Out of my videogame social circle, I've always been the fighting game nut. Not fanatic, but I've always loved a good brawler, probably because I'm not the most physically intimidating person myself. Anyway., I've wondered why I'm able to still wiling to hop into Super Street fighter 4 online yet tire/get frustrated quickly by other online modes of games..
First, , I figured that since i enjoyed the genre and had a jobby-job which provided a disposable income, I would break fom tradition and switch from a pad to an arcade stick. mind you I had very little hands on experience playing fighteres in the arcades with sticks, so it was a big change. I figured i could use the window between Super Street fighter 4 and marvel vs Capcom 3's release to practice. I'm certainly not an elitetist who looks down upon anyone who still plays on a pad (i still play MvC3 with a pad). But there's no denying a sticks two key advantages. The first is that it eliminates the 'fighting game thumb', so its more comfortable to play. But it also elimates 1P bias, meaning only being able to consistently do a dragon punch motion or other tricky motion inputs to the right. Being able to to do compliacated motions in both directions really opens up your strategy play book and allows you to truly take advantage of your fighters abilities.
Second, I started going to eventhubs.com and iplaywinner.com to look at their character guides. Now they are far from the only fighting game sites with guides, but i feel their content is the most beginner friendly, without pre-requisite knowledge of fighting game jargon like frame advantage and option selects. also they do a good job of highlighting and explaining the concepts of overhead attacks and EX moves, which are necessary to get beginners to stick around longer than the first couple of inevitable defeats from veterans. Things like knowing which attacks circumvent crouching-blocking to overcome turtling players and also knowing the ex properties of a special move allowing you to absorb fireballs or have a high priority wake up attack is paramount. So i started going through the sites and reading what players -Not instruction manuals - used and it was an immeasurable help. And thats when the true depth of Street figter and hence the allure come from. Thre is no guaranteed win character (though there are defintely some tough match ups) each character is a swiss army knife of options, and know the properties of each move lets you know what to use in whch situation. And the beauty is that there is no right answer: Whether you're a rushdown character, or a grappler, or someone with movement mechanic like Fuerte or Guy, the possibilities are literally endless and arguably effective.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a bombshell: there were people playing online who sucked just like me! it wasn't all daigo's and other tournament finger wizards. Well they were but fortunately Capcom tweaked their matchmaking so for the most part you tended to get matched with people your own skill level. So it wasn't too long before I was winnng some fights. And so will you!
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