Sharing Information in the SC Community

AM64

AM64

[09] Warrior
Reading some posts today has caused me to wonder about the sharing of information in the Soulcalibur community. Considering that Soulcalibur is a competitive fighting game, how much information should we be sharing with our potential competitors? Should we offer complete transparency and share everything we know (strategies, combos, patterns, etc.) in an effort to increase the quality of the community? Or should we only share only basic knowledge and use and tricks/glitches that we discover independently and share information through application? Or does the answer lie somewhere between these two extremes?

This is something of a philosophical question, so I'm not convinced that there is a correct answer. I can see arguments for both sides. However, at the end of the day, my personal philosophy is to share everything that I know about the game whenever I think it could be helpful. Deliberately holding back information just so I can potentially win one round against a person I might never even play seems childish and ineffective to me. An informed community is a healthy community, so the more I share, the better off my competition is. And the better my competition, the more fun I have.

In all honesty, how much information do you share when you interact with your fellow players? Why? Are there certain things you won't share? Let's try to keep this civil.
 
Sharing information is what helps everyone get better. Sharing strategies on how to beat a certain character generally does the same thing. In the end you have to adjust to the player though, so unless you're sharing strats against a specific person (which isn't what anyone is really doing here, and generally only happens in tourney, face to face settings anyway) all it does is keep people honest and getting better.
 
AM64 said:
Reading some posts today has caused me to wonder about the sharing of information in the Soulcalibur community. Considering that Soulcalibur is a competitive fighting game, how much information should we be sharing with our potential competitors? Should we offer complete transparency and share everything we know (strategies, combos, patterns, etc.) in an effort to increase the quality of the community? Or should we only share only basic knowledge and use and tricks/glitches that we discover independently and share information through application? Or does the answer lie somewhere between these two extremes?
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Depends on if you want to develop the game's community as a whole, or if you want to keep your "edge". Those kinda secrets get out regardless, and with all the tourney footage popping up on Youtube these days, keeping squirrley secrets is harder than ever.
 
The way I see it, you might as well share everything. If you learned a new "trick" or combo or something, it's gonna get out eventually and someone WILL learn a counter. And then it's better for you to have that much more time to practice beating that counter, and yeah everyone gets better.

What would be bad is if you think you got some super cool string, keep it to yourself, then come tourney time someone either already knows how to counter it or figures out a counter while playing you. Then you're screwed if you were relying on that.
 
This is something I've wondered about privately plenty of times. The way I see it, sharing everything we learn about the game with the community allows us to all become better players. Keeping gimmicks a secret only works for so long; eventually someone will figure a way around it. Plus, the real challenge to playing this game lies not in spamming canned setups and "good moves" (though of course knowing your more advantageous moves is pretty much essential to being an effective player), but more so in the guessing game of playing against another human mind. You can know everything out there that there is to know about the game, but if you can't understand it and use it to your advantage it doesn't mean anything.
 
Normally you only want to share the basics, and most stuff will be found out anyway. Traps and setups should be kept to yourself.
 
I think that sharing info is good I mean you're gonna have your own little secrets now and then. But you have to remember that were a community and a community shares with each other. If everyone gets good because of the advice from other players competition will be better and the community will be strong and active.
 
I know a story that in the SC2 Nationals, Kageh kept his discovery of Ivy's 33_99A, 22_88B, 69B to himself, thereby making jaws drop.

But on the whole, I agree with the idea that the more everybody knows, the level of competition is raised that much higher. Sandbagging will only get you so far, I think.
 
If I find something a week before a tourney, I'll keep it secret until I can use it. If I discover something more than a week before a tournament I'm going to attend, I'll tend to share it. For example - anything to do with Apprentice, including his awesome tech trap and abusing setups into 6BA+B.
 
I typically share everything. If I witness a player falling prey to the same tech trap, not punishing appropriately, etc, I'll let them know to raise the level of competition I'm playing. I'd hope to get the same treatment from another player if I fall for the same setups/frametrap/etc.
 
I am generally very free with information even if it's not in my own interest. However, I try not to spoonfeed people too much when it comes to anti-character strategy and stuff. If you're not showing effort I'm not gonna do your work for you.
 
... I'm sharing. <_<

I believe that if the community knows everything, they are forced to innovate. Innovation leads to growth, which leads to the skill level of the community as a whole rising.

If you want to take it a step further, this leads to more exciting matches, and a bigger profit margin! Ha!
 
I tell pretty much everything I find and when I'm facing people, in general, I'll tell them specifically if something can be punished or if something's a tech trap after it seems that they might not be learning it on their own.

My philosophy is that, if I don't help the people around me to play their best, then I'm not competing at my maximum skill level.

And the way I see it, all of the really awesome players at tournies already know all the crap I try to teach people so if I'm not prepared for people who can see through my characters' parlor tricks then I'm not prepared to win.
 
Anyone who knows me/reads my posts knows I don't do that elitist secrecy crap. Just look in the Tira and Yun forums. I post A LOT there. I make the most effort to make those two the best they and can be. For that same reason I can't stand when people say "hey I found out some cool stuff but you guys havta wait to find out." "Oh really? Well I have some combos too. But share yours first." WTF?

I know everyone wants credit for big discoveries but if you're one of those who says they've found everything everyone else has and made it better or rags on everyone else then I feel sorry for you. I may overextending myself but plenty of people have messaged me saying that they've learned a crapload thanks to my posts. It's always nice to be appreciated so think about that.

EDIT: If they wanna keep it under wraps to surprise people then that's different. It's all about intention to me, not the act itself.
 
sharing strategies will eventually produce counter strategies. this raises the skill level of everyone. hence, share!
 
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