Anything that makes the opponent feel like an idiot for getting hit by it is a gimmick.
I Laughed at the various responses. A good bit of truth in everyone’s comment
Nothing.
No one in here really knows what they’re talking about =/
A gimmick is a trick that can usually get you some good damage once or twice, but is not solid because you can avoid it the same way every time.
Here’s a perfect example: Zangief LP Green hand over, Ultra 1. The first time someone pulls this on you you might freeze up or try to punish too late, and you end up eating an ultra. After that, hopefully you realize you can just hold upback every time and punish the ultra. There’s just no guessing game there, he can’t do anything after the green hand to prevent you from jumping away most of the time.
Mindgames can refer to a lot of things. You kind of contrasted mindgames and gimmicks, so you could say that a mindgame is just a guessing game that has two or more options, like rock paper scissors.
EX: Abel ticks with a crouching jab and can either go right into a command grab or a step kick.
But mindgames can also kind of refer to the crazy shit that happens when you play a million games of rock paper scissors with people (or that’s how i think of it)
We’ve all said the same thing in more words or less. I think most of us have an idea of what the difference is.
In definition of the combined thoughts:
Gimmick (Shenanigans, Tricks) - A move or technique that your opponent might not be aware of that usually catches your opponent off guard and acts as a “surprise” attack. Most gimmicks are used once or twice to get you some decent damage, but can be punished or avoided fairly easily. Most gimmicks work against people who do not really know the matchup, or who are unfamiliar with the move(s) itself and weren’t really expecting the gimmick.
You shut up, I’m the one who knows what mindgames are.
In my opinion a gimmick is any move used without thinking the decision through in hopes of landing said attack on an opponent. Like constant spamming of hadokens or constant wakeup shoryukens.
A mindgame is an elaborate strategy used to mess with your opponent’s head by baiting them into doing something that will not payoff for them whatsoever. However when you know the matchup between two characters well, you can integrate gimmicks into mindgames. In high-level play, a wakeup/random ultra is frowned upon for the amount of punishment they will recieve as well as how incredibly desperate/newcomerish they look at the game. Throw in some reverse psychology and you can use gimmicks in mindgames fairly easily. For instance, you never do a wakeup ultra. The reason being you know the punishment beforehand, however, your opponent also knows you wouldn’t do a random ultra. You can use that to your advantage to hit them with a wakeup ultra since they wouldn’t expect it in most cases. It’s all a matter of extremely good predicting game.
There are so many mindgame case scenraio’s that I can’t really list them. Just my input on the subject matter
A mindgame is like when you have to put the controller into player 2’s port in MGS to beat Psycho Mantis.
that sounds less like mindgames to me and more like a really nerdy metaphor for anal sex
gimmicks also be thought of as cheap sort of moves that people know about, but don’t awarely look out for most of the time.
mindgames are more like planning out what you want the opponent to be thinking or feeling and they follow your script. Like for the first match in a TvC tourney all your ground combos, when finished, are followed by a low attack to get a reset, or if they block the combo you still do a low attack at the end. During the second round you finish a combo, then do a short jump for an air attack into combo. Just something to throw off what your opponent expects. This is just one small example out of an infinite amount.
Imo mindgames are when you prepare ahead of time for a reaction from your opponent
i.e. in Melty my friend always mashes jab on wake-up unless I’m in the air, so I’ll jump fastfall and throw
(I jumped to make him block high, then reacted accordingly)
Although he could just mash jab anyways, which would beat it.
I have no idea how to describe a gimmick though.
Gimmick- One trick pony. Zangief’s headbutt, Cammy’s hooligan tricks, Blanka/Vega in general. Its basic stuff really. They take advantage of the moment. Sakura resets come to mind as a perfect example. Blankas wake up, hoop thru your body, grab, cr.hk etc. Its not like its hard to stop, its just in the moment…its a great change of pace. I believe that if you asked most members they would say that Blanka is the most annoy character to fight, he’s not high on the tier list at all, but his shenanigans and gimmicks make him generally a pain in the ass.
mindgame- Yomi. plain and simple. I play Sim so let me give you a bit of an example. I want to stay 3/4 screen away. Its my most effective area, So I get to that position and I want to stay there while limiting your options. You jump, I anti air. You Focus, you eat fireballx hp. you block my fireball, you catch a teleport BnB. After a certain amount of games the player will start to feel boxed in as if I’ve limited their options. Thats the mindgame, if I control the space, I control the game.
Of course its different for every character. Akumas Vortex is an insane mindfuck, you choose wrong you lose 1/3 of your life and you end up in the exact same situation to choose again. Thats why honestly Daigo is the best. He’s mentally stronger than most all players. There may be better ryu’s but they can be broken, Daigo can’t. Since you can’t mindgame him, you have to out skill him. And thats an uphill battle in its own right. especially with cr. mk and umeshoryu to eat your face
You can fret about the distinction between mind games and gimmicks; however, in the end they both boil down to doing something your opponent didn’t expect. As with psychic vs random, oftentimes the only things which cause people to distinguish between a mind game and a gimmick is whether it worked or not.
Mindgames is one of the worst terms ever to come to gaming because of how incredibly vague it is. (not really, but its vague)
People have referred it to a trick they have made or a series of tricks.
People have referred it to a ability to make a trick.
People have also referred it to the ability to read the opponent
Mindgames is basically the fighter itself but with a added layer when playing against a human opponent who thinks.
Thoughts are read, habits are seen, guesses are made… (punishments you can make depend on the game itself) Being able to do these things better than your opponent means you have superior mind games to your opponent. Mindgame is the name of this little game above.
A gimmick is a trap or series of traps and tricks from the game itself… usually the result of knowing the game better than the opponent, Or because the opponent doesn’t have the required level of execution to deal with it. As soon as the opponent has the knowledge or the execution, said trick or trap is not as effective. However this is not always the case.
It’s been nearly a year since the last post was made in this thread. Why was this necro’d?
As long as it’s in discussion, though… A mindgame is when you make a player think you’re going to do something you’re not, and then punish them for preparing for the wrong thing.
Gimmicks have already been explained to death and back.
Bumped because this somehow made it to the very top of unread posts, i cant see the difference between 2010 and 2011, and i’m trying to find a 100% standard to wtf the word mindgames should translate to. Its like the word “Cheesy”, everyone who knows, knows, but they dont.
Anyways, my bad.
Someone has already answered the question, why bother asking it again?
A cross up is a gimmick and can be used as part of a mindgame. I think that gives a clear idea of what the differences are.
Cross ups aren’t (generally) gimmicks.
How so?