I've mostly played JRPGs my whole life but these days I don't have the time for them since they're so long, and I increasingly feel like I'm surrounded by kids in the fandom. Fighters seem to have a more diverse and lively community. I've always been drawn by the colorful characters and competitive aspect of fighting games but every time I've tried to get good at one I've become discouraged.
I'm asking here because /v/ is shit and I'm mostly interested in retro fighters.
So for fans, which fighting game was your gateway drug? What kind of experiences drew you into the scene? Anything helps, I'd love to hear stories as well.
>So for fans, which fighting game was your gateway drug?
Yie-Ar Kung Fu. Then Street Fighter II: The World Warrior sealed the deal.
>What kind of experiences drew you into the scene?
What scene? arcades? It was just normal to hang out there with friends and play vidya, fighters included.
The only tip is to keep playing until you become good.
Since you're only starting now, I guess you could read up some tips on shoryuken.com, learn things from youtube or whatever. It's better to figure things on your own and come up with your own strategies, but if you want to play against people who have been playing for decades you'll get your ass handed to you without a little help, it's less fun that way though.
Virtua Fighter 2 was my first, then Tekken 3, SF3 on the DC and on from there (not retro after that). Keep practicing and check out local tournaments or clubs, there's probably at least a few near you - always best to practice with real players. It's also a good way to see what's popular, what's still being played, how to improve, which characters and fighting styles are popular, etc.
>>3196323
As this guy said, look up a move list and some tips, play with all the characters in your chosen game, figure out which particular character you like best and then just practice with them. Practice, practice, practice.
And don't forget to block, blocking is seriously under used with newbies, most of them charge in on the offensive and then get blown out. I've seen it too often.
>>3196294
Start with Street Fighter II. Almost any version. Super Street Fighter II Turbo if I had to recommend one since it's the most played version of the original. Learn the basics there. Learn about hit levels and throw ranges and get blocking properly/successfully. Practice until you're decently familiar with how shit works then look for people to play with.
Move on to Ultra Street Fighter IV after that. Don't neglect Street Fighter Alpha 3 or Street Fighter III 3rd Strike either. And play Street Fighter V of course.
>>3196294
>I increasingly feel like I'm surrounded by kids
That won't go away with fighting games.
>>3196294
Hop onto Fightcade, enjoy getting massacred before you can barely move.
Fighting games give diminishing returns the better you get at them. Everyone picks the same 4 or 5 high tier characters out of a roster of like 30. Matches boil down to repeating the same high damaging bread and butter combos over and over. The more proficient you get the less experimentation and discovery you'll be doing which naturally happens when you reach your skill ceiling. When enjoyed as single player they can be at most VERY shallow action games with cheating AI.
Fighters are better enjoyed semi casually with friends at an intermediate skill level.
>>3196407
>Matches boil down to repeating the same high damaging bread and butter combos over and over.
WHAT ARE MIXUPS
>>3196407
>Fighting games give diminishing returns the better you get at them
What returns? You have increasing amounts of fun by mastering the game, that's your reward.
>Everyone picks the same 4 or 5 high tier characters out of a roster of like 30.
That's why matchups are important. You learn 3 or 4 different characters and pick what's most adequate for the moment.
If the game is well balanced enough every middle tier characters should have an equal chance at surprise and beating a player who only picks high tier characters.
>Matches boil down to repeating the same high damaging bread and butter combos over and over.
You have to learn combos with many different moves unless you wanna get read like a predictable bitch.
>The more proficient you get the less experimentation and discovery you'll be doing which naturally happens when you reach your skill ceiling.
What does this even mean, you can never learn everything about a game.
>When enjoyed as single player they can be at most VERY shallow action games with cheating AI.
Agreed on this one.
>>3196294
>more diverse
In the sense of more black people or what
>>3196407
The same applies to every game, the better you get at them the less fun and more of a chore they become. Like you're getting into a second job instead of a hobby.
Something I saw posted somewhere;
Some more tips for newcomers to the FGC:
1. Once you've chosen your main, and practiced a bit, break your characters abilities down into a flowchart when you fight people online. I like to open up with certain moves and see my opponents capabilities to block them. If they can't, I exploit it. If they can, I move to a different set and try to pick them apart systematically until I find something I can exploit.
2. Know your matchup, some characters just aren't meant to win against others. For example, Vega usually gets torn up by Guile or Ryu.
3. Fundamentals are the most important thing to your game. Sure if you can pull off fancy combos you may win. However, if you can't defend, or you don't know your basic buttons despite knowing fancier moves, any good opponent will recognize this and exploit it to your advantage. Practice your basics, even after you think you have mastered them.
