Competitive Gaming vs. Casual "Fun" Gaming

Grymlocke666 said:
But when you decided to be unfriendly with it, it tends to be, well, unfriendly and impossible to to have fun.
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I play to have fun, and lower my own level if it will match the one of my opponent.

...But sometimes I end up being beaten by people that don't deserve to win, and show too much pride whenever they win...
Those who have found two strong attacks and use almost nothing else, those who beat on my corpse, those who button mash with buttonmasher-friendly characters, etc.
They're proud and feel good because they won yet again, and seem to believe that they are a "great player".

These people seriously deserve to be taught a lesson, and I always find it very enjoyable to pick one of my best characters and be their teacher.
I beat them up with all I have.
After a victory, I beat on their corpse if they did it to me. I taunt if they did.
I do my best to mirror their own assholeness and immaturity.

After the match, they generally try to kick me out.
...So I quit before they even have the time to kick me, and I get a " :D " stamped on my face for a while. Heh.

I think it's very enjoyable to give people a taste of their own medecine.
 
As long as everyone present is having a good time I don't really care if it's a competitive setting or not. It's quite a mood-killer to have one of your offline buddies sitting next to you, furious over being kicked around time and time again.

As for how I play myself, I usually try to vary my moves as best I can (IE, I use all of the techniques that I am comfortable with) to increase the visual appeal of the battle. The most important thing is not to win, but to have fought a good and entertaining fight. :)
 
Well put.

Tournaments are for money or ego.
Casuals are for fun.

It is not to say that a person can get annoyed at casuals or have that they can't have fun at tournaments, but it is generally that simple.

There are exceptions and it is personal preference, but there is no pressure in causual gaming. There can still be good matches against good people, but most people act differently when they have something to lose.
 
i think this thread is quickly heading to the conclusion, "To each his own."

Of course everyone just wants to have fun which is great because we're playing a game when all is said and done, and games, last I checked, were meant to have some fun.

But to aspire and elevate your play to the highest level you can reach is a personal thing that many of us have the most fun doing.

Honestly though, if it annoys you when you get beat by somebody that won't change their character, that beats on your corpse after the round, or that starts taunting at any point, then you've got some personal issues with your hobby. You are taking it way too seriously to be affected by a digital stranger so much.

I know how you feel, you can picture the smug look on the idiot's face on the other side of your internet connection and you want to smash it to pieces in a vengeful wrath. It's not that serious.

Most professional sports players will be trying to improve their game all the time and will beat each other to a bloody pulp within their sport all day long. But, for the most part, there isn't a hard feeling amongst any of them. They will play hard, play for keeps, and even gloat once in a while, but they remain professionals and there love for the sport is what brings them the most joy.

For competitive games it's the same deal. Some people will only have fun on their terms like a weekend pick up basketball game at the park. But other people want to aspire more than being average and that's how communities like this one have come together in the first place. We all love the game and want to achieve our own personal peaks in it. I know I couldn't care less if somebody is kicking my corpse, talking trash, taunting, not changing characters, etc. If I lost, regardless to who, I'm immediately thinking of the why and how of my loss. When I come to the solution I need to avoid that from happening again it's an awesome feeling and that's the level of competition that allows me to have the most fun, the satisfaction of improving. It doesn't matter if its in casuals or tourneys, getting beat on and learning from the experience to go win more is what its all about for me.

Also, I think it can be disrespectful at times to not play your best when someone is looking for a real match just so that you can match their skill level. Beat their ass but don't brag about it or just stand there and say "... nice try ... maybe next time" Take the opportunity to tell the other player what they did wrong and want you did right. Help them grow as a player too. If they are not receptive then that's their own fault.

I'm not saying to always be uber-beasting on any first-timer who grabs the joystick and gives it a go. I'm also not saying that you shouldn't experiment and only stick to your best character and things like that. But the playing to win mindset is an inherently positive one. It is not something to look down upon. And nobody should have to feel bad for wanting to be better than they are. That should always be commended.

