"Improving NZ - One scrub at a time" Article 1

[CaptainHook]

Hey Hook, do you actually want to learn how to play SF4? Do you really want to get better? I get the feeling that you just want to be a "decent" casual gamer, because imo you have a whole casual approach to learning it. Nothing wrong with that, but if you want to be a great player (like i do), then you shouldn't mind wading through pages and pages of info and spending hours in training mode and putting in sessions online.

You only get out what you put in, right?

I would honestly have no problem doing all the that if i had the time. But currently i work up to 12 hour days and have 2 days off this month.

So yeah, i would spend the time but i dont have it. So i need to learn "smart".

The thing is, i've learnt MANY different subjects from the internet. And it's probably cause this is a small community globally, but it's BY FAR the
most disorganized in terms of learning. And there's WAY less useful resources. But it's probably a size thing. So it might be that i just can't learn this
the same way i do everything else because in the grand scheme it's not popular enough or established enough to have a matured structure
to the community.

I have also come across a lot of people with the attitude of "you're too newb for me to help you or waste my time".
Which as an outsider to the gaming world, is quite unique to this group. Never come across it before.

It's definitely enough to turn someone off.

[CaptainHook]

No matter how good a teacher I am, I can't teach someone who can't run 100m without getting tired to be good at Tennis, I can't teach someone who isn't used to holding a brush how to paint.

To be honest, that's a pretty fail teacher that can't get teach the basics or requirements for an activity.
OR, it's someone who doesn't want to "waste their time teaching complete beginners".

[[8-----D] Toots]

Ok I dont really know how to reply to that so Im just gonna plop down some basic street fighter game play as Guile

Your goal in any street fighter round is to either deplete the other persons life bar or have more life than the other when the time runs out

To do this you use  many offensive and defensive tools.

As Guile you have a fireball that allows you to control most of the space in front of you on the screen. Each fireball works differently.

Your Anti airs (c.hp, flash kick and so on) allow you to control the space above you at different points in the air.

Normals like st.hp,f.hp,c.mk and c.mp are all good for controlling space at mid range.

By using these tools you can effectively control the vast majority of the screen. Obviously it is part of your characters design to do so. This is the focal point of your character and is what you need to work on the most.

Guile has a few offensive moves. He has a throw like everyone, standard close and mid range normals that do not link easily into combos, an over head to break crouch blockers and a pretty bad crossup in j.lk. His offensive pressure is fairly limited outside of the corner and does not net a lot of damage. Goin offensive is something that you want to avoid as guile. Most of his bad matchups are, no surprise here, ones where his ability to stay defensive is limited.

When Guile is defending up close he has some decent tools. Flash kick will beat most of your opponents offensive options except block, crossups, well timed jump ins and moves with more invincibility than flash kick like shoto ex dp.  You should never attempt to flash kick a crossup or well timed jump in. The only options there which force you to guess are block and high invincibility type moves. FADC allows you to eliminate one of the guesses by making your flash kick safe on block. It is important to remember that when you flash kick without ex meter for fadc you are taking a big gamble that has high risk and low reward. This is not a got to option.

Throw tech stops you from getting thrown and pushes the character away from you. Most characters can only tick throw you from 1 or 2 jabs range. The exception to this is being kara throws like kens. Throw tech can be made safer by teching in downback position with c.lp+c.lk. Learning to tech throws is essential to getting better at sf.

Quick normals like c.lp and c.lk. These can be used to give you space but lose to almost all of your opponents options if he is executing them properly. medium risk low reward.

Block loses only to throws and causes you take take a small amount of damage from special moves. Crouch blocking loses to overheads(certain normals specials and jump attacks) and stand blocking loses to lows. Most overheads can be reaction blocked with practice. Blocking low shuts down almost all of your opponents options. THIS IS YOUR BEST DEFENSIVE TOOL. Understand that there is no damage reward for blocking but the advantage gained from successful blocking is large when compared to the relatively low risk you took. When combined with tech throws and well timed flash kicks your defense will be very hard to crack.

If you understand this all then you already have the foundation needed to get better. Specific information is out there. If you dont know how to punish something then go into training mode, record what ever it is thats troubling you and try stuff out. Learn your combos. Watch videos and try too see how good guiles use there tools to deal with situations. Ask questions but dont expect to always get answers when your not putting in th work yourself.

If you still want to argue after this then I dunno man

[fluxcore]

I don't know which gaming communities you've been learning from, but I know if you step into a first person shooter community and start asking people to teach you how to play, you're not going to get much of a response.

