Pat Gill made a good video about the FGC because he's a games writer who IS part of the FGC himself. Dude plays in online tournaments. That's the big difference between this and other attempts by major gaming outlets to discuss fighting games. He's got a fantastic video from 2020 called "Bruce Lee is Fighting Games" about the influence of Bruce Lee and martial arts cinema on fighting games, also on the Polygon channel. Absolutely worth a watch IMO.
I dunno, being a part of the FGC hardly translates to being able to articulate well about it. How many dumb takes/interaction do we have all the time with people deep in the FGC? Pat Gill is just a good writer/thinker about video games in general.
@@outkast978 Pat's both! They're a great writer just like a lot of other games journalists, and just happens to also be in the FGC already allowing for a more in touch take on fighting games. A lot of the time, the issue with games journalism covering fighting games feels out of touch because they aren't part of the community, they're merely an onlooker. Pat is one of the few writers that actually loves and lives this stuff, and his love comes through in the way he talks about the topic unlike most writers.
"Take a damn break" is one of the hardest pills for the to swallow when learning fighting games. I know because it happens *constantly* in Sajam's discord. Someone will be struggling and beating themselves up and a chorus of people all will tell them "take a break. It will help you learn." And they almost never listen. Invariably they snap back that they've been practicing nonstop and can't fathom why they aren't getting better. And invariably someone will lay it out that they need to give their brain time to make room for everything they didn't even realize they learned.
It was a surprisingly good video. Usually these standard gaming outlets (IGN, Kotaku, Polygon, etc) have videos and articles that just skim the surface and recap common knowledge of the topic that most people already know, and then they'll reference a few memes/tweets and call it a day. This video actually managed to both entertain by showing hype moments and flashy characters. And also provide useful information for the topic that wasn't just surface level details.
Say what you want about the site itself, but historically, Polygon's video team has been pretty good. They've had some misses, but when they want to dive into something, they do a pretty good job at diving into it.
Yeah Polygon's articles are full of clickbait garbage, low quality journalism and soapbox politics but their video team is actually solid and usually puts out good stuff.
That “I’m in a car and someone’s talking to me but I’m mentally in training mode” moment really spoke to me. One time I was in a club talking to my friend and I all I thought about was hitting clean hit H VV on them. They weren’t even making me mad or anything that’s all I was thinking about
Pat makes awesome videos. Would recommend literally anything else he makes. My personal favorite is the one where he convinced me that Luigi = Jackie Chan.
This video was tight and chill. Hard to imagine if I would have felt motivated as a beginner hearing it, but it felt like a solid, relatable view into the experience from my own POV
I think it's less about motivation and more about guidance. It's not trying to say this is why you SHOULD get into fighting games, just that if you want to here is how to have a good time as a beginner. I did something very similar to his steps when I first got into fighting games and I really love em now, so it seems to work.
I sent it to my friend who has *never* said *anything* about fighting games until the recent PS State Of Play. He was like "Street Fight 6 and Tekken 8 look so good! But I always give up on fighting games...". After watching the Polygon video he said he's definitely going to try one (or both) of them when they come out. So, anecdotally, it seems to have worked!
Update 10 months later, it definitely worked for me! A combination of Pat's video, Sajam and Maximillian Dood finally got me to pull the trigger on trying a fighting game and I bought sf6 at launch. Currently Gold 3 and trying to work my way to plat and I'm having a blast.
@@PBnRekt Hell yea brother. The pat vid, the max react, and the cosmonaut quickie vid got me to pull the trigger a few months back on GG Strive, and now I'm sitting floor 10 pushing for that celestial w Gio. Love to see another dude on the path thanks to these vids.
Ill never forget playing in the GGST park, where I was learning Ram, and playing against a Potemkin, who was someone I had massive issues against, for like 2 hours straight for nearly 100 matches until I could consistently beat him, I lost nearly every match for that 2 hours, but boy did I learn.
I remember when I was like 14, I saw Street Fighter IV beta (or something st4 related) in my steam library. Don't know how it got there but I opened it because I learned about st4 from my oldest brother who used to play it on his 3ds when he came to visit from university on occasion. The first character I picked up was this blue god looking dude against bots. I tried to do a special move with my laptop's keyboard and failed. I uninstalled the game. Later, 16-year-old me bought a game called ARMS on the Nintendo Switch. For some reason I wanted to get good and devoted 100 hrs on the game. Around that time, I got into watching Fighting game compilation vids on TH-cam and other fighting game stuff. It looked so cool to me, but I was never confident enough to buy a Fighting game because of that one experience I had with Street Fighter IV. Then one day I saw this amazing trailer for a game with a crazy ass song and killer animation. That game was Guilty Gear Strive. I told myself that this is going to be my first Fighting Game and I'm going to main that weird blond, blue, white sword character (Ky). At last, Guilty Gear Strive released and I'm installing it on my Gaming Laptop. Game finished installing, launch game, see opening cinematic, connect my newly bought Xbox controller that I specifically bought for this game, and then I went straight to the story mode. After watching the story, I went straight to the tutorial the game has. I learned the basic, it was kind of difficult, but I did it, but then I arrived at this gigantic wall -- practicing the first big combo the game gives you for Ky. I need to do it 5 times in a row. I kid you not, it took me 100 tries to do it, and it took at least 3 days, but I said to myself that I will not play online until I do this combo. Once I did it, I felt like I had the world on a plate. From that my moment onward, Guilty Gear Strive became one of my favorite games, and consequently, I started to get more into this fighting game stuff. I started watching more fighting game TH-camrs. One day TH-cam recommended me a video from a dude called 'Sajam' and now I watch his videos daily; I started to join reddit fighting game communities and I started to watch fighting game tournaments like EVO; And lastly I decided that my second fighting game will be Street Fighter VI and I’m going to main Juri because feet.
Based character choice reasoning at the end there. That's really all it takes, one thing about a character to get you hooked. Whether it's Potemkin shouting really loud during HPB, or order-sol being dripped out of his mind.
personally the nice online of strive is what gave me the drive to finally "get gud" at a fighting game. a year and a month later and 450 hours into it, still having a blast. thanks to big S for teaching me so much
the interesting thing is these outlets actually do have passionate fighting game writers but those writers dont often get the chance to do stuff like this. but now that there's serious money getting dumped into the scene by the likes of sony and riot games (and now that capcom is actually spending money on SF) they sorta cant be ignored anymore
Agreed. I'm a freelance games writer and I rarely (if ever) get clients who want fighting game content, let alone consider FG stuff when I pitch it to them. It's somewhat frustrating as well given that the internet doesn't need yet another CoD Warzone and Fortnite beginners guide, both of which I have written more times than I care to admit.
Haven't watched the og yet, but damn this was such more than a "fgc" take, I honestly feel so much better mentally now than I did 20 minutes ago. Thanks
8:25 The one thing he missed is that even plain old regular keyboard is perfectly good starting point for many games. I know people who went from keyboards straight to _leverless controllers_ and didn't even have to adapt that much.
That's what I did. I couldn't do motions on pad because the d-pad hurt my thumbs so I used keyboard. Went to leverless and it's essentially just keyboard but more ergonomic.
Confirming I did the same. Only tricky thing with keyboard is that if you(like me) lift your hand off the stick when pressing some inputs it be harder to find your placement
I still struggle with the heart racing and sweating. I'll play online for like 5 minutes, then be like, "ok, time for monster hunter." I hope I get past it eventually.
One day, you just gotta say "fuck it" and keep going. It easier said than done, but you gotta get out of your comfort zone eventually if you really want to improve. Once you find the courage to keep going, no mater what happens, that's when you can start observing some growth. Of course, once you start doing that, learn when you need to take brakes. Take a breather, and get back in there once you're ready to go again. You can do it man.
@@stickismycue2317 Definitely better! I had a lot of fun in the SF6 beta, despite losing 70%+ of my matches. I don't think I've ever been able to play so many matches and still wanna jump in for more, so I'm super pumped for June 2nd!
