What can you teach me about the game?

im very new to fighting games, this is my first ever fighting game im trying to get good at, but i just cant seem to win, i’ve played online for the whole day today and my win loss ratio is like 10:100. it’s so frustrating, i dont know how to get in, i dont know what button to press, and when the opponent jumps in i just get hit. could it be because im using a DS3? i just dont know how to get good, i feel like im missing something really basic, but what could it be?

Your DS3 controller is fine. You’ll just need to check out the above links, pay careful attention to the mistakes that you make throughout a match, and think of a specific goal for yourself as to how you can improve.

In order to get good, you’re going to lose a lot. Overall, the best advice I have for new people is make sure you block, learn how to tech throws and just be patient. You will get it all in time.

You’re missing the point. In order to win, you must lose. I can very much say that in my beginnings of fighting games I lost way more than won. That’s just how excellence in anything works. You learn from mistakes, you learn matchups, combos, strategies, footsies, mixups, mindgames, you learn all this from LOSING first. You can learn some of this in winning, but it is mostly losing.

How do you win? You gotta have a passion, a fire, an undying spirit to WIN no matter WHAT. If it means playing more aggressive on your opponent, then do it. If it means spending an extra 5 hours playing, then do it.

During Vanilla SF4 days I used to like for 3-5 hours every single day. On some weekends, I would play for 6-7 hours straight. It gets addicting. Just play a lot, and don’t beat yourself up for losing too much. It takes time and patience.

Saying what game you’re playing and what characters you’re trying to use would probably help too…

Im not new to fighting games anymore, but when i got KoF XIII, before i got a winning streak, my win/loss ratio was 12/160. you just have to get past that entry level by using resoruces available to you on this site and you’ll be fine.

Practice = Losing a lot
You’ll learn habits and eventually learn what to do.
Try learning a straight forward character like Ryu at first. Then, you’ll pick up my more complicated characters later and get good with them too.
So try to Shoryuken when your opponent is approaching (in some cases).

im playing SSF4 using guy. im trying my best right now, but playing all this online makes me used to using online tactics.

That’s one thing you have to be careful with; not getting programmed to online trickery. I say, use online to practice your strategy and try to get to some tourneys to go against more elite players.

Yup you ahve to lose lose and lose again to get a win, So Fun!!

In all honesty i wouldn’t worry so much about how good you are at this point. Focusing on your skill level in relation to all the other people you see playing this game is just going to discourage you, its may seem sad but you aren’t going to be as good as justin wong after only a few months of playing. Your first and foremost priority with this game should be enjoyment. If you really love the game you are playing then eventually your skills and instincts for will begin to develop and you will find that your actually decent. The things you describe as having trouble with are innate skills that after enough acclimation with the game will become second nature. The problem is you haven’t played this game long enough for them to become second nature, and these aren’t things that can just be developed overnight. All you have to do is have these skills you need to develop in the back of your mind and focus mainly on those when playing matches.

Advice i would give you is to just play for a while and not worry about winning or losing. I know this is easier said than done but I’ll just say that i have an incredible amount of respect for anyone that does something they love and enjoys what they are doing regardless of how good they are. Just because you are currently bad at the game does not mean you should beat yourself up over it. When i look back on my attitude towards fgs and how it has evolved the thing i regret most is not that i didn’t spend more time training but that I beat myself up so much over losing. At one point I hated losing to the point that a lot of the enjoyment that i took from the game was sucked away by my simple desire to win. When i see myself play now the thing that makes me the happiest is not that i can handily beat the majority of people i run into, even people that are on the same skill level as myself. The thing that does make me happiest is that i can get my ass handed to me and get torn to shreds and still look back on the games i had and smile and be happy about playing. Its all about priorities man…