But then again, to each his own.
 
Playing to the height of your abilities is to show your opponent respect.

In a Go salon, if someone is beating on weaker opponents incorrectly I would hope that person wouldn't get any games.

Online, this is pretty much commonplace, but that doesn't mean it's right. To find a playgroup that values the core martial arts philosophies should be the goal of every player of Soul Calibur. The winning, in tournaments, will come to those with the most skill. Practicing casual versus tournament to those people is nonsense. Playing in a teaching mode that clearly shows your opponent is a style that is utilized, but that wouldn't be called casual that would be practicing.

Hopefully, everyone here values the core asian philosophies for fighting. To those who do not, who disgrace our art with their misrepresentation (however effective it is, it will never be beautiful) I truly hope that you come to your senses soon. You will be asked by players of a lower caliber to teach them, and it is up to you to figure out how, but you should always aspire to show them the highest skill you have. If you do not, the art form suffers even if you do not.
 
warble said:
Playing in a teaching mode that clearly shows your opponent is a style that is utilized, but that wouldn't be called casual that would be practicing.

Hopefully, everyone here values the core asian philosophies for fighting. To those who do not, who disgrace our art with their misrepresentation (however effective it is, it will never be beautiful) I truly hope that you come to your senses soon. You will be asked by players of a lower caliber to teach them, and it is up to you to figure out how, but you should always aspire to show them the highest skill you have. If you do not, the art form suffers even if you do not.
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I will attempt a translation to the english language...

"You should beat the noobs one by one with all that you have. Half-life combos? Strings that can basically make you chain attacks for half life or more? An attack that you can spam indefinitely against unaware players? You *should* use all of these against your opponents, even if they're newbies.
If they get angry and quit, it's not your fault, it's theirs.
If they send you a message saying "will u teach meh", teach them how to pwn.
If they leave angrily and never ask to be taught how to pwn, it's their fault, and you have no reason to feel any guilt, because in no way are you a total asshole."


Was it translated correctly?

(I didn't mean to be insulting, I just wonder if I understood your post correctly for what it really meant.)
 
I like to learn and become better at a game. That is fun for me. Some people just want to dork around and scrub machine.

Some games are fun to play competitively, like Soul Calibur or chess.

Other games like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 or SSBB, not so much. Some people play Brawl seriously but to me that's just silly.

If I want to play a casual game I'll play a console RPG or pogo.com.
 
JiHadN1nja said:
The only way to not 'play to win' would be a double-Yoshimitsu-who-can-kill-themselves-faster-match...cept ur still trying to win that loss...or something like that
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HaHa, I've had those matches for shits and giggles. We would keep trying the K JF from 8A+K and The last 2 seconds was a race to the death!
 
TL; DR

so yeah, my opinion on Sirlin is that people shouldn't masturbate to his articles like most of SRK does. Didn't people on there say "i don't care of bonus characters in SC4 have more range or bad hitboxes, Sirlin says that anything can be beat, I'll go masturbate to him some more".

Apparently the SRK fags need to play against Charizard some.
 
I just don't understand why people can't be competitive and casual at the same time. You all basically consider those two to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but they honestly don't have to be. When i play, i play to win but i can't invest the time to be a tournament level player, and that is ok for me. I can gladly accept the fact that i will only be so good, and many people will own me bad, but that doesn't mean my opponent was wrong for using whatever tactic it took for them to win.
It also irritates me when people talk about "respect", and "dignity" for digitalized characters. Using things such as taunts and overkills should not be as important as many of you are making it. I'm much more concerned about trash talk, complaining and the absolute worst: kicking people out of player matches because you want a rematch(despite it being "your room", we all pay money for our live accounts a$$hole!). THOSE are serious issues, but all the other stuff is trivial. Think back to Mortal Kombat fatalities, those were brutal and obviously way more disrespectful. When MVC2 came out, i always hit start after the match and performed a hyper move on a defeated opponent(yes even in arcades where i'm standing right next to the guy!), and you know what? No one complained, ever. I don't think this is childish, it's just something that has pretty much always been a part of fighting games. This is the point where we need to step back and tell ourselves, "It's just a game".
 
