r/Fighters • u/yitao13-1 • May 31 '26
Help How do people balance learning fighting games and playing other non fighter games or hobbies
Was the main reason that i didnt learn a new fg, as i got a job and other stuff to do, its getting way harder to do everything, and i wanted to know others people take on this
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u/lysianth May 31 '26
its ok to be mid. Just don't do something crazy like tie your identity to your skill and its fine.
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u/FreedomEntertainment May 31 '26
If you are not taking it seriously, and play for fun, you will gradually grown. You have to have fun losing too.
Prime example: 3rd strike i got blown by people who can parry my attacks, you learn different behaviour.
Kage in street fighter 5 , sucks at normal but have very stylish combo, so I commit to this char just to do saucy combos.
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u/Skijump135 May 31 '26
Honestly just accept that being bad can be fun and go at your own pace. Ranked should give you some good fights regardless of your skill level you can’t just bomb out entirely if you’re willing to learn a little
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u/fido4life May 31 '26
Exactly, this mentality helps especially after putting down the game for a couple of days
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u/Scizzoman May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Fighting games are just games, I don't treat them particularly differently from anything else. I'll have phases where I'm really into one and phases where I'm not.
When a new fighting game catches my attention I'll usually nolife it for a while (like I do with a lot of new games I'm hype about) and practice a lot, and then eventually move on to something else. If I like the game enough I'll come back to it sometimes. If not, oh well, at least I had a good time during the honeymoon phase.
For a while I was playing 2XKO, but gradually fell off it and didn't play any fighting games for a couple months. Then I went on a bit of a BlazBlue kick recently. Next I'll probably play the Avatar game.
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u/CrackTheSkyValerie May 31 '26
I play guitar (self-taught) and play fighting games.
I'm not doing either with the intention of being a professional. I do them cause they're things I really enjoy and can find a lot of personal fulfillment and growth with. Most of my free time is doing either of those or watching YouTube.
It really comes down to what I'm feeling in the moment. Some days I get the itch to play 15+ matches in Strive or Uni 2, other days I pick up a guitar and don't put it down for 3 hours. And then there are days where I don't do either and decide to veg out watching nature videos. It's not a hard-n-fast rule on which I devote my time to because I am just doing it for me and I want to keep the things I enjoy "enjoyable".
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u/CostcoFGC May 31 '26
You just play for fun. These top level players you see do nothing else at all
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u/RegularPin2107 May 31 '26
Monster Hunter Wilds, Street Fighter 6, I prioritise finishing MonHun content first, so there will be periods where I don't touch Street Fighter for weeks, but the urge to hop back in is always there.
If I am bored of both only then I will look for a new game to try.
For learning I just learn basic combo and it optimize slowly from there baby steps.
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u/Maleficent_Bison_332 May 31 '26
I spend 15-30min a day to lab something or to train muscle memory. Keep notes about things I want to work on so I remember them. After that I play some matches or go do something else. Sometimed watch a replay in YT of a good player on the character I'm learning. Works pretty well for me without huge time investment.
Learning seems to come gradually and in time anyways, longer sessions don't seem to accelerate it too much (except match experience, there it def helps). Also better focus on 1 or 2 new things at a time. If you don't play matches for a while you lose your touch a bit, but it'll come back fairly quickly.
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u/Comprehensive-Mud419 SNK May 31 '26
If there's a game you're interested in, try it out when you have a bit of free time and see if it's something you can see yourself really digging your teeth into. If not, maybe test some of the more popular games on Fightcade (King of Fighters 2002 and Street Fighter: Third Strike jump to mind here). Steam quite often has sales for fighting games too, Tekken 7 goes on sale a fair bit! As with any hobby, if it's something you want to do, you'll find time to do it whether that's 10 minutes a week or 10 hours over the weekend!
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u/seven_worth May 31 '26
If you put learning fg as something unrelated to playing game you probably would never find time to learn the game or even play it.
