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InfiniteSpark

I'm an idiot.

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The Longest Grind EX 01 - A Personal Fight

I have been at my current job for over seven years. Each year presents its own set of challenges. One challenge remains the same, is how to make processes shorter and more productive. In short, how can we make the process “efficient?” Efficiency has different meanings to different processes. At my job, I am given the task to evaluation all current responsibilities that I have and see if there are any ways to make it more efficient. Time is money, so I have to see if there are any areas in the long process that can be shortened or skipped over that in turn the produce can be produced faster in a shorter amount of time. It’s like taking a bunch of stuff from the top and pushing it through a filter and funnel. The end product is the process at its most efficient, the shortest process that I can utilize to produce the product numerous times over in a short period of time.

Being efficient at another thing, such as video games, is a different story altogether. Some games thrive by doing a few things well, while others showcase their greatness by showing how grand their game is. Within a particular game, there are numerous mechanics the player must account for as he/she makes their progress in said game. However, what I found in games that even finding the most efficient way to progress from point A to point B takes some time. Patience and creativity are encouraged and enforced for players to see what methods they employ to get through the game. We have speedrunners who specialize on completing games as fast as possible, but they probably had to do a lot of research with assistance with fellow runners on how to finish the game as fast as they can. That takes time.

I was inspired to write the new blog post after going through a tough stretch of work (which I’m still going through) against playing a bit of Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late last weekend. I had fun the times I played UNiEL against my friends offline in my house and against a few Giant Bombers online. At first glance, the game seems to play similar to other anime air-dasher fighters in the genre, but after getting in a few bouts, UNiEL is a completely different beast than all the other air-dasher games I’ve played to date. In fact, the game doesn’t have an air-dash like the ones featured in Arc System Works’ games. You can propel forward in the air, but you won’t go back and forth in a horizontal like in P4A, GG, or BB. Plus it’s pretty dangerous to be constantly jumping in the air in UNiEL.

That’s the least of my frustrations in UNiEL. The first tough lesson that I had to learn is getting to know the full ins-and-outs of my own character: her normals, specials, supers, combos/strings, hurtbox, etc. The next lesson is to learn the numerous gameplay mechanics of the game and mesh utilizing those mechanics with the knowledge of my character’s gameplay. Following up is learning how the other cast of characters work. What do their normals, specials, supers, combos/strings look like and how I can properly react to what they do? Of course, the biggest learning lesson is to see how other folks play their respective characters. What are the player’s tenancies with their character and what can I do with my character to counteract? It’s a ton of information to digest.

I found it fascinating and frustrating on how my many hours of work doing everything in my power to trimming processes down to its essential, while trying to expand my mind in learning a lot of the ins-and-outs of fighting games in the hours I feel happy enough to spend whatever free time I have available. It’s been tough for me mentally to grasp more of what I’ve already learned in the few hours I spent in UNiEL. My job has been pretty exhausting lately (April to May, after July 4 to now) and I have not been able to fully enjoy my time with UNiEL lately (and all fighting games this year).

There’s a lot that I had to learn at my workplace. It took me a long time to learn the numerous programs, company policies, and other crazy things that the company’s business entails. It was tough essentially getting thrown into the fire, constantly making mistakes, frustrating co-workers, vendors, and clients alike. Even though I have fine-tuned much of the processes over the years, learning to trust and communicate much more with my co-workers, became comfortable in talking things over with vendors and clients who are both happy and unhappy, and other related things, it’s been hard to keep up with everything without getting frustrated over something or just completely exhausted. Yet, there’s still a ton of processes that I can do that I can still fork over and find something to make it shorter/efficient.

I have not been quite able to fully grasp myself in fighting games ever since I found my rekindled interest a few years ago. It’s not the lack of available time that’s getting me frustrated, I constantly find myself clashing against my constant work mentality of wanting a short combos/quick, general information and fighting against exhaustion and stress. I find myself amazed in watching friends and competitive players play at such a tremendous level that they’re at, even though they all have their personal challenges to overcome. A part of me wants to continue forth, break through the walls of malaise, and feel that I can play this game with some competency.

