Fighting Psychology- When An Opponent Gives Up

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

I’m sure we’ve all seen, especially in Marvel. A player gets beasted on so badly he gives up at the end and just takes the beating since he doesn’t see any hope of coming back. Normally, people would be discussing if giving up is the right mindset but that’s not the issue I’m interested in.

What I find intriguing is what usually happens when the agressor sees an opponent give up. A sort of indecisiveness hit them as soon as they don’t feel any sign of aggression from their opponent. Because of this they sometimes mess up on combos, stand there for extended periods, or dash/ jump back out of confusion.

It seems like when a player doesn’t feel the opponent’s will to fight they lose their edge, at least for a brief second. Wouldn’t it be nice if one could take advantage of that mindgame? Doing something extremely inane or standing there could potentially make a player lose their nerve (or get your shit wrecked) then come back into the game in full force. It sounds like a gamble, because it is, and logically can’t be abused.

Another thing is, why does it happen? Do fighters focus so much on momentum that when a break happens a player feels the need to readjust themselves and adapt to the lack of stimuli?

2

That last bit I think is why it happens.

I get that sometimes myself, should I happen to be “on” and my opponent not. Suddenly the opponent stops responding and I start screwing up. I think on a subconscious level i realise the opponent is not putting the effort into playing and so I react to that? Just theory here.

I have also given the impression that I’ve given up before. I’ll just stop doing stuff, sometimes even letting go. NOrmally I’ll just go into super turtle, blocking everything. Mainly I just want to see what the guy does.

Won’t do it if a match depends on it of course, but still. Gives me time to think.

3

In a casual match, if my opponent stops doing anything, I pause for a few secs (to give them a chance if they dropped the controller or something) and then I continue the beatdown. In a tourney match, I won’t even hesitate, or miss a beat (down).

4

It happens more when the opponent gets a dizzy.
You think “omg omg what do I do now? which combo? do I have enough time to start with a bigger hit? do I have enough super gauge to do the more damaging one?” etc. etc. and before you know BAM he’s out of the dizzy… :wasted:

5

I think it all depends on the aggressor’s mindset.

Not many people have fun beating a dead horse it seems, why would we want to fight someone who gives up? I’ve seen the hesitation before, you’re not sure if the person has really given up or if their hands slipped or something. When someone gives up it’s going against the very principle of the game. Especially when it comes to high-level play, there is no giving up. You can come back at any point regardless of health, so I feel the level of play also makes a big impact.

I say this because I feel many people in a tournament setting would NOT hesitate to chew you up and spit you out, in fact I could see people getting happy that you’ve given up as a sign of superiority for themselves. These are the type of people out for blood and are not willing to give you a second of a chance to see what happened or what’s wrong, all they see is an opportunity to win.

Bottom line, when you give up you’re not playing competitively, get the hell out.

6

I’m not sure it can be harnessed, because I think anyone who can beat you that soundly would see through the trick too quickly for it to be of much use. It’s gimmicky, and gimmicks are never useful for very long.

Personally, if the other guy just stops playing, my first assumption is that there’s something wrong with their controls. I’ll stop for a moment until it’s clear if this is the case or not, then I’ll resume the merciless beating.

7

That’s the thing, most videos where players give up are in tournaments. Top players like Sanford I’ve seen just leave their last character standing. It’s really only Money Matches that I see people go all out all the time.

Goodmourning: I don’t see it as a viable strategy either, especially in beginning of a match/set. I could see it working in the event that someone would least expect it, because it would be totally out of character for the type of player they would be facing. (ex: friendly money match)

8

I hate when that happens during casuals with my friends, I’ll be beating them and then they’ll say something like ‘Whatever, I don’t care anyway’ or it’ll be that I’m 2-3 rounds up or their lifebar is way down and they say ‘What do I care, I’m not going to win anyway’

It sucks because I’ve seen people come back from worse situations than that in these games, and to see them give up so easily is just disheartening. Makes me feel bad and go easier on them (Not enough that they actually win, of course) so yea, I can see where you’re coming from there. I’d rather win once to a challenging player than win many times to a boring player, you know?Well, except when I’m trying to get like, ‘Win X amount of ranked matches in a row’ achievements or something, then keep the scrubby guys coming.

9

This happens to me all the time when I come up against scrubs in ranked SF4. Sometimes the other person sucks so badly you’re just like “what???” and don’t know what to do. One time I got some ken scrub in the corner and was owning him so badly he just freaked out and kept jumping backwards against the wall mashing hard kick. It was so hilariously bad that I wasn’t sure of a clean way to punish him for it, so despite pounding him in the corner the whole round, he got in enough random jumping rh to win the round by a hair. :looney:

10

A good example of someone taking advantage of this is that one SFIV tourney vid where the guy gave up, and the Sagat player did his ultra and got up and did a victory dance, turns out he missed with the ultra and the guy came back and won.

Also coming back with a pixel of health against a guy who has 60% of his health left is always great fun.

11

It’s pretty stupid to give up if you ask me. Especially in games like SFIV/3 or Marvel where the combos do so much damage.

I think this vid is a perfect example.
[media=youtube]gVmc5ZepdVs[/media]

12

It probably depends on the big picture of the situation. Keep in mind that what I’m about to say, doesn’t really apply to “giving up” though, but more on reserving, keeping something conservative, or putting something out of it’s misery. So maybe my post is offtopic and unrelated.

I think it can be seen like folding your hand, you keep your knowledge of knowing the outs on reserve till your next hand, for a surprise so whomever you’re playing can’t really gauge your decision making on something that particular just yet. Yet at the same time, you can see their decision making process and what it is they’re doing, so you can play it big the next time that situation comes around(it’s based on some layers imo).

Also some of it might have something to do with you and your opponent both thinking 50 steps ahead.

I think this holds more true in games that are played 3/5 rounds per match(there’s more wiggle room and adaptation), most 3d games. And in 3d games due to how normal and counter hit rewards work(basically if you got CH in 3d it’s because you fell apart and was completely offbase) and how there aren’t things like meter/bar stored up and carried over to the next rounds. I mean you don’t just stand there or anything, but you put the situation out of it’s misery or you go conservative on your decisions and choices(because it can be used against you) for the next rounds preset.

I think it can somewhat be looked at in a mental tactic like, when KO your opponent with a particular move, you keep repeating that same move you knocked them out with, during dead body time in between the rounds - to mentally drive it home. Then when the next round comes up, it’s on their mind, and they might be looking for it but it never even comes up again.

Or see it like this in an analogy, you getting out of the way of a moving train, in order to unlatch the cars from behind. You now also know what kind of train it is, what color it is, how fast it was going, etc.

The first ones free.
This one was a “gimme”

My post is jumbled, but is it atleast understood?

13

i don’t give up against a human opponent, or really ever, but sometimes the AI in a game will make me want to. I just started playing Vampire Savior and trying to beat Dimitri with Jedah at the end of the game is a losing battle sometimes.

It depends on the game really. Some games make it such that if a player is down pretty bad, there’s a chance that they can come back, while with others, it’s pretty obvious that when you get past a certain point, only a bit of luck and a ton of skill is going to allow you to overcome that gap.

I don’t know that it’s necessarily a viable option because if you’re giving up for real, then the gap in skill is probably so great that even if your opponent gets shaken for a minute, you’re probably not going to be able to win. And if you’re just faking it, well, a good player should be able to get their wits together enough to eke out a victory, but it could give a bit of an advantage if you’re good as well.