(If this is in the wrong sub forum, please move it to where ever it belongs in)
First of all, Yes I am serious. I am going to bring my console, the game, my stick, and a controller. (I play with controller, but my friend plays stick.)
I am right now down to three candidates on what I should do for my Speech in college and I wanted to cover things I know most about (1. How to take better pictures 2. Hacky Sack 3. How to play Street Fighter). But this idea of SSFIV is one I am most curious and worried about based on of how it will play out with the audience. I thought of doing Mortal kombat 9, but it is just way too graphic and violent to present in front of a diverse group of minds. There are old and young people in my class along with both genders (mostly female…55-60% I should say). Let’s just say I went with this idea…How should I cover it? I mean, i’m not going to have you tell me without knowing what my teacher is expecting.
First I was thinking of talking of why they would be interested in knowing this and why it is useful as well as the fighting game community and the competitive scene. Next, I was thinking of not only showing them how to play and what buttons to press for a certain command to be achieved, combos, and what not but also go over the fighting game terms and play them out with my friend (Anti air, footsies, zoning, turtling, cancelling, command input, linking, etc). I’m just wondering what other elements I should add in there to grasp the attention of the audience and get them interested…What other things should I show them besides what I have brought up? How would you do it?
How would you grasp their attention? (Here’s one way I thought: Me and my friend playing a quick round in VERSUS mode and showing some pretty advanced gameplay before I present my body speech and going to training mode to demonstrate.)
TL;DR: If you had to do a speech demosntration on SUPER street fighter 4 and how to play it along with the in depth aspects of the game, how would you do it?
I’d appreciate the advice. I need to do this on thursday. -_- Preperation time is no problem, I jsut need to know how and i’m sure i’ll be able to pull it off.
Don’t forget “It’s MavrVel baby”, “OhhH so prringgles”, “Sallty”, “ScoOp”, and most important don’t forget to pick abel and demonstrate juicebox’s dance to your classmates.
If the 55-year old women in your class really want to learn how to play Street Fighter, direct them to Sirlin’s tutorial and a* GOOD* SF game like Super Turbo.
Otherwise, don’t use the class’ time to make your professor think you just made up an excuse to play games with your friend.
Also Hacky Sack is a better game and more interesting than Super SF4, anyways.
Well, one thing I’d do is when explaining the different terms, present it as a video with you explaining the different concepts. Like when you discuss anti-airs, show a DP.
You must remember what background knowledge your audience has on your topic. If they don’t have any, which is most likely the case, then you probably don’t want to use any terminology at all, if so possible. It will only confuse people. Not everyone understands video games and more important gameplay mechanics.
I think you could teach people how to play SSF4 in a speech properly, but honestly with the knowledge your audience probably has, you would probably have to dumb it down to the point where you’re teaching them how to play a fighting game in general. Considering that idea, I think HDR would be a better choice, since it’s on next gen consoles so you could show it, and some people still know about SF2 and at novice level it’s a pretty basic game.
Honestly though, I’d choose the hacky sacky topic instead. You’d be amazed at how much you can talk about “nothing”, if you craft your speech well enough and give yourself time to practice it. Besides the problem I already listed, it sounds like too much of a hassle to sort out your visual aid. If you bring and play your game, people will probably lose focus on you and get distracted by the game itself or your sticks, etc. For some teachers that’s a big no-no in a speech. If your really adamant about choosing this topic, you definitely should go over your ideas with your teacher, so you can see what works and what doesn’t. Don’t let your grade suffer because you wanted to do a topic that seemed cool to you, but ended up being a complicated mess to give a speech about.
@OP - demographic target is a bit strange. Maybe you can apply it to potentially exercising the brain in terms of Alzheimer’s or something.
Use KISS - Keep it simple, stupid. Don’t get too advanced. Simple AA, footsies, punishing whiffed moves and typical aspects of 2D fighters is sufficient.
Good luck… I wouldn’t pick it as a topic to do because there is so much depth to learn this in one sitting. How long do you have? Factor that in as well.
My biggest fear for you is that more then half of them are stuck in the “fighting games are button mashing” and not “fighting games take skill” mindset. I have tried to explain the skill of fighting games to many close friends in the past and they still see it as a “no skill required” hobby. I always try to compare it to chess but at a faster pace, but like I said it just goes in one ear and out the other. Unless you are very skilled and plan to have every one of them play a match and lose against you, I might advise another topic.
I’ll be doing my dissertation on parrying Chun-Li in SF3
I think you should explore psychological concepts. Of course it depends on the class and what the subject pertains to. But with fighting games, there’s psychology, execution and skill, rhythm, priority, and frame data. Those should be interesting to cover… Sans the frame data.
Focus on the rock-paper-scissors aspect, focus on the spacing, and try to explain that combining these two things together makes a fast and exciting game. Try to draw analogies with things in real life. Maybe even with boxing I dunno.
You have to be a really exciting talker to be able to explain why you are obsessed with games other people don’t give a crap about though. I wish you the best of luck.
dont do it. please stick to a topic that allows you to initiate more social links with classmates/intructors and is more acceptable, interesting and appealing. DONT BE “THAT” GUY THAT PLAYS VIDEOGAMES.
choose any of the two except that one (i would pick “how to take better pictures”).
This is school we’re talking about not a gamestop. I’d say its a lot more likely they are stuck in the “video games are for dorks” mindset over anything else, and being the guy that thinks SF will make an interesting class presentation is just more likely to make you look like a dork. That and I don’t think any aspect of competitive SF will be interesting to anyone in your class.
I did a school project on fighting games once and it was exactly that which made me realize how differently almost everyone in the world views fighting games. I can pretty much guarantee that starting withvideo games as a base will make it harder to do well. In all seriousness talk to your prof about it before you present or you could end up with a horrible presentation. If you REALLY want to do it, throw out the playing the game concept.
Again, I really recommend not bringing the game in and playing it; record a match if you must. Sitting there and playign the game will instantly alienate half the class.
Use freeze frames to capture specific moments in a fight using different games. Or do a post match analysis… Leave out anything really specific to one game and talk about footsies, prediction, risk reward decisions, etc. For most of that to make sense though ,you have to introduce some different character designs that promote rushdown, run-away, footsies, etc. Basically talk about why fighting games are interesting and fun, don’t just talk about what you would do when you skip class.
OP, I feel I must advise against using your avatar in your presentation. :nono: