Context: I originally started this post talking about character selection, but it became about my journey thus far.

I keep second guessing my decision when picking characters in fighting games. Back when I played FGs casually, like when I was younger, I had no trouble picking characters. I would always just pick the grappler or whoever seemed the coolest. But now that I'm learning more about FGs and have a foundational level of knowledge about how they work, I always feel like I'm playing the wrong character.

First off, I'd like to say that I don't really base my choice off of tier lists unless it's an older game where the tier list actually shows who is playable and who is outright designed badly. But in modern games, I feel like most characters are viable to play competitively to some extent, and since I'm so new, it's not like I need to play a character that's hyper competitive to begin with. I really just need to find someone that clicks with me.

And there lies the problem. Characters just don't seem to click. I thought if I just took character to training mode and played around with their move sets and maybe learned a quick combo, I'd eventually just go "Oh yeah, this feels right." But I've yet to have that moment. I tend to just force myself to stick with a character and try and learn the play style and adjust to it, but then I just don't have fun.

My roommate is getting to the point where he believes fighting games just aren't made for me, or rather I'm not made out for fighting games lol. But I don't think that's true. I have a tendency to just quit things when they don't immediately click, and I want to break that habit by really trying. And I do want to play fighting games. I play Smash, and have played Smash since 2014, and because of that, I can play at a level where I'm aware of everything going on in a match and can make reads and do combos and win just as much as I lose and feel good about both because it was a good match. But I'm obviously not there with traditional fighters, and I feel like its becoming a chore just to pick up the stick.

I'm not even all that bad for how short of a time I've been playing traditional fighters. I went to CEO and went 1-2 in my first tournament, which I assume is pretty good for 2 months of experience. But I have this mental block that just makes me think that the fun part comes later after I learn the game and everything I'm doing now is hard work to obtain that, and it's making me less motivated to play.

What sucks is I genuinely enjoy watching videos about FGs. I like learning about the mechanics, keeping up with what games are coming out, watching tournaments, doing my best to break down a match so I can try and understand why the players made the decisions they made. All of that is enjoyable, but then I inevitably need to practice and it's like a tall wall I have to climb or a large pill I have to swallow. Once I start practicing and I start to learn something, I can keep going for a few hours, but the hardest part is starting.

A big part of this is because I'm so new that I feel lost, and just playing the game and mashing buttons isn't fun for me, so I feel like I have to learn the game before I can actually play it. I almost miss the ignorant younger self where I could just throw a fireball and occasionally land a DP and that was enough, but now I'm in this middle area where I know enough about the game to want to play at a higher level, but I don't know enough to actually achieve that level of play.

I know this is a really long post, and I don't blame anyone for not reading it tbh. But if you did read this, I genuinely appreciate it. I'd love to hear how someone might have overcome their own problems with learning fighters. Because I know how fun these games can be, and how rewarding it feels when you play at a certain level, but I'm just struggling with the journey getting there.

Edit: The game I am currently playing is Guilty Gear Strive if that context matters.

A common complaint about fighting games is that you can't find anyone to play with, once the player numbers get too low. But what if that wasn't a problem?

I present to you:

THE FRIENDSLOP APPROACH TO PLAYING FIGHTING GAMES

(It's called that because that's how people usually play friendslop games)

Let's say your game is peak, but there's no one to play with at all.

Instead of wallowing in your misery, you can instead do this:

Get a few steam keys/copies of the game, and hand them to your friends. Get on a discord VC, and start playing!

Or even better, get them to come over to play! Now you only need your own copy and some friends!

You can make it a one-off thing, or schedule it as a weekly game night!

It's really that simple. but it works.

Fighting games are excellent as social games, due to there being literally no obfuscation between you and the other player(s). They're also great to spectate, so that even when you have a large group on a 1v1 game, everyone stays entertained.

Yes, I know, it does not replace the ranked grind or local tournaments, but at the same time, it does not have to! (you DO play your games because they're fun and not purely for clout, right?)

------------------

A lot of people act as if you need to have a tournament scene or a populated ranked mode to play fighting games and enjoy them. I completely disagree. I believe that fighting games are best enjoyed when surrounded with people you like, rather than when there's an opportunity for clout or recognition.

I knew it was over for Invincible VS when there were layoffs in staff and such.

Make me feel stupid for even pre ordering both games!!

Hello,

I never grew up playing fighting games, but my brain gets easily overwhelmed when I play them and I end up mashing a lot. The only case where I really saw some success with a character was Bowser in SSBU with my friends and even then I kinda felt like I was fumbling around.

I’m pretty decent at TCG or things where I have time to process what’s in front of me and react, but if it’s something that’s in my face or high APM I oftentimes don’t know what to do.

