I think a sticky is a great idea. As the resident newb, allow me to list my questions, and the helpful answers that I’ve gathered, from either this board or just general research, then feel free to copy or edit my list, and put it into a separate, more formal sticky. It definitely needs to be expanded upon by actual pros. i.e. question #6 only lists data for ST, surely there are more tutorial sites like that out there.
1) How do I get better at fighting games?
Practice, practice, practice. Play pretty much any fighting game against other players — playing strictly against the CPU will cause you to plateau pretty quickly.
In playing only people, notice what other people do. If someone manages to evade your every hit, take note of what character they are, what move they’re relying on. If you can’t figure something out, ask the other player. If you’re still confused, come search previous threads, or make a new thread. The people of SRK (that’s short for Shoryuken) are teh awesome.
Also depending on the game you wish to get better at, if there is one, certain games are best trained with, while others, not so much. For example, if you want to get better at Street Fighter 4, you should spend a lot of time with Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, as it will help your reaction time, and really familiarize you with the Street Fighter universe. Mortal Kombat might not help so much.
Lastly, there is an online book that covers the “fighting game mentality.” It will teach you about various types of game styles people use, their weaknesses, and so on. It is located here: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/
2) How do I play other people when I don’t live near any arcades / I have no friends / my friends are lamos who aren’t interested in fighting games?
GGPO (http://ggpo.net/). An amazing tool that allows you to use ROMs (which you legally obtain, of course!) to play popular fighting games such as 3S (Street Fighter 3: Third Strike) and ST (Super Street Fighter II: Turbo) over the internet! Lag is a minimal issue, and playing against someone with a low ping will generally result in a flawless arcade-like experience against another player.
3) That’s great, but playing with a keyboard is teh suck. What alternatives are there, and how do I obtain them?
See this thread for examples of other peoples’ fighting gear:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=149518
GGPO will generally work with any number of USB / PC compatible devices. This means that if you own a wired 360 controller, you can get started right now by downloading Microsoft’s Xbox 360 wired controller drivers for your computer here: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/download.mspx . Other people use PS2 controllers utilizing USB converters.
That’s all pretty standard and easy, but for really reinventing the arcade experience in your home, you should look into an arcade stick. A multitude of options exist, from simple Xbox 360 Arcade Sticks that are relatively cheap and easy (http://www.amazon.com/Xbox360-Fighting-Stick-EX-Xbox-360/dp/B000V02P6Q/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1221451515&sr=8-1), to hardcore customizable arcade sticks from Arcade-in-a-Box (http://www.aiabstore.com/main.sc), the cheapest of which that is PC compatible starts at $139.
4) I’m finding the gameplay in GGPO to not be quite so flawless. Is there anything I can do?
Assuming your problem isn’t fundamental, i.e. a crappy connection, try this:
Set smoothing to “0”, up to about 110 ping, this should improve things.
5) I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and there are so many acronyms and terms that I don’t know. Is there a fighting game dictionary?
These should help:
http://sonichurricane.com/articles/sfterms.html (General fighting game terminology)
http://sonichurricane.com/articles/sfnotation.html (General fighting game command notation. If terms like c.MK xx QCF+P boggle your mind, look here).
6) I want to get good at a specific game. Are there tutorial sites covering basic to advanced techniques for individual games?
Street Fighter 2: Turbo: http://www.sirlin.net/archive/my-street-fighter-tutorial-videos-from-ccc2/
7) I’ve been discouraged with my lack of progress — I get my ass kicked again and again.
Like anything in life, realize that everyone starts everything at a basic level. Even the best players of Street Fighter didn’t sit down on their first day with the game and say, “Okay, I’m gonna work on my dash cancels.” Everyone starts by saying, “Okay, so which button kicks? Punches?” No matter your level, even the best fighting gamers were once at the exact same level, with the exact same questions. You can either quit now because you’re losing, boo-hoo, or you can stick it out, learn from your mistakes, and stay dedicated. Trust me, there are very few feelings in video gaming that equal the satisfaction you get from coming out of the complete newbie hole and slaughtering people.
Don’t waste time in Practice mode without a goal. Master a characters special moves, ultras/supers, and combos. One piece of advice is to take a character, choose a combo, and practice it in this manner:
Hit it against the enemy 10 times from the left.
Hit it against the enemy 10 times from the right.
Then play arcade and pull it off 5 times.
Choose another character/combo/tactic, repeat.
Occasionally brush up on ones you haven’t used in a while.
If you use strategies like this, and continue to play either via home console, arcade, or GGPO, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll eventually climb out of the massive rape hole and start to at least win one or two fights here and there.
Okay that’s all I got. Let’s get a real sticky going!