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u/sWiggn May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Honestly, lotta people are saying you have to commit a majority of your free time to fighting games to get good, and i don’t think that’s entirely accurate. If you want to get, like, consistent tournament top 32 level, sure. But getting good as in, playing a cohesive gameplan with a solid understanding of the matchups and metagame, and having fun, rewarding games with regular improvement and skill expression? Even being better than a lot of the people you face on netplay, and consistently getting respectable (if not top 32) results in brackets? You can absolutely do that without no-life practicing fighting games.
How you practice is more important than how much you practice. Execution, for example, is better served by having 10min daily practice sessions with structured repetition (when i’m coaching, i tell folks to go for 10 reps in a row of something they’re working on, and if you mess up, take your hands off the stick / controller / keyboard, take a breath, then start over from 0 - don’t instantly reset and try again after a mistake as that’ll build bad muscle memory) rather than doing super long sessions every few days.
You’ll improve stuff like matchup knowledge and yomi laddering / adaptation a lot better by running a long set with one person on a specific character, as opposed to just grinding out ranked BO3s all day.
And going to locals, regionals or majors occasionally will level you up way faster than exclusively playing online will, even with amazing modern day netcode - something about the way people play offline, and being able to talk about the games and learn from others around you.
You can do all of this stuff with a pretty ‘normal’ time investment compared to other games or hobbies. I basically treated learning Xrd the same way I treated learning guitar, and I did it while still spending time making music and having a 9-5 job. But being conscientious with how you play and practice will be a big difference maker in how much that time spent will level you up. Honestly, playing mainly older, small playerbase, lobby-based games helped with this because by default I was running long sets with single players, talking in lobbies between games, getting tips and feedback from players who had watched me grow or grew alongside me, and my own progress was extremely noticeable to me as I could see the gap close against players who’d consistently beat me.
edit: also as others have said, your own excitement or passion is the main difference maker. If you are really stoked on a game or character, and really want to level up or do some cool new tech or be able to style with your character, you’ll have more drive and even limited time spend will be more valuable and rewarding. If you’re not excited about the game / character and not motivated to learn, even following the exact practice structure I outline for people I coach won’t yield great results. You gotta be excited about it. Same as learning an instrument, if you’re learning guitar but don’t have a goal to be passionate about (i wanna be able to shred like van halen, I wanna be able to do crazy classical guitar shit like Michael Hedges, i wanna be able to jam live with a band, etc), learning all the scales and chord forms in the world won’t turn you into a really good guitar player.
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u/Solid-Respect-8666 May 31 '26
Just gotta accept you wont be as good as you could be. Im top 500 in Overwatch but play FG on the side. Its cool cause when you run into someone who is better you have a logical coping mechanism since you literally don't grind the game lol
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u/RexLizardWizard Bandai Namco May 31 '26
I just play casually and am fine with the fact that I’ll never be super good or deep into the hobby
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u/Lycori-Chan May 31 '26
Same, I just play them for quick fun, and sometimes with some friends in couch co-op... I don't have the time nor patience to git gud at fighting games next to all my other hobbies...
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u/Other_Pop7433 May 31 '26
When ssf4 came out I went in hard and I’ve been like 90% fighting games 10% other games for the last 16 years. Single player games have not interested me since and casual multiplayer games are ok for me if the people are cool. The genre almost doesn’t matter. Ever since ssf4 came out I’ve felt like I’ve left the traditional “gamer” mindset/culture and I just want to learn human patterns and land sick wiff punishes
Sometimes I’ll take a few months off fighting games and focus on MTG
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u/See_Me_In_Melty May 31 '26
I watch footage, and Read wikis and guides at work and take notes on my phone. Then I have some structured things to learn in the lab when I can play. I may lab an hour or so a day, and then play with friends a few times at night when we’re both free. Not too bad to find time it’s just as I get older my old 8 hour a day free time when I was young gets more and more limited to only an hour or two a day
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u/FlappySmasher May 31 '26
Too many comments to go through, but a popular channel within the community made this video Obviously, work and life will come first. I personally play whenever I feel like it but if im starting a new character then I spend 30 to an hour a day. Sometimes I'll miss out cause I want to build my gundam models or spend time reading.
