The Curse of the Casual Gamer - A Love/Hate Relationship

Newbie Saikyo Dojo
1

I’d like to preface this thread by saying I don’t intend for this to be a whining post, so please don’t take it that way.

I more just want to see if there are other like minded individuals out there, and/or how to combat the “casual” attitude to either take it more serious, or if one should just drop it all together.

Now, I love fighting games. I’ve been playing them since I first played SF2 at a pizza parlor when i was 5. However, I’ve always been a casual fan. I’ve had fighting games on sega genesis, all the way through the 360. But growing up I always treated games as a “pick up, go into arcade mode for a bit, put back down” type of thing. I learned basic functions and moves, but never spent time in practice mode or anything like that because I didn’t see the point. I just wanted to punch faces for awhile. This also made the games more accessible with friends because none of us really knew what we were doing. We’d just mash and make jokes and all that jazz.

But then when I realized there were folks that took fighters seriously and there was a fighting game community with all this stuff, I got intrigued. I visit SRK, I watch streams, all that jazz. I started playing online. And this is when my hatred of fighting games took hold.

It’s like an entirely new world of fighting games opened up. Anti-airs, cancels, priority, frames, etc. All these things that seem so simple to a serious gamer were blowing my mind. I read guides, watch youtube clips and all that. Thought it looked awesome. Watched evo replays online and got super into it. However, after so many years of never paying attention, some habits were and are hard to break.

For instance, I despise practice mode. I don’t see the fun in it. All you do is repeat the same motions until they become muscle memory. How is that entertaining? I’d rather be punching faces as previously stated. I’ve always felt like as soon as my playing becomes all muscle and such it won’t be fun because then I don’t feel like “I’m” playing. This causes me to make horrific play mistakes online though. (a) because of my dislike towards practice mode, I can’t pull off combos because of the lack of muscle memory. Totally my fault. (b) I get bored in stalemates / gameplans and tend to do dumb things. For instance, if all I’m doing for most of the match is punishing, even if it’s working, I’ll completely change up my tactics just for varieties sake. Such as instead of keeping distance with grapplers I’ll be dumb and try to rush down just for the sake of it. Or in the instance of MK9, I’ll play Noob but stop zoning and try to get in close for combos just because I feel like the opponent will get mad at me or whatever for “spamming shadows.” And this is where I know I should focus on Sirlin’s article about playing to win. But my problem is I do have that stupid sense of honor. I don’t like shutouts and I don’t like one sided tactics. I want to keep things fresh and varied and have every fight be different. If every combo I do is LMHS MMHS Super, how is that fun?

And that leads to another problem. Because of the casual background, whenever I see long (read: good) combos or frame traps or other advance tactics, I immediately write it off and panic thinking I could never do them anyway so why try? My only option to do any of those tactics would be to sit in Practice mode for hours, and I’ve already stated I don’t see how that’s entertaining.

So I try to get by online and offline by just knowing the basics of a game. Trying to learn footsies, general character strategy, and basic bnbs.

This causes a big deficit in how I play though. My friends who didn’t know what they were doing never want to play with me now that I know how things work. I perfect them all the time unless I pick characters I know nothing about and intentionally make play mistakes (which then become bad habits as mentioned above like rushing in at the wrong time or throwing out random moves just for the sake of doing it). So I’m out of the casual crowd. So then I go online and try to play there. However, online it seems like there’s only two styles. Style 1 is spamming. Style 2 is people who take it seriously. Being in the middle ground, I can usually take care of spammers, but due to my annoyance of the repetition, I’ll make my aforementioned play mistakes and can lose too. And then against people who take it seriously, I usually just have to put my controller down because they just run across the screen so fast and do crossups and all that jazz that I just don’t know how to counter. And because they’re so much better, I feel like the matches always end too fast before I can really see what I did wrong and learn to improve from.

So I keep hoping and hoping I’ll run across other folks who have my style of play. People who know the basics, but treat it casually. Who are willing to do random stuff, and goof off, because it’s a game and it’s supposed to be entertaining. I feel like the problem with trying to take it serious is I’m not a part of any offline community and I will never enter a tournament, so I usually feel like there’s no point, or it’s a waste of time to try and learn things when I could be spending my time doing other stuff / fulfilling other hobbies.

So either my options are play offline where I feel like I’m not getting a full gaming experience (since fighters should be played with other people, in my opinion), or play online and just get bodied and stay free until I rage and pull out the disc.

