Late Night Ramblings (Nov. 21, 2014) -- Why I am on hiatus from Fighting Games?

The top question that I keep getting since Ultra Street Fighter IV has dropped in the post-Evolution 2K14 gaming landscape is, "Why haven't you bothered to pick up the game?" On top of that, I keep getting the other question, "Do you still play fighters anymore?"

To answer both questions, I'm going to take the time out of my evening and go in-depth on why I'm personally on hiatus.

I'm COMPLETELY burnt out on the genre.

After roughly 400+ hours total on ALL previous versions of Street Fighter IV since the initial launch, I'm done for the time being. I don't have it in me to grind my way up to B+ rank again on Ranked Matches when it took me about a year or two to do so in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition version 2012. I'm positive that I have hit my plateau with that character (Chun-Li) and despite her balance changes/tweaks in the newest iteration of the game, I doubt I'm going to do much better. I'm not a "pro gamer" and I'm not in the grind to attend tournaments regularly. Lastly and more importantly, I'm not being paid to keep wasting so much time on this single game.

I haven't watched a single tournament stream, Cross Counter videos, nor Wednesday Night Fights/The Runback broadcast since Evolution. To be quite honest, I haven't had the desire to even care. When I was still playing the game regularly, I would check Eventhubs and Shoryuken for news on a daily basis. Currently, I barely pay attention to either site, but I still get news tidbits on my Facebook news feed. Previously, I would be excited to check out a new combo video or tutorial.

Nowadays, I get the feeling of "meh" off almost every new video. No disrespect to the players or the games themselves, but I'm positive that I'm burnt out on this genre for the time being.

Almost ALL of my close friends have moved on...

My friends who I used to regularly spar matches with in Endless Battle at every opportunity we were all online on Xbox Live have moved onto other things in gaming or in life in general - getting married, busy with school/college, moving onto different genres (Call of Duty, Madden, MMORPGs, etc.), or just moving onto a different console (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, etc.) than I own (Xbox 360). 

The simple solution would be to find new friends and I honestly tried that over the past few years.

Despite being an introverted person (I can easily admit that I'm not the guy who races out excited to meet new people as I have a hard time trusting people to begin with, but that's a story for another day...),  I branched out and joined a few fighting game communities. I joined and I'm still a member of Facebook groups oriented towards the characters I main in Street Fighter IV, namely Chun-Li and Rose, but I haven't read nor posted anything in those groups in months. Before that, I was part of the local fighting game community in my home state, but I didn't stick with that as everyone was more preoccupied with either arguing with each other or self-promoting themselves as the "best" when I was under the impression the group should have been about pulling together as a community and helping each other out. That way the community levels up and gets better as whole instead of this one versus everyone mentality that the group had. Apparently, I was wrong. I thanked the admins for their time and quietly walked away from the group. People from that said community still send me event requests and what-not, but I kindly decline to each and every single of one of them. Even doing that got me bad blood with other players who see it as an insult that I'm not "contributing" to the community by playing in every little tournament or attending every event that pops up. It got to the point where I had to curse people out and explain to them that "You nor these games pay my bills, so get off my case."

It reminded me of a situation in a particular professional wrestling discussion group that I'm currently in. There weren't enough people striving for the better of the group and the community as a whole than the majority of people bringing the group down with negativity. Whether your intentions are pure or not, there's no "I" in team. One person can't bear that burden all on their own. For a LONG time, I felt like that had to continue contributing to this genre as one of the "little guys" who understands the struggle to be "not quite" a pro or godlike at these games. Now I see that I don't owe these people anything really. I should be playing these games for MY own entertainment. If people see my gameplay videos or like having games against me online, cool - that's a bonus, but I'm done trying to please people. 

