Online play shouldnt be taken seriously from a competitive standpoint because it isnt a true gauge of skill. There is no such thing as a lag free game. Even a latency of 1/60 seconds (1 frame) changes the game dramatically. Now realize that even 5 bar games have at least 1 frame of lag. Because of this certain links become nigh impossible, moves become safer, and it turns into a guessing game rather than a strategic game. There just isnt a substitute for real live gaming.
When people make that statement they arent talking about the casual gamers perspective. You will be hard-pressed to find anyone on this forum who believes online play to be anything other than a play-tool.
The better you get and the more you understand the mechanics, frame data, etc, the more you will find your disgust online play growing.
Sure online play can be a good alternative to practice. There’s a lot of players in your boat, but if you REALLY want to see how you stand up; playing offline with great players is the way to go. In the end, participating in tournaments represent a clear testimony how you stack up against competition. Those obsessed with CE Mode, and yet have never made an effort to participate in one significant tournament are just fooling themselves.
Player matches mean much more than CE mode ones…alot of you guys definitely have it backwards. CE mode is the place where you screw around and try things out. On there you get a variety of total scrubs to practice combos and counters on, and if you can’t win consistently on there, then you know you need a lot of work with that character. Pretty much everyone on there, this is in g1 mind you, is still just mashing dp’s and giving out free combos like candy, and doing wake up ultras. These are the matches that you consider “serious”?
Player match with people who are actually good is where you actually learn your character’s matchups and gain valuable information. I have lots of good people on my friends list, that I met at tourneys or that I have known for a long time, whereas I have like 39k GP and I have met on the way there maybe 20 people through CE mode who were not random number generator type players that just jump at you for no reason or dp mashers. The way they play is still just like pulling a move out of a hat, like they shake a magic 8 ball and it comes up saying “roundhouse hurricane kick from 3/4 screen for no reason” and they do it. These are not serious players, or serious matches, and the only reason that these particular scrubs beat the other scrubs most of the time to make g1 is because they have perfected lag abuse maneuvers. Random tiger knees from half screen, random ex honda headbutts, wake up electricity, throwing people on wakeup 2 or 3 times in a row, etc. etc., if you think that works offline you’re quite mistaken. People in player matches who are actual tournament competitors play the game as if it were offline, allowing you to actually learn sfiv and not how to counter some nonsense that only has any value as a tactic due to the internet dumbing down your reaction time.
I still use my main(Fuerte) online occasionally, but I’ve started just messing around more since I started going to local meetups and tourneys. It really is just so different, I can’t even play online as much as I used to because sometimes it really doesn’t feel like it’s adding anything. Mostly I just play local people online now when I can.
So…if you DON’T rely on lag tactics, you’d only improve if you play offline, so therefore online would be your practice because you’re basically being held back by the laggy gameplay
Therefore, online play would still matter in the same way that it’s still training if you were to run with a weighted jacket. If you’re one of the many people(apparently) that abuse lag tactics ranging from lucky jumpin to untechable throw, then you’re gonna go offline and find out how badly you suck i guess.
I don’t really have a main at the moment. I started out with Dictator, then Cammy, and now I alternate between Ryu, Abel and Boxer. I generally don’t player matches very seriously though, and I mainly use it to test out experimental characters, or just to warm me up when i’m just starting to play that day.
Anyway…the fact that you think playing online with lag is like “running with a weighted jacket” compared to offline being running with regular clothes just says how dumb you really are.
Well i guess if you ever got off your ass to exercise maybe you’d understand the comparison, until then i guess you can stick with second grader arguments online
im gonna guess shin-ryu means that running with a wieghted jacket makes you stronger. playing online makes you weaker, its the exact opposite of what you’re saying
Who knows? I don’t think he has any idea what he’s on about, just trying to be trendy.
When i play online, links may not work, my reaction will be slower, my execution is slower, i’ll get hit by things i’d never get hit with otherwise, it limits the amount of ways i can attack or evade attacks or punish…
Pretty self-explanatory how weights would slow you down isn’t it? If you fight with weights on then you’d get hit by things you don’t normally get hit by, you can’t punish as well,anyone fighting with you can get away with BS they never could…
Sorry i guess i just thought the comparison was obvious, because i’d definitely do better with less or no lag, since i don’t rely on lag tactics.
If I ever play online, I just pick random. On rare occasions I get my main through random select, but most of the time I’m stuck with characters that I suck with (which is a good amount of the cast )
whatever im in the mood for… i dont really stick to a plan or anything. if i want to play my main i do it, if i feel like working on one of my alts, or i learned a new combo and want to do it on someone. Same goes for champ mode. If i lose my first match its only 5 pts, i wont lose sleep over it. im sure in SG its more pts, but the only time i cared was ranked matches or if i play a friend and i need to settle the score.
My main is Ken, and I haven’t played him in like a month. I’m soo freakin bored with shotos. I’ve been using Ken since SF2 and after playing KOF for a few years before SFIV came out, shotos seem boring to me. In fact most of the SF cast is boring. I wish KOF was more popular in the US cause most of their characters are unique.
So now I use the interesting characters. Primarily Gen. Messed with Fei Long a bit, might try Sim later. But I still fight nothing but Ryu’s and Sagats. I want to love this game but this roster sucks.
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