"Let's Play SSFIV" Project: From Scrub to Slick

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Hello SRK!

I’m new to the forum, as you may have noticed, and today I’d like to tell you about a project I’ve been thinking about recently, with the possibility of getting feedback, opinions or any interested people to follow along.

Who are you and what do you want?

To give a bit of a preamble; I’m sure that a number of you are aware of video series known as "Let’s Play"s, in which a series of in-game footage is recorded while the player adds his or her own commentary over it for the purposes of entertainment or just being interesting. I’ve wanted to host one of my own for the longest time, now.

That being said; the reason why I’m posting this on SRK, of all places, is that I intend to run a bit of an experiment with a different kind of LP (Let’s Play) with Super Street Fighter IV. I love the game and its deceptive depth and complexity and as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to get into the genre.

As you can see to the side of this post, I go by the name of FragMagnet. I enjoy video games of all kinds but, as my username has probably already given away, my stronger genre would be that of First Person Shooters; hardly a skillset that transfers well onto Fighting games. Unfortunately, I’ve also never had the dedication to stick with any such games for long enough to get any good at them. In the case of SFIV, I’ve only ever managed to play it for just enough time to become overconfident, get my ass handed to me and quit the game again in frustration.

So what you’re saying is, you’re a loser.

Well, yes. In short, I’m pretty much a scrub. But I want to change that, once and for all, and finally get into what I’ve been missing out on for so long. I intend to start practicing more regularly and, in the process, keep a running log of the things I do, read about and learn as I go along; hopefully keeping track of any mistakes, notable improvements over time and what I had to go through to get there.

The primary reason for doing this is of course to finally improve my game in a fighting game and maintain it properly. In addition, beyond the opportunity of setting up my own LP, it would give a better idea, to all those aspiring Street Fighters out there, of exactly what’s involved in improving one’s skills. It’s easy enough to say “oh, you just gotta practice,” but sometimes people just need to see it happen for that point to get driven home.

While there is an almost excessive (and very valuable) amount of resources for beginners to learn about the mechanics of and techniques involved in the game, there is little that demonstrates clearly just what the process of practice and learning entails. If it helps even a small handful of players to surmount the wall of understanding that’s holding them back from playing the game as they should, I think it’s a project worth embarking on.

This is all, of course, assuming that I succeed in making any progress or even taking the right approach. For this reason I welcome all offers for advice or critiques from more experienced players as I go through this process, if anybody is so inclined to offer it.

Okay, but what will you be doing?

That being said, I feel it would only be fair to prove myself in some way before I expect to receive any sort of feedback. For this reason I have a small list of things I hope to offer as I progress along this ongoing project:

[LIST]
[]Weekly/Biweekly vlogs to provide summary of ongoing training
[]Reviews and Recommendations of instructional/tutorial material
[]Highlighting potential beginner pitfalls or mistakes by example
[]Discussion points on posts from SRK board, likely related to beginners’ issues
[]Scheduled fights with other players with analysis of match footage
[]Possibly branching out to other fighting games in a similar way
[/LIST]
I’m more than aware that I’m getting well ahead of myself with many of these items since I am an absolute beginner - starting from scratch is kind of the point of the entire exercise, after all. For this reason, many of those things are more a form of wishlist until I can actually build up my skill level to be any form of a reputable or valuable source of advice for other beginners.

So yeah, there you have it. I intend to post up an introductory video sometime in the next fortnight, and seeing as this is the go-to place for most SF beginners (whether that’s a good or a bad thing all depends on your point of view), I figure I might as well see what sort of reception I might get for the idea from here.

Any comments or feedback you may have is more than welcome! Thanks in advance. :slight_smile:

EDIT: As a footnote, I wasn’t sure if this post would have been more welcome in the main discussion thread, or where it would have more visibility to the actual beginners, like in the Newbie Saikyo Dojo. Then again, I wondered if anybody would read it there since many people go just to ask their questions.

I’d appreciate it if someone could guide me in this regard as I wouldn’t want to have my first thread to be put in the wrong place.

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This is a cool idea and a good way to view ones progress. Although this thread seems like an excerise in aiding only you. What benefit do other players have in watching your steadfast success? I mean other then checking the legion of posts other players have made on these forums.

But I myself am an experienced player but still consider myself average, so if this thread has any intention to help the community I’m all for it.

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Do you have an arcade stick? You should go buy one if you don’t have one already.