Then don't get me started on the people I know online personally who say I should be playing this game or that game because what fighting game I'm currently playing sucks. I had a personal falling out with one friend in particular that he was butthurt that I would only play my fighters on Xbox 360 (despite the fact that use a converter for playing in tournaments when they have the said games on PS3) while he played exclusively on PlayStation 3 and despised anything and everything made by Capcom and Namco-Bandai. Buddy, it's not my fault that you don't know there's other fighting games other than Injustice and Mortal Kombat 9... Protip: Calling the game I'm playing hot garbage isn't going to make me too keen to try out whatever you're trying to sell me into playing.

Allow me to run down my general experience with most fighting games with a quick Cliff Notes' guide: 

Arc System Works

• Guilty Gear series: Played the hell out of Guilty Gear XX on PlayStation 2 in college, but that was mostly solo play since most people there were into either Tekken or CVS2. Xrd looks okay, but doubt I'm going to be racing out to the store to buy it.

• Persona 4: Arena series: Never got into the Persona gaming franchise at all (I plan to eventually...), but the characters do look cool. Haven't played this series at ALL. 

• BlazBlue series: I gave the original game a shot, but took it back shortly after getting frustrated trying to learn it. I've had friends at anime conventions drag me into trying the newer versions, but I'm still not that keen on playing it seriously.  

Capcom

• Street Fighter series: Played the original SFII briefly on Sega Genesis, didn't come back to the series until the Alpha series on the original PlayStation. I played Alpha 3 and Street Fighter EX+a more than anything else prior to Street Fighter IV. Unlike most hardcore Street Fighter fans, I can count on one hand how many times I've played Third Strike or Street Fighter III series in general, so go ahead and flame me for that. 

• Darkstalkers series: Much like the Vs. series, I only played this exclusively in arcades in my hometown. Barely anyone played it so I was left fighting against the lone AI. I know I suck at it, but I love Capcom's character designs for this game too much to let that deter me.

• Vs. series: Played just about everything from X-Men: Children of the Atom to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 back in the arcades in my hometown. MvC2 in my area was mostly zoning with projectiles. All of this flying around and everywhere across the screen is COMPLETELY over my head in these newer games. Plus, let's factor in that I lost my "twitch" reactions, thanks to my college years of alcohol and smoking during the height of popularity of Halo 1 and 2. The Vs. series lost me completely after my frustration with Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I love the characters, but it's a game designed to piss you off at every level. For those wondering, I've played CVS2 even less times than I have touched Third Strike. I have NO shame admitting that I will always be a Namco guy over Capcom.

Lab Zero

• Skullgirls: I had the demo for Xbox 360 while one of my good friends gifted me the full game on Steam. Once I get a gaming PC built, I'm going to put some time into this game. Much like DarkStalkers, I absolutely LOVE the character designs for this game.

Namco-Bandai

• Soul Blade/Soul Calibur series: I think I have had said it back on the original Method to Madness blog, but I'll say it again - my first love of fighting games on the competitive scene was in Soul Calibur II. I attended my first tournament in this game and the first second game took REALLY serious on a competitive level. It's a damn shame that my enthusiasm with this series went out of the window after Soul Calibur IV and V were HUGE disappointments for me personally. 

• Tekken series: The first Tekken title that I played was Tekken 2 that came with my original PlayStation on a demo disk. I begged my dad to buy me the retail release shortly afterwards. That was the first fighting game that I sat down for hours, learning combos, moves, and experimenting. Like most fans, I loved the boom period of this series around the launch of Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament, but I fell out of the series when the system changes came around Tekken 4 that were adopted from Dead or Alive. I played Tekken 5 BRIEFLY when visiting friends in college, but I jumped back into the mix for Tekken 6 off and on. 

• Urban Reign: This was made in the style of Fighting Force from Eidos with a bit of flair from Final Fight/Streets of Rage in 3D. With over 40+ playable characters and some guest stars from Tekken (Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law), I convinced a few of my close friends to play this with me from time to time. It was simple enough to pick up but had enough depth to keep you playing for the long haul. To this day, I still hope and pray that Namco would consider a sequel to this game.

