Welcome back to our Pro vs Hobby debate, as it relates to the possibility of professional fighting game play. This week, we take a walk on the Hobby side with our guest Koop. Want to know why you cannot realistically be a professional fighting game player? Give us a listen, and remember to chime in with your thoughts in the comments section. Enjoy the show!
Brilliant podcast Keits, I’d recommend it to any fighting game fan, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or taking your first steps onto the scene.
In regards to the Pro vs Hobby debate, I have a rant that I’ve been meaning to share for a long time. Personally, I believe that the fighting genre is perfect for attracting a competitive gaming crowd, because they are often evidence of the familiar axiom: “Easy to play, hard to master.” The pure nature of fighting games appear simple at the surface, yet beyond this are a range of advanced techniques and tactics that separate the casuals from the experts. Cancelling attacks, frame advantages and spacing strategies are amongst the initially overwhelming list of gameplay elements that add a third dimension to a genre that many who are unfamiliar with fighting games would simply ignore and never bother taking the time to understand them.
In my honest opinion, I believe this is why fighting games have been pushed aside over the years in regards to the competitive gaming scene. One game in particular that I have noticed dominating the overall scene is Call of Duty. With its popularity having sky-rocketed in recent years, it’s no wonder why competitive gaming tournaments are favouring this game over what I feel to be more deserving choices.
My main issue with Call of Duty, and why I’ve grown passionate about the fighting game genre in the past several years is that Call of Duty represents all that is wrong with competitive gaming. In my experience, Call of Duty cannot be considered a “competitive” game in any sense of the word. Contrary to Guilty Gear, Street Fighter and many other fighting game franchises, Call of Duty lacks any depth or advanced strategies vital for victory. Instead, it creates the illusion of skill by rewarding its players with easy kills and unbalanced game mechanics.
Concluding my rant, the problem I have with Call of Duty is how incredibly shallow the gameplay is. There is nothing beyond surface level that requires both the time and effort to learn in order to improve your game. It’s merely a matter of who manages to fire the first shot at their opponent. Maybe I’d be more tolerant of Call of Duty, and similar games featured in the competitive scene, if they stopped falsely labelling themselves “competitive” games. The perfect analogy would be to compare Street Fighter, one of the most highly recognized fighting games available, to Chess. It’s an intricate game that requires an advanced knowledge of the fundamentals and the ability to defeat your opponent through mental focus and precise planning. Now compare Call of Duty to Snakes & Ladders, a game that even a toddler is able to understand, and the winner is determined through overall luck and how the dice decide to land.
/rant. Sorry for the lengthy post, and apologies if it strayed away from the podcast discussion, but it’s a view of mine that I just wanted to express.
For one reason or another, this podcast didn’t show up in the RSS…or in iTunes?
Where exactly do I find it?
Actually, I’ve had problems with SRK podcast from iTunes. I can see it, and subscribe to it, but when I go to download it says ‘stopped err = 404’. Any idea what the problem is?
No, but we’ll look into it.
Google Reader can’t find any audio elements in this podcast either (no player at the end) Previous months were fine.
the SRK podcast seems to be working properly again through Itunes (DL’ed 33 and 32)
The only problem is that this episode #31 does not show up on Itunes at all! If you could rectify it, that’d be great, thanks for all your hard work, and keep up the great work