Like me and most fighting games. I like fighting games, I really do. But I don't feel like learning the intricacies of most of them that aren't Soulcalibur, and to a lesser extent DOA.

I like playing fightning games with my buddies when we are just goofing around. I suck so I button mash, I don't really care to sit down and learn the ins and outs of them because I get bored with them very quickly unless I'm playing with friends. I really don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of many games. I get decent at some sure but I don't really care about competetive gaming. I just like logging on and having a good time with my buddies. To me competetive gaming is serious business, but some people love it and that is fun to them. So to each their own.

I want to preface this with saying that this is coming from someone who has played at moderate levels in a couple of fighting games in the past, but has also played with some of the best players in my region. I disagree on so many levels with what you just wrote. The bottom line is that it takes a lot of time to be good enough to play at a competitive level in most fighting games.

You seem to almost contradict yourself in your own blog. You mention that, like with any hobby, you can spend a couple of hours each day and become good at something if you focus on one or two games. I guess we have a different opinion of what "a lot of time is" because that is a lot of time.

Then in your second point you mention that part of it is mindset and knowing what to focus on. Once again, another time consuming affair. You have to spend time away from the game doing proper research. Also, you have to spend in game time "practicing" instead of "playing." There is a difference between the two. The latter which may be time consuming and is not "fun" for a lot of people. That is why they are more content button mashing, because at least they are spending the time they have with the game "playing" and having fun.

While you may think "well, I only play with my friends once or twice a week and don't play much online," is a good case argument as to why it doesn't take that much time, I feel like you have already laid the groundwork for the counter argument. As you mentioned, its about mindset. That comes with time and experience. Most people who have experience in competitive fighting have developed an instinct for reading people and knowing what makes a good fighter good. That allows for them to pick up most games, learn the basic mechanics, and then take the skills they have acquired over the years to quickly advance them to a competitive level. That experience took TIME.

As someone who has presumably in the past spent a lot of TIME playing fighting games, you can't really tell others that it doesn't take time to be good, because you have experienced years of training in what it really takes to be "good" at a fighting game.

Also, being good at a fighting game, not only requires you to know the mechanics of the game and know the strengths and limitations of your character, but you also have to be familiar with the other characters in the game. A process that requires you to either learn them yourself, or play against them a lot. That takes time. When Tekken 4 came out, I switched my main to Steve. I had tremendous initial success simply based on the fact that people weren't as familiar with fighting against him as the other characters in the game. The other competitive players in my area had to catch many ass whoopings from me before they learned how to properly fight against a skilled Steve player. That kind of 1st hand experience takes time to accumulate.

So in summation, don't listen to anyone telling you that it doesn't take time to be good at fighting games, because its a load of bullshit. The author has a very narrow minded point of view on the subject and isn't looking at the big picture.

I agree with both kainzero and midguy, but let me add my two cents in.

To be good at any game you have to put time in period point blank. It takes time to achieve this because you need to get a grasp of playing with every character(team) in the game yourself and learning what each is capable of doing and how to counter it. By learning this you are able to then choose your favorites and your main characters.

for example in SF4 and SSF4 I personally prefer Ryu but I like to use other characters here and there. Due to my personal playing style having changed over the years though I find my best success with Zangief.

another point I should add to everyone is that they should learn their personal limitations and practice to overcome them. If you can pull out this move consistently, then practice it or if you have trouble doing a move from a certain side find substitutes for when you are on that other side..

Due to games like street fighter 4 and tekken 6 having massive rosters, it is very common for you to face characters you don't normally see like gen, hakan, etc. etc. In cases like this take time to fight the computer using them and have the computer AI set to the highest level so you know exactly how cheap that character can be.

funny thing is though, is that I have not put in enough time with ssf4 nor have I gotten perfectly use to using a stick. I have to overcome this, but at least I know my shortcomings now. I just have to get past frustration levels of getting beat by someone when using my stick that I know I would have beat on the controller.

@Midguy: I don't disagree with you at all. In fact, if all the stars were aligned properly and luck shone my way, I still don't think I'd break top 32 at a major tournament.

However, where I'm currently at, I view myself as competitive. I'm better than most and I'm on a path of continuous improvement, but limited by my time. If I spent more time, I'd be a lot better.

