I’m sure a lot of people have had this thought cross their mind at some point.
“Maybe it’s time I gave up trying to be good.”
“I just dont seem to be improving anymore.”
“I’m so sick of losing. It’s not worth it.”
“My reactions and executions just arent good enough.”
I’m currently going through such a phase right now. Not just because my training partner is kind of an ass and I have no one to play with, but because despite all I’ve learned and practiced, I still get bodied by the most basic things, all day long. I try and I try, but the more I think I’ve progressed, the more it hurts when some random player completely wrecks you. I dunno if things would change it I made the switch to stick, but as it stands, this game’s ups are fleeting and it’s downs are lasting. I’m not quite ready to call it quits, but I’m nearing my limit.
Have you guys ever had thoughts of giving up SF? What did you do to overcome it, if you were even able to?
I stopped playing almost two years ago just because I started training more for competitive hockey and then work got in the way and I didn’t resume playing until a couple months ago. It was extremely frustrating because I lost all of my timing and speed and don’t have the time to actually put effort into the game anymore. I stuck with it and now I’m beating my friends more often than not which makes things more fun. I read your other post and it honestly feels like your training partner is a dick.
Bottomline, I play for fun so feel free to add me on Steam if you ever want to mess around.
PS. Definitely get a stick, but be prepared for a few months of more frustration while you get used to it. Totally worth it though.
I made a big post about my experience with SF and the hurdles i had and how i overcame them and how i improved, but all of that didn’t really answer your actual question, so i deleted it.
Yes, i’ve thought multiple times about quitting this game, for various reasons. All of them were remedied by taking time off and playing another game or spending time on another hobby.
The first hurdle was the biggest which was the one that would either make me fall in love with the FG genre or disregard it completely.
I had quit from SSFIV after only 3 months of playing because of a few things:
[list]
[] Extreme struggle performing the absolute most basic of links
[] Ibuki as a first character and not being able to do what i practiced consistently, even after huge amount of practice
[] Getting beaten by a friend who mained Blanka/Guile and basically spammed the holy life out of his specials and heavy attacks and me not being able to deal with it.
[] Having the feeling i needed to be atleast 3 times as good as him… to beat him
[*] Struggling with playing on a xbox controller which made my inputs feel unprecise and it felt cramped, overall a shit experience.
[/list]
With the coming of AE i tried again and this time it clicked and actually stuck with the game and genre because of a few things:
[list]
[] Having another friend who was decent at the game that gave solid advaice, was a nice guy and very patient and made the overall experience FUN
[] Switching characters permanently to an easier and more fundamentally focused character. Switching from Ibuki to Cody at the suggestion of said friend
[*] Buying an arcade stick. After the initial learning curve the biggest problems was dashing, dp motions, FADC Ultra on both sides which took a while to get comfortable with. The stick felt precise and not cramped, it felt satisfying hitting those buttons and made the overall experience much more enjoyable.
[/list]
These points and changes were very helpfull for me when i was considering quitting SF, and honestly i imagine they may not be the same for you. Juri is not exactly a beginner character however she does allow for solid fundamental play and her combos aren’t difficult, her neutral game isn’t as clearcut as say Ryu. Unfortunately you cannot choose your training parter, and i honestly believe it is one of, if not the most important aspect for your enjoyment of the game and improvement to your gameplay. It is very unfortunate you have such a shitty experience with your training partner. If you can try out an arcade stick for a while for free that would be ideal, however this is something only yourself can asnwer if it would be worth it, for me it absolutely was. I used to think i had bad reactions, however i now know that it is more about experience and anticipation, if you are prepared for what is coming then it is a lot easier to react to.
Unfortunately i only play on steam now and i’m also located Europe so i can’t play with you, hope there are some other people who are willing to help you though.
I kind of did stop playing SF4 several times, but I’ve never completely stopped playing fighting games in the three years since I started playing. I met the wall with SF4 more than once, and generally responded by playing King of Fighters, 3rd Strike or SSF2T, only to come back to SF4 and find out that I magically had become better at that game by playing other games. As things stand now, I really only play SF4 in tournaments or if nobody wants to play anything else during casual evenings, otherwise I prefer KOF or older SF-games.
Still, there are certain things in fighting games that are surprisingly unintuitive and won’t really make sense until you get them explained. A lot of these things are also really hard to explain, and feel completely second nature to the players that know it at the same time. To take myself as an example, the basics of the neutral game didn’t make sense for me for about 2,5 years, after which I watched this video for an explanation and started thinking about it in every match.
Sorry I can’t play with you more often but I’ve been busy and shit. Also, like I said just work on your footsies because that is where I was winning the majority of the time in our matches. It was easy to whiff punish and zone you with fireballs, so try to work on your predictability, combos can come later on.
If other fighting games were more active I would’ve probably already dropped SF4 entirely. It’s not that I hate the game, but something I can’t quite put my finger on started rubbing me the wrong way after about two years of playing it. It’s only gotten worse ever since.
So, to answer your question: Yes, almost every single day.
Best solution has already been mentioned by LockM: Don’t push yourself up to the point you actually start hating the game. Just lay off for a while and occupy yourself with other games/hobbies, then come back and try again. You’ll almost always find your drive to improve renewed.
I would have after the switch to Steam and Windows 7. Fortunately I kept a WinXP partition just in case, so I can play the game like before.
Or else I wouldnt bother except some matches in endless, which may or may not be available.
But looking in retrospect I think I improved as a player. I can do things I’d never have done 3 years ago. Back then I had a keyboard for most games, then bought an arcade stick. But left hand was not used to fighting games. So I played cross-handed. Only 1 year ago did I switch to left hand for movement and right for attack buttons. Learned to use a gamepad as well.
Problem is the enjoyment and excitement of doing all that stuff, instead of playing slowly and conservatively like 3 years ago, has made the win/loss ration even worse. SF4 is a very strict game. The less you know, the better
I certainly have felt that way at times. Usually when I’d get destroyed, but then my mind changes when I play way better the next day. I’ve always liked to call this the “Invisible Wall.” It’s sorta there, but eventually you realize it *isn’t *there at all. Sometimes taking a break from Street Fighter is a good thing.
There’d be times when I’d stop playing for a while, but when I get the urge to play again, all of those shortcomings are no longer on my mind. That’s pretty much how I’d often get over the feeling. It never goes away completely, but you learn to accept that you’re not always going to be on-point in Street Fighter. Giving up is too easy. Prove to yourself that you can become a much better player. Tap into that potential.
When you’ve been playing the game since vanilla (somewhat seriously since AE) and the only character you don’t suck with is the easiest to learn (Balrog) that could make the thought of quitting come to you quite often.
Also if you’re on 360 I could offer to play some rounds with you if you want. Probably won’t learn much playing me but its on the table.
I don’t live in a place that really has a fighting game scene apart from a few friends who bounce around from game to game so its not a very consistent thing for them. I love fighting games though so I just mess around in the lab and whatnot. My internet is garbage so online isn’t really an option for me.
I’m not one to take games too seriously as far as competition goes so its not a huge deal to me. I got mad training mode combos though!
Every day.
Playing SFIII now for training mode and USFIV for online shit.
Games are too fun to give up though and even though I hate a lot about both of them, I’ll keep playing SF in one incarnation or the other until I drop dead.
You can quit SFIV without quitting SF as a whole. The previous entries are very different (and so much better it is difficult to believe they are part of the same series). Try out 3rd strike, Super turbo, even Alpha 3 or 2. Something should fit.