• Shonen Jump-based anime fighters (Naruto, Dragonball, One Piece, Bleach, etc.): Oh, anime fighters... the bastard stepchildren of the fighting game genre... I've lost count of how many of these games I've played over the years, but I know for sure that I love the amount of dedication and love is put into this games' narratives to hold true to the source material. Let's not forget accessibility too. If there's anything I can't stand about the FGC at times, it's this so-called elitist attitude that nothing can't be regarded as a fighting game unless it has complicated inputs and one-frame links. 

Nintendo

• Super Smash Bros. series: Unlike most people, I DID consider this game to be a fighting game. I've attended plenty of anime conventions where people took this game FAR more seriously than anything with Marvel or Street Fighter in the title. I gotta admit that I played more Brawl than Melee though, but I can see why the pros stick with that game over Brawl though. 

NetherRealms (formerly Midway)

• Injustice: Gods Among Us: After that disaster that was Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, I was glad to see that DC Comics' heroes have proper representation in the fighting game genre, much like Marvel Comics' has their own heroes and villains. I rented this about for a week or two upon launch and QUICKLY grew bored with it. After playing SF4 prior, the animations were really clunky and distracting to me. 

• Mortal Kombat series: While I played the previous entries briefly with friends over the years, MK Trilogy was the first MK title I actually owned on the original PlayStation. After enjoying Mortal Kombat 4 in arcades, I got that as well, but I fell out of MK completely until their "final" title, Armageddon. I ended up REALLY liking that game, but next to NO ONE I knew played it. After that I stopped caring about Mortal Kombat. I only recently picked up MK9 on 360 after it was discounted on Xbox Live. That title left me feeling rather underwhelmed as well after I had SEVERAL people over-hype that game up.

SNK Playmore

• Fatal Fury/King of Fighters series: I played the original Fatal Fury when I discovered the world of emulation in high school, but I played KOF '95 via demo disks for the original PlayStation until I acquired a full retail disk. KOF '99 got a lot of time between my close friends and I in high school for a while, but we quickly went back to Soul Calibur II. I've played the demo for KOF13, but I doubt I would pick up that game anytime soon or ever. The last KOF title I remember owning was 2002/2003 back on PlayStation 2. 

• Samurai Showdown, Garou: Mark of Wolves, etc.: I remember playing those games sparingly between time on MvC2, Soul Calibur/Blade, Darkstalkers, and Mortal Kombat 4 in arcades. 

Tecmo/Team Ninja

• Dead or Alive series: Out of ALL of the games that my older brother had on our import Dreamcast when he came back from Korea, I think I only played this ONCE and really didn't care for it. Out of most 3D fighters I'm going to hold Tekken higher than anything else. 

Other misc. fighters: 

• Virtual On series: Another non-traditional fighter, but I enjoyed the competitive aspect of it back in arcades and both the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast ports. Good Lord, the fucking PlayStation 2 sequel was horrible though. I was bummed out that many people didn't play the PSN/XBLA re-release of Ontario Tangram though. 

• Anarchy Reigns/Max Anarchy: I really had high hopes for this game, but not many people picked it up nor gave it a chance like I did. Platinum Games are definitely my favorite gaming developers in the industry right now and I wish more people got behind this concept instead of allowing it to fall flat into the ground.

• Ehrgeiz: Much like many Final Fantasy fans at the time, I played this mainly just to play as the folks from Final Fantasy VII in a fighting game. My best bud had a copy of the PlayStation port, but I preferred the arcade cabinet's setup over the PSX pad layout. 

• Battle Arena Toshinden series: While I have a love/hate relationship with the PlayStation titles in this series, I played the hell out of the Gameboy port with friends in high school. This was one of the few portable games that wasn't Pokemon that we managed to have mini-tournaments in. 