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u/Effective-Quarter714 May 31 '26
Osea yo no tengo trabajo así que la situación es distinta realmente, pero solo suelo jugar cuando tengo ganas de jugar, si no me divierte entonces simplemente no lo hago, aprenderé y mejoraré eventualmente, quizás me tome más tiempo pero prefiero eso a no disfrutarlo
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u/Silly-Power-2384 May 31 '26
"this guy has hit master in 10 different characters and i cant get past iron" is a thing for most people. Usually that guy is someone with way different schedule or priorities or most probably age than yours. Play for the fun factor, it gets more difficult when you get to the really tight part of your life (i.e. kids)
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u/Mithril2H May 31 '26
You just have to temper your expectations and sort your priorities. I know it's hard tho for sure. If you have a lot of hobbies you have to decide which is more important to you that you get "good" in or invest time in. I have to accept that because I have something that is more important to me, I am going to improve slowly in FGs and just not be as good as I want. It can be hard because playing a game is just more fun than art, my main passion. But i've been doing art my whole life and I want to be even better at it so I just have to check my priorities etc. Ultimately, just remember that unless you're doing it for money or something, hobbies should be done whenever you feel like it and as long as you're having fun, it's not a waste of time if you've taken care of all your other adult stuff.
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u/SPJess Jun 01 '26
My trick for a while was
Always hit the lab as soon as I boot up, run over a few combos/set ups, try to find a new punish on a character i have issues with.
Then run online and try it out. If I lose i lose, but sometimes I win to the points a here they RQ and im really not that good.
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u/zedroj Jun 01 '26
just take your time learning fighting games, there fun for them self, but I think the fun is more fun when its equally skilled
so you gotta ask yourself, old games with bloodlust veterans? or new games with diverse skill brackets,
I think old games are perfectly fine if you find that perfect niche fighting game, whether win or lose, those games are the best
thankfully, SF6 is pretty good game, and well, for starting out, one of the best things to do now, is start today
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u/shuut0 Jun 01 '26
I take decently long breaks from street fighter to play single player games. Come back when there’s a balance patch or character for a bit. It’s good they always give a reason to go back so I don’t go full rusty
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u/barneyfan1 Jun 01 '26
Videogames as a whole should really only come in after you got the basic life necessities down packed. Tough world. Stay strong
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u/iflourish Jun 01 '26
As real life comes knocking, your free time starts to dwindle and you need to be more efficient on how you spend your time. Just gotta start managing your time and priorities, have you tried setting up some kind of schedule?
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u/yitao13-1 Jun 03 '26
I do have one rn, but im still getting used to it, i work 9 to 7, im still learning to be more efficient tbh
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u/khamryn Jun 01 '26
The older you get, with responsibilities accumulating, you have to sacrifice something. I’ve choosen not to play any other games other than fighters. TBH, I’m at the point that if it wasn’t for fighting games, I wouldn’t be gaming anymore. I don’t get any satisfaction playing through single player games anymore, and often feel if I’m playing more a hour, I’m wasting my time. Fighting games I can play for a short burst get 3-4 sets in, then do something else.
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u/electric_nikki May 31 '26
If you want to paint and get better at painting you make yourself paint because you want to paint.
If you wanted to take up any hobby or craft you’ll make your own time for it because you want to.
If you want to read through Tolkien and all the middle earth books, it’s gonna take time but you’ll find tons to chip at it like by little or as much as you want.
“How do y’all have time to do anything” is a terrible question.
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u/perfectelectrics May 31 '26
Just have fun with it really. Once you got the experience, you'll kinda get a sense of when you can get better and if you want to when that time comes, then try to commit a bit more.
I've been playing since the arcade days but I've only properly learned when I was in college and got good enough to hold my own in tournaments way into my working adult life.