I would put an asterisk on "play who you think looks cool" honestly. I think it should add "as long as they feel good to control." Some characters look so freaking cool in fighting games but just don't "feel right." Whether it be because of difficult inputs, or just that they control maybe too fast, too slow, etc. It can really mess with your desire to play because you can start to think "Ah, maybe this game isn't for me after all if this is how characters feel." Even though they can all be drastically different. imo, it should be "try all the characters you think are cool and stick with the one you feel the best with". i was so dead set on being a Yuzu player in UNIST, but I tried everyone I thought was cool and ended up maining Eltnum instead. And honestly now that I have enough hours on the game, it's given me that desire to try Yuzu again
Thats true for sure, i think the advice is more meant as try anyone who looks cool But its usually going to boil down to something arbitrary that will motivate you to push through the learning barrier that you will eventually encounter with any character For example i went into plus r intending to play anji but ended up playing johnny even though the latter is a lot more difficult to control (imo anji is a lot easier to get started with) So it can be a bit of both, as long as it motivates you to play and enjoy the game
I was always a shoto main and so I always thought Akuma was my guy, or I should pick Ken cause he's "higher tier". My greatest relief and shame is the day I fell in love with Ed in SFV. Sure he's the "baby's first fighting game" and he's mid-tier as hell... But I love his Psycho Power boxing. I love how he uppercuts and punches a fireball. I love his 1,2,3 shimmer and his rap theme. I even fell in love with his goofy neutral stance. Out of all the characters in SF5 I never thought I would say "I like this guy" to goddamn Ed... It still shocks me
In my case, one of the hardest things is sticking to a game. A lot of them has things I think are cool and wanna try out, but I usually jump around games due to wanting to try them all. I have stucked with GGST and SFV lately due to some friends who also play these ones. Perhaps that's also part of the role of the community, right
You also don't have to stick to one game ever. It's totally fine to just bounce around to whatever fighting game you want to try now. Like the video says, it'll always be there when you wanna go back
@@ElvisMaximus1 while I agree with that, i feel like it makes that much harder to become actually good in a fg, you know (which is something I want). Like, my fundamentals and execution have improved, but the game specific knowledge and awareness are things I end up lacking
Your situation is exactly like mine right now. Over the course of three years I've picked up and learned thirteen different games now which might not sound like too many but considering that I'm also a slow learner, that is actually a high number for my standards. There's just way too many cool and fun looking fighting games, and there's still more I wanna try out (Samsho, DBFZ when both get rollback etc). I eventually gotta stick to a particular game someday in order to actually start getting decent in something (maybe next UNI entry?), but for now I guess I'm happy with hopping around between games.
@@Eldred91 that's the thing, right? Every game has something cool and unique! I've been itching to try bbtag, and wanting to get back to gbvs, and keep playing sfv, mbtl and ggst. The only reason this bothers me is that getting good in a game is something i want, but I can't seem to find the one game thay makes me wanna solo commit
@@mrpinguimninja Yeah I completely understand you. I just got back into MBTL after the new patch but I also wanna keep playing P4U so I might try to juggle both games for now. I might have commited to UNI already if it wasn't for the godawful netcode.
the entire video team is great, but pat and (formerly) brian are both GOATed. They aren't with the team anymore, but I'm also gonna include Monster Factory
The part about making accomplishments that to outsiders and experts might not be much, really hit home. I started learning how FGs work really late into USFIV and I remember recording myself hitting a combo into super with Cody in training mode and it felt amazing. It was so minor but a great feeling regardless.
Something Pat's video and your response made me really want is a good set of tips for fighting vastly stronger players and finding the fun in it, rather than letting the experience get you down, make you wanna quit. It doesn't come naturally to everyone despite what people say. It's extremely common especially when heading to locals in densely populated areas. I know it's the fastest way to improve, to the point where some swear by it and say any other method is a waste of time. It's just by far the most mentally draining way.
I think you should try to find out exactly why is it mentally draining for you. I just assume some people like a challenge, while the majority absolutely detest being challenged and that it simply stems from that. Ofc that's not always the case though.
@@YourBoyToy1769 tbh it'd probably me thinking if I have no chance of winning there's no point, just get tired, down on myself, feels like im wasting time. Just gotta redefine what growth/winning is in those situations. Romolla and a lot of other players talk about how focusing on winning slows your growth this is probably what they mean
@@haughtygarbage5848 ye i think the key is reminding yourself that you can be learning something from the L's. When I lose 25 matches straight to someone online I just try to focus on one or two things I can learn from the matchup or the playstyle and it usually makes the time feel way more valuable
@@haughtygarbage5848maybe try relating to the person on the other side of the screen. Getting hype for the other player is very fun when they do something cool. Remember, that person could be you with a little practice.
"Pick who you think looks cool". After trying to get into fighting games for years, playing Bane in injustice 2 finally got me hooked. I love the way that character looks, the sound design is amazing, command grabbing someone with 3 layers of armour online and power bombing them over and over, hilarious. It's also the same reason I kind of bounced off the new Melty Blood, the characters are just all so damn bland.
Whoa, I'm the complete opposite Melty Blood is my favorite fighting game, both old and new I think pretty much all the characters are super cool But I just bounce right off NRS games It just goes to show how diverse fighting games are for different people's tastes and interests
@@carb1290 its called personal taste men, the important thing is you think your character is the coolest sh!t in the world cuz like the polygon video said and nail it is because at the end of the day loving ur character is the fuel to keep playing and grinding, no matter if the character is low tier, top tier, too hard and mechanically demanding or too ez and mechanically simply, none of that matters if you think it's cool and swaggy
No matter how much of a better player you are in strive, it doesnt matter unfortunately. I dont care what anybody says or think, i am the best at this game by FAR. No one comes even close Screw the mirror match and rps and gl to everyone in top 8 Peace
I'll be talking to a new person like "Alright the first thing you wanna do is jump into training mode and get familiar with your character" and they're just like nah I don't wanna do that. Maybe I should say "just play" or something but I never really understood fighting games "just playing" until I was ready to do training mode.
I feel like alot of people have brainwashed themselves or others into thinking fighting games are too prohibitively difficult for people to just pick up and play.
Its 2 things mainly. First years and years of FGC dickstroking on how "hard" and "complex" their games are. Its not quite that true especially at a low level. The other is inputs. Very very few games outside fighting games have motion inputs so its hard to learn and an instant barrier to entry (I learned the quarter circle in megaman X lol). But alot of people simply have issue with the motions (god help them they pick someone with more complex inputs like Zangief or Geese howards) and just give up. Funny enough I think the 2nd issue is more of a barrier for people that play alot of games. You learn to move a mouse around well that carries over to countless games but picking up a new game and seeing your back at square one can fuck with alot of people.
@@redwater1995 you don't try to learn those motion inputs right off the bat. That shit wont help you at all if you wont even learn something as basic as blocking.
@@Drebin1989 I agree with this. Blocking is the last thing that comes to mind for newcomers because it feels so passive to them. They've jumped into their fighting game of choice because they wanted to do the cool moves they saw online, not stand back and take hits. Getting used to blocking and seeing it as an active option rather than a passive one is key to taking that first initial skill leap. Motions can come after that or can be practiced more subtly.
I think the issue is that playing a fighting game "bad" also feels like you're playing badly. If you drop a combo you failed, if you get hit by a mixup you failed, if you get hit by something you have no idea what is the game tells you that you failed, if you mess up a motion you failed. If you get shot and die in a BR you immediately think: "Ok, I need to drop somewhere else and keep a better eye on positions where other players can have an advantage over me." Getting to a point where you don't get killed and die instantly and getting to a point where you can block a common mix-up might be the same amount of hours but it's immediately more clear to the player what they can do and more importantly they can start to come up with entirely different solutions or approaches to either address or sidestep the situation entirely. In FGs it just feels like "just block the mix-up better" or "just do the combo better". For newer players it feels like your character is sloppy and moving through molases and you have to input nuclear launch codes to do what takes one button in a like a shooter. M1 goes bang, M2 goes zoooom. There's a larger disconnect between player and character in a fighting game than in most other genres. It's not a bad thing, but it feels like a bad thing at first. No, fighting games aren't harder than other games, but I tihnk it feels much worse being bad at them than most other games.