Most people who make the excuse "I don't have enough time" aren't even close to that level.

Research is easy and in fact, somewhat enjoyable. Back in the days you had to sift through forums just to find a little information. Nowadays you can just write "SSF4 tournament" in youtube and find some good video examples. People even spell out good tutorials for you. It's just like watching football or basketball. You watch a couple games, you can tell who the good players are and how they do it. And technology is becoming so good and so widespread that it easily allows people with less experience to catch up quickly. My brother got to my level in SF4 in less than a year's worth of time even though he played on-and-off.

Sure we may have differences in what constitutes "good" or as a "lot of time" but that's no need to call my writing "bullshit" and having a "narrow-minded point of view." That's uncalled for.

"I don't have enough time to get good at Game X. I have a wife and kids/a job/I'm not in college anymore/blah blah blah." This is also analogous to the excuse "You play this game too much, I actually have a life."

What if people are just trying to tell you that they have other things to fill their time that they find more enjoyable? Learning/Practicing a game to get 'good' at it, isn't at the top of my list of fun things to do with my limited time. There IS a time investment into getting good and enjoying competitive matches in these fighting games.

Why can't you see their explaination as a reason they don't play these games, rather than an excuse?

If I already enjoy the FPS genre and can move from game to game and enjoy most of them, but don't want to invest the time into getting good at competitive fighting games, why do you care?

It's an interesting piece of writing, but pretty one sided. I'm not sure why you care enough to post this detailed piece on it. Some people enjoy experincing many games and some people enjoy focusing on one. Instead of arguing that people should be more like you, why don't you look into what you may be missing by only focusing on 1 or 2 games?

@Chronos, Daddybojangles: If you guys don't care, hey, that's cool. Competitive gaming isn't for everyone. But if you've ever wanted to do it, I'd at least like it to not look scary for newcomers.

@kayatai: No, it's an excuse that I just don't buy at all. If you want to say, "Hey, I want to play other things." That's fine.

Someone can ask me why I'm not a competitive marathon runner. That's easy. I don't want to be one.

I won't say, "Well, I have a wife and kids and I don't have as much as time as those young budding runners." And I certainly wouldn't say, "Hey man. I have a life. People with lives don't spend time running in marathons." That's insulting.

I don't have the patience like I did when I was younger. Yes time is a factor, since I only get about three hours a week during the school year, and during that time I try to complete a game. Now granted if I really wanted to get good at a fighting game I'd spend that three hours playing that fighting game, really falls into the category of how bad do you want something. In the end I don't really want to become a bad ass SSFIV player, but I'm also man enough to admit that and not cry because I get my ass handed to me.

i don't have time to read a wall of text!

I like that picture as well :|.

i jsut like the picture!

I came for the picture (pun intended)

I'll tell you that "I dont have the time" because it's not a priority. If I had infinite time, sure, I would practice and get better at games. But since I prioritize, I run out of time before I get to 'practicing video games' so in that sense, it's a perfectly valid description.

Now if you choose to look at it as I just dont care about getting better, that wouldnt be totally inaccurate. It's not that I dont care at all, it's just that I care about many other things much much more. It's kinda is the glass half empty or half full.

But getting 'good' at anything takes time and you have to have a desire. I'm a pretty fair bowler, but I only got that way by spending hours rolling at nothing but the single 10 pin. Most people wouldnt find that particularly "fun", but I understood that it would really help my game if I could consistently pick up that spare. I had the desire, so I made the time.

tl;dr version: "I dont have the time" = "It's a low priority"
BTW: Who's the chick opposite Chun Li?

@kainzero - I'll try to use your marathon running example to try to show you why I think your line of thinking is flawed. You say, you wouldn't use the excuse of "Well, I have a wife and kids and I don't have as much as time as those young budding runners" as an excuse to why you don't want to be a competitive marathon runner. Well what if you did enjoy running. Why is that not a valid excuse? Given a set of identical twins with the same running background, the one who has more free time to train will be more successful than the other. When it comes to fighting games, you have years of training. Some of the people you are talking about, do not. These people know they can't compete with someone who has been training for years without putting in a significant amount of time.

