Firstly, hello to everyone! First time posting on this forum, so please excuse any mistakes I make.
I am still very new to fighting games. I have been playing SFV for around a week now, and before that I played SFIV… for around a week. Fighting games have always been something I have liked the sound off, but been a little afraid of playing in-depth. That being said I have rather fallen in love with world of SF. I love the wonderfully diverse cast of characters, and it’s also nice to play a game where I need to build up my skill. There are no easy options, it’s all about having fun, learning the game and getting better.
This is why I am curious as to see how long it took people to believe they were getting good at the game. When I say good, I mean decent really, not ‘top of the leader board’ style of skill, just comfortable in your abilities. Did it take you a month? Two? Over a year?
For me, I am nowhere near the level I think I could be called ‘good’ at the game. My win ration is something 1/5 fights, and I am ok with that. Slowly I feel I am getting a little better at pulling of some of my characters moves, seeing what my opponent is planning and sometimes trying to find a way to stop them. It would not surprise me if in a years’ time I am still struggling with all this, but that’s alright, I am enjoying the game and that’s what matters most. Though it does not help that, at the moment I am torn between Laura and Chun Li as mains. I enjoy playing both, though seem to have a better win ratio on Chun Li. Juri was my favourite character in SFIV, so there is a very good chance she will be my main when she is finally added.
I’ve been playing for a while and I’m still not good. How long did it take for me to get comfortable with my abilities? Maybe a couple months (I don’t really remember to be quite honest), just accept the fact that you are going to lose, a lot. Don’t get frustrated, just try and learn from your mistakes. Also, I think it helps to set goals for yourself. For instance, instead of worrying about winning matches, you can set a goal of making sure you punish every chance you get. Or you can set a goal of making sure you don’t drop your BNB combo during a match. Or Anti-Airing every time your opponent jumps in at you.
3 weeks into the game, i still can’t do QCF x2 super reliably lol. I can see some improvements though, i recommend watching your own replays and try to see if you can find what you did wrong.
I had the same issue with the supers, what helped me was to do the full motion, there is no shortcut with the QCF/B like most other games have. Also make sure to press the punch/kick AFTER the two fireball motions, I was pressing the button before. Good luck bro I know it’s frustrating to know that we can’t do a simple command but we’re not the only ones bro, this game is not too lenient with the inputs.
As for the OP, it all depends on the player, some learn faster than others, some learn better. Just practice and you’ll get where you want to get, remember everyone loses and just be patient and have fun bro.
That’s a really good point, sometimes the left/right hand synchronization can really affect the accuracy of motions. Another thing to keep in mind is the way you hold the joystick. Finding the grip that you’re most comfortable with is another easy way to get good at motions.
To answer the OP’s question, I think it depends on how serious you take learning the game and understanding your current skillset. What are you weak in? What aspects of the game do you excel in? You mentioned you are having success with Chun Li, which could mean your playstyle probably understands spacing/footsies more than other aspects of the game. Another way to improve is to understand what strategies you struggle with. I always find that when I’m in a losing battle, that’s the time I should really be taking notes because everything I currently know isn’t enough. Learning from losses is by far the easiest way to level up your game.
How long it takes to get good is subjective, because it depends on how much you practice, how you practice and the complexity of the game and/or character you’re playing. I’m pretty ass at sfv and sf4, but it took me about 2 years to get reasonably skilled at 3s. I don’t really play it anymore, so I’m probably terrible at it again now lol, but there you go. Cjeggett is bang on the money though, if you aren’t getting your ass whooped then you probably won’t be learning a great deal. A good example of this is the Super Turbo room in fightcade. Most of the players have being playing for 5-10 years, so you’re gonna get your ass kicked, but because of this even the newer players learn very fast.
Been playing for 4 years. I’ll be charitable towards myself and say that I’m okay-ish.
The weird thing about learning fighting games compared to other games is that “skill progression” isn’t as linear as in other games. I’ve had a lot of sudden “jumps” in skill level over the time, and most of these happened because I realized some abstract strategic concept (or got them explained to me), and started applying these things in my own games.
You’ll find that most people you think are good think of themselves as being varying degrees of bad or mediocre.
That’s because the tournament environment magnifies individual performers and discards the notion of wider statistics. For example if you consider the SF5 ladder, being top 4500 in the world (like you need to be to reach gold right now) is incredibly good and statistically, you are a “good player” (as you are one of the top .5% players in the world) but there’s no way any gold player will be able to compete for very long with anyone who is a threat at a major and we’re all competent enough at the game to understand that, therefore we are “bad.” There’s only room for 64 in most brackets, but there are thousands of “good” players online.
What you should be asking is how long it took for players to get to a point where they could understand why they are losing and work at addressing those problems, particularly in the middle of matches. Also sometimes you do nothing wrong and lose anyway, that’s just how these games work, you have to know when that’s the case too.
Started with Sf2 world warrior arcade cabs 20 somethin years ago then one Xmas morn I got a snes and SF2. I still remember how my thumbs blistered from endless hours of QCF and SPD motions.
Years later and having time invested in about every fighting game imaginable, I still get messages that “I should stop jumping cause i’m a high tier whore scrub” whatever that means…soooo i guess i’m still not good yet.
Yep, and that’s not a problem at all. You don’t need to be good to have fun. The learning process, the feel of getting better with practice and the possibility to share your knowledge with other players makes fighting games one of the most rewarding and fun experiences in the gaming world.
By 2000 I got pretty a bit more competent…so give yourself about 8 years or less ( started playing in 92 , 93 but was young so got better in early teen years)