I started playing fighting games on MK11 but I told myself I was just pressing buttons for fun and that I wouldnt take it too seriously because I didnt want to turn my hobby of playing video games into something stressful by trying to improve for real. But after I played Strive for a couple weeks I noticed that I was way more into it than I thought I actually was and accepted for real that I wanted to play not only for fun but to improve (improving is fun in itself but you get the point). Since accepting how I really felt about fgs and after jumping totally into it I managed to notice my overall improvement overtime but the big thing to solve for now has been my emotional reactions when I play. I always tried to take it easy and not put unreal expectations on my performances, and while I do think I did it successfully, when I lose sets by a large difference like 20-0, I feel really bad with myself and when I win I tell myself all the imaginable excuses to convince myself that I won because I got lucky on a lot of interactions or just because of certain knowledge checks that my opponent didn't know. Of course I know logically that thats completely normal, there are players who have way more experience than me so I dont have to feel bad for losing since thats just how it is and when I win I should just take pride that I did my best and managed to play the video game properly. The thing is that competition in general is something that really pokes your ego and your emotional state and I've noticed you really have to learn how to deal with it properly to not develop unhealthy habits around it because not only this is bad for your mind but also bad for your improvement on the game itself since you'll start blaming yourself mid matches instead of just focusing on what its happening and working on what you gotta improve. For now I still suffer these emotional peaks too often and get stressed playing really fast but I already accepted getting better is what I wanna do so no mental illness/anxiety will stop me from that, if I have to completely overcome an emotional disorder just to get a little further on my objective thats what Im doing no matter how much time it takes.
18:30 Damn. But playing plus R, I use my win rate as a barometer for my progress. I tried just playing everyone, but when playing against people with like, 6000 matches, I just can't figure out why I'm losing. If I can't understand how their blockstrings seem to never end, I can't really gain much from it, so I stick to playing people with around the same amount of matches as me. The more matches I play, the higher the quality of the people I play, and as long as I can win about half of those matches, I'm improving, or at least that's the idea.
I think it's telling that fighters need these sorts of videos but you don't see it for basically any other genre. Closest it gets is simracers and those are usually just how to set up cheap wheels properly so they don't fly off your desk. Even smash is 99% "Here's how to set up Dolphin/20XX" rather than "here's how to gain the COURAGE and GUMPTION to play the game you spent 80$ on"
Polygon's video made me bite the bullet and finally try for real a fighting game. They always seemed to much for me, but after a couple of days watching videos about the topic I finally feel ready to try!
The absolute best way to learn fighting games is to have a friend who is also interested in getting into fighting games with you. I learned so much early on just by playing for 4-6 hours straight with a friend, then after he left we would both go learn new stuff so that the next time we get together we can unleash it on each other. It keeps you competitive but it also makes you get hype the first time your friend puts you in the corner and mixes you in brand new ways. When playing online against a nameless face you'll probably get frustrated when you get mixed for the 4th time in a row, but when your friend does it you just get so hype and it makes you want to do it too.
Your Sagat 2 minute guide taught me more about fighting games than any other video before Something just clicked after I watched and tried it And everything in that guide helped with every future character or game I played
Yeah, I agree that first step is the most important, but there are other factors that stand in the way of it. Fighting games can be expensive, even with the price drop Strive (The currently most popular fighting game [I think]) is sitting pretty at 40$ no DLC and it comes with very few game modes outside of "ONLINE FIGHT" and "OFFLINE FIGHT", DLC included it's 90 bucks, you'd think it doesn't matter but seeing that you technically don't even have the "Full" game, a game that already isn't exactly FILLED with content, can be discouraging, especially if what could make you stick around is locked behind an extra fee. (no regional pricing could also be an issue) Speaking of, your location on planet earth can also be an obstacle, while good rollback and a 20 meter long ethernet cable can match you fairly well outside your Region, ultimately you want in-region matches cause those would offer the best experience and that is often not an option, especially since FGs tend to have lower populations (often due to pricing lol) which makes already low populated regions even less so. And then low population makes playing the game somewhat worse since you'll be matched with people who will likely be a few leagues above you, and etc. etc. we've heard this part before just wanted to include it for completion's sake. Overall great video from Mr. Polygon and great analysis from Stage Ham.
if you want a cheaper game play something older with online capabilities. guilty gear +r comes to mind since it is regularly 3 bucks on sale. Melty blood actress again is basically free, all of fightcade is just sitting there waiting to be explored too! money isn't an issue if your eyes aren't stuck on new and shiny
Here's why i disagree with the whole pricing thing. Back when almost every fighting game had a lot of content people weren't really fucking with them at that time either. Even then you had games that didn't have much content do way better than the ones that did. If people REALLY cared about content like that, all the fighting games that had it should've sold at least 3 million easily. They should've been experiencing that kind of success not struggling to get to 1 million like a majority of them did.
The part about equipment is interesting. I was sooo frustrated with stuff until I got myself a hitbox. Stick inputs are so inconsistent, I hated it. But as soon as I got my hitbox, I finally believed that all inputs can be learnt - its great. (first FG was GGST)
I preach fighting games, because i feel it's the best way to understand how to progress in a game and progress mentally in your abilities Specifically Tekken, when you start hitting just frame combos and moving like you're on skates, the satisfaction is way bigger than hitting headshots or winning moba matches
Its funny but fighting games are probbably the only genre that makes me feel worse about myself as a human. Something about them makes me depressed the more I get into them. Ya sure the first 50 hours or so tends go be fun but then I just fall apart mentally on them. Any mistake I make I know that I could had avoided and it eats at me. Even after rounds are over ESPECIALLY after rounds are over. I missed a throwbreak in tekken and it cost me the round? Man I beat myself up over that. God help me if I know what to do in the moment but I just cant deal with it and fuck it up. I had to quit. Funny enough I didnt have that issue with other 1v1 comp games like starcraft only fighting games. If you did try fighting games and they cause you actual IRL issues you can stop take it from me. I still play the odd tekken game with a friend of mine but the days of playing online are behind me. I notice Sajam makes alot of videos addressing people who never play fighting games but does he have any videos for people who quit? I do enjoy playing them alot of the time but man sometimes they just cause me severe IRL depression. So I made the choice and just quit and my life is net positive for it. Is kinda sad that that sometimes I have some friends that wanna play strive but I always have to turn it down cause I know playing will just leave me heartbroken but hey what can ya do.
Often times what I need to get motivated into just only playing a fighting game even with little competition is selecting your favorite character, and having the time to experiment. To me, personal experience of choosing a fighting game you jive with enough to try learning specials whether through training or even just through versus matches are even more incentive to keep playing. Especially for beginners, it is not a test that needs to be studied for in a time limit. I get even more incentive to try learning the fun parts and maybe get better from a fighting game when the game has solid arcade modes that the game has to have you adapt. Honestly, getting into learning inputs in general in an isolated case many times that's not just in training helps a lot in figuring out what attacks would work in a real scenario. And yes I strongly agree with needing to choose a character you can actually simp over, I simp over Sodom in Street Fighter Alpha games enough to try getting better for his own sake.
Man, i got (back, kinda) into FGs late '19 with REFV2, and had a blast goofing off solo, and was really happy when things like GBVS and STRIVE came out, but never actually had the time to "git gud". It'd be great to be able to REALLY learn what i'm doing, but man time is the biggest barrier. I get like MAYBE an hour or two a week to play ANYTHING, and with all the other games i also want to play, i only end up getting 2 hours a MONTH for FGs. Sadly its not enough time to spend focusing on perfecting the gameplay, but its at least enough to have fun scrubbing around on the lower floors in the tower... and TBH, thats ok.