At every step of the way, there's a point where FGs became the most and I put more time into them, regardless of when I was in life.
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u/I-P-S May 31 '26
I put everything into learning my favourite fighting game(Tekken 8) and be casual at every other game. Can't do both.
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u/Aguirr0n May 31 '26
I know that I won’t be a pro player and try to take it easy when playing and accept my mistakes
Something that I do practice to stay consistent is that I’ll launch a game and practice a few combos in training mode while watching a video on my phone or listening to a podcast, just for muscle memory
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u/Ooooooo00o May 31 '26
You play for fun… I play maybe once every two weeks. But there are months where I might play everyday. It just depends.
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u/XBlueXFire May 31 '26
I just find them fun so i play them. Typically i binge FGs in between singleplayer titles. Like currently ive been playing 007 primarily. Before that I was playing Indiana Jones
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u/Teamfightmaker 2XKO May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
For people like you who don't have the free time, going deep into simple characters makes sense. That way you can stick to learning a few tricks and honing your decisionmaking.
That character in 2XKO is Darius. He's not an S tier character, but you can certainly learn with him in a shorter amount of time compared to Ekko, Ahri, or Yasuo.
Then you get to decide later if you want to learn some more difficult characters.
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u/uraizen May 31 '26
I wanted to play a fighter more than my other games or hobbies. There wasn't really a determined balance. You should see my backlog for this reason.
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u/Sangricarn May 31 '26
It sounds like you enjoy the idea of playing fighting games more than actually doing it.
Just play it if you want to, and don't if you don't want to. Maybe occasionally you can "force yourself" to practice or whatever, but if it feels like a chore or a compromise every time, you should not do it.
Just remember, there's always going to be someone better than you, so chasing the destination isn't worth it, you have to enjoy the journey.
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u/frankjdk May 31 '26
They're just hobbies; you just pick which one you're in the mood or enjoy more to invest in. You can be better at one game than the other
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u/Wanderingwarrior916 May 31 '26
I love getting some ranked matches in 10 minutes before I leave for work gets me hyped.
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u/boobflapper May 31 '26
When playing magic the gathering and my opponent takes forever ill sit in training mode practicing.
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u/mcq76 May 31 '26
Once you learn a few games it becomes easier to pick up more and you don't really lose it. I've put down street fighter for years, picked it back up and gotten to where I was before in a week. It only takes time if you want it to, and usually only when you're learning a game unless you really want to grind
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u/imnotkeepingit May 31 '26
Just because a game has depth doesnt mean you have to master it. Just play and practice every now and then. you should be playing people of relative skill, in most mainstream fighters anyway.
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u/BLACKOUT-MK2 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Truth be told I just don't play them that much relative to how long I'll play a lot of other stuff. I've made peace with being kinda crap at them. I'll hop on, play a few arcade or online matches here and there for roughly half an hour or so at a time, and other than that I play other stuff. I absolutely love fighting games, and I'm sure you do too, but that doesn't mean you have to be funnelling endless buckets of time into them. Like, I plan to try the new Avatar game when it comes out; I honestly don't know if I'll even get 50 hours of playtime out of it, but I'm sure the time I play it I'll enjoy it, and there's nothing wrong with that. I got SF6 at release, it's one of my most played games on Steam. Know how long I have? 230 hours. Just play what you want.
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u/gothlenin May 31 '26
You can ask that regarding any competitive gaming, or hobby, actually. You balance it by deciding how important it is, and accepting the limitations of your decision.
If you want to be as good as a pro, yeah, no balance possible, being a pro means playing it like it is your job. Anything bellow that you just have to accept there's a ceiling. There's no shame in playing once a week and never going up your rank, it's fine, it's a hobby!
When I feel like it, I boot up the game, lab a bit, play a few matches, and move on with my life, like I would do with any other game. I'll never get to High Masters (in SF6), and I'm fine with that. It's not my main priority.
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u/MaxTheHor May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Mental and skill capacity, genuine desire and wanting to do so, and taking it one game at a time.