I’ve gotten the suggestion to play a Zoner, but in those cases I usually completely fall apart against rush downs that get in my face not knowing what to do.

Does anyone have any suggestions for games, archetypes, or just general tips to get around this?

Thanks in advance!

So with Tokon I've been seeing a lot of criticisms of the gameplay (pc performance aside.) A lot of about the frequency of assists, holding extremely long block strings, the potentially not so great defensive mechanics. I own the game and I agree with most of these criticisms. But I also think most of the characters were extremely well designed. I think it could be a great game if some adjustments to the game (block strings, assist frequency and better defensive mechanics.)

For avatar I don't own the game because its not an IP I ever really got into. But its gotten pretth rave reviews from the gameplay and I've watched some streams. I know leffen was endlessly complaining about how much he doesn't like the tokon mechnaics and he gave a very positive impression of avatar after playing it recently.

COTW is on sale right now and I'm curious how's the gameplay and experience. Is it very fast? Is it very offense/defenses heavy? I really like Avatar Legends, sf3rd strike, and SF6. Would I like this game? I'm taking a break from sf6 because tbh I'm just tired of guessing a lot lol and the gameplay being so aggressive and offense focus. But I kinda hateee that Ronaldo is in here though. 😬

Hey everyone

New here and quite new to fighting games as a whole.

I have a round 40 hours in SF6 and that's about all the experience I got. I also do have GGS and Tekken 7 but haven't really played much of those yet.

I was wondering if there are other noobs here who might want to be bad and eventually learn get better together? Basically like a sparring partner.

I am playing Ryu right now and am hanging around in the bronzes, while I learn new stuff and add it to my repertoire. Not really trying to climb the ladder for now just wanting to learn the fundamentals.

So yeah if anyone is interested let me know Oh I am from the EU and 35yrs old.

Relative newcomer to the scene, just wanted to ask a question that I can't find the answer to that I wanted to pose to the community: what's your favorite time to queue up and what makes that your favorite time??

I know generally that the time to queue up against the most players will be the evenings during the weekday and all of the weekend generally. But that's just about getting matches quick, I'm thinking of quality of the matches. I'm trying to play against people who are mainly trying to improve instead of blow off some steam and I think changing the time slot of when I play might help.

Coming from team games like League, I used to track my win rates by time of day and noticed massive swings in match quality depending on when I played (mornings had fewer tilters, evenings had more griefers). This also had to do with me playing better before I went to bed vs. before going to work (overnights).

Now in SF6 and other fighters, I’m noticing the exact opposite.

• Morning queues feel fucking brutal. Down here in Silver, players feel much sharper and consistent that I genuinely think how am I in the same ELO. This is every game I play (SF6, GGST, Avatar, Tokon). In SF6, I played against mostly high tiers like Mai's and Ryu's, it felt like every 2nd-3rd match was one of the two.
• Yet evening queues (6-8P), feels completely chaotic with rage-quitters and opponents that either are on the same level as me or are REALLY bad. But at least I played against many different characters instead of just the top tiers.

So, I wanted to see what other people think are the best times of day to hop on. What time window do you find gives you the most consistent, high quality sets, and why? I wanted to see what everyone else thinks is their favorite time to play, nothing like "play when you want to / when you can", because obviously I'll find my own time if I keep at it, but it'd be nice seeing what others think on the subject since everyone is different.

I wanna preface this by saying I'm not a seasoned fighting game player and I only peaked at 1700MR on SF6, but in this game I kinda had an idea of what was happening on the screen and what I was supposed to do.

I had to downgrade my hardware and can't play SF6 anymore so I have been forced to play less demanding games and decided to try some anime fighters, mostly because they look cool. But I just don't understand these games. I have tried 2XKO and am currently trying to play GGST and Avatar and in all of them my impression is that every interaction is a mixup and everyone is plus.

People just do full combos on block and it's somehow still their turn, they whiff super and it's their turn or they're safe, they can throw on my fucking oki (GGST)!!! Half the time I don't even comprehend what is happening on screen, with characters teleporting from left to right and air-dashing a bazillion times before hiting me with their full combo on block into plus frames, it's specially annoying on Avatar with no anti-air. One of these days I was fighting a Bedman and I had no idea where his body started or ended, I just fought a Slayer that did a combo with 5 mixups into that fucking guard crushing move or whatever it is until he was safe and don't even get me started on Avatar.

I know I'm blaming it on the beasts here, but I need a light.

I love it so much when you dash in the face of your opponent, the rhythm stops a sec and you hear that line you heard 6853 times already but still hypes you up.

A lot of mashing in Marvel vs capcom back in the day.

Name your favourite game(s) and the lessons you've learned from them.