I stickied it because I don’t plan on taking a very lenient approach to the incessant stream of whining bullshit that is sure to happen over the “non-dlc” , “over priced” , “barely new game” etcetc
kids need to grow up.
I played FIFA 09, it was fun while it lasted then I realized I was wasting my time LOL
Video games as a whole are a waste of time, which game you spend time with doesn’t change this.
Videogames are as much of a waste of time as reading books and watching television >_<
Son, reading books can broaden the perspective and deepen the soul! What you learn in books can get you somewhere in life.
Now, some video games do teach you something as well… but street fighter isn’t one of those games, nor are most of them
saying books are the same as tv are the same as video games… just wow…
depends on what games you’re playing, mate
but this forum is not the place for that discussion 
like who wouldnt know they would milk the cow, thats what you do. moooh.
and for your concerns, ssf4 will probably one of the cheapest games to produce for any next gen console (they could probably have made the game in 1 or 2 months if they really wanted 2). capcom will make lots of money off of it cause its like adding some lil extras to an already existing game. but then again they would need to, as the sf4 bandwagon has been jumped on already and everybody who bought it that shouldnt have bought it wont buy the super this time. so less sales, but cheaper to produce product. theyll probably do almost as well as the og sf4 release money wise.
even at a cheaper price, seeing how easy it is to make these characters they should have at least added 16 more characters in the mix instead of 8. but well probably get a fuckload more cause they are so cheap to produce. or will they wait for turbo?
reading or whatching tv could actually mean your educating yourself. unlike games, where you just kill time and not get anything back for it. yeah you might get better at the game, but will it help you in real life? comparing games to books is stupid, book > games as a timekiller. though games are generally more fun than books (for our generation at least).
However, what you dont realize is what you utillize from reading a book or watching TV determines if you are learning something or not. Reading a book or watching TV doesnt mean you auto learn something. Stop belittling games.
I love books, and I read them occasionally, such as The Divine Comedy, Twilight, The Abhorsen Trilogy, etc. I love TV too. However, I love games a whole lot more. Does it makes my time spent on videogames any less significant than reading a book or watching a TV? It shouldn’t. All and all, it is killing time and not everyone reads books or watch TV to learn or to educate themselves. Comparing games to books isnt stupid nor is books > games as a timekiller. Not everyone likes reading books for one, I do but not everyone does. When you kill time, does it matter if it will help you in real life if you only going to kill time off it? Also, if it is something that you enjoy and it is not detrimental to your health, isnt that helping that person in real life? It helps that person enjoy him or herself.
Reading novels does not make you smarter.
Watching cartoons does not make you smarter.
Playing Street Fighter however boons dexterity of your fingers, and it trains your fine motor skill and muscle memory.
Honestly, I really doubt that everyone who says “Reading books and watching TV makes you learn stuff, games are just useless timekillers” actually does watch only documentaries and read specialized textbooks on certain topics all the time.
Oddworld: Abes Oddysey taught me about social oppression.
Reading Mario Puzos “Omerta” didn’t teach me jack.
Like I said, depends on what kind of books you’re reading, what kind of tv you’re watching and what kind of games you’re playing.
You can learn something from absolutely anything if you look for it. I’ve learned things from SFIV that apply to other things I do.
texts are texts; print, screen, interactive. It is all the same just delivered differently.
Just as there are both useless and useful books there are useless and useful tv shows, films, movies and games.
hahahahaa…
yeah like reading harry potter and lord of the rings broadens anyone’s perspective in life… that’s a good one. There’s thousands of books out there that are just mindless garbage, just like in the video game industry.
Video games come from a long history of intellectual stimulation. More specifically, strategy games like chess and other games like it (which exist all over a multitude of cultures for hundreds of years, such as japan’s shogi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_variant] and many other global versions) have been scientifically credited many times to have intellectual benefits from very early childhood to old age. The same thing can be said for many other types of games that require mental focus, from crosswords to puzzle games to number games like sudoku.
Games are not ‘new’. Video games are just digital evolutions of ancient concepts. The benefits you get from focusing, thinking and reacting as fast as possible are non-deniable. There’s the research out there to prove it many times over.
There is a stigma against playing videogames started in the 90s that “games rot your mind”. And that’s just not true. It depends what you play and how you play it.
The same thing goes for books, movies, TV, music, and everything in between.
Playing a videogame is no more a waste of anyone’s time than reading harry potter, watching a hollywood movie, watching TV, listening to pop music, etc.
No matter what media you interact with, you only get out of it mentally and intellectually whatever you put into it. If you go to college and study music, its much different than listen to a song on the radio and being blissfully ignorant of its rhythmic or harmonic structure. The exact same thing goes for games or anything else.
Unless of course you have an interest in animating, art in a modern context, time-based art, comedy writing, soundtrack composition, or about any of the million other things that go into that art form.
Not only is ‘cartoons’ a broad and vague term that applies to about a hundred different things, its just about as wrong as saying you can’t learn anything from watching a movie.
Nothing can make you smarter, per se. You’re born with your brain.
But reading novels–if they’re serious novels–can definitely make you think about things you wouldn’t have thought about otherwise. You may benefit by this or you may not, but I can guarantee you you have a better chance to develop as a person from a book than you do from most video games.