I mean, when I played MK9, finally beating Shao Kahn, and going through the story mode made me feel great. In UMVC3, beating Galactus consistently and throwing out hyper combos gets me hype. Watching livestreams always puts me in a good mood. I love when I finally pull off a combo I saw online or when I finally remember to block low (seriously, it seems like my thumb doesn’t want to believe there’s a down-back) and take a match. But the hate creeps back in when I feel free, like I can’t get a move in edge-wise, like I’m not learning anything, or when spamming tactics get the better of me. Or when I do my bad habits and lose because of it. Basically, the things I feel I have no control over that cost me the match and force me to sit in front of my TV not being able to press a button and looking at “You Lose.” It causes me to have some days where I’m happy I own them, and some days where I pile the games on the shelf, promising myself I’ll trade them in the next day because I hate raging.

I guess the questions I have are, are there other people out there who just take fighters casually? How do you keep yourself having fun against people who are obviously better than you?

For the people who were casual but trained themselves to take it seriously, what did it take for you to finally do that? How can you train yourself to enjoy hours in training mode and spending so much time looking over frame date? How do you teach yourself to find that entertaining over instant gratification like reading, watching a movie, playing music, or jumping into the game casually and punching faces?

As you can see, I know what my problems are, but I’m not sure how to break my habits. I keep trying to convince myself “this is as far as I’ll ever get, why bother learning any more?” But every time I lose so pathetically or win by laming it out, I don’t feel good about it. I honestly don’t feel like I have any fun with these games anymore. Now that I know there’s so much more to them, I can’t go back to the ignorant “pick up and play” style, but I’m afraid I’ll put lots of effort into trying to improve only to have it go nowhere and feel like I wasted my time. I’m stuck in a casual / mid player limbo.

TLDR - Last three paragraphs have the main questions.

2

I feel the same way man
But what I did to take it more seriously is I literally do trials every time I start up mvc3 or sfxt and sf4 so I can remember the moves of the characters and learn BnB combos easily. As for training mode I get bored after 15min I feel like all the combos I try will be pointless because everytime I play online all the combos I learn I really can’t pull off with the opponent moving around I need them steady and what I hate about myself is when I play against someone I keep doing stupid mistakes like for instance I’ll play Ken online and I’ll just keep trying to go in and kick and shoryuken or someshit and after awhile my opponent knows my strategy but whats stupid on my part is that I still do it even though he keeps blocking it.

But take it easy on yourself I don’t think all the pros who play magically knew every thing from frame traps to footsies in a month. I feel in a year or two from practicing hard I’ll get the courage to participate in a tourney. But I will definitely go to them so you can meet people there and get help from them thats what Im gonna do.

3

I don’t understand why you are “raging” when you seem to recognize that you don’t deserve to win.

4

A few simple pointers:

#1) It sounds like you are already taking these games seriously, if you are raging when you lose to a spammer. You need to make decisions consciously: Either tell yourself “I’m going to play serious and beat this loser.” and then play serious, or tell yourself, “This guy is just a spammer and I don’t care if I lose, so let’s see what fun stuff I can do.” If you are getting upset, you have the wrong mindset for the way you want to play, and THAT is what is making you upset.

#2) Training mode. It’s a lot more palatable to go into training mode for 15-20 minutes than it is for hours. In fact, those 15 minutes are going to be way more valuable to you in terms of reward for time invested than grinding for hours will be. When you start up a game session, kick open training mode. Pick a combo. Do it (on both sides) for 10 minutes or so. It doesn’t matter whether you get it all the time or not, just that you pratice it. After ten minutes, pick something else and do that for ten. Then close down training mode and go play. And try to keep in mind what you were practicing - it’s no good if you spend a bunch of time in training mode trying to learn a new punish combo, and then just go back to punishing with your basic BNB when you play. THINK about what you’re doing when you play, even if you lose.

#3) These games have the ability to save replays. Use it. A match NEVER ends too fast for you to learn from it, because you can save the replay and go back and look at it and say “Okay. Why did he hit me here? A crossup? Okay, how do I keep him from doing that? What about here? I threw out a stupid DP. I should try to depend less on that.” etc.

#4) Take breaks. Don’t sit down and grind out matches for two, three or more hours as your rage builds up. Play for an hour or so. Put the game down. Do something else. Eat. Do the dishes. Go outside. Do some pushups. Stretch. Read. Whatever. This will help you deal with getting frustrated… but remember point #1: Don’t get upset over stupid stuff.