This video did give me the courage to buy Guilty Gear instead of just watching. I'm absolutely terrified of it because I know I'm bad, but it's also been like... 3 days. Improvement is slow, but it's steady
I saw this yesterday and now everyone is talking about this vid and I love it. If any of my friends say "I'd like to play but...." think I'll show them this
This is pretty fortuitous. I've been playing fighting games for basically my whole life (I'm 42) and I'm getting back into my staple series of Soul Calibur after only playing SCVI off and on. Even though the last major update happened way back in 2020, it still feels like a totally different game and I'm basically just lab monstering to find a main. As someone who grew up in arcades and locals, playing online is physically painful and it feels like Namco basically abandoned the series compared to Tekken 7. This was a great video. It's made me consider leveraging my decades of fighting game experience onto YT or Twitch. I dunno. Edit: I actually love watching my own replays, especially after the fact when I have more knowledge. Like, "no, you should've done this here instead. Oh shit, this was a better option" or "lmao, he fucked up. Look, I got to capitalize on it." It's really funny and very engaging. Even when you get utterly stepped on, you can analyze why. Definitely a recommended part of the learning experience.
Watching replays was always the hardest thing for me since I'd rather be in the game playing than watching replays. A good way I got around it for a bit was uploading my games to TH-cam in a self improvement series kinda thing and editing those is what got me to watch my games over.
I struggle a lot with execution in Fighting games. For example I for the life of me, can't hit a double quarter circle when I'm in the corner and need to hit a reversal super. Incredibly frustrating but videos like this always encourage me to end up giving it another try. So thanks for that and everyone being so supportive.
You can 100% do it man, you got this. The big challenge is all mental there, as a connoisseur of failed reversals in pressure I can tell you it's not your execution almost certainly, it's the mental stack overloading and messing it up for you. Also a great reason to go to tournaments or play them online, the higher-pressure situations will make playing online feel totally normal, and once you get used to that then you get to play on stream and upgrade your mental strength again :D
I loved the part when you said you gotta sell the story so that it's comprehensible, but the closed captions for the moment you just happened to pause on said, "commentators screaming incomprehensibly." Just a funny observation. :)
I’m one of those people who isn’t ever getting into fighting games bc I wish I had the motivation but I absolutely don’t. Just be aware that subsection of people exists.
If you have issues like me due to anxiety when starting A fighting game. And i am not a anxious person. I just dont want to lose like normal people and worry that ill make a fool out of myself. So instead i go through the loop of going into training until 'im ready'. Inevitably i quit because you will NEVER be ready in the training room. The TR is where motivation goes to die because you fight against the one person who is always better than you. Your future self. when you want to actually play. Start the game dont think. Go straight into ranked. Commit to the choice and dont cancel search. And go win or lose. Doesnt matter. And stay there and train in between matches. Dont cancel matching ever until you are done for the day. Dont even need to know what to train. Just go lose. Youll realize its not bad. Its part of the process like literally everyone says. And you will be past step 1. You ripped the bandaid. Cant win without losing.
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I have always thought fighting games were sick, but I didn't really have access to them where I was growing up. As an adult I had gotten a taste of the joy of competitive games from LoL. Then one day I was like: Ok, I know I've tried and failed to "get" fighting games, but there _must_ be some people on TH-cam who do like match analysis, explaining what is happening and more importantly, what the strategic layer of these games looks like. So I searched "fighting game match analysis" and landed on a jmcrofts video where he breaks down a replay between Daigo and a random person. That was it. That was the hook.
21:09 lost a set at my local melee tourney and asked the guy what to do about some shield pressure and he was like, “yeah i do that against a lot of sheiks” and walked off… It was chill though i asked him again later and we laughed it off
I remember my frist SFV tournament, I was so scared AND I was the the first streamed match aka how to add even more nervousness but the more I competed (despite going 0-2) I was learning, improving and having fun to the point I was scaring UGM players while being a mere Gold. Rn Tekken scares the living hell outta me but I WILL get into 8 and already spotted my character
Cool to see a good video on this subject from a generalist outlet. Really need to get on that "community" step. I'll get into Celestial one day, ONE DAY :D
Don't gotta wait on getting to celestial, join discords, play sets with people from them, play in online tournaments. Only thing holding you back is you (and from experience, there's a lot of players that are almost certainly around your skill level in tournaments, everyone thinks it's all pros but I play in tournaments and I'm randomly garbage so trust me lol)
When I first started playing blazblue, I got smoked by a Rachel player. They literally messaged me and said "maybe you shouldn't play this game : (" Years later my training partner was a high ranked GG player and we went back and forth a lot Good times
My biggest reasons for not playing FG's more is due, to circumstances, I can't wire up and use a ethernet cable and i really don't want me or my opponent to have to deal with wifi matchs. Second is just the anxiety, like, it terrifies me to boot up Strive , get to the title screen and then i just sit there staring at the online button.
It seems a lot scarier then it is. Matches are short and snappy, and there isn't any toxic teammates to yell at you if you lose. People can see from your rank and badges that you are new and it's really unlikely that they are going to give someone starting out a hard time. Just take a deep breath and try it out. It'll probably be a chill time.
I have had the experience MANY times where I'm learning a fighting game on discord and I ask my opponent how to stop the dumb shit they're doing and all I get is "idk lol this shit's cheap as hell" because they genuinely don't know how to stop it themselves
I will say, as newer player that mainly plays with friends who are way better than them, a lot of times they will share why they’re winning, and then punish the options
Personally, whenever I play online for the first time in a new game I’m not that nervous. I always have the mindset of “I’m sick at this game imma do some sick shit” and then when I suck I go “whelp I’m new.” I think that’s just the oxymoronic nature of confidence bordering on arrogance.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
"I didn't ask for your life's story, is that shit plus or not?"
man why you gotta shoot me in broad daylight
TH-cam algorithm put this video above the polygon video in my feed
Broken clocks and all that
Oh, you're a Sajam fan now?
Whatever, sure kid.
Well polygon is in the title, so you shouldn't be surprised.
So your a sajam fan now? (Love it brother, stay fgc)
Never thought I'd watch a person say, "I love busting" and agree with them so hard.
Busting makes me feel good
@@jonnyanderson3042 Beat me to it
i was playing a game while listening and that part made me die laughing for two whole minutes. He knew what he was doing
Pat Gill made a good video about the FGC because he's a games writer who IS part of the FGC himself. Dude plays in online tournaments. That's the big difference between this and other attempts by major gaming outlets to discuss fighting games.
He's got a fantastic video from 2020 called "Bruce Lee is Fighting Games" about the influence of Bruce Lee and martial arts cinema on fighting games, also on the Polygon channel. Absolutely worth a watch IMO.
I dunno, being a part of the FGC hardly translates to being able to articulate well about it. How many dumb takes/interaction do we have all the time with people deep in the FGC? Pat Gill is just a good writer/thinker about video games in general.
@@outkast978 Pat's both! They're a great writer just like a lot of other games journalists, and just happens to also be in the FGC already allowing for a more in touch take on fighting games. A lot of the time, the issue with games journalism covering fighting games feels out of touch because they aren't part of the community, they're merely an onlooker. Pat is one of the few writers that actually loves and lives this stuff, and his love comes through in the way he talks about the topic unlike most writers.
@@outkast978 99% of us are unbelievably stupid thats what makes the fgc fun
@@BacchusGames I disagree because most video-game journalism is extremely bad.
I'm glad that mention of Bruce Lee video got upvoted a lot, this video mostly been missed by FGC.
There’s a lot of cool guys named Pat into fighting games huh.
"Take a damn break" is one of the hardest pills for the to swallow when learning fighting games. I know because it happens *constantly* in Sajam's discord.
Someone will be struggling and beating themselves up and a chorus of people all will tell them "take a break. It will help you learn." And they almost never listen. Invariably they snap back that they've been practicing nonstop and can't fathom why they aren't getting better. And invariably someone will lay it out that they need to give their brain time to make room for everything they didn't even realize they learned.
It was a surprisingly good video. Usually these standard gaming outlets (IGN, Kotaku, Polygon, etc) have videos and articles that just skim the surface and recap common knowledge of the topic that most people already know, and then they'll reference a few memes/tweets and call it a day.
This video actually managed to both entertain by showing hype moments and flashy characters. And also provide useful information for the topic that wasn't just surface level details.
Say what you want about the site itself, but historically, Polygon's video team has been pretty good. They've had some misses, but when they want to dive into something, they do a pretty good job at diving into it.
Yeah Polygon's articles are full of clickbait garbage, low quality journalism and soapbox politics but their video team is actually solid and usually puts out good stuff.