(historical simulations are an exception–some of them are like an interactive history book)
I fucking love video/computer games and love wasting time with them–that’ll never change. But I’m not going to lie and pretend they’re enriching me or my life. They’re relaxation. Fun. Period.
Somehow I managed to waste hours every day on video games and also get two bachelor’s degrees, so I’m not saying games are a bad thing. I just wish more kids would work on reading some books whose subjects or stories interest them, in between sfiv matches as it were.
You make points worth thinking about. Of course there are garbage books–tons of them! But let’s think for a minute about all the video games we’ve played, and all the books we’ve read (assuming we’ve read quite a few). What percentage of video games have been mindless fun versus the percentage of books that have been mindless fun? I’m sure you’ll agree that as a proportion of the whole, more games are pure entertainment.
I concede that games, regardless of their type, prepare one for life. The function of play in all mammals is to develop skills that will be useful at maturity. Video games can be a part of the human maturation process.
Nevertheless, when you think about real learning about the world, books are able to tell more of the story than movies, t.v. shows, or games. Visual media has time and budget constraints that cause useful information to be left out (think of all the movies made about books that leave out important parts); video games have to be playable and fun. Books, by being made up purely of information, can transmit more than any other medium.
Show me a game, movie or television show that’s educational and beneficial, and I’ll show you a book on the subject that can teach you a whole lot more.
Of course, if you are studying or have an interest into a topic, consuming its outcomes is going to be beneficial to your knowledge and skills in creating something like that.
The same can be said about anything else, though. If you have an interest in fantasy literature and read Harry Potter, you can understand why it’s appealing to the masses and become more knowledgeable through it.
Just like saying that from novels would be technically wrong, too. I just was generalizing.
Certainly i dont want to put books down. I’m a reader and i enjoy good books, however, books can only teach you so much about certain things.
If you want to become a film director, you can’t just read a book on it and automatically become good. You have to expose yourself to a lot of well directed movies. You have to watch things and critique them. Critique lightning, filming/framing, etc.
If you want to become a composer, the most valuable information isn’t found in your music theory textbook, but is gleaned from years of listening to compositions and analysis of scores and progressions. Personally, i’ve studied music in a college setting, and all good schools put a lot of stress on ear training, dictations and performance. The textbook can teach you how to resolve a certain chord according to 4-part part-writing conventions. But the way you really learn to create powerful melodies and harmonies is by playing and listening, to Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Hip-hop, or anything. A final thing to note about that is, now is the best time to be a composer in history because we have such a completely limitless array of genres and styles to work from, so it’s very crucial to learn to appreciate certain sounds that you’d never learn from a music theory college textbook.
Or a final example, you can buy a cook book, but until you start learning to experiment and taste things and really begin to think about flavors and textures of certain things that’s the real way you learn.
Lol, i would know, when i was in middle-school i tried to learn to skateboard and read everything online and in magazines and everywhere i could. I asked people things and nothing helped. There are just some things books can’t teach you to do, in my opinion.
… i never did learn to skateboard. although, now that im a little older and i have no desire to. xD lol.
edit:
I guess my point boiled down would be:
Every medium of art has its limits to what i can and can not do. There are some things books just can’t do. There are some things music just can’t do. Theater acting, screen acting, animation, painting, graffiti, ballet, opera, mime, comedy. These things all are unique and have their own methods of teaching people things about life and humanity, if you are willing to look for a deeper meaning within them. Games and video games are absolutely no different. There is truth in art.
And finally, i agree 90% of games are mindless crap, 90% of books are mindless crap, 90% of music is mindless crap, 90% of animation is mindless crap. hell, it could even be more than 90%…
The same thing applies to everything. Walk into a bookstore and look at all the trash. Go into Boarders or Barnes and Noble. How many of those books would you actually read? Go into gamestop and look at all the crappy shovel-ware kitsch. I could go into a music shop and find a huge amount of CDs with a pretty low amount of genuine musical value. For every hand crafted chinese vase in the world there is a thousand pottery barn franchises. For every good movie that comes out in theaters there are a hundred crappy ones.
But as someone that loves art, music, literature and games. I’m willing to wade through the masses of shit until something brilliant appears. Because even if 90% of everything is crap, the 10% that is not can be life-changing.
This is one fine derail. Somewhat interesting though.
Anyway, the only thing I’ve got to say about people complaining about SF4 being a ‘OMGWTFBETA’: You know, if you wanna be technical, the arcade version was the one that was a beta. :V
But people shouldn’t be technical. Also to the dude that wanted to man up and try and talk for the detractors: You do realize the article you were picking was being all hurly burly about ‘only adding 3 characters’ right? I hope not because that makes you extra hilarious.
all of you, stfu about this immediately.
kthx.
lolz on stfu . . .
But come on. You guys let a person who actually reads . . . read and listen carefully. Now let someone who doesn’t read . . . read the same thing and listen. You’ll see the difference. Also, yeah, reading does broaden you vocabulary, comprehension, and even your speech. Watching TV does not.
but yeah, this thread is about “STFU aobut SSFIV” not reading vs playing games.