I have a friend that I spent hundreds of hours playing Tekken Tag and Tekken 4 with back in the day about this posts and he had similar thoughts. You're really taking for granted the importance of your fighting game background in your argument as to how much time it takes to get to a competitive level. We have developed skills that carry over to every fighting game we pick up. Its the reason why people like you and I (and I assume you're probably much better than me) can pick up any fighting game, spend an hour or so learning a character and the basic mechanics, and then go online and beat over 75-80% of the people we play.

He also thinks that you are taking for granted the amount of time you have to spend losing to better players to get good. He is better than me at Tekken, but by getting my ass beat by him for so many years, it has made me a better player. I was one of the worst players in Tekken Tag, but I stuck with it and got my ass beat over and over by a variety of good players playing with different characters, until I started to learn how to compete with them. All the youtube videos in the world won't give you that kind of experience. I play a little SSFIV now and I can get online with moderate success because everyone uses the same characters. There's probably about 15 characters that I haven't fought more than twice each. So I would have to play hundreds and hundreds of matches to get some good experience against them. And that's part of what it takes to be a competitive player.

I feel like you take it as a personal insult when people say they have a life outside of gaming that doesn't allow them to spend time getting good. As if it implies that you must be some loser with no life because you are good. I got the same feeling from reading your blog about how you don't understand the term "playing for fun." Coming from someone who used to be really good at fighting games and now, does not have the time, or desire, to commit to getting back to a competitive level, I'm telling you that you shouldn't feel that way. I can't spend all night in the arcade anymore or even play locally with my friends because I have a wife and kids and we've all grown up and moved away from each other, but my years of experience still provide the foundation to beat the average player online without putting in the time that I used to.

Next time, "You play too much" or "I don't have enough time" = "I really don't like this game that much" or "I don't care for competitive gaming."

I'm sure that anyone that likes a game enough or is looking for a higher level of competitive gaming will not use those excuses. If you really value something, you'll make time for it. I do agree with a lot of the post though, but I don't think anyone serious enough would actually use those excuses.

Quote: I feel like you take it as a personal insult when people say they have a life outside of gaming that doesn't allow them to spend time getting good. As if it implies that you must be some loser with no life because you are good. I got the same feeling from reading your blog about how you don't understand the term "playing for fun." Coming from someone who used to be really good at fighting games and now, does not have the time, or desire, to commit to getting back to a competitive level, I'm telling you that you shouldn't feel that way. I can't spend all night in the arcade anymore or even play locally with my friends because I have a wife and kids and we've all grown up and moved away from each other, but my years of experience still provide the foundation to beat the average player online without putting in the time that I used to.

I don't know if he takes it as an insult, but I will say for myself it is annoying with all the new blood that sfiv brought into the scene when people will complain that they " don't have time " ect to become better at a game, hell any game or activity for that matter. It makes no sense to me, why make comments or try to partake in an already established group when you really don't want to take part in it and are just giving excuses as to why you are not as good as the other people who are involved within said community. In this regard I think his marathon statement fits perfectly. I doubt he is going up to joggers/runners saying " I could do that to, but I have a life ". It's bullshit comments like these that will get under any persons skin who is an active member in any community.

@ the person above me - That makes no sense. So you don't think that people should be allowed to play unless they are willing to elevate themselves to a competitive level? I don't think that's what he was getting at.

I have been active in competitive gaming environments and I don't understand why it would bother you for someone else to play the game who doesn't aspire to be as good as you. It has absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. As long as that person is having fun playing and is content with his skill level, more power to him. Why should that get under my skin?

Your statement is once again implying that if someone says "I can do that, but I have a life" that is implying that the only reason you can do it is because you have no life. I think that people like you and the OP are taking someone saying "I don't have time to get good" is the same as saying "I can't do it because I have a life, and you don't." Saying that you have a lot of other things in your life that you focus on outside of Street Fighter or marathon running such as your family is a valid excuse.

So speak for yourself because someone saying they don't have time to get good at a game doesn't get under the skin of normal, well adjusted adults.

^ Your reading comprehension skills are very lacking. Not once did I say that anyone should not partake in any event, gaming or other wise. I said it makes no sense to me why people would make comments on any event gaming or other wise that has a well established community, were they arn't really becoming apart of that community just giving excuses as to why they are not at the same level as those who put more time into the activity. Such as the people who come on this blog and throw out the same comments Kainzero has brought up before.