#5) To break your “bad habits” you just have to think about not doing them. Set a goal for yourself. At the start of a match, tell yourself “I’m not going to jump in during this match” or “I will not wakeup DP” or “I will not rush down this Zangief” or whatever and then stick to it. You don’t have to do this every match, but you have to be CONSCIOUS about these things, not just like “Oh, lulz, I’m bored nao, time for da rushdownz! OhnozIlost! RAGE!” The latter is you not acting like a thinking human being.

5

In answer to your questions; There will ALWAYS be people better than you, however good you are. But practising, getting better and eventually beating someone who used to trash you keeps me going.

Keep going with small goals. Don’t just break it up into “rubbish”, train and beat Diago. Completing small, manageable goals is where the excitement is. Pulling a combo for the first time in training, awesome feeling. Then practise until you can pull it 20 times in a row. Awesome feeling. Then pull it online against human opponent. Awesome feeling. 3 small goals down, and you’ve improved, as you’ve now learnt something you couldn’t do before. You need to understand how to train, how to learn.

There should be a disclaimer at the home page of SRK; Take the blue pill, the site chucks you out, and you believe whatever you choose to believe.
Take the red pill, and you gain access to the site and get shown just how far the rabbit hole goes.
Ignorance is bliss.

6

if getting bodied online a lot doesn’t motivate you to train and get better then maybe fighters aren’t for you.even casual players like to check out training mode and see what they can do.i mean if you keep playing you might bump into someone that shares your casual interests that you can friend and play if your satisfied with just playing with a limited amount of people.and there’s no honor in online random fights.only those that do whatever that must to win and trolls.

7

I felt and have been in the exact position you are right now. I’m obviously not the best player in the world, but I know enough to win and be consistent in the games I play. The first thing I did to transform myself from casual to serious is to constantly train, no matter how boring or pointless it may be. It is very worth it in the end when you can pull off that certain combo, or do that mix-up you have seen on streams before. Also, if you can, mix up some fighters, but don’t go deep into the mechanics unless you really want to play them. For example, my main game is Tekken and UMvC3, but I play Third Strike to teach me to be safer in move decisions, or BlazBlue for those execution problems. Overall, after mixing up my games to teach me other fundamentals of overall fighting games, I felt stronger in my overall playstyle, and applied what those other games taught me to my main games.

What i’m trying to say is, don’t let your limits get the best of you. Practice and stay motivated by watching streams and looking at interviews from top players, because believe it or not, Daigo at some point in time was a total scrub. So nothing is impossible for you, just stay consistent and work for it, and you will most likely make that transformation from casual to serious.

8

I wonder why they do not want to learn from you and prefer to avoid you?
A casual is someone who at least knows the basics.

If I am able to do a combo 1 out of 20, just in training, I’d be happy. 20 times in a row I dont have the concentration or skill to do. I was struggling for half an hour to do Makoto’s st HP xx Hayate HP and I succeeded 2 out of 100. With a Hori stick. Yet on a keyboard it worked 5 out of 10. Have no idea why…screw it, I’ll do it and whatever happens. same for the tsurugi after Ultra 2. trying to do the advanced move in a match and failing is much better than not doing anything at all, playing like not knowing the game.

I do practice mode sometimes, but reading frame data, traps and priorities is not something I’d go into. It feels as if you are going to see a magician’s show and have the tricks exposed to you beforehand.

9

Been practicing Honda’s cr.lp xx F.HHS for 3 weeks now, can do it bout 60% of the time now. I can actually do it bout 90% of the time sliding, but I wanted to be able to piano it as it seems more precise to me. Been practising for at least 30 mins most days in training, and tapping it out at work, etc.
Reading the forums one guy said he got this combo in 3 days. I don’t feel discouraged, cos though it took me a lot longer I still learnt it.
Goal achieved. Awesome feeling.

10

I am realistic as well. I know I’m never gonna be a great player. But I constantly want to be a better player, and with enough practice I have seen definite and almost constant improvement in my game, even if each of those improvements is only a very small one.
That’s what keeps me going, and excites me about fighting games.
There’s always something new to learn.

11

Watch any very talented piano player at a recital in front of hundreds of people. Do you think he enjoyed putting in many hours a day sitting alone in front of a piano to get where he is today?

