Jaggar.
I have enjoyed some of your posts in the past, and I’ve even come to your defense when you made a good point (but worded it like an ass) because sometimes, you do make really good observations. That one post you made about the history of the arcade scene was actually quite excellent.
But in this thread, you are really letting me down (not that I expect you to care). Please consider just bowing out and leaving this thread alone, or take it to PMs with Valle instead.
I love this thread concept and I really don’t want to see it ruined for your (or anyone else’s) personal enjoyment.
Now, on the ORIGINAL TOPIC:
So I’m an 09er. I don’t hide that fact, it is what it is. I’m 30 and I grew up playing SF2 on the NES. I spent a lot of time in arcades, but back then I was focused on Sam Sho, MK1, and other games. Street fighter in the arcade was not really on my radar because I was an at home pad player. I know how scrubby that sounds and I do wish I could go back and dedicate myself to arcade play from an early age…but you don’t get do-overs in life.
I got back into fighting games when HDR dropped for XBL. I turned on my system one day, saw the ad for HDR, saw Ryu hurling hadokens and instantly I remembered how much I loved playing SF2 when I was younger.
I was hooked from that moment…but I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole was when I dived in.
First, I hopped online with barely enough execution to perform special moves on command, and I got absolutely torn apart. At that time, I had never been beaten so badly in a videogame of any genre. When I had a brief interest in FPS games (back on PC when Unreal first dropped and fast internet connections were finally a reality), with very little effort I was able to dominate on any server I hopped onto. I assumed that I was some kind of “special” or “gifted” gamer, and I never had to work hard to crush opponents and come out ahead of the pack by a huge margin.
So, you can imagine how it felt to hop onto XBL in HDR and become absolutely free to players who had been playing for years.
I was absolutely stunned. I had no idea that anyone had taken these games to that level. I didn’t know about Evo, or SBO, or God’s Garden. I didn’t know about SRK, or the FG community…all I knew was that I had stumbled onto something truly extraordinary.
Here was a game where (like chess) the moves are so simple, and yet the depth and breadth of what was happening was blowing my mind. Sure, I got mad at first because I was used to destroying everyone in my path without having to even try.
In fact, not to sound arrogant…but that has been the story of my life. Everything that I’ve become interested in, I’ve been able to become very good at with not that much effort. I cruised through school, never trying, always able to ace all my classes. I entered the #2 University for my field and completed one of the hardest BS programs on the planet. When I finally discovered fighting games, I was still in that bubble of believing that I was somehow a gifted individual. I could go on, but its out of the scope here.
So…all of a sudden, here comes this huge challenge. I figured at the time (so stupid and arrogant of me) that I would play for a few months, get to the point where I would absolutely destroy everyone else online, and then move onto the next challenge.
As you can imagine…that is not how things worked out.
After a few months, SF4 came out and I switched to that. Been playing it ever since…and now I’m trying to go back and learn what I missed: CVS2, 3s, etc…
This is the first hobby/interst/passion that I’ve had, where I have worked my ASS OFF and I’m barely keeping my head above water. 20+ hours a week for most of the last year and a half…and I’m still going 0-2 at most of the tourneys I enter.
**So what drives me?
In a nutshell its this: Street fighter is a Sisyphean endeavor. No matter how hard you work at it, or how good you become, there is ALWAYS someone who can beat you. There is ALWAYS a strat out there that you haven’t yet figured out. Push that boulder all the way up the hill, and by the next day, its at the bottom again and you have to start all over (read the tale of Sisyphus for more on this). Street Fighter offers a never ending progression of growth, and as a guy who has spent a lot of my life cruising through challenges that a lot of other people get hung up on…there could not possibly be anything more appealing to me.
Basically, I know that I’ll spend the next ten years playing this game seriously and I’ll probably never get to the point where I am placing top 8 at Evo. Sure, maybe it could happen, but its unlikely.
That is immensely appealing to me, becuase I find that its challenges like this that hold up a mirror for you and show you what you are worth.
In short, what drives me to become a better player is a desire to know myself as well as I can.
And that is why I play.**