[zos'la]

@ Hook,
I get what you mean and how you feel about the overall community, we are small that we don't have the people to write up and compile stuff together, but there is always teh SRK forums which has tons of info, u just need to look.
Basically there is no short cut to this is what the other are trying to say, no free lunch right^^
Anyways, From what I see, people are starting to get a bit grumpy about this whole thing.
Hook is only trying to find a way so he could have a easier way to learn, IF possible. As his time to learn these are limited like many of us, so take it easier people.
Only recommendation I can give you hook, is MAKE time if you really want to improve, come to Yifans at lunch when u can, money on the table will make u perform x10 better.

I have also come across a lot of people with the attitude of "you're too newb for me to help you or waste my time".
Which as an outsider to the gaming world, is quite unique to this group. Never come across it before.

It's definitely enough to turn someone off.

This I feel the same.....but it can't be helped once people lose their patients

[CaptainHook]

That was actually a pretty sweet post Ben, and i knew maybe half of it, and wasn't really aware of the rest.

I'm not arguing for the sake it, i'm just saying as an outsider new to this there's an obvious problem with the way this community
passes on it's knowledge and maybe you've all gotten use to it or grown up with it, but it's there.

The same way i thought the xbox interface is retarded and badly laid out. I'm used to it now and have learnt it's quirks and don't mind it,
BUT it seems like it's just evolved into what it is and is messy. Like a well planned city versus one that evolved. Messy street structure
versus easy to follow.

I don't know which gaming communities you've been learning from

None, just this one. Like i've said many times, i'm not a gamer. I started to play ST at work a few months ago. Here i am.
I would not be surprised if the whole gaming community was very self-focused also. I don't think it's a good thing.
And i wouldn't say your example is something you should use as an excuse or as an example because it's a shit way to be IMHO.
It does not promote progression at all.

Andy ~ yeah i know what you're saying. Thanks.

[[8-----D] Toots]

You have to remember that this community is only a few years old and the game which we play is little over 20 years old. This aint some age old art like music.

There is no such thing as a professional street fighter teacher

You cant go get a Bachelor of Fighting games from Auckland university

No one is getting paid for this and it is taking time out of our lives

Most people play games out of selfish ambition

We are gonna help because we want more people to play fighting games with but how much we choose to help should totally be up to us and shouldnt be frowned upon when you consider the current state of the fighting game community. Comparing us to microsoft is a little unfair dont you think?

[Flash]

From what I see, people are starting to get a bit grumpy about this whole thing.
Hook is only trying to find a way so he could have a easier way to learn, IF possible. As his time to learn these are limited like many of us, so take it easier people.

i think people are starting to get a little annoyed is because we have posted replies to hook before about fundamentals and character specific stuff and it sounds like he hasn't read or watched them, then he says shoryuken is cluttered and not layed out properly (which it is to an extent) but all the information he need is there and the information he is looking for is stickied which isn't hard to find. I'm not trying to deter anyone from fighting games at all the more the better it just sounds like your asking for the same stuff over and over.

http://nzism.alphaism.com/forum/index.php/topic,467.765.html
rumble posted this which you read maybe you should re read it as it has the staple punish for shoryu's in there

http://nzism.alphaism.com/forum/index.php/topic,467.780.html
i posted this a while back maybe you can re read

http://nzism.alphaism.com/forum/index.php/topic,1505.0.html
electrics thread about articles and i made a post at the bottom as well.

I know its alot to digest, hope i don't sound like a dick, weazzy throw a diezal at me.

[zos'la]

Good post Ben,
Ben is one of the many who actually study for his progression good example, he knows all teh ins and outs that many/ including the top players don't know.
Sometimes I wish I can do the same but I just don't like reading
Anyways, take this as a few step of many for you Hook
Many of us are happy to answer your questions, eg. how do I get out of pressure situations?
Answer = EX flashkick FADC backwards, dash back get hit once at most and resets position, option select throw on wakeup etc etc.
How you do it is up to u, u have to integrate this into ur gameplay.

[HoneyBadger]

The other thing you have to remember is none of us are Street Fighter masters. None of us are truely international top tier players and we're all trying to work on our games because there is a lot we don't know or understand. We can't give you all the answers because we don't know them ourselves.

[CaptainHook]

edit// Over it.

[[8-----D] Toots]

You coming to ranbats hook?

[CaptainHook]

Yes and i'm gonna fucking waste you cunts.

[[8-----D] Toots]

Hahaha sweet see you there

[CrazyMobius]

Hook. Why do you want to learn and get better at Street Fighter?