Look at any good basketball player in NBA history. Do you think Larry Byrd WANTED to spend five to six hours every damn day shooting the same shot over and over and over, monotonously throwing a ball at the same hoop from the same spot for an extended period of time?

Now look at ANYONE in the top 4 at EVO. Do you think they enjoyed playing 14 hour a day ranked sessions until they were fatigued and tired, yet still persisted through? Do you think they enjoyed the hours of the same combos over and over, the nonstop playing, the hundreds and hundreds of hours to be ready for EVO?

My point is, practicing the same combos over and over in training mode isn’t fun. Then again, neither is going to school for a PhD. Don’t get me wrong, it IS hard to be that dedicated, but if you don’t put in the work, don’t expect anything to come out of it. You have to EARN the right to play crazy mad hype games against the top players and come out of it the better player. Simply put, if it was easy, then EVERYONE would be playing at the highest level of play.

12

generally speaking, if you love something, practicing isnt really a chore. When I played guitar i practiced for hours not because of routine, but because i felt like it.

the op simply does not like fighting games the way we do. we shouldnt try to make him like it either. it has to be organic,

13

I first got into fighting games, in a serious way, with AE. I had picked C.Viper as my main mainly because I had MvC 3 and loved her playstyle (sadly my MvC 3 disc broke after two months). At first I did her trials a couple of times, a couple of them were in over my head, but I had my main bnb of cr.HPxxExSeismo, burn kick plus some other combos I found easy and rolled with it for like a month. I played pretty much everyday for at least an hour or two and most of it was online matches.

After the first month, I started learning FFF and after 2 or 3 days of 30 min training mode sessions, I was pretty comfortable. However, everytime I went for it online I dropped it, got punished and lost. I knew I could do it though. I would go into training mode for like 5 or 10 minutes and do FFF and then go and play online. In a couple of days I could use FFF as a punish pretty consistently, so then I started implementing safe jump set ups and had to kinda “re-learn” FFF from a safejump, but again I only did training mode for 5 or 10 minutes.

To cut to the chase, even though I didn’t spend a lot of time in training mode, I eventually was able to implement new tech simply by trying it in every online match that I played, even if meant that I was most likely going to lose. I did this because training mode bored me and because I felt like training mode FFF/newtech and actual match FFF/newtech were vastly different, but if I could do it in a match I could definitely do it in training mode.

In the end, I dealt with the losses/salt and got better at an incremental rate and didn’t try to do shit that was too hard. And unless I am trying to find a specific set up or experiment for myself, I still spend little time in training mode and mostly trying to do things mid-match. To be honest however, somethings I could definitely pick up faster if I did grind it out in the lab but I also hate training mode haha :P.

NOTE: I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use the phrase “all that jazz” so many times haha

14

Yup! If you enjoy doing something, not only is the payout for practicing rewarding, but practicing itself is also fun.

A lot of people like the idea of being able to play guitar more than actually playing guitar. Fighting games are probably the same way.

15

there are two types of casuals: casual players who may play all sorts of games, being good in one genre and lacking in others, eg fighters in our case. then there are the casual FG players who may know more about fighters from the first group, yet they are not up to a satisfied level yet. still they can improve with enough practice and matches.

the issue here is how much is enough. This depends on every persons individual preferences over how much free time to devote to a game. Because if playing a videogame turns into a chore for high level play, well that is not for everyone.

Still casuals can play against casuals, mid-level against mid-level and top player against top players. No need to complain that I got pounded by better players or that there is no competition and everyone is too easy and not worth the time.

I stopped caring about who is better or worse than me, I just do what I can respecting the opponent, even if I get no respect back. this is what matters most.

16

Training mode gets fun once your execution improves. I didn’t like it at all either at first (was really boring) but after playing for a few months and developing my execution, hell, I can get LOST in that training mode now if I’m not too careful. Now that my timing is significantly improved, and I can do all of your basics on demand (dashes specials links etc) I have a LOT of fun putting combos together in training mode.

I find your combo comment about muscle memory not being “you” when you’re executing combos pretty uninformed (no offense!). Believe me dude – it is ALL you, it feels that way, and it feels completely and utterly awesome to land some ridiculous combo on a dummy. I could blow a dummy up for hours on end. It’s just ENJOYABLE. Training is fun for me. Then when I finally catch myself (“oh! I was gonna play the ACTUAL GAME that’s right!”) and jump online? All that muscle memory is part of your arsenal now. It’s like 500x harder to land a combo in a real match (in terms of timing the attack right to get past someone’s guard and then simply not dropping the combo once you get it going) but when you do it the adrenaline rush is crazy awesome. You feel fuckin GODLIKE when you’re blowing someone up with something you worked on so hard in training mode, finally unleashed on some poor bastard on the Internet, the fruits of your labor…it has this satisfying feel man, I can’t describe it and do it any justice at the same time. It’s taking months to build a house then finally living inside it during that first storm and it holds and you sigh to yourself thinking thats my handiwork right there, all that invested time finally paying off in this one moment.

