Forming & Breaking Bad Habits

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

A couple of months I decided to get involved in competitive fighting games. So since then I’ve been getting in on this whole new GGPO & 2df movement, and making trips out to CF to try & step my game(s) up. But the more I play & try to improve, I can see myself falling into a lot of bad habits, and also see a lot of the same from other (particularly online) players.

Most of the time when I try out a new game, I usually go in bare handed against a friend & just try to play intuitively, and I end up learning a good bit. But then when it comes time to play decent players, not even necessarily great ones, I find myself getting demolished, because a lot of new players tend to approach the game in a very scientific way. And as I learn & get better in the games I’ve been trying out, I’m really wondering what’s the better approach to learning a game, when it comes to forming good habits.

The first game I really picked up was 3s, which is cool and all, but I really think it’s hurt in terms of learning other games. Especially as I started reading up on the characters, a lot of times I felt myself, and saw other players just fishing for move, you know, c.mk->super, or whatever for whatever character. Not that it’s all the game comes down to, but the habit seems to form of sticking to one poke, no block chains, no traps, but fish for that poke & hit that super son.

And of course that gets predictable & works in reverse, if I know you’re gonna c.mk->Hado everytime, I can parry it & super, or whatever. And that’s where the shitty habits start forming, and when I moved into other games, it really hurt. It really took a while to realize that Fei couldn’t just jump every fireball, and that I’d really get swept everytime if I tried. Especially trying to get friends into other games after 3s, things like Chun’s walking tick, or KoF combos into command grabs turned them pretty hard off the game.

Now, not trying to make it into more ST or 3s, but I’m really trying to get out of bad habits I’ve formed, and teach my friends to do the same. Some of it is silly shit like dudes doing reversals at every possible chance, not knowing how to punish a move other than with a grab.

So yeah, what’s the better way to form good habits? Approaching & learning the game with a set strategy/idea, or trying to get a grasp on your own through playing, win or lose? Any other terrible habits? I swear people trying to grab (not command) whenever the opponent is close is probably the worst one.

2

Play on ggpo

3

I never understood why kof combos into command grabs was such an issue…it’s a move just like any other move, and it happens to combo…it’s not ground breaking at all, it doesn’t affect your ability to block any more than if it weren’t a command grab.

Well obviously you need to think about your actions…really not sure what else to say. Think about the risk vs. the reward, as well as the probability what you’re going to do is going to work. Besides, after you’ve been punished enough, something should probably be telling you not to do it anymore.

Some horrible habits I’ve seen (in kof) would be trying to air-to-air constantly even when you’re just standing there on the ground, trying to roll into the opponent to do some damage, rolling constantly on wakeup or while in the corner just to get out, constantly doing reversals without thinking (even if the opponent backdashed out of the way over a second ago, which shows the guy reversaling is clearly not paying attention or has rediculously bad reaction time). Also mashing…i’ve seen some matches with bad players where opponents whiff fierce dps right in their face and the opponent is mashing buttons as the dper is rising upwards still and then falling down…and then they walk forward and do a regular throw, as you said.

On 3S, I see way too many beginners try to parry everything…and usually they end up complaining about lag when they realize they can’t parry everything.