NZ SF scene - Your thoughts.

[CrazyMobius]

Now it seems that NZ has two types of SF scenes that make up the community. Online and offline. And from there the online scene is divided by two consoles Xbox and PS3. Offline is divided by region with Auckland's Yifans regulars taking a break until Super is released on arcade.

It seems as far as competition goes NZ is quite isolated and only ever really comes into contact with Aussie players through the online scene. For the most part Oz seems to have better competition due to having simply more people. But do we have to let this hinder us?

If you think in terms of sporting events NZ has created world champions that are strides above other countries despite our small population. Additionally we have had creative innovators the same.

I want to hear peoples thoughts on the impression of the attitude of the New Zealand Street Fighter scene. Specifically any thoughts on the habits or practices that help or harm us.

Does the small population really doom us? Are we too merciful to our fellow Street Fighter players thus stunting our growth? Does the NZ Tall Poppy complex affect the SF community?
How is offline or online affecting the quality of our players. Is there any inherent advantage we have over other countries that we may or may not utilize? And does anyone actually even believe that we could grow a world champion SF player?

Thoughts?

[fluxcore]

As long as the top players involve themselves in the scene, the rest will learn from them and also get better. Getting top players is the tricky part, basically only when we get the odd beast from somewhere in Asia do we actually meet reasonable-quality competition. And then involving them? Other than at tourneys? No idea.

If you want an obvious example of how difficult it is to have a scene here, just look at the difference between America and Japan and examine the reasons why. We're like a tiny version of America, small pockets of people fairly isolated. Even with the 'great uniter' SF4.

Online is good imo, even with netcode being only OK. You can still utilise most of the game fine. Also it actually makes playing possible forsome people (i.e. ME). I really don't like the split between 360 and PSN though, that pretty much halves our online opposition right off the bat.

I don't think the situation is impossible, otherwise I'd never have bothered with this site, but the odds are very heavily stacked against us.

[DVS]

My first job ever was working for Time Out Milford and my second job was working for stages timeout when I was like 16.....every weekend there was a different competition running with massive support from the arcade......keeping in mind this was like pre online and net cafes......I think playing under pressure is best learnt playing at the arcade, with people watching and your opponent sitting right next to you.....a good champ needs to play well in all conditions but actual arcade battles are where it's at in my opinion.....pitty that so few arcades (if any) support and/or run their own comps anymore....

I'm personally stoked with the organisational talents of the peeps on this website...nothing like this ever exisited when I was younger and I think the level of play has really lifted......I guess training younger players and passing knowledge down will grow tomorrows talent......

Onlines pretty awesome, just wish I could play PSN network peeps and also play talent further away than Oz......

As far as a world champ.....hell Jack's pretty talented for a young fulla, let's get him a sponsor and send him overseas to get some experience in international comps.....I think the only way to become truly great is to do it non-stop all day everyday just like a top level player in any sport.......too bad things like work and commitment get in the way.......only wish this country had a larger population and more industry ($$$$$) for sponsoring young talent.....

[Hydro]

Great posts Simon, Alan and Gene.

I really agree with what Alan mentioned about NZ being a smaller version of the Us scene, being split either geographically or by console being a
particular hinderance towards myself in particular feeling the identity of the community, in fact it was only at the nationals last year when I really felt what if could be..

I sometimes feel like I'm really limited in getting as good as the players I admire from our scene (Hue, Andy, Kevin, Jack and Fong in particular), because of these obstacles above in addition to limited time to attend events, my crappy internet at the moment and general life things all of which make it hard to keep up with even the players just starting out.

I've always felt we've got the potential to be every bit as good as the players we look up to for inspiration, be it from the local scene (here's looking at Hue and Jack) and from other aussie, such as Brodsta, Benson, Wing and even the beasts themselves from further abroad Wong and Daigo.

I'd love to hear in particular from Hue and Andy, Jack and Fong to see what steps they can recommend for players such as myself to help get to their level of competition, I'm more than happy to take advice or be tutored by any of the above guys in order to improve, and then to pass on that knowledge to new comers as they move into the scene.

I also want to fully apologise openly for my dickhead attitiude towards other players in the scene in the past, especially Hue & Andy. I fully regret the tack I had taken with you both, and want to say that you guys really are role models for me now, in the way that you're beasts and you're really pushing the skill of the local scene into new heights of competition. I'd really love the chance to learn from you both when you're online again, that is if you're happy, and patient enough, to teach this old dog some new tricks.