Take for example a combo notation of the character I currently chosen to play in UNiEL, Orie.

236[B] > 3B > 4C > 623A > 5A > 5C > j.B > j.C > 3B > 214B > 2C > 4C > 214B

I would go into training mode to see how far I can get. I can already tell you at my current state that I would rarely complete this combo string in its entirety. Once I easily get frustrated, I look to see if there’s a portion of the combo string that I can constantly do that’s short, safe, and that I can constantly utilize at will. At work, this may be positive because I cut the steps that take up too much time and found a combo that’s short, east-to-use, and use constantly. In fighting games, taking a shortcut may not be efficient because maybe the string I chose isn’t safe to use at all. Not to mention that I’m missing out on a lot of damage to inflict on my opponent just because I chose to only do a portion of the combo.

Hell, that’s only one combo from a number of different combos that players have found and confirmed to use with Orie. There are numerous combos that Orie can use depending on the first attack that connects, down to positioning and use of meter. It’s not only a challenge for me to learn and successfully the noted combos in training mode, but another challenge to know what combos and strings I can utilize in the heat of battle.

That only scratches the surface in fighting games. Even a fighting game that eases the barrier of difficulty, such as Persona 4 Arena, has a ton of things under the hood that many people not in-tune with fighting games will miss. I never knew that Chie and Yu had strong okizeme games that are pinnacle to their success, or that Naoto and a SMP loop that inflicts tons of damage if the player can successfully can perform said loop. Each fighting game has a ton of things in watching high-level play that may not seem apparent to the naked eye. The goal of defeating your opponent remains the same; the means of doing so are numerous.

In spite of my own personal frustrations, I still find a lot of like in fighting games, both as a player and a spectator of the sport. I have grown a deeper sense of appreciation of what fighting games presents to the table. It’s awesome to see the community continue to grow and celebrate their biggest passion of their lives. The recent Evolution tournament held last month (July 2014) is the prime example of what makes fighting games so great. It’s awesome that Patrick reached out to Luffy, this year’s Ultra Street Fighter 4 EVO champion, to get a perspective of how he managed to overcome thousands of other competitors to win. In every game, there are tons of videos shared on Youtube, tons of major, local, and online tournaments streamed on Twitch, and websites dedicated communities that have tons on information on all the current fighting games available.

Both my job and fighting games take a lot out of me in different ways.

On one hand, I work a ton of hours to tackle a lot of responsibilities that must be taken care of in a short matter of time. No one step in the process must take longer than it should. Every one of my co-workers is tasked in getting multiple responsibilities done not only quickly, but as accurately as possible. Our company strives in getting our clients the best engineering services done quickly with the best quality of work in that short-time span, potentially saving our clients tons of money in other aspects of a construction project.

On the other hand, tons of hours are dedicated in gathering a ton of intelligence on the entire game at hand through the use of personal training, challenging folks (via tournaments, gathering, online), and utilizing intel provided by folks and the internet to mold your own fighter persona. It’s completely different from taking a ton of different things and making them into their own little printing presses. Instead, it’s taking everything that the game provides, sprinkling in lessons and tools learned from others and yourself, and blossoming that chunk of knowledge into your own. It can be trimmed at certain aspects, but nonetheless you’re still gathering a lot of information almost every time.

I will do my best to find the time to personally put forth more personal effort into being a more competent fighter. I realize it’s a challenge that’s not going to be easy to tackle, but I want to at least provide something to the folks I have come across and befriended during my time here in Giant Bomb through fighting games. It’s the least I could do for them to bring me in and constantly provide me with support as much as possible.

However, if I fail to reach that personal goal to be a competent fighter against my peers, then I hope that I do not lose my sight for the biggest product that video games have provided for all this time, FUN. As long as I can have fun playing games not only with others, but for myself, then I can get by being a fighting game amateur forever. As long as it’s fun.

Because there are challenges outside of the formidable challenges of fighting games that need my attention much more. That includes my own well-being, physically and mentally.

Thank you for spending some of your time reading my blog post.

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