It helps when the guy making the video actually plays the games he's talking about
That “I’m in a car and someone’s talking to me but I’m mentally in training mode” moment really spoke to me. One time I was in a club talking to my friend and I all I thought about was hitting clean hit H VV on them. They weren’t even making me mad or anything that’s all I was thinking about
Pat makes awesome videos. Would recommend literally anything else he makes. My personal favorite is the one where he convinced me that Luigi = Jackie Chan.
his call of duty one on polygon was great too
Polygon's finally got a worthy successor to bdg
3:21. That caption means it's the best kind of fighting game commentary.
This video was tight and chill. Hard to imagine if I would have felt motivated as a beginner hearing it, but it felt like a solid, relatable view into the experience from my own POV
I think it's less about motivation and more about guidance. It's not trying to say this is why you SHOULD get into fighting games, just that if you want to here is how to have a good time as a beginner. I did something very similar to his steps when I first got into fighting games and I really love em now, so it seems to work.
A lot of the comments under the vid seem really positive about giving the genre their all so I genuinely think content like this is important
I sent it to my friend who has *never* said *anything* about fighting games until the recent PS State Of Play. He was like "Street Fight 6 and Tekken 8 look so good! But I always give up on fighting games...".
After watching the Polygon video he said he's definitely going to try one (or both) of them when they come out. So, anecdotally, it seems to have worked!
Update 10 months later, it definitely worked for me! A combination of Pat's video, Sajam and Maximillian Dood finally got me to pull the trigger on trying a fighting game and I bought sf6 at launch. Currently Gold 3 and trying to work my way to plat and I'm having a blast.
@@PBnRekt Hell yea brother. The pat vid, the max react, and the cosmonaut quickie vid got me to pull the trigger a few months back on GG Strive, and now I'm sitting floor 10 pushing for that celestial w Gio. Love to see another dude on the path thanks to these vids.
Heihachi kicking the crap out of little baby Kazuya always gets me.
Pat's video is what convinced me to finally take the plunge even though I'm like 40 years old. And it's been great!
Ill never forget playing in the GGST park, where I was learning Ram, and playing against a Potemkin, who was someone I had massive issues against, for like 2 hours straight for nearly 100 matches until I could consistently beat him, I lost nearly every match for that 2 hours, but boy did I learn.
I remember when I was like 14, I saw Street Fighter IV beta (or something st4 related) in my steam library. Don't know how it got there but I opened it because I learned about st4 from my oldest brother who used to play it on his 3ds when he came to visit from university on occasion. The first character I picked up was this blue god looking dude against bots. I tried to do a special move with my laptop's keyboard and failed. I uninstalled the game.
Later, 16-year-old me bought a game called ARMS on the Nintendo Switch. For some reason I wanted to get good and devoted 100 hrs on the game. Around that time, I got into watching Fighting game compilation vids on TH-cam and other fighting game stuff. It looked so cool to me, but I was never confident enough to buy a Fighting game because of that one experience I had with Street Fighter IV. Then one day I saw this amazing trailer for a game with a crazy ass song and killer animation. That game was Guilty Gear Strive. I told myself that this is going to be my first Fighting Game and I'm going to main that weird blond, blue, white sword character (Ky).
At last, Guilty Gear Strive released and I'm installing it on my Gaming Laptop. Game finished installing, launch game, see opening cinematic, connect my newly bought Xbox controller that I specifically bought for this game, and then I went straight to the story mode. After watching the story, I went straight to the tutorial the game has. I learned the basic, it was kind of difficult, but I did it, but then I arrived at this gigantic wall -- practicing the first big combo the game gives you for Ky. I need to do it 5 times in a row. I kid you not, it took me 100 tries to do it, and it took at least 3 days, but I said to myself that I will not play online until I do this combo. Once I did it, I felt like I had the world on a plate. From that my moment onward, Guilty Gear Strive became one of my favorite games, and consequently, I started to get more into this fighting game stuff. I started watching more fighting game TH-camrs. One day TH-cam recommended me a video from a dude called 'Sajam' and now I watch his videos daily; I started to join reddit fighting game communities and I started to watch fighting game tournaments like EVO; And lastly I decided that my second fighting game will be Street Fighter VI and I’m going to main Juri because feet.
we love to see it
Had me right until the end. (Kidding kidding, that level of determination is hugely respectable!)
Based character choice reasoning at the end there. That's really all it takes, one thing about a character to get you hooked. Whether it's Potemkin shouting really loud during HPB, or order-sol being dripped out of his mind.
personally the nice online of strive is what gave me the drive to finally "get gud" at a fighting game. a year and a month later and 450 hours into it, still having a blast. thanks to big S for teaching me so much
the interesting thing is these outlets actually do have passionate fighting game writers but those writers dont often get the chance to do stuff like this. but now that there's serious money getting dumped into the scene by the likes of sony and riot games (and now that capcom is actually spending money on SF) they sorta cant be ignored anymore
Agreed. I'm a freelance games writer and I rarely (if ever) get clients who want fighting game content, let alone consider FG stuff when I pitch it to them. It's somewhat frustrating as well given that the internet doesn't need yet another CoD Warzone and Fortnite beginners guide, both of which I have written more times than I care to admit.
Haven't watched the og yet, but damn this was such more than a "fgc" take, I honestly feel so much better mentally now than I did 20 minutes ago. Thanks
Love seeing Pat's video get so much recognition
8:25 The one thing he missed is that even plain old regular keyboard is perfectly good starting point for many games. I know people who went from keyboards straight to _leverless controllers_ and didn't even have to adapt that much.
That's what I did. I couldn't do motions on pad because the d-pad hurt my thumbs so I used keyboard. Went to leverless and it's essentially just keyboard but more ergonomic.
Confirming I did the same. Only tricky thing with keyboard is that if you(like me) lift your hand off the stick when pressing some inputs it be harder to find your placement
"Eddie" sounds like he's fighting for his life in the background lmao
love to see more Fightzone representation on the channel shouts out to the homie Friend "WHY WOULD YOU PRESS ROUNDHOUSE" Jon
coincidentally it is also his birthday please wish this man well
that bussypox beat the shit out of that Elderly Victim
I still struggle with the heart racing and sweating. I'll play online for like 5 minutes, then be like, "ok, time for monster hunter." I hope I get past it eventually.
One day, you just gotta say "fuck it" and keep going. It easier said than done, but you gotta get out of your comfort zone eventually if you really want to improve. Once you find the courage to keep going, no mater what happens, that's when you can start observing some growth. Of course, once you start doing that, learn when you need to take brakes. Take a breather, and get back in there once you're ready to go again. You can do it man.
How is it going now?
@@stickismycue2317 Definitely better! I had a lot of fun in the SF6 beta, despite losing 70%+ of my matches. I don't think I've ever been able to play so many matches and still wanna jump in for more, so I'm super pumped for June 2nd!
@@Lexgamer Gald youre having fun my dude, hope you keep going on your journey!
I would put an asterisk on "play who you think looks cool" honestly. I think it should add "as long as they feel good to control." Some characters look so freaking cool in fighting games but just don't "feel right." Whether it be because of difficult inputs, or just that they control maybe too fast, too slow, etc. It can really mess with your desire to play because you can start to think "Ah, maybe this game isn't for me after all if this is how characters feel." Even though they can all be drastically different. imo, it should be "try all the characters you think are cool and stick with the one you feel the best with". i was so dead set on being a Yuzu player in UNIST, but I tried everyone I thought was cool and ended up maining Eltnum instead. And honestly now that I have enough hours on the game, it's given me that desire to try Yuzu again
Thats true for sure, i think the advice is more meant as try anyone who looks cool
But its usually going to boil down to something arbitrary that will motivate you to push through the learning barrier that you will eventually encounter with any character
For example i went into plus r intending to play anji but ended up playing johnny even though the latter is a lot more difficult to control (imo anji is a lot easier to get started with)
So it can be a bit of both, as long as it motivates you to play and enjoy the game
I was always a shoto main and so I always thought Akuma was my guy, or I should pick Ken cause he's "higher tier".