4. This applies once you get beyond beginner stratus; Trust in yourself. You will never win a match if you don't have confidence. Most players let fear control them when they see high tier opponents and this will affect your gameplay. However, alot of high tier opponents can be tricked and deceived by a player who they consider lowtier if you plan your matchup accordingly.
5. Know your ground. This applies to some more advanced maneuvers and tactics in fighting games. If you know your opponent can't withstand pressure in a corner, do your best to push him back there. If you know your opponent favors corner positions (Guile I'm looking at you) try to get him out of position by any means possible. This may seem common knowledge, but true application requires quite a bit of mastery.
>>3196294
Well based on your image you might want to try playing modern fighting games instead of what looks like Primal Rage HD.
>>3196494
In fact you shouldn't play retro fighters at all, the only ones that still get played are the KOF games, Street Fighter 2 Super Turbo and maybe Mortal Kombat. The rest completely lack any sort of active community.
>>3196497
plenty of active players on Fightcade and GGPO dude
Playing them by yourself will not take you very far and you'll plateau early on unless you're playing other people, talking to them and seeking their input and advice; easier to do these things in person if you have access to a vibrant local scene but these can be done online too nowadays if you have a decent Internet connection--I find getting some regular fighting buddies via IRC to be better than playing random people but it's your choice there
I mashed on the PC ports of SF2 and VF1/2 as a kid in the 90's, forgot about the genre until 2006 when some people on IRC were talking about playing Garou, KOF03and ST over Kaillera (this was right before GGPO got big), I decided to join in out of curiosity and after that I started to dive deeper and explore other games; my all-time favorite now is KOF98
Haven't had the opportunity to play a whole lot offline in that time span aside from going to weeklies occasionally, but I'm considering Evo this year--anyone who's been to it care to share their experiences?
>>3196553
Also don't feel pressured too early on to invest in an arcade stick, I got my current stick in 2007 and it's what works best for me but we're in a day and age where more players than ever are finding success playing on pad or even keyboard
I started on keyboard first for about a year or two and personally I'd still take a keyboard over a pad today, but to each their own
>>3196294
OP you're the same as me. I grew up on PS1 and 2 playing RPGs and only got into fighters last year. I don't really know what to tell you because I suck at them but SF Alpha 2 and 3 were really easy and fun, so that's a good start. Fatal Fury 1 and the Real Bout ones are solid and not too challenging for a beginner. It's not /vr/ but Virtual Fighter 4 is pretty easy too if you want some 3D fightan. Don't go balls to the wall and choose some hardcore game and go online with it first day or you'll get destroyed and lose your motivation. Just play the AI for a while to learn the controls and get some confidence first. It's a fun genre but unless you're really dedicated you won't be pulling off insane combos any time soon so just take it slow.
>>3196323
>Yie-Ar Kung Fu
>Street Fighter 2
So basically you got into fighting games at the same time as modern 2d fighter genre was being born.
I don't know how to explain it since I started with SF2 and MK on the SNES/Arcade and it has been natural to me since I was a kid (I'm above average but not sperglord tier like the top players yet).
Get used to how your character controls and watch your opponent's movements, that's the best advice I can give.
Don't rely on specials. Usually just normal punches and kicks are way more useful.
>>3196617
I guess, I first played Yie-Ar Kung Fu on a Famiclone I had as a kid circa 1990, and then in 1991 or 92 I got introduced to SF II on the arcades, blew my mind.
>>3196407
One thing I enjoy about the Soul series is that there's not anywhere near as much imbalance in the roster as there is in other games. Even the 'worst' character can beat the 'best' one quite handily, since the series focuses even more on the idea that it's the player's skill that matters.
>>3196718
>since the series focuses even more on the idea that it's the player's skill that matters.
Really I thought the series focused on button mashing wildly to win.
>>3196294
ask the fighting game genreal, you idiot.
/vr/ just pretends to play A3 and mark of the wolves.
>>3196813
FGG is just people gossiping about celebs and hsitposting LTG memes
The only way to get good at fighting is by getting good, no thread on 4chan will help you.
>>3196819
you will actually get games on /fgg/ though.
>>3196723
If you know what you're doing, button mashing does nothing but make your opponent look like a fool, at least in the later games. Soul Blade had Siegfried being a cheating man-whore, and button mashing in Soul Calibur was something that led to mixed results, and doing it against players was an incredibly dumb idea if the other player had some semblance of skill.
Basically, as long as you aren't a noob, opponents who button mash are easy prey.
>>3196842
>If you know what you're doing, button mashing does nothing but make your opponent look like a fool,
Not with Xianghua and Raphael it does not.
Yes I know Raphael is not in the first game.
>>3196872
Yeah, Xianghua was problematic in the first one, I'll give you that. All it took me was getting the Guard Impact thing down though, and she fell flat pretty easily, especially when I was using Siegfried.
