines
i spent so many quarters playing mortal kombat 2 and i never got good at it
but i did get to the final boss twice
never beat him though
i only got to kintaro like 5 times

it got replaced by mortal kombat 4 and that game was easier than 2
i managed to beat it with every character at least once

Fighting games requires a combination of all the "harder skills" aspects of other game genres for someone to become good.
There's heavy mechanics and execution (for move inputs and combos), need for sharp reflexes and reaction times, technical knowledge of the game (so you need to study the game also), and strong mental fortitude.

But we all played fighting games easily as kids. How come grown men be acting scared of doing some inputs

@crayola555 bro?

I get bored, regardless if im winning or losing, of fighting games fast......

Trickfinger posted...

But we all played fighting games easily as kids. How come grown men be acting scared of doing some inputs

Because when i was a kid i thought i was good at them. As an adult i know im bad and dont care to learn them or even enjoy them anymore.

Lairen posted...

I get bored, regardless if im winning or losing, of fighting games fast......

Lairen posted...

Because when i was a kid i thought i was good at them. As an adult i know im bad and dont care to learn them or even enjoy them anymore.

Quitter mindset imo

What makes you "bad"?

they are hard and terrible at teaching the player themselves beyond the absolute basics. even the best ones in the genre are pretty bad.

that being said, love em to death

Most fighting games are rock paper scissors, retreat bait fake

Most new players I find are basically just trying to walk up and start punching, which doesn't usually work tbh. No bait. No rock paper scissors. No classic cheese. A lot of fighting games have regular attacks you can and should ignore because they aren't effective at all basically as a main means of dishing out damage. So, they try weak kicks or punches, dont know the specials or how to do like low attack spam or grab spam. On top of that, when they get hit they stop trying to dodge or block, or they give up, and they get it in their heads it's a matter of reaction time when in reality they need to keep trying jump+back or block/breaker until they get out of the combo and THEN you can react to punish the opponent while they're punching at the air basically because you moved while they were attacking. It gets more complicated like with cancels or parry, but fundamentally I don't think reaction time is a factor much at all and that's really the big first lesson a player needs to learn to get good.

That being said, I don't think most people suck. You fight a vet, you lose. That's almost any game.

Trickfinger posted...

But we all played fighting games easily as kids. How come grown men be acting scared of doing some inputs

Most of us didn't git gud as kids, is the thing. There wasn't online mode or tutorials or anything, just friendly locals on your couch, and so learning something simple was usually enough to be good relative to your competition.

Online exposed everyone to the truth of git gud, though.

Most people aren't wannabe pros who put countless hours into the game.

Xethuminra posted...

That being said, I don't think most people suck. You fight a vet, you lose. That's almost any game.

I wouldn't necessarily call it a vet thing The barrier for entry into "not getting instantly rekt" can be solved in a few days with some tutoring, but it's not easily solved on your own. The progress/time ratio is very nonlinear.

Being able to recognize your opponent's tendencies, their attack & defense patterns, and knowing just what they are or are not capable of.... is helpful too.

- knowing the rules of Rock Paper Scissors (water beats fire, so and so attacks have invincibility, etc)
- recognizing that your opponent momentarily forgot that your special meter is fully charged, or that you can teleport instead of exchanging projectiles
- honing in on what attacks your opponent is just having fun with ("mixing it up") vs which attacks are actually causing you to lose to them

Etc

Like, I just don't learn long combos. If you ever wanna beat me in a fighting game, learn those 40%\60% HP-draining combos, and how to be real cheap with pulling them off, because I try to "play fair" by leaving openings too, and I'm essentially toast. Some people don't recognize how to do that. Everyone has a weakness outside of E-sports or other high level play. When the going gets tough in MK, for example, I'll just spam uppercut or sweep or grab or whatever as my way of "comboing", which is absolutely deadly to a newbie or low level computer opponent. If you don't have those combos or adequate spam yourself, it's game over.

Guide posted...

I wouldn't necessarily call it a vet thing The barrier for entry into "not getting instantly rekt" can be solved in a few days with some tutoring, but it's not easily solved on your own. The progress/time ratio is very nonlinear.

I agree. There's a few things wrong with that post.

Example: block+forward jump can be way more effective than block+backwards jump if you wanna get behind your opponent like I was trying to describe! Hahaha