EXPERIMENT!!! (Not another VF vs Tekken thread..)

Although pretty sure what the outcome would be, when presented with an opportunity, I could not resist trying to find how a complete and pure novice to console fighting games would react to the above two games.

About two weeks ago my fiancee (or however that word is spelt) moved in with me. She does of course know of my passion for VF but had thus far avoided actually playing it, or seeing me turn into a wide-eyed kid playing myself.

Now, my soon to be wife is a very pure and unspoilt specimen when it comes to console video games, having NEVER (!) in her life played a single one.

She is, however, extremely competitive, being a fierce backgammon player and an upcoming poker player. Consequently, I knew that if I could tickle her competitiveness, I knew I would have a VF companion for life.

Additionally, the ulterior short-term motive here is to save the family peace when VF5 is released and I obsess about it the way I did over 4 Evo when it came out. I figure that if we can play together we'll all be happier.

So I explain the controls and have to sit through about 5 solid minutes of her laughing at e because "an Arcade stick is soooooooooooo gay". Oh well...

My idea for the 1st session is to help her find a character to learn. She wants to play with a girl "in order to kick my macho ass".

"Every character plays differntly", I explain, "so do you think you want to play aggressively or more defensively... more counter based, punishment based, throw or strike based..." At which point I realise I am moving way to fast here.

No worries, off to practice mode, so as to introduce her to the idea of special moves. A moment later she pauses for a moment, looks at me and asks "so you mean I have to learn about a hundred moved for EVERY character? Even the stupid NINJA?"

Eventually, after first trying out Pai she settles for Aoi, which I assure her is a fine choice, as she is consistently high rated, has this nice elbow mixup, good throws and ... ok moving to fast again.

So for about an hour we play versus, and I realise just how button-mash unfriendly VF really is. It is reallying y quite amazing to see. Because when I pick up any fighting game (and I am sure you all are the same) I never really mash buttons, I am always trying stuf out , to see what this combination does etc. So it is actually quite refreshing to see somebody just hammer away on the buttons for the sheer fun of it.

It bothers her that I "don't play for real" but she realises that our skill leels at this point are just too far apart. (I am, by no means a pro, but I have about 15000 fights logged in Quest and a couple of additional thousand in VS).

I explain the idea of high, mid, low and how to block. This continues for a while and eventually we call it a day.

It is my absolute honest opinion, that she actually did very well. Better than I expected, bearing in mind she had never actually used a joypad/stick and having never ever played a console game, let alone a fighting game.

And she tells me she can appreciate the IDEA of every character playing differently and learning them.

"Mission accopmlished", I think and look forward to playing her the following day.

I tell one of my mates about the session and he suggests: "Hey, why don't you let her try T5? You suck at T5, and if she picks Christy and just hammers away on the pad I bet she will beat you a couple of times. This will be enough to have her hooked."

"No way", I say, "surely my girl will appreciate the sheer beaty of the deep gameplay of VF and stick to it!"

"Just give it a shot", he insists, "you know I also prefer to play T5 against you, because, as I said before, you SUCK at it."

(Btw, he is right, I suck real bad at T5).

So two evnings later, we are at home and I set up T5 and ask her to just give it a shot. I just set it up and leave her her alone.

She picks Christy ("coz she's hot") and practices with her.

A little later I join in and we fight a little. We finish with a record of 50-23 in my favour. Of the 23 she won (in her first sesion) at least 15 are genuine wins (athough she had 150 energy throughout). Again you see just how bad I suck (although I did not do moves which I knew she wouldn't block (e.g. Marduk's spear).

Nonetheless, I can tell she has a real talent, as she cosistently throws my EVERYTIME I freeze up even for a moment.

I am proud of her.

More importantly, however, she's hooked. The next day after work, she suggests... "Why don't you play a little online poker and I practice T5 for an hour or so".

Did I just hear that?

Later that evening I join and we play for another hour or so. She is loving it.

"So do you want to learn VF or T5", I ask her afterwards.

"I know you love VF", she starts, and I know what's coming next, "but I like T5 more".

"The controls are easier, it is much more stylish, I like Christy and ... you are not good at it". (Oow, that last one hurt!)."

Then she sums it up: "VF just feels too professional to me."

And boy, is she right!

God, I love this game!

 

hey nice story, i enjoyed reading this.

 

Yea Nice lil Vf / tekken story if you have anymore VF experiences you would like to share feel free to wirte about them

 

Plague might be able to help you out here /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Wow, to be honest your story has in a strange way inspired me. Just recently I thought about quitting VF for good. Not because I suck at it or anything like that but because....well just read this...

I was up to my usual practice of VF, about 2-3 hours or practice. Usually I would hit the command training and then do a little combo practice in free training then hit the Quest to try it out. Well anyways, I was going about and was playing really well, even for my regular standards. Then it suddenly hit me...why am I practicing so hard; even more so why am I practicing so hard against a com in quest mode? I have no real competition here. The only human competition are my friends and they really cannot play nor do they want to learn. So I actually decided to stop practicing and stop playing VF. I said to myself I will just play it now and then just for the fun of it...

Then I saw your post and in some strange way I feel like VF'ing again.

 

Save up some money and join one of the VF parties.

 

Exactly.

 

That is a good story, however, your experiment wasn't quite fair. From reading your story I don't know whether she like T5 better or whether she likes the idea of beating you better. She is competitive after all.

In order to make a fair experiment you should have beat the crap out of her and/or patronize her in Tekken 5 like you did in VF. You acted as though you wanted her to like T5 better. You beat her brains out at VF; you let her win in T5; what did you expect her to choose. Everybody enjoys winning. You should have kept your winning percentage, measured both in rounds and in matches at about the same over both games.

Also everybody hates being patronized. I admit, though, it may have been hard to avoid patronizing her in VF. You suck at T5, but you are proficient in VF. Therefore it is easy for you to handicap yourself and make T5 a challenge for you while it is nearly impossible for you to make it look like you are having an challenge in VF against a total noob.

 

Pick Steve, Pummel her ass into a 1000 winning streak (not hard to do on a new player).

Make her play Virtua Fighter and tell her to play Jacky.

 

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Srider said:

Save up some money and join one of the VF parties.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good idea, however it will have to wait. More like in the near future when there's a long weekend or spring break 'cause I have to hit the books pretty soon. I just saw that there's an event happening in SoCal in Sep, but I won't make it.

 

Cheers for the nice words fellas.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Srider said:

Save up some money and join one of the VF parties.

[/ QUOTE ]

may i ask how? are you refering to the SoCal gathering?

 

Yes.