Well I must say that I just joined these forums today and from the few threads that I read I can honestly say I love this place =D. Great insight and great attitudes, I really can't ask for much thanks!
 
well, it is more fun trying to be better than others. casual gaming can be fun, but only as long as it is entertaining and you have to decide if you wanna keep the experience at a low level or advance to the next one and actually learn the game.
 
When you have two people fighting at two different skill levels, something has to change or the games begin to lose their value. Ideally, the loser should be the one adapting, and its very frustrating to be on the winning end when this doesn't happen. You can try to lead them in game, hint at what they should try, or even flat-out tell you how to stop you...but if they don't respond your games become suck. The best thing to do in this situation I've found is to just go in to practice mode - practice guard impacts, practice a different character, practice combos (particularly convienient since they don't learn and you can pretty much guarantee your set ups). Your not really playing the game, nor are you even having all that much fun...but it beats watching them play Katamari.

When the loser does adapt, however, the games are very fun. I've been on both the loser side of this equation as well as the winning side. Holding someone off as they get closer and closer to beating you is very dramatic even if the win-loss ratio is pretty much unchanged. As a loser, that one win (or even one round in extreme cases) feels pretty damn good when you had to lose 10 times straight to get it.

Basically, when the skill levels are equal, whether its two scrubs with strictly enforced house rules or two serious players going at it with all they got, everyone is playing competitively and there are no worries at all. Fun is had by all and the question of 'casual vs competitive' doesn't even come up. When the skill levels are different though something has to change. For best results, it should be the loser who is willing to learn and create that change and the winner should accomodate those efforts as best he can. If that doesn't happen, then its up to the winner to change and the games pretty much turn in to ass at that point - it might still be fun because you are hanging out and with your buddy and he has good weed, or you are bonding with your kid...but the games themselves have only slightly more value than if you just beat them mercilessly doing the same thing over and over
 
The only time that I hear people complain about or mention these differences are when there is a big skill gap. Whether I'm playing SC4 or Halo 3 (don't say it) online, I always get mixed reactions and it's usually the same for both crowds.

Competitive or hardcore players (consider myself hardcore due to lack of tourney exp) seem to enjoy playing against opponents who are at/near/higher than their own level. Yes, some of them like to go around destroying the lesser skilled or casual players, but they don't get any respect from other good players. I myself love to have a challenge in both games and I tend to play more games against people that I know because they have the same mindset. However, I do like to go mess around in matchmaking or just join random rooms in SC. I have fun either way, but I prefer to play more competitive games against skilled opponents. To me, that is more fun and that is my preference. Getting better at the game is what is fun for me, but that is what separates competitive and casual gamers in general.

Casual players tend to only care about the aesthetics/sound/graphics/story of a game instead of the actual gameplay mechanics. When I play against these kinds of players in Halo 3, most of the time all I'll hear is "Get a life", "You play this game too much", "Go get some pussy", etc. I've never understood that mentality. Like it's not possible to be better at the game than someone else after playing for the same amount of time. I don't sit here and study either game all day or even for a couple of hours each day. But, I do read up on some strats, and I actively try them when I do get to play the game. THAT is why I've gotten better. I don't just screw around 100% of the time when I play, that's the only difference. I already have my degree and have been working in IT for 4yrs now. Single, no kids, work out 4 days a week, go out, work on beats and videos, and do other things. Yes I have a life, but I do like playing video games, too. They don't seem to understand that and that's just retarded.

I don't knock casual players for how they play or approach the game. Just don't knock me for wanting to be good.
 
I personally see no point in playing a fighter if you do not have the intention of winning, learning, and doing what it takes to win. Its boring otherwise, lol. IMO no game is more fun then a good fighter where you and your opponent really know what you are doing, are going to do anything you can to win, and are around the same skill level. Nothing beats this folks!
 
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