But I do love how you keep being a rude dick in your replys, leaving nice little back handed comments to try to make the person you disagree with look the fool. Real well adjusted of you huh cupcake.

Quote: It makes no sense to me, why make comments or try to partake in an already established group when you really don't want to take part in it and are just giving excuses as to why you are not as good as the other people who are involved within said community

That's what you said. What well established community are you talking about? People who play the game, or people who play competitively. If its the former, then anyone who buys the game is part of that community. If its the latter, well the whole point of the blog was directed at people who are obviously outside of that community. It seems that you are the one who are lacking in the reading comprehension skills department.

Quote: .....giving excuses as to why they are not at the same level as those who put more time into the activity

Back to the original point of the blog - TIME. Lack of it, is a legit excuse and as you are stating there, those that are part of the "competitive community" have more of it to dedicate to the game. Its not an insult to say such and shouldn't get under your skin. Only someone who carries severe insecurities about who they are would let it get under their skin to hear someone else say that they don't have the same amount of time as them.

So just so I understand where you are coming from, since my reading comprehension skills suck so bad, lets just talk in specifics. I'm going to make a statement, and I want you to tell me how it makes you feel:

"I have a full time job, a wife, and two kids. I would love to spend more time to devote to getting better at Street Fighter, but I don't have the time. Also, there are a lot of other games that I want to play, so the few hours a week I have to play are split between them. So I'd rather spend the little time I have to play SF playing the game as opposed to practicing and researching."

So how does that make you feel? Is that a "bullshit comment?" As a member of an "active community" does that "get under your skin?" If so, grow the up.

Quote: What well established community are you talking about?

As I have already stated before;

Quote: any game or activity

Quote: anyone who buys the game is part of that community

Yeah I don't buy into this at all. Just because you bought a game does not make you a part of the community it has. That is like saying " Yeah I own a car, I am a car enthusiast, why because I bought a car! " That is just absurd. Sure in a very broad sense this is true in a car owner setting but this is not what was addressed in this blog, but something you seem to be stuck on. A longing to belong? With out an active role, to me people who just " buy a game" or a sports ticket ect, are just spectators is a broad usage of the term. To become a part of a community is more than just playing or watching. Hell do you watch a game and then don't talk about it with friends? Read up on players in the papers?

Quote: I've met a number of players who said they wanted to get better at a fighting game. But they are more content to go herp-a-derp and mash buttons in games instead of sitting down in practice and figuring out what does what.

See this right here should have told you a major key point of his blog, you failed to grasp that, so I am pointing it out to you once again to try and help you understand what it is we are talking about.

Quote: players who said they wanted to get better at a fighting game.

Here I have broken it down even more so you have a even great chance of understanding, hope this helps.

Quote: Back to the original point of the blog - TIME. Lack of it, is a legit excuse and as you are stating there, those that are part of the "competitive community" have more of it to dedicate to the game.

Hmm, no. It's about time management. He even gave bullet points at the end of his blog, how you missed this is just beyond me.

To a lesser extent it is about people making excuses to their own level at any given activity they make dumb ass comments about, he gave examples, as did I. Which relates to my excuse comment.

Quote: "I have a full time job, a wife, and two kids. I would love to spend more time to devote to getting better at Street Fighter, but I don't have the time. Also, there are a lot of other games that I want to play, so the few hours a week I have to play are split between them. So I'd rather spend the little time I have to play SF playing the game as opposed to practicing and researching."

Do I find this as a bullshit comment, not at all, and not one thing you have said has gotten under my skin. Though if this is the true I feel you have missed a greater part in what Kainzero has tried to relay to people who read his blog. Simply put, you don't have to play all day to get better at the game. What you do need is a basic understanding of your short comings in the game, so you are able to work at them in a realistic fashion. You call this practice, but explain to me why you can't practice these things while you are playing the game normally?On a lesser extent it was very simply " stop bitching, or " hating " on people who are simply better than you. Do you need things to be done in training mode only to learn? I just don't understand.

I hope this helps you more, but I feel it won't. I would make this into a coloring book, or even better a pop up book but I just don't have the time.