Catch you all online, and hopefully offline whenever it can be arranged.

[fluxcore]

Yeah, basically while the console split is an annoyance for other regions, it's damn near a killer for us. Of course some people here think they are too good for online anyway.

[stereomonkey]

I think it is more the online is not good enough for the player imo.

[fluxcore]

Uh huh

edit: k, put it this way. BECAUSE of other things mentioned in this thread, we need to take advantage of every possible resource we have. We know the online isn't amazing. And yet plenty of other, BETTER players in other places still use it.

[DVS]

Great posts Simon, Alan and Gene.

I really agree with what Alan mentioned about NZ being a smaller version of the Us scene, being split either geographically or by console being a
particular hinderance towards myself in particular feeling the identity of the community, in fact it was only at the nationals last year when I really felt what if could be..

I sometimes feel like I'm really limited in getting as good as the players I admire from our scene (Hue, Andy, Kevin, Jack and Fong in particular), because of these obstacles above in addition to limited time to attend events, my crappy internet at the moment and general life things all of which make it hard to keep up with even the players just starting out.

I've always felt we've got the potential to be every bit as good as the players we look up to for inspiration, be it from the local scene (here's looking at Hue and Jack) and from other aussie, such as Brodsta, Benson, Wing and even the beasts themselves from further abroad Wong and Daigo.

I'd love to hear in particular from Hue and Andy, Jack and Fong to see what steps they can recommend for players such as myself to help get to their level of competition, I'm more than happy to take advice or be tutored by any of the above guys in order to improve, and then to pass on that knowledge to new comers as they move into the scene.

I also want to fully apologise openly for my dickhead attitiude towards other players in the scene in the past, especially Hue & Andy. I fully regret the tack I had taken with you both, and want to say that you guys really are role models for me now, in the way that you're beasts and you're really pushing the skill of the local scene into new heights of competition. I'd really love the chance to learn from you both when you're online again, that is if you're happy, and patient enough, to teach this old dog some new tricks.

Catch you all online, and hopefully offline whenever it can be arranged.

Hey Hydro,

Longtime no see dude.....hows things?   

Speaking of the scene here....we guna be seeing you at the nationals??

I wana see what character(s) you've picked up for super...... 

[Pjai]

It depends on what you are trying achieve in your SF scene.

To develop players that could complete at SBO lvl? or grow the community and hve more regular/bigger events? in theory, both could happen at the same time but it does not have to.

Tbh, I dont believe we could develop a world champ, nothing is impossible but it is not far from it. Looking at US from apparence, such a hype community, lots of events, lots of players, and I believe some of those people are starting to become full time event organiser to make a living out of fighting games (should be plenty of existing ones for PC games) and perhaps from playing the game. And yet, there is still a gap between them and Japan in terms of skills.

My guess would be, US is a relatively online community, they hve big events tat ppl gather and play but as ppl walk out the door, they are back to playing online with randoms or a small grp of friends(Lobby system in SSF4 has improved this). Which is similar to us imo, join a game lobby-> pick a character-> beat each other out-> win or lose, "ggs bro"-> quit, call it a day-> make a GG post on forum. Although Mic and Forum have helped a lot, but there isnt really much interaction between players, at least not as much as playing side by side, where u can ask really simple but yet useful questions that comes to mind, eg, A:why does your LP always out poke my C.LK? B:I have faster startup+range, u need to use standing LP instead. OR A:Why do I eat tat combo all the time? B:U need to block high then low on the opposite other side.

Sure, we can do offline events, SSF4 Jam at somebody's pad, ranbat etc those are fantasic for lvling up the community. But it is still far from like being in a arcade heavy asia city that you could walk into one of the big famous arcade, any day when you are free and expect to play different but yet good players every time, so the mix of skills you could pick up is very board due to the amount of different players you bump into. 

But do we really need to create a world champ? probably not and I do not think we need to. It will be great if it comes as a by product but I think we should try grow the community with more casual games and structure tournaments that ppl could enjoy(more setup for casuals so most ppl could still enjoy the day if they run into Jack on Winners rd1 and then devilstar in the losers rd 1. Perhaps BYO setup like a Lan party, similar to xlan?). 

I think its harder to create a world lvl player in SF in NZ than a sport. Most sports has been ard for long enough for most techique to be discovered and it isnt going to change any time soon either, like Golf, rowing, archery etc, plus some of these things u dont even need a opponent to play with.

