Toasty

I was having a good conversation the other day with my Father on competitive gaming. At age 60, he isn't one to sit down and play a round of Instagib CTF. He enjoyed his foray into less strenuous video games such as Wii Bowling, which he soundly thrashed me at, being an ex-bowler himself. (He made me look terrible.) My Dad is an actuary, spending lots of time with numbers all week long, and is a fan of math / odds based games like Blackjack and (especially) Backgammon.

During our talk, he looks at me and says, "I just don't get it, what's the point of Fighting Games?" It hit me like a sack of bricks. To me, a solid Fighting Game is the blending of chess and action movie. To my Dad watching some guys play a fighter, they mash a bunch of buttons, they beat the shit out of each other on the screen, and someone goes home happy. The whole underlying ruleset is unknown to the outsider - not just my Dad, but to the bulk of fighting game consumers. Spacing, mixups, footsies, oki; an entire language goes unknown to most people that actually buy the fighter. (Except 'wakeup'. Believe me, SF4 XBOX Live Ken knows ALL about wakeups.)

But, is 'Eye Candy Button Masher X' really what sells? It used to. Mortal Kombat II was wildly popular in arcades, and while I have fond memories of the game and it has achieved a cult fanbase, it is by no means a structurally sound game. Mortal Kombat vs. DC is similar; Superman really IS the Superman of that game. His ground pound combos into itself, and if he wins one round, he can bug it so the match doesn't go on to another round; he just wins. MKvDC is sluggish, broken, and created not for a community to delve into, learn, and compete with, but rather made to earn a quick buck off of gamers who want to answer that "timeless" question, who would win between Batman and Sub-Zero? Find out in: Mortal Kombat vs. DC! You know what? Go buy a Wrestling Game, create Batman and Sub-Zero or whoever else you want, and stop funding Midway's awful product. Companies like Midway can get the fuck out of the Fighting Game market. (And they will, too! )

With Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear, and so on, the designers understand that visuals are important in drawing in the casual fan to the purchase, but they also set out to craft a system that is fun, intriguing, and balanced. These games are sent in early beta phases to arcades for testing amongst the best fighting gamers. You originally had to block C. Viper's Flame Kick while standing; with how good she's proven to be now, imagine how godly Viper would be if that change never happened.

Similarly it's important to note that if you make a game with too many complex inputs, or inaccessible characters / fighting styles, you won't gain the rich fanbase you need to sell copies, much less play your game. But the fact stands; gamers are getting smarter. Competitive games are growing in market and in number. There are game leagues with logos ripped straight from professional sports, prize pools are growing in digits, and there are Starcraft players you might confuse for NASCAR racers with all the logos on their uniforms.



The competitive gaming community is on the rise, and as it spreads, so does its language. While I can't be sure that Fighting Games can ever overcome the burden of the 'Button Masher' branding in the public eye, a man can dream.

Street Fighter 4: State of the Game

This upcoming weekend is going to be interesting for SF4, as the National Tournament Finals are being held in San Fran. Top 16 Gamestop winners are going to duke it out, and MD/VA is being represented by Eric Kim. Eric's been a solid SF3 player for a long time, and his Sagat is no joke. More offense heavy than I think he should be, but extremely solid. Daigo of all people will also be there, collecting a free trip to California and a big paycheck, and hopefully Eric will smoke him too. :)

Take a look at the most popular arcade games in Japan right now;

Video Games
1. Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion - 365.4 (-)
2. Blazblue - 274.2 (-)
3. Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs Gundam - 260.3 (-)
4. Sugoi! Arcana Heart 2: Tenkousei Akane to Nazuna - 217.2 (UP)
5. Melty Blood: Actress Again - 184.7 (DOWN)
6. Virtua Fighter 5R - 115.6 (-)
7. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core - 111.5 (UP)
8. Street Fighter IV - 83.4 (DOWN)
9. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - 76.1 (UP)
10. Death Smiles Mega Black Label - 52.4 (-)

(Courtesy Arcadia Magazine, May 2009)

Blazblue at #2? Guilty Gear moving UP? Street Fighter 4 at 8th? What's going on? Granted, this is the first installment of the SF4 franchise. Seems like it's possible, though, that Zangief / Sagat / Boxer is too much for the Japanese scene to handle. Zangief is an especially big problem. Matt Frank "The Tank", a common face in the fighting game scene from North Carolina, has this to say about SF4 Gief;

"He still loses hard to most of the top characters, but the characters he does beat stand little to no chance against him; he's kinda like ST Honda (who I also hate) in that respect. I don't like him cuz he's braindead stupid easy, and he's absolutely no fun to fight as or to fight against. I mean, you can't fucking sweep lariat most of the goddamned time. What the hell?