First of all, if you're over 21 your reflexes start deteriorating (14-21 are the ages when you have the fastest reflexes) so it's a waste of time to get into fighters. Professional fighting/Starcraft players older than about 23 don't exist because you physically can't move your fingers fast enough by your late 20s.
>>3197546
Bullshit.
>>3197546
I assumed that wouldn't happen until you're a literal senior citizen. After all, aren't most people capable of driving a car at highway speeds until their late 70s? Elderly people typically avoid highway driving because they can't keep up with the road speed, but this usually happens somewhere between 75 and 82.
>>3197546
Yeah because all the formula 1 drivers are 19, right?
Fuck off with your old wives' tales.
>>3197546
Many top SF pros are in their 30s.
You don't need RTS level APMs to play most fighting games.
My mom is like 62 and still has the reflexes of a cat, so...
>>3197603
Holy anecdotal evidence batman, who's her main in Marvel vs Capcom?
>>3197603
Women age better than men.
>>3197603
goddamn your mom is old as fuck. mine is 43.
You know why there are no fighter pilots over 45? THEY. DO. NOT. HAVE. THE. REFLEXES. FOR. IT.
At this point it would probably be best to play some of the better classic fighting games like the King of Fighter, Samurai Shodown, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter series against the CPU or with friends. Anything online is going to have such a high learning curve that it will just be an exercise in frustration.
The people playing fighting games now are often times people in their late 20's/30's who grew up during a time when fighting games were a dime a dozen on consoles. We played the shit out of them on SNES, PS1, Dreamcast, and arcade - but by the mid 2000's, the scene kind of died off and now we are only left with:
The New Killer Instinct - huge learning curve and memorization is a must
Street Fighter 5 - Same as above
Smash bros - probably the easiest to get into but hard to master
The new King of Fighters
We used to get like 5 fighting games released a month. now its 3-4 a year.
>>3198019
basically, most people who still play the few fighting games that are out there have been playing them for 15+ years and have already learned all the basics. They have evolved with the games and their new systems.
Try out TECH ROMANCER on MAME. It is a mech fighting game, but its stupid fun and really easy to get into.
>>3197987
But what if there women fighter pilots?
>>3198030
They would cry rape and blame the patriarchy for their diminishing reaction time.
Over the Hill at 24: Persistent Age-Related Cognitive-Motor Decline in Reaction Times in an Ecologically Valid Video Game Task Begins in Early Adulthood
Typically studies of the effects of aging on cognitive-motor performance emphasize changes in elderly populations. Although some research is directly concerned with when age-related decline actually begins, studies are often based on relatively simple reaction time tasks, making it impossible to gauge the impact of experience in compensating for this decline in a real world task. The present study investigates age-related changes in cognitive motor performance through adolescence and adulthood in a complex real world task, the real-time strategy video game StarCraft 2. In this paper we analyze the influence of age on performance using a dataset of 3,305 players, aged 16-44, collected by Thompson, Blair, Chen & Henrey [1]. Using a piecewise regression analysis, we find that age-related slowing of within-game, self-initiated response times begins at 24 years of age. We find no evidence for the common belief expertise should attenuate domain-specific cognitive decline. Domain-specific response time declines appear to persist regardless of skill level. A second analysis of dual-task performance finds no evidence of a corresponding age-related decline. Finally, an exploratory analyses of other age-related differences suggests that older participants may have been compensating for a loss in response speed through the use of game mechanics that reduce cognitive load.
Source
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0094215
>>3198043
This study is pretty poorly constructed since it doesn't factor in that individual people can vary widely (also >using Starcraft in a supposedly "serious" study). And interestingly enough, elderly people display a far wider variance in cognitive performance than younger people. On average, two 40 year olds may have slight differences in reaction times and mental processing but one 80 year old may well outperform another individual of the same age.
There was one study done on a group of late 30s people that found, while most were physiologically close to their calendar age, some of them were 10 years younger while a few were closer to 60 under the hood.
>>3198043
Actually the reason why reflexes slow at 24 is simply because at that age, you've gotten past the adolescent surge of hormones. During the teenage years, the body sends out a massive surge of growth hormones that makes you go onto a nonstop amphetamine trip (of sorts). Your central nervous system becomes hyperstimulated and so during the ages of 14-21, you will have faster reflexes than at any other point in life. Once growth is finished, the body enters steady main-state operation, so cognitive function changes very little from 25 to 59. There is typically a small drop in cognitive ability starting at 60, followed by a much bigger drop after 70, but it varies considerably depending on genetics and lifestyle.
>>3198185
I believe it.