My greatest relief and shame is the day I fell in love with Ed in SFV.
Sure he's the "baby's first fighting game" and he's mid-tier as hell... But I love his Psycho Power boxing.
I love how he uppercuts and punches a fireball.
I love his 1,2,3 shimmer and his rap theme.
I even fell in love with his goofy neutral stance.
Out of all the characters in SF5 I never thought I would say "I like this guy" to goddamn Ed... It still shocks me
In my case, one of the hardest things is sticking to a game. A lot of them has things I think are cool and wanna try out, but I usually jump around games due to wanting to try them all. I have stucked with GGST and SFV lately due to some friends who also play these ones. Perhaps that's also part of the role of the community, right
You also don't have to stick to one game ever. It's totally fine to just bounce around to whatever fighting game you want to try now. Like the video says, it'll always be there when you wanna go back
@@ElvisMaximus1 while I agree with that, i feel like it makes that much harder to become actually good in a fg, you know (which is something I want). Like, my fundamentals and execution have improved, but the game specific knowledge and awareness are things I end up lacking
Your situation is exactly like mine right now. Over the course of three years I've picked up and learned thirteen different games now which might not sound like too many but considering that I'm also a slow learner, that is actually a high number for my standards.
There's just way too many cool and fun looking fighting games, and there's still more I wanna try out (Samsho, DBFZ when both get rollback etc).
I eventually gotta stick to a particular game someday in order to actually start getting decent in something (maybe next UNI entry?), but for now I guess I'm happy with hopping around between games.
@@Eldred91 that's the thing, right? Every game has something cool and unique! I've been itching to try bbtag, and wanting to get back to gbvs, and keep playing sfv, mbtl and ggst. The only reason this bothers me is that getting good in a game is something i want, but I can't seem to find the one game thay makes me wanna solo commit
@@mrpinguimninja Yeah I completely understand you. I just got back into MBTL after the new patch but I also wanna keep playing P4U so I might try to juggle both games for now. I might have commited to UNI already if it wasn't for the godawful netcode.
i was worried when i saw Polygon, then saw WHO from Polygon and knew it would be great
True. Patrick videos are consistently good
the entire video team is great, but pat and (formerly) brian are both GOATed.
They aren't with the team anymore, but I'm also gonna include Monster Factory
The part about making accomplishments that to outsiders and experts might not be much, really hit home. I started learning how FGs work really late into USFIV and I remember recording myself hitting a combo into super with Cody in training mode and it felt amazing. It was so minor but a great feeling regardless.
Something Pat's video and your response made me really want is a good set of tips for fighting vastly stronger players and finding the fun in it, rather than letting the experience get you down, make you wanna quit. It doesn't come naturally to everyone despite what people say. It's extremely common especially when heading to locals in densely populated areas. I know it's the fastest way to improve, to the point where some swear by it and say any other method is a waste of time. It's just by far the most mentally draining way.
I think you should try to find out exactly why is it mentally draining for you.
I just assume some people like a challenge, while the majority absolutely detest being challenged and that it simply stems from that.
Ofc that's not always the case though.
@@YourBoyToy1769 tbh it'd probably me thinking if I have no chance of winning there's no point, just get tired, down on myself, feels like im wasting time. Just gotta redefine what growth/winning is in those situations. Romolla and a lot of other players talk about how focusing on winning slows your growth this is probably what they mean
@@haughtygarbage5848 ye i think the key is reminding yourself that you can be learning something from the L's. When I lose 25 matches straight to someone online I just try to focus on one or two things I can learn from the matchup or the playstyle and it usually makes the time feel way more valuable
@@haughtygarbage5848maybe try relating to the person on the other side of the screen. Getting hype for the other player is very fun when they do something cool. Remember, that person could be you with a little practice.
The Tweek/Leo flash at the end. Still some of the best Ultimate ever played even 4 years later.
"Pick who you think looks cool". After trying to get into fighting games for years, playing Bane in injustice 2 finally got me hooked. I love the way that character looks, the sound design is amazing, command grabbing someone with 3 layers of armour online and power bombing them over and over, hilarious. It's also the same reason I kind of bounced off the new Melty Blood, the characters are just all so damn bland.
Whoa, I'm the complete opposite
Melty Blood is my favorite fighting game, both old and new
I think pretty much all the characters are super cool
But I just bounce right off NRS games
It just goes to show how diverse fighting games are for different people's tastes and interests
@@carb1290 its called personal taste men, the important thing is you think your character is the coolest sh!t in the world cuz like the polygon video said and nail it is because at the end of the day loving ur character is the fuel to keep playing and grinding, no matter if the character is low tier, top tier, too hard and mechanically demanding or too ez and mechanically simply, none of that matters if you think it's cool and swaggy
@@armoredsquirrel946 I agree 100%
It's just so cool to see an opposite opinion but I definitely respect it
Play what you love!
Pat Gill is a legend
Nice Houseplant. Ties the room together. 👍
Make some noise for the plant!
Still can't believe my dumb butt is in this lmao
Did they mention how important the salty tweets are to fighting game tournaments?
No matter how much of a better player you are in strive, it doesnt matter unfortunately.
I dont care what anybody says or think, i am the best at this game by FAR. No one comes even close
Screw the mirror match and rps and gl to everyone in top 8
Peace
I like this chill, encouraging, video dude. Good energy.
I'll be talking to a new person like "Alright the first thing you wanna do is jump into training mode and get familiar with your character" and they're just like nah I don't wanna do that. Maybe I should say "just play" or something but I never really understood fighting games "just playing" until I was ready to do training mode.
I feel like alot of people have brainwashed themselves or others into thinking fighting games are too prohibitively difficult for people to just pick up and play.
Maybe. But not a lot of people have the inherent passion to invest as much as possible to see success on a ranked ladder, perhaps
Its 2 things mainly. First years and years of FGC dickstroking on how "hard" and "complex" their games are. Its not quite that true especially at a low level. The other is inputs. Very very few games outside fighting games have motion inputs so its hard to learn and an instant barrier to entry (I learned the quarter circle in megaman X lol). But alot of people simply have issue with the motions (god help them they pick someone with more complex inputs like Zangief or Geese howards) and just give up. Funny enough I think the 2nd issue is more of a barrier for people that play alot of games. You learn to move a mouse around well that carries over to countless games but picking up a new game and seeing your back at square one can fuck with alot of people.
@@redwater1995 you don't try to learn those motion inputs right off the bat. That shit wont help you at all if you wont even learn something as basic as blocking.
@@Drebin1989 I agree with this. Blocking is the last thing that comes to mind for newcomers because it feels so passive to them. They've jumped into their fighting game of choice because they wanted to do the cool moves they saw online, not stand back and take hits. Getting used to blocking and seeing it as an active option rather than a passive one is key to taking that first initial skill leap. Motions can come after that or can be practiced more subtly.
I think the issue is that playing a fighting game "bad" also feels like you're playing badly. If you drop a combo you failed, if you get hit by a mixup you failed, if you get hit by something you have no idea what is the game tells you that you failed, if you mess up a motion you failed. If you get shot and die in a BR you immediately think: "Ok, I need to drop somewhere else and keep a better eye on positions where other players can have an advantage over me." Getting to a point where you don't get killed and die instantly and getting to a point where you can block a common mix-up might be the same amount of hours but it's immediately more clear to the player what they can do and more importantly they can start to come up with entirely different solutions or approaches to either address or sidestep the situation entirely. In FGs it just feels like "just block the mix-up better" or "just do the combo better".
For newer players it feels like your character is sloppy and moving through molases and you have to input nuclear launch codes to do what takes one button in a like a shooter. M1 goes bang, M2 goes zoooom. There's a larger disconnect between player and character in a fighting game than in most other genres. It's not a bad thing, but it feels like a bad thing at first. No, fighting games aren't harder than other games, but I tihnk it feels much worse being bad at them than most other games.
I started playing fighting games on MK11 but I told myself I was just pressing buttons for fun and that I wouldnt take it too seriously because I didnt want to turn my hobby of playing video games into something stressful by trying to improve for real. But after I played Strive for a couple weeks I noticed that I was way more into it than I thought I actually was and accepted for real that I wanted to play not only for fun but to improve (improving is fun in itself but you get the point).