He's like AC Pot, but without all of the system options that GG has that let you get away from Pot. There are far too many characters that have zero options to escape once they're cornered by Gief. He's one of the things that make me question whether or not I actually think this game is long term good, and according to Arcadia, Japan agrees with me."

When you have a character in a game that does extremely well against most of the low to mid tiers but poor against some higher tiers, it becomes a headache for the community. It's even more problematic in some ways; since he's got his issues with some characters, and thus avoids the ban hammer. So either you're picking a character that gets smashed to bits by that problem character, or you pick that problem character and get scraped badly in an unfavorable matchup. This issue applies not just to SF4 Gief, but also ST Honda (Has problems vs projectile characters) and I believe Algol in Soul Calibur 4. Characters like these can discourage picking those low-mid tier characters in the first place, for fear of ever running into that guy in tournament.

That being said, SF4 is still alive and well, both in Japan and (especially) in America. It's certainly better than SF3, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Rock Paper Scissors: Game Patriarch

Competitive games all boil down to decisions. In essence, Rock Paper Scissors is the Kevin Bacon of competitive games; every game and its decisions can be traced back to good ol' RPS. Take a look at these examples.

First Person Shooter: There is a heavy degree of aim and mobility for success in FPS, but RPS certainly exists. In Unreal Tournament, if I have just a Flak Cannon, you have just a Lightning Gun, and we're looking at each other on opposite sides of the map, guess what, you're rock and I'm scissors. On the other hand, if we're face to face, you're going to be riddled from head to toe with flak. So there is a weapon hierarchy that exists, but it's all based positionally. You don't want to be using the Shock Rifle at close range, but at long and especially mid range, it is one of THE guns to have. Granted, if all I've got is the close range Flak Cannon and you're packing a long ranger at long range, I'm getting the hell out of your line of sight and play that RPS game when it's more convenient for me.

Real Time Strategy: In RTS, you have access to all kinds of units with their own strengths and weaknesses, and it's up to the player to figure out what kind of units he'll need to win the match. For instance, you are playing Terran in Starcraft. If you discover your opponent building lots of air units, you could get to work building Goliaths, which are fantastic ground to air. However, they're pretty terribad ground to ground, and thus your opponent can respond appropriately.

Fighting: As a fighter evolves, a matchup list eventually emerges. A matchup list is a chart which shows you how many wins a character should get against another out of ten. Nowadays, it's rare that the cream of the competitive fighting game crop has 8-2 or worse matchups in their systems, but certainly 6-4s and 7-3s exist. SF4 is a great example of this. Zangief has a lot of 6-4s, but a few characters like Sagat and Blanka are extremely problematic for him (7-3). This is a much softer version of RPS, and in Japan especially players are encouraged to stick with their character from start to finish of a tournament. It's awesome watching a skilled player beat scissors with his paper.

The RPS will always rear itself in any competitive game, one way or another. In sports games; do you know what play I will run? What pitch I will throw? In tactics games; where will I move my characters? What kind of abilities I will use? In the end, it all boils down to determining what your opponents options are, determining what he will do, and countering it appropriately. But more importantly, it's what separates competitive games from one another and makes them more intriguing; the choices you both have access to, the ways you can gather information, and the sick mind games you can pull on your opponents.

Tournament Play

I Got Next is going to be some good.

This past weekend, I was in Ashburn, Virginia for a tournament, C3 Revivial Night. The main event of the day was the Street Fighter 4 3v3 Team Tournament, which had some of the East Coast's top players. Our team finished 7th out of about 28 teams, largely thanks to some crazy good teammates. SF4 3v3 is a very interesting format; each team sends out one of their players to fight (at point), and the winner stays on the machine. The losing player's team gets to choose who to send out next; for instance, if our M. Bison just lost to their Balrog, we send in our Zangief, since Zangief has a favorable matchup against Balrog. Sending in Zangief, however, means that if we win, they're likely to bring in their Sagat, who's a bad match for Gief. Making teams that are able to handle a wide variety of the entire roster and figuring out team order is part of the fun, on top of cheering for your teammates. It's an absolute blast, and goes to show that 1v1 isn't the only way to make a competitive fighting game entertaining.

Games can really shine when the game extends past the ruleset and actually fuels player interaction / emotion; when something happens in the game that lives on far after the game has ended. In Fighting Games, the most infamous moment is likely the Evolution Daigo / Justin Wong Street Fighter 3 video. Street Fighter 4 just got its first. If you haven't seen this video, it's about time you have.

Kensou (C. Viper) vs. Liston (Sagat), Final Round Top 32