Surely, we have some talent around, e.g Jack is young and full of skills, but i mean, even if the funding was there for ppl, can they really take time off school/work to fly to events at a very regular basis just for SF? Not really, reality will smack you in the face, at least for something like Golf there is potentially a much greater reward. As for SF/arcade gaming, there isnt really much hope for in a short future. If you are in Japan or something tats a different story, u can jst drop by Big Box or soemthing every 2nd day after school for 2 hrs, and you dont really hve to give up on anything.

Dunno wat the hell i typed, jst wanted to burn time at work haha

Anyway, i think we should focus on bringing in new ppl into the scene and jst grow it to have better and regular events. Which i know it's very diffcult and people are doing a great job already.

[Rorooze]

Some brief comments to the OP while I'm eating

- The online communities should be used as a funnel to get more people into the offline scene

- I think most people who play sf4 at Yifans know about this site, maybe trying to sneak a nzism sticker on the cab would help :p

- More people = more competition, it's quite simple. The only way to get around that would be to have ~10-20 people playing for 5-8 hours a day all the time against each other, and thats unrealistic, and even then, only those people will be getting drastically better. It sounds as if some of our players do play against OZ top players online, which helps bridge the gap and give us an idea of where we stand overall

- Innovation and real athletisism are completely different to a computer game, you can't compare them

- I think there are some individual personalities that clash, but overall I think the community has the right attitude

- Ranbats + gatherings at fong's and graeme's place help heaps! (thanks guys)

- I think at the end of the day, our small population means that a NZ player won't be able to claim "world best SF player", unless we send the winner of the nationals to japan for a years training, all expenses paid.

That final comment seems rather negative, but based on my experience with FPS games several years back, I don't see an even smaller community than the old QW/Q3 communities producing a player that is "world class".

[fluxcore]

Anyway, i think we should focus on bringing in new ppl into the scene and jst grow it

Totally agree.

[DVS]

Surely, we have some talent around, e.g Jack is young and full of skills, but i mean, even if the funding was there for ppl, can they really take time off school/work to fly to events at a very regular basis just for SF? Not really, reality will smack you in the face, at least for something like Golf there is potentially a much greater reward. As for SF/arcade gaming, there isnt really much hope for in a short future. If you are in Japan or something tats a different story, u can jst drop by Big Box or soemthing every 2nd day after school for 2 hrs, and you dont really hve to give up on anything.

Dunno wat the hell i typed, jst wanted to burn time at work haha

Anyway, i think we should focus on bringing in new ppl into the scene and jst grow it to have better and regular events. Which i know it's very diffcult and people are doing a great job already.

By saying that dude I meant that a pro gamer would drop all commitments and concentrate soley on being a gamer pro.....if JWong and Daigo can live off it why can't someone from NZ if they put as much effort into it,  if they enter and place well?

My advice would be to anyone - do to find what you enjoy and pour all your energy and effort into it...no matter what it is - thats the difference from being a casual player and a pro.....if anyone wanted to become a pro at anything that type of thought is required. Theres potential in anything if you make it happen.

I'm not saying that jack should give up school and run off to the states  - I was just using him as an example, do it while your young was the point I was trying to make. 

And I agree - more peeps in the scene the better, frequent events, more variation of play style more opponents, higher level of competition and ultimately a higher level of overall skill for all involved.....

[Lennysaurus]

I think that that isn't entirely the case anymore.  I can't think of one person that is actively playing SSFIV atm, and who has it on console, that isn't playing online atm.

Although it would be nice for them to use some slightly better netcode.

I try not to take my matches too seriously online anymore.  I just have fun and try stuff out.

On the scene.  I think that we are doing well, and I think we are entering another period of growth.  We need to run more events though imo.  Also i think when the next gen of consoles drop, we should all agree on which one we are gonna use as standard and try and get as many people onto that one as possible.

[fluxcore]

Next console gen is going to be quite a way off... not that that's a bad thing.

[Pjai]

Well, Daigo couldnt make a living out of SF.. he works as a full time male nurse. He only recently been sponsered by Madcatz, so i dunno wats going on there and there is so far there as only been one Daigo "The Beast" Umehara".

Anyway, the pt i was trying to make, is dont get too fussy abt how gd we stand in the world and develop god like players but jst lure more ppl into the scene, grow the community and we can all hve fun together in a sustainable ($wise) and regular events.