Just hit training mode for like, ten, fifteen minutes, every day. FORCE yourself to practice stuff. And do it consistently, as in, practice one thing quite a bit in a row so you can get the hang of it, not just once or twice, or else you’ll never see progress. After a few days in a row of fifteen minute practice segments you WILL see improvement, and who knows? You might look up and oh shit I’ve been practicing for thirty minutes already? So the journeys begins…

You really do need to train to get better. Even a little training to get a little better. The improvement becomes super addictive though, serious, you get HUNGRY for those combos. And it’s not just about combos either. First it will be, but then you’ll explore some more, and learn how to use the training room more effectively. Then you start getting way better way faster, emulating your most troubling spots in matchups, really polishing your game hard. It’s addictive man, way way addictive. Just the sound of the buttons when you’re dishing out that combo, 100% you on screen styling all over some poor schmuck, it’s all so gratifying!

God I love this genre so much. So so much. Just real raw skill and competition. It’s passionate as hell and I’m glad to be able to say that I’m apart of it all.

Train! Join us! Perfect your friends with EVERY character!

17

you don’t have to play every game hardcore. there are a lot of games that require ‘knowledge’ but i still just pop them in and play it for fun not caring about all those stuff.

18

Somebody took a sip of the hype juice. Which is why we play and love the game my friend.

19

Thanks for the perspective everyone. I appreciate the feedback and the lack of “stfu scrub” comments.

I think I’ve reached some new opinions. The guitar/piano metaphor was really strong. I play several instruments and it’s true, I don’t consider practice boring because I see a genuine improvement in what I do and it helps out in the long run. Plus I have goals like “I will learn this progression or song today/this week.”

I guess I never attributed the same thought process to fighting games. I’ve always figured videogaming was something where you turn your brain off rather than focus for enjoyment. But then again, why do people play board games, chess, cards, or what-have-you. Those are mind things too. And those are entertaining. The same should be said for fighters, as you all put it.

I guess my biggest problem when it comes down to it isn’t that I don’t want to learn or put in the effort, it’s more the fear that the effort won’t take me anywhere. That I’ll see some awesome combos on the forums, spend lots of time practicing it, then never be able to pull it off online. But then again, if I can learn strum patterns, why can’t I learn OTGs in Marvel, Drive Cancels in KOF, and 50-60% combos in MK? I also realized I never had quality expectations for playing. I’d go into a game saying “Ok, I’m hoping my win/loss record will be X%” so if I’d lose lots of matches in a row I’d get discouraged. It wasn’t about “oh, can I pull off this new trick” or “let’s go online to learn X or Y.” And I guess that is what it should be. Baby steps. Musically, it wasn’t “Oh, hey, I’m going to spend my first day on bass learning Jaco Pastorius,” it was “guess I’ll mess around with Green Day and simple root notes until I get the hang of things.”

Hopefully with a new perspective on how to improve (partial game plans at a time rather than whole game plan if I understand you all correctly) and fresh expectations on what to get out of the game, I’ll finally enjoy it, even if I still get bodied. At least I can do a match and say “at least I remembered to block this this time” or whatever. Then hopefully that the win/loss % will naturally fit, or (what I’m hoping) I’ll just stop caring about win/losses and just enjoy the other parts of the game.

20

Learn ONE game. Pick your favorite. Learn ONE character. Spend 30 minutes a day at bare minimum in training mode. For me it’s Ryu in SSF4AE2012. I practice easy bnbs, focus attack punishes, links and fadc shoryuken ultra. Then I mix and match a bit to try and make more combos. When I start to find myself veering off course it’s time to jump online.

YOU ARE OVERTHINKING. THERE IS NOTHNG YOY CAN READ HERE THAT WILL INSTANTLY IMPROVE YOUR GAME. Play. Play. Play some more! Trust me. I was/am still a huge scrub – I know EXACTLY how you feel. You will progress. Just play my friend!