Street Fighter IV is an amazing game, it could be the game to bring back the fighting game genre back to it's former glory. But for me it's possibly one of the worst kind of games, not because it sucks because, again, it's an amazing game, but because it's also hard to get a handle on. Especially online, it doesn't matter whether or not you know how to do combos or all of the characters special moves because without knowing when to do those combos or special moves it's all useless. To me the split between the mind games and the actual fighting in a game like SFIV is something like 60/40. Figuring out ways to make openings in your opponent by faking him out or predicting what they'll do is what separates the good players from the bad. In the same vein, switching up your style so your opponent can't figure you out is also something essential to being good. These kinds of things you cant really learn from the single player or some mode in the game. The only thing you can do is play. Play as many matches online or with your friends and if you lose learn why and bring that into you next match.

So while I learn why I'm losing all the time I want to suggest something to those that feel like blaming the game or the person that decided to pick Ken. Think about what just happened, did your opponent just spam an attack? Then think about how you can get around it. Did he turtle? Think about how to get him out of his shell. Was he able to constantly pull combos and just dominate you? Think about how he was able to open you up to attacks and maybe you'll fair better next time. These are the kind of things that can't be taught.

So what makes SFIV the worst kind game? It's so good but so very frustrating.

Street Fighter IV is an amazing game, it could be the game to bring back the fighting game genre back to it's former glory. But for me it's possibly one of the worst kind of games, not because it sucks because, again, it's an amazing game, but because it's also hard to get a handle on. Especially online, it doesn't matter whether or not you know how to do combos or all of the characters special moves because without knowing when to do those combos or special moves it's all useless. To me the split between the mind games and the actual fighting in a game like SFIV is something like 60/40. Figuring out ways to make openings in your opponent by faking him out or predicting what they'll do is what separates the good players from the bad. In the same vein, switching up your style so your opponent can't figure you out is also something essential to being good. These kinds of things you cant really learn from the single player or some mode in the game. The only thing you can do is play. Play as many matches online or with your friends and if you lose learn why and bring that into you next match.

So while I learn why I'm losing all the time I want to suggest something to those that feel like blaming the game or the person that decided to pick Ken. Think about what just happened, did your opponent just spam an attack? Then think about how you can get around it. Did he turtle? Think about how to get him out of his shell. Was he able to constantly pull combos and just dominate you? Think about how he was able to open you up to attacks and maybe you'll fair better next time. These are the kind of things that can't be taught.

So what makes SFIV the worst kind game? It's so good but so very frustrating.

I pretty much agree with you. A good comparison I think is PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) which may not be a game that a lot of people outside Europe play. It has the same great gameplay quality as street fighter, but sometimes it's so frustrating you want to rip the controller into tiny little pieces. However you don't, and the next day you play again, score a great goal (it's a soccer game) and forget all abot how annoying it can be :)

i played a french man that was so pissed off with the way i played that he sent me a message (ps3 player here) and once i got it across that i was English, he was all to happy to swear at me in a language i can understand, it basically went like this "stop the hadoken fucker mother. you understand or not"  i then explained that he could beat me if he played better and i then got "fuck you is bad you play with adoken only. is easy" i followed up with stop crying and get better and i got this... "ched up i dont understaed mother fucker suck obama sausage" (all sp's left in of course)

that is the type of person i dont want to fight because they just assume they should win, now i use my tatics until i lose and then its time to realise what it was i was doing wrong, i played someone who was great with Ken, i soon realised that kens dragon uppercut (or whatever its propperly called) has priority over akumas 3 hit fireball, so i have to make sure not to be too close when i am throwing it out for his get up but close enough at the same time for him to assume he can reach with it... when you find a fighter of similar level its great because its always close and your always thinking but if the other person is levels ahead of you, it makes you want to crush the pad into millions of pieces or smash a desk...