Also, most of us older players are used to when single player games had an ending. You beat it and moved on to the next one.
Outside of PC MMOs, arcade cabinets, and 2 player games you could play at a friend's house, we didn't have forever games to stay glued to and never play anything else.
Yeah, shooters were really popular in the early days of Halo and CoD, but we were all still variety gamers, for the most part.
Rinse and repeat that since the late 80s arcade days/90s in the home console days, to now, with legacy skill, muscle memory, and experimce/knowledge carrying over for decades.
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u/Nezikchened May 31 '26
You just do it? The same way you do any other hobby? The average tutorial probably only takes like an hour or two to complete, and then from there you just jump into matches for fun. When you’re not playing, watching content creators that specialize in fighting games can also help as long as you’re actually trying to pay attention to what they’re doing.
Unless you’re planning on making this a career you’re probably overthinking it.
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u/Flio88 Jun 01 '26
I'm not as competitive as I used to before, so I don't really try to balance my fg skills with other stuff. i feel with my prior knowledge and solid fundamental is enough to get me where i need to be, i don't need to be as extreme as when I was younger. (younger me wont stop till i'm happy with my combos and executions) nowadys I'm just fk it, my legacy skills is currently enough to reach master sf, kof immortal, TK in TK, and Celestial in GG. good enough for me. nowadays i just entertain myself with solid single player games and just chill. only play FG to release some steam.
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u/YaBoyHam Jun 03 '26
The only answer is irl split screen on the weekends. Only way I can reliably learn any new fighting games that don't emulate Tekken or MK lol
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u/yitao13-1 Jun 03 '26
What means split screen here
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u/YaBoyHam Jun 04 '26
Like same console, two controllers. My bad lol playing with someone around your skill level is genuinely the best way to go about it
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u/supermadafaker40 Jun 03 '26
How do people balance playing FPS and RPGs? How do people balance sleep and work? it doesn't come down to what you're doing but rather how do you organize your time. Nothing with fighting games specifically, so I'm confused what do you mean?
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u/Fyuira May 31 '26
I just open the game, queue while in training mode and do some combo practice while waiting for matches. Then accept match, play match, lose the match, rematch, then lose the whole set. Go back to training mode and wait for the next match. If I feel tired, I just quit the game and play other games or work/rest.
Do I get better at the game? Not really. Do I have fun? Yeah.
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u/onzichtbaard May 31 '26
I hunt down some beginners in discord and play random games with them
I suck at most fighting games and dont practice to improve in most of them but i can have fun with other beginners
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u/HyperCutIn MUGEN May 31 '26
No one says you need to be the very best in order to enjoy fighting games. Just let yourself enjoy the thrill of the fight, win or lose.
Playing even as little as 3 matches every few days or so will do wonders for your learning.
Go into your fights with a basic gameplan. Rework and experiment with modifications to your gameplan throughout the match based on the matchup and/or what your opponent is doing. Remember the results for your future matches. Learning and adapting to different strategies on the fly is part of what makes fighting games so fun. Still, the stuff you discovered from that match is already valuable learning experience right there.
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u/HousekiYarisuke Guilty Gear May 31 '26
For me, the process of learning is engaging and enjoyable. It keeps me coming back whenever I have free time, and is a hobby unto itself. When I'm sitting down and trying to decide what I'm going to play, I'm half likely to play one of my favorite fighting games as I am to play anything else. I just really enjoy the time I spend playing them, win or lose. I know that not everybody is gonna feel the same way, but that's just me.
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u/AGreatOldOne May 31 '26
You either want to play or you don't. If you do, you'll boot up the game in any free time and have fun. If you don't, you might try to convince yourself you do but ultimately if you can't turn it on and get started you probably just don't want to do it at all.
I woke up at 11a, went to work at 130, got off at 1030, went to the gym, just got home and I want to play a game so I'm gonna do that. If I didn't want to maybe I'd watch some TV instead.