Since accepting how I really felt about fgs and after jumping totally into it I managed to notice my overall improvement overtime but the big thing to solve for now has been my emotional reactions when I play. I always tried to take it easy and not put unreal expectations on my performances, and while I do think I did it successfully, when I lose sets by a large difference like 20-0, I feel really bad with myself and when I win I tell myself all the imaginable excuses to convince myself that I won because I got lucky on a lot of interactions or just because of certain knowledge checks that my opponent didn't know.
Of course I know logically that thats completely normal, there are players who have way more experience than me so I dont have to feel bad for losing since thats just how it is and when I win I should just take pride that I did my best and managed to play the video game properly.
The thing is that competition in general is something that really pokes your ego and your emotional state and I've noticed you really have to learn how to deal with it properly to not develop unhealthy habits around it because not only this is bad for your mind but also bad for your improvement on the game itself since you'll start blaming yourself mid matches instead of just focusing on what its happening and working on what you gotta improve.
For now I still suffer these emotional peaks too often and get stressed playing really fast but I already accepted getting better is what I wanna do so no mental illness/anxiety will stop me from that, if I have to completely overcome an emotional disorder just to get a little further on my objective thats what Im doing no matter how much time it takes.
Sajam showing up for the keyboard players, you live to see it. There are dozens of us! Dozens!
My best friend also prefers Keyboard and he is smoking my ass!
cant believe pats a fucking grappler main
actually, nevermind. i totally can
18:30 Damn. But playing plus R, I use my win rate as a barometer for my progress. I tried just playing everyone, but when playing against people with like, 6000 matches, I just can't figure out why I'm losing. If I can't understand how their blockstrings seem to never end, I can't really gain much from it, so I stick to playing people with around the same amount of matches as me. The more matches I play, the higher the quality of the people I play, and as long as I can win about half of those matches, I'm improving, or at least that's the idea.
I think it's telling that fighters need these sorts of videos but you don't see it for basically any other genre. Closest it gets is simracers and those are usually just how to set up cheap wheels properly so they don't fly off your desk. Even smash is 99% "Here's how to set up Dolphin/20XX" rather than "here's how to gain the COURAGE and GUMPTION to play the game you spent 80$ on"
Polygon's video made me bite the bullet and finally try for real a fighting game. They always seemed to much for me, but after a couple of days watching videos about the topic I finally feel ready to try!
How'd it go?
@@DATRUEMUFFINMANTHING Life got in the way. I need to better prioritize my time for hobbies
the names were so fucking good. really enjoyed seeing both 'bussypox' and 'tgirl tom hanks' being bridget players.
Average bridget player 🗿
That man is truly a Sajam enjoyer, love to see it
The absolute best way to learn fighting games is to have a friend who is also interested in getting into fighting games with you. I learned so much early on just by playing for 4-6 hours straight with a friend, then after he left we would both go learn new stuff so that the next time we get together we can unleash it on each other. It keeps you competitive but it also makes you get hype the first time your friend puts you in the corner and mixes you in brand new ways. When playing online against a nameless face you'll probably get frustrated when you get mixed for the 4th time in a row, but when your friend does it you just get so hype and it makes you want to do it too.
Your Sagat 2 minute guide taught me more about fighting games than any other video before
Something just clicked after I watched and tried it
And everything in that guide helped with every future character or game I played
Yeah, I agree that first step is the most important, but there are other factors that stand in the way of it.
Fighting games can be expensive, even with the price drop Strive (The currently most popular fighting game [I think]) is sitting pretty at 40$ no DLC and it comes with very few game modes outside of "ONLINE FIGHT" and "OFFLINE FIGHT", DLC included it's 90 bucks, you'd think it doesn't matter but seeing that you technically don't even have the "Full" game, a game that already isn't exactly FILLED with content, can be discouraging, especially if what could make you stick around is locked behind an extra fee. (no regional pricing could also be an issue)
Speaking of, your location on planet earth can also be an obstacle, while good rollback and a 20 meter long ethernet cable can match you fairly well outside your Region, ultimately you want in-region matches cause those would offer the best experience and that is often not an option, especially since FGs tend to have lower populations (often due to pricing lol) which makes already low populated regions even less so.
And then low population makes playing the game somewhat worse since you'll be matched with people who will likely be a few leagues above you, and etc. etc. we've heard this part before just wanted to include it for completion's sake.
Overall great video from Mr. Polygon and great analysis from Stage Ham.
if you want a cheaper game play something older with online capabilities. guilty gear +r comes to mind since it is regularly 3 bucks on sale. Melty blood actress again is basically free, all of fightcade is just sitting there waiting to be explored too! money isn't an issue if your eyes aren't stuck on new and shiny
Here's why i disagree with the whole pricing thing. Back when almost every fighting game had a lot of content people weren't really fucking with them at that time either. Even then you had games that didn't have much content do way better than the ones that did. If people REALLY cared about content like that, all the fighting games that had it should've sold at least 3 million easily. They should've been experiencing that kind of success not struggling to get to 1 million like a majority of them did.
"[REAL GREAT UPBEAT POP JAZZ SONG??]"
Huge mood tbh Mr. Caption Man
The part about equipment is interesting. I was sooo frustrated with stuff until I got myself a hitbox. Stick inputs are so inconsistent, I hated it. But as soon as I got my hitbox, I finally believed that all inputs can be learnt - its great. (first FG was GGST)
Pat makes not very stinky videos. Polygon is pretty good rn.
I preach fighting games, because i feel it's the best way to understand how to progress in a game and progress mentally in your abilities
Specifically Tekken, when you start hitting just frame combos and moving like you're on skates, the satisfaction is way bigger than hitting headshots or winning moba matches
Name a single type of game harder then a fighting game. Go ahead, Ill wait
I remember that there's an old video from Polygon about Bruce Lee and fighting games, it's really well made and I still like it till this day.
Watching your replays is one of the most valuable tips.... yet the hardest....
Its funny but fighting games are probbably the only genre that makes me feel worse about myself as a human. Something about them makes me depressed the more I get into them. Ya sure the first 50 hours or so tends go be fun but then I just fall apart mentally on them. Any mistake I make I know that I could had avoided and it eats at me. Even after rounds are over ESPECIALLY after rounds are over. I missed a throwbreak in tekken and it cost me the round? Man I beat myself up over that. God help me if I know what to do in the moment but I just cant deal with it and fuck it up. I had to quit. Funny enough I didnt have that issue with other 1v1 comp games like starcraft only fighting games.
If you did try fighting games and they cause you actual IRL issues you can stop take it from me. I still play the odd tekken game with a friend of mine but the days of playing online are behind me. I notice Sajam makes alot of videos addressing people who never play fighting games but does he have any videos for people who quit? I do enjoy playing them alot of the time but man sometimes they just cause me severe IRL depression. So I made the choice and just quit and my life is net positive for it. Is kinda sad that that sometimes I have some friends that wanna play strive but I always have to turn it down cause I know playing will just leave me heartbroken but hey what can ya do.
Based Polygon video
Honestly I sent so many people on the fence this video and have enjoyed playing things I've personally not touched because of it
TH-cam really wanted me to watch that polygon video. It gave me this one, the original, then Max’s reaction.
Often times what I need to get motivated into just only playing a fighting game even with little competition is selecting your favorite character, and having the time to experiment. To me, personal experience of choosing a fighting game you jive with enough to try learning specials whether through training or even just through versus matches are even more incentive to keep playing. Especially for beginners, it is not a test that needs to be studied for in a time limit.
I get even more incentive to try learning the fun parts and maybe get better from a fighting game when the game has solid arcade modes that the game has to have you adapt. Honestly, getting into learning inputs in general in an isolated case many times that's not just in training helps a lot in figuring out what attacks would work in a real scenario. And yes I strongly agree with needing to choose a character you can actually simp over, I simp over Sodom in Street Fighter Alpha games enough to try getting better for his own sake.