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This sounds pretty good reading through it, especially as the TC sounds genuinely enthusiastic and has conveyed his intentions in text well enough.

Admittedly my interest in SSFIV has waned considerably but should any potential Arcade Edition changes find themselves hitting the consoles then that will change, and i’ve spent the odd hour or so these last few weeks practicing some more tricks in training even if i’m not venturing online to try them out.

For some perhaps a series like this will be a better training tool than reading about match-ups, studying Youtube fights etc.
At the very least something like this can serve as another valuable tool for someones SF training regimen.

Two good posts on here lately with this and Ribixus (?) addendum to links topic; I hope this goes somewhere TC and i’ll probably follow this progress out of curiosity myself.

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I really like this idea man, seems like a massive undertaking. Any specific character(s) you intend to use for the sake of your videos?

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I also recommend you go buy yourself an arcade stick, particularly if you’re a beginner and you have no allegiance to a controller or stick yet. It’s an investment you’ll thank yourself for later, trust us.

Good luck!

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The best I can probably come up with in this case is giving an ongoing account of what I did, while going into the merits of fine detail so that perhaps other players on the same level of experience as myself could pick up on as they go along as well.

One example of what I intend to do is critique my own performance in certain aspects; like how my practice sessions go, or how my performance in the occasional online match would be. I thought it would help out other players who are still trying to break through to a better level of play, by finding out what they may have been ignoring, from my own examples.

In writing this out I do realize that it’s a bit of a catch 22; in the sense that I will probably need the practice and experience before I can actually critique my own play constructively and meaningfully. Unfortunately the only way I think I can get past this issue is to just get stuck in and see what I can figure out by myself.

Since switching to my Xbox with SSFIV I’ve had to make do with my regular control pad. This was a switch for the worse as I used to play SFIV on my PC with an arcade stick that doesn’t work on any consoles.

I’ve been reading through the forums for a while now and the need for a stick has come back to hit me full force. I bought myself a MadCatz Fight Stick TE as per the recommendation of many who frequent SRK. I’m itching to lay my hands on it, but until I get that first intro video out, I’ve vowed not to touch it in game so that I can log all my progress from day one.

It means a lot to me that other, more experienced players feel that this won’t just be a waste of time. I won’t deny that part of me just craves the recognition for the work involved, but it is something I genuinely feel is missing for many absolutely green players who really want to get into the game and have some fun.

I’ll do my utmost not to fall short on this. :slight_smile:

I’ve stuck with Cammy in almost every previous time I’ve tried to get into this game, with varying success, but I acknowledge that she’s not the easiest character to start out with. I might take a few steps back and go for Ryu or Ken, at least until I can say I’m confident enough in my level of execution and/or understanding of what’s going on in a match.

As a testament to my overall meh playing style, I generally play at the same sort of level with most characters, so long as I know their moveset. There’s just very little going on with regards to strategy or matchup knowledge.

I’m not sure whether making the switch will improve or impede my progress in the long run, and would greatly appreciate it if anyone could offer advice in this regard. I don’t want to inadvertantly shoot myself in both feet before even starting this project.

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I’d definately start off with a fundamental character like Ryu. People might say that’s bullshit, but it really helps because you don’t have to worry about alot of flashy or hard to execute stuff. After you are feeling confident in your spacing (when to not throw fireballs, what the range of your moves are etc) and footsies (check our Maj’s footsies handbook via google, read and learn) you could venture towards other characters. My 2 cents.

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ha ha i think this is a pretty interesting concept and look forward to seeing it! SF4 was the first SF game iv ever really played against people who new what they were doing (thanks to online). Lets just say i was shocked at how badly i was doing after my first few ass whoopings after starting playing over 15 years ago! cheap shit like jumping directly upwards on my wakeup to avoid my reversal SPD (the comp never pulls that shit ha ha), i think thats a tough time for anybody esp after putting so much time into the game and its easy to see how a lot of newcomers can be put off SF in general has a much higher learning curve than say COD, and itd be cool and kinda funny to hear the trials and tribulations people go through to get better.

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Thanks again for all the input. As I mentioned, I’ll be posting up an introductory video sometime over next week. It will be pretty much a repeat of what I said in my original post, but at least it’ll give me some time to test out my recording setup and plan out some sort of list of things for me to do in the first week of practice.

I intend to have a video to post the next time I reply to this thread.