>be hormonally tripped out 15 year old
>sneak a peak at Internet pr0nz
>someone comes in the room
>holy shit
>close out that Internet browser at hyperspeed
Can't do that anymore at 27. If someone comes in the room and I be looking at pr0nz, I'm just like "Eh." and calmly close out the browser tab without that "OH JESUS MOTHERFUCK NO" panic reaction.
>>3198185
Interesting. I'd love to have some sources on that.
>>3198185
This is also why music will never interest you as much again after your teenage years. That hormonal surge causes music to have an almost hallucinogenic effect on the adolescent brain and there are some studies suggesting that listening to music you heard as a teenager may partially revive this effect.
>>3198213
I heard a completely different reason which is that your brain (or the part of it that handles auditory functions) develops its basic sense of musical tonality during the teenage years.
Basically, when your mom said that Slayer was unlistenable noise, it's simply because her brain's sense of tonality wasn't tuned to that sort of music so it doesn't sound "musical" to her; she didn't understand how you could hear music in there and she couldn't. And some people are just tone-deaf and all music sounds like noise to them.
>>3198213
Depressing, both music and games will never be the same, and I missed out on teen love too.
>>3197683
>goddamn your mom is old as fuck. mine is 43.
Confirmed underage
>>3198397
You never know, his mom could have been fifteen when she had him.
>>3198397
Not him but my mother is 44 and I'm 28 years old.
Young mothers are a thing you know? It's not just chinese cartoons.
>>3196294
playing for 8 years now(on and offline) and the best advice I can give you is:
time in -> skill out
play more than others, after seeing so many people come and go I can tell you that there is no such thing as talent. usually the people who play the most get the furthest.
you should be prepared to get angry, a lot. you will get shit for months, depending on your motivation probably for years. the learning curve is retarded. nothing against you but I doubt you have the motivation to stay focused in that genre because usually who want to get good just do it and dont start threads like that, seeking motivation or tips or whatever. I could be wrong, just my experience with similar people over the years who came and disappeared very shortly.
tl;dr
play A LOT
>>3198426
How's life in a trailer park?
>>3197628
Not in terms of looks. Grizzled old man is GOAT style for males.
>>3199232
Most just look like balding assholes like AVGN.
Well....
All I can say is...
Go play JoJo for the PS1 or on CPS3 and master that legendary combo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CamPXxfl7Lw
>>3199232
It only works if you're a rich celebrity like George Clooney. The average working class male looks like complete shit by his 50s.
instead of asking anywhere
just try playing a game
i will suggest sf3 , kof 2k2, kof 98
the best thing about fighting games they are fun even if u dont know how to ply nice or dont know combos unlike counter strike and games like these if u dont know them u cant play them
but fighting games are fun and easy to pick up
the real thing start when u encounter or see things that u didnt knew
but until that they are fun
>>3201139
AVGN lost some weight lately. I think he looks handsome tbqh.
>>3201224
he just needs to put on a little muscle
>>3201214
>the real thing start when u encounter or see things that u didnt knew
>but until that they are fun
I think that's when the real fun starts.
>>3201224
Watching bootsy play games is like playing with your dad except your dad is pretty cool.
>>3200627
>The average working class male looks like complete shit by his 50s
Most of that could be avoided if you only didn't drink/smoke/eat garbage, unfortunately two of these three things are disproportionately concentrated in the lower class of society.
>>3196294
>JRPGs
>I don't have the time for them since they're so long, and I increasingly feel like I'm surrounded by kids in the fandom
>Pick fighting games to get into
If you think JRPGs are a time investment then actually getting good at a fighter is probably just as much if not more so. Then if you plan on getting good at a lot of fighters, some of the basics will carry, but idiosyncrasies between games will require a lot more practice to make you competent again.
Also, fighting games are also filled with a bunch of kids only now you actually have to interact with them when you play.
>>3200627
>Implying I give a fuck what I look like at 50
>>3196294
>which fighting game was your gateway drug?
SF2
>What kind of experiences drew you into the scene?Super Smash Bros. Melee
>>3196294
>Gateway drug
Arcade version of Street Fighter 2
>What kind of experiences drew you into the scene
Getting good enough not to waste all my lunch money at the arcade. After that it just kind of clicked.
Couple other things, since you only asked two questions.
>Favorite Fighter
Soul Calibur
>Favorite fighting character of all time
Vega (Claw), Mitsurugi, Erron Black (three way tie)
>Least favorite fighting games
Marvel vs. Capcom, Guilty Gear
>>3201869
>Most of that could be avoided if you only didn't drink/smoke/eat garbage
Don't forget working out. Not smoking also saves you a lot of money, which you can spend on better food.
Drinking is beneficial to your health as long as you do it in moderation and not hit the hard stuff.