Man, i got (back, kinda) into FGs late '19 with REFV2, and had a blast goofing off solo, and was really happy when things like GBVS and STRIVE came out, but never actually had the time to "git gud". It'd be great to be able to REALLY learn what i'm doing, but man time is the biggest barrier. I get like MAYBE an hour or two a week to play ANYTHING, and with all the other games i also want to play, i only end up getting 2 hours a MONTH for FGs. Sadly its not enough time to spend focusing on perfecting the gameplay, but its at least enough to have fun scrubbing around on the lower floors in the tower... and TBH, thats ok.
o'19er coming through hey all right
CEO of CAPITALIZATION
@@Shabadaba1216 lmao
I cannot wait to get into SF6 and use all my mahjong richii knowledge and League of Legends kiting to its fullest.
This video did give me the courage to buy Guilty Gear instead of just watching. I'm absolutely terrified of it because I know I'm bad, but it's also been like... 3 days. Improvement is slow, but it's steady
How's it going now?
I remember mentally labbing power rangers combos during Spanish class
Cool video but if I took a break like he says every time fighting games got me frustrated or depressed I'd get in a solid half hour of practice a week
i've been dodging this video in my feed for a week now, i shouldn't have it was pretty good
"just press the buttons you think are cool"
*camera pans over to me* "HEMI JACK! HEMI JACK! HEMI JA-bedman loses"
I saw this yesterday and now everyone is talking about this vid and I love it. If any of my friends say "I'd like to play but...." think I'll show them this
Glad you changed your mind on the video.
This is pretty fortuitous. I've been playing fighting games for basically my whole life (I'm 42) and I'm getting back into my staple series of Soul Calibur after only playing SCVI off and on. Even though the last major update happened way back in 2020, it still feels like a totally different game and I'm basically just lab monstering to find a main. As someone who grew up in arcades and locals, playing online is physically painful and it feels like Namco basically abandoned the series compared to Tekken 7.
This was a great video. It's made me consider leveraging my decades of fighting game experience onto YT or Twitch. I dunno.
Edit: I actually love watching my own replays, especially after the fact when I have more knowledge. Like, "no, you should've done this here instead. Oh shit, this was a better option" or "lmao, he fucked up. Look, I got to capitalize on it." It's really funny and very engaging. Even when you get utterly stepped on, you can analyze why. Definitely a recommended part of the learning experience.
Watching replays was always the hardest thing for me since I'd rather be in the game playing than watching replays. A good way I got around it for a bit was uploading my games to TH-cam in a self improvement series kinda thing and editing those is what got me to watch my games over.
I struggle a lot with execution in Fighting games. For example I for the life of me, can't hit a double quarter circle when I'm in the corner and need to hit a reversal super. Incredibly frustrating but videos like this always encourage me to end up giving it another try. So thanks for that and everyone being so supportive.
You can 100% do it man, you got this.
The big challenge is all mental there, as a connoisseur of failed reversals in pressure I can tell you it's not your execution almost certainly, it's the mental stack overloading and messing it up for you. Also a great reason to go to tournaments or play them online, the higher-pressure situations will make playing online feel totally normal, and once you get used to that then you get to play on stream and upgrade your mental strength again :D
This polygon video needed tokido saying "fighting games are something amazing" at the end
I loved the part when you said you gotta sell the story so that it's comprehensible, but the closed captions for the moment you just happened to pause on said, "commentators screaming incomprehensibly." Just a funny observation. :)
21:47 except the majority of Ky players apparently. Some of these CRIMINALS are out here straight up lying about how good some of our moves are.
Damn. Everytime I see that Kazuya/Heihachi scene, my Child Protective Services radar goes off.
I heard Pat is actually allergic to bad content so that's why he hasn't made any yet
watchin this while i decide if i really want to play fighting games or not
I’m one of those people who isn’t ever getting into fighting games bc I wish I had the motivation but I absolutely don’t. Just be aware that subsection of people exists.
all I got from this video is "play strive"
I'm stunned that video is as good as it is.
If you have issues like me due to anxiety when starting A fighting game. And i am not a anxious person. I just dont want to lose like normal people and worry that ill make a fool out of myself. So instead i go through the loop of going into training until 'im ready'. Inevitably i quit because you will NEVER be ready in the training room. The TR is where motivation goes to die because you fight against the one person who is always better than you. Your future self.
when you want to actually play. Start the game dont think. Go straight into ranked. Commit to the choice and dont cancel search. And go win or lose. Doesnt matter. And stay there and train in between matches. Dont cancel matching ever until you are done for the day. Dont even need to know what to train. Just go lose. Youll realize its not bad. Its part of the process like literally everyone says. And you will be past step 1. You ripped the bandaid. Cant win without losing.
I have always thought fighting games were sick, but I didn't really have access to them where I was growing up. As an adult I had gotten a taste of the joy of competitive games from LoL. Then one day I was like: Ok, I know I've tried and failed to "get" fighting games, but there _must_ be some people on TH-cam who do like match analysis, explaining what is happening and more importantly, what the strategic layer of these games looks like. So I searched "fighting game match analysis" and landed on a jmcrofts video where he breaks down a replay between Daigo and a random person. That was it. That was the hook.
I get more nervous doing online ranked than in person tournaments. Something about that number.
Fighting games are the coolest thing ever, hard as fuck but so damn fun and satisfying to play. 10/10 genre
sajam reacting to youtube videos, here we go...
Punch-Kicker is OUR word. But you can call us Punch-Kicka.
21:09 lost a set at my local melee tourney and asked the guy what to do about some shield pressure and he was like, “yeah i do that against a lot of sheiks” and walked off…
It was chill though i asked him again later and we laughed it off
I remember my frist SFV tournament, I was so scared AND I was the the first streamed match aka how to add even more nervousness but the more I competed (despite going 0-2) I was learning, improving and having fun to the point I was scaring UGM players while being a mere Gold. Rn Tekken scares the living hell outta me but I WILL get into 8 and already spotted my character
I think the first steps important as well. I tried SF4 and thought it was whatever, but the characters and the world won me over eventually.
Cool to see a good video on this subject from a generalist outlet. Really need to get on that "community" step. I'll get into Celestial one day, ONE DAY :D
Don't gotta wait on getting to celestial, join discords, play sets with people from them, play in online tournaments. Only thing holding you back is you (and from experience, there's a lot of players that are almost certainly around your skill level in tournaments, everyone thinks it's all pros but I play in tournaments and I'm randomly garbage so trust me lol)
10:21 truly sajama has that dawhg in him
A pro at one of the most competitive video games ever saying fighting games are too hard, it's gotta be gg...
When I first started playing blazblue, I got smoked by a Rachel player. They literally messaged me and said "maybe you shouldn't play this game : ("
Years later my training partner was a high ranked GG player and we went back and forth a lot
Good times
My biggest reasons for not playing FG's more is due, to circumstances, I can't wire up and use a ethernet cable and i really don't want me or my opponent to have to deal with wifi matchs. Second is just the anxiety, like, it terrifies me to boot up Strive , get to the title screen and then i just sit there staring at the online button.
It seems a lot scarier then it is. Matches are short and snappy, and there isn't any toxic teammates to yell at you if you lose. People can see from your rank and badges that you are new and it's really unlikely that they are going to give someone starting out a hard time. Just take a deep breath and try it out. It'll probably be a chill time.
I have had the experience MANY times where I'm learning a fighting game on discord and I ask my opponent how to stop the dumb shit they're doing and all I get is "idk lol this shit's cheap as hell" because they genuinely don't know how to stop it themselves
I will say, as newer player that mainly plays with friends who are way better than them, a lot of times they will share why they’re winning, and then punish the options
Not a conscious thing for them a lot of the time but just something to be aware of lmao
Personally, whenever I play online for the first time in a new game I’m not that nervous. I always have the mindset of “I’m sick at this game imma do some sick shit” and then when I suck I go “whelp I’m new.” I think that’s just the oxymoronic nature of confidence bordering on arrogance.
Even when it comes to fps games I always tell people to use whatever weapon they like and ignore the meta
Fuck, I love fighting games.
I swear, I'll start streaming as soon as I become interesting. Just a small setback