The Best at VF? Be Careful What You Work For!

So you've mastered every combo. Perfected every string. Your spacing game is flawless. Your Nikatu is beyond question. No one has better setups than you. No one has better mix-ups than you. Your evasion game is so strong, that it is a form of offense in itself. You are the perfect VF fighting machine. You can immediately see your opponent's weakness and flaws. You punish every dropped combo, and every wiffed move. You're unstoppable. You realize that most other VF players are mere mortals to you. As a matter of fact you don't waste your time playin scrubs. You only play the best of the best. 95% of the VF players out there can't even offer you an interesting match, not to mention a challenge. You're so good that your matches only last 1/3 the time of an average VF match. You've gotten so good that the Virtua Fighter AI on its hardest difficulty is simply child's play, not worth your time. Your skills have outgrown the dojo. It no longer gives you enough information so why bother. You're also so fast that you can see the lag in VF even in offline matches.

10 Questions for the Best of The Best

1. Who do you play?
2. Is the game fun for you anymore?
3. Do others want to play you?
4. Are you constantly being ducked online?
5. Do you still feel the excitement of loading up VF?
6. Are there any other players who you really respect or admire?
7. Do you still look forward to playing VF with the few players who can offer you any kind of competition?
8. Has the game become dull and predictable to you?
9. What reason do you even still have to play the game?
10. How fun is it to play VF when you are 10,20, 100 times better than most who play the game?


I dunno how the best of the best would answer these questions. I hope some of them respond to this post. But I'm a casual player (at best). I enjoy the hell of VF. There is always something new to learn, new style to see, some fact I didn't know. I get a kick out of all of the crazy costumes ppl bring out for their VF fighters. I'm amazed by the game's AI all the time. I like talking about the game, and comparing it to other 3D fighters. I have major fun still with VF4, VF4 Evolution, and VF5. I have a few mates and family that are all casuals and talking about VF is still
good and fun conversation. I win matches here and there, I lose more than I win. But I always have something to strive for. A new sight to see, a new thing to do. I'll play anyone who doesn't mind playing me

I think striving to be better is an okay thing, but being so good, that the game is no longer fun, and most players don't want to play you, not even the AI, well..... be careful what you work for. Don't remove the fun from the game in your quest for excellence.

Or is that the point? Get so good at the game that there's no reason to play it anymore

 

Not saying that you've come across anyone who actually thinks this way, but anyone who claims to outgrow the dojo is not a real master. There is always something to learn in the dojo for all levels of players.

Why do you treat these as mutually exclusive outcomes? Can a player actually have a lot of fun in learning and displaying self-improvement?

Now don't get me wrong about me debating over certain points made in your earlier post above, masterpo. Because I really like the entire essay you wrote. But your viewpoints on the thought process of those who wants to be as good/great as he/she can possibly be seems a little misguided in my opinion.

Kruza

 

Oh., yes but I have come across players who think along these lines. They've worked so hard at becoming as good as they are that they don't have the fun of playing anymore. They've risen above the AI so single player has nothing for them. And they eschew players who they perceive as lesser skilled. They actually see the majority of other players online as not worthy, if your connection is not perfect then no match for you today, etc. They are Kind-a-in-the-category-of-take-themselves-and-the-game-too-seriously. Of course not all masters are like this, but man.,., I've come across more than you might expect.

And I agree with you these two things don't have to be mutually exclusive. I'm just throwing a cautionary tale out here. It can be lonely at the top. For instance, I know of many players who start over in rank mode and keep a character somewhere around the "Hunter" rank just so they won't scare everyone away (seriously). I've personally seen the irony of A DragonHeart that doesn't want to play a Guardian because they feel the Guardian won't be any challenge, and the Guardian that doesn't want to play the DragonHeart, because they feel they won't stand a chance! In both instances its the DragonHeart that ends up playing VF less. And my assumption here is that the DragonHeart achieved that rank because of a certain level of mastery.

I'm just cautioning that "having" is not always as rewarding as "wanting" or "striving for"

And when it comes to VF sometimes its a good idea to remember where you came from, how you started out, what attracted you to the game in the first place, what it was like when you didn't know the difference between a sabaki and an inashi, or the Eureka moments in learning your first ever combos, or how you felt getting to the top of Kumite mode in VF4, or executing those quests in EVO, or finally beating all of the players in the arcades in VF5, or making it to Master level in VF5FS license mode, or getting to StormLord Online.


I'm not saying, don't constantly strive to be better. I am saying that I've observed that when some players reach that ultimate best of the best category that the cost of admission "appears to be that they've left much of the fun of playing VF behind"

This kind of plays itself out online with those players that will only fight you if you fight them in ranked mode., they refuse to do player matches or room matches. I've come across dozens of players like this on PSN. Some of these cats are so top heavy, they've forgotten how to just load up the game just for fun.

 

I understand professional gamers who are doing it mainly for salary pay could have this type of problem as they have to keep on going to pay the bills no matter what. However, people who aren't playing as a job and still think this way are -- in my opinion -- playing for the wrong reasons to begin with. Those who play as a hobby can simply stop playing if it no longer is fun to them.

And the rank mode system under its current setup had always been flawed beyond belief, and will continue to be very flawed until there are methods of stiff punishment implemented to discourage the rage quitting. And even still, this won't be able to prevent all forms of boosting while colluding with use of alternate XBL gamertags or PSN names, and the various methods of artful dodging that certain people have already mastered over the years.

Yeah. Likely the mastery of boosting and/or artful dodging. *snicker*

Kruza

 

Agreed!!!

 

By the way masterpo, I don't want to make it seem like I ignored the questions you asked in your original post. But I really am not qualified to answer them. The people who you should definitely get these questions to should be Oouglas1026, tkfmx, and Yang Chi Nan for starters. Also OffshoreRandy as he's made himself into a major player. However, I don't think any of the first three guys I listed come here to VFDC.

Kruza

 

I've always felt like the best way to punish rage quilters was to take half of the offender's overall points. And after two rq's they should just get deranked. But they should be allowed to continue to play.