• Killer Instinct series: One of my friends growing up had the original for SNES while I played the sequel in arcades off and on. From what I have played of the newest iteration on Xbox One, it reminds me a lot of Street Fighter IV, so I'm sure I would enjoy it if I took the time to learn the game. 

This wasn't overnight process either. My spirits were renewed when Tekken Tag Tournament 2 arrived and my close friends had all agreed to form a team on the World Tekken Federation community system, but it ended up with me doing the bulk of the work as I had more matches played and more experience earned for the team than ANYONE else on the team. Nothing against my friends, but if I'm going at this literally solo, then I'm better off not even being on a team. I left the team and only played Tekken Tag Tournament 2 out of my own personal enjoyment. I'm not a great player in that game by any stretch, but the lack of players to practice with locally, combined the frustrations with actually learning the game caused me to fall back into my comfort zone with Street Fighter IV. 

I chronicled my journey to B+ rank with Chun-Li on this blog's Facebook page on social media over the past year. That felt like a crowning achievement and personal milestone, but I didn't necessarily feel like "celebrating" when I should have. It merely felt like a reward for my countless hours of online play. With Ultra Street Fighter IV set to release that following week, I made up my mind then and there that I wasn't going to waste my time grinding to this point yet again. 

Keep in mind that I already did the level grind from D to B rank in both Super Street Fighter IV AND Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition after the online rankings were reset. To do this feat again, it felt like I was putting myself through the personal Hell that is the hit-or-miss online community of the FGC all over again. 

Furthermore, I finally came to grips to the reality...

I have lost my passion for this genre...

Nothing on the market right now really wants to draw me back in. The spark is gone. Sure, the Omega Mode changes to characters for Street Fighter IV sound cool, but I remember in the back of my head that the people I have to play or experiment with those said changes in-game are little to none.

The Mortal Kombat X trailers haven't done anything at all for me as I personally think the game looks like a hi-res version of Mortal Kombat 9. Killer Instinct Season 2 looks cool, but that's not enough to make me run out and purchase a Xbox One just for that. While I'm more inclined to purchase a Wii U in the near-future, I'm not running out for the new Super Smash Bros. like everyone else. Namco's Tekken 7 and Pokken (Pokemon-oriented fighter) are intriguing but not blowing my mind with excitement like they would have a year or two ago.

Everytime I see a new fighter, I get feeling of dread. Dread of having to going through the frustration and trials of learning characters, more dread of being pissed off at myself for not picking up said-characters, and it just gives me a headache thinking about it.

The irony of me not liking the "learning process" is pretty funny though.

A few weeks ago, I found myself discussing fighting games with one of my fellow fanatics of wrestling and he was talking about he was struggling how to do Super and Ultra Combos with charge characters in Street Fighter IV. I casually gave him a technique that I was doing out of habit to help myself and now the guy looks up to me as a mentor to help him learn stuff for the game that he was having trouble with. I don't feel like I'm qualified to be teaching ANYONE. That's why I gave up the Chun-Li Guide project I started on Google Documents back in 2012. It's still there if you want to reference it, but I'm sure that information is completely outdated now in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Consider that my humble gift to my fellow Chun-Li players as I'm sure there's more people who could benefit with all of that information in one place instead of scattered across the 'Net.

Regardless, I felt sorry for the guy and leave my door open for him to instant message me with questions from time to time. If I'm not playing, I guess it's the least I could do for those who are still passionate about the genre. No need for me to drag them down with me.

(Laughs) I guess... 

All hope is NOT lost...

My friends, I think we need some time apart... I'm sure you'll be fine without me for a while.

I'm positive that I'm not going to give up fighters for good, but I think my time of playing these games trying to impress people are over. I'm a slightly above-average Joe in this genre, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

I just need a break... I'm sure that I will come back to see my old friends from this genre again sooner or later, but I have a whopping number of games on my always increasing gaming backlog to tackle. I've neglected FAR too many games in the last console generation of gaming and it's about time that I take the time and enjoy those said games and a bit more of life in general.