King of Fighters Vs Street Fighter 4 community (Local)

I came from the KOF community since I was twelve. Even though I started my fighting game history with Marvel vs Street Fighter (which counts as a SF game), I still ended up hopping over to KOF and playing only that for the next 6 years. But after I moved to the US for 5+ years for my studies, I lost touch with KOF and basically retired from it for the next 8 years... until recently.

KOF13 got me back into the community (although I foresee it being temporary) but ironically, the local KOF community is divided into two - KOF13 and KOF2002(UM). Not every KOF fan likes/enjoys KOF13 because of the game system so a huge fraction continues only to play the older games while only a certain bunch pursue KOF13. So this 'certain bunch' is the community I'm referring to as the "King of Fighters community" in the above post title.

Now to briefly describe this KOF community, let me start by saying that out of roughly 30 active players, a good half of them are friends with one another. Most of them would challenge and play against most anyone but there also seems to be a trend; Some people simply refuse/avoid playing against some others in particular simply because they think the opponent is too strong for them. Also, even when playing among friends, some/many get pissed off at each other when they lose (or when they lose too badly or too much), which actually causes unwanted drama/stress in the circle. To further confuse you, there are some who hate/despise each other (for personal reasons, etc) and would practice extreme methods of dealing with each other - ignore each other, or purposely piss each other off by challenging them.

It's a messed up community. Too much hate, too much unfriendly competition, too much looking down on your own friends, and too much ego. It's a bloody fighting game, there will always be one winner and loser and no one wins forever. Why is it so hard to take a loss that a matter as trivial as losing to a game could actually create drama in your own circle of friends?? Now this is where the SF4 community comes in.

I'm not part of the SF4 community. I only know about it and saw what it's like because of my boy (bf) and he happens to be a really huge and important figure in the local SF4 community. From what I've seen, practically everyone is friends with everyone else and all these people range from anywhere between 10-35 years old with backgrounds of all sorts. I've seen the way they play with one another. No one goes into rage when they lose, and everyone seems to respect one another. In a tournament everyone turns into rivals, but everyone accepts their defeat graciously without bad mouthing or backstabbing anyone. In fact, it's customary that tournament participants shake hands with each other after every (most) matches.

Both KOF and SF4 are fighting games. In fact, SF4 players are way more competitive than KOF players due to frequent tournaments (KOF virtually has none), so why is it that the SF4 community can be so peaceful while the KOF community messed up? Of course I'm not saying that the KOF community is currently at war, but there're too many cases of 'internal despise' and friends getting pissed off at each other. For example, there's this girl A who refuses to play with this guy B because 1) she thinks guy B would give her attitude if he loses 2) she looks down on guy B's KOF skills hence she doesn't wanna risk losing to him and hurting her ego just in case. But guess what? Guess B thinks exactly the same of girl A, and they're both friends. They secretly despise each other all because of a game. How sad is that?

So back to topic, how can two fighting game communities be so different? What could possibly give them such different mindsets about fellow friends and rivals? The way I see and conclude it, I say that the 'challenge system' plays a huge part in this. I don't know how many of you have arcades where you live (country) and if there's SF4, but the way SF4 is set up in arcades here in ASIA, all the SF4 machines at the same arcade are linked together, and there's no "vs CPU mode". Unless you're the only one person playing SF4 at the arcade, the moment you enter a token you'll be forced to challenge the next available player.

For example, if there are a total of 6 machines and only one person (A) is playing, he will have no choice but to go into "vs CPU mode" where he'll just be playing against AI. However, if someone else (B) goes up to a second machine and enters a token, he will immediately be forced to challenge A, and vice versa. Now, imagine that while these A and B are playing against each other, a third person (C) comes along and enters a token. C will go into temporary "vs CPU mode" cos there's no one available to play with at the moment. Now, let's pretend A lost the battle to B a minute later. Once B wins, he will be forced to challenge C who's originally playing against the CPU, and vice versa. This is basically how SF4 works at the arcade; you are given no choice but to challenge an opponent whether you like it or not as long as someone else is playing. (It also helps the arcade make more money LOL)

This is prolly not appealing to newbies and beginners since you can't even choose to practice or play against weaker players of your level. However, this also forces you to play, learn and improve from real battles as opposed to CPU ones. There will be a learning curve, of course, but at least this gets you very used to losing (since you can't pick your opponent), hence building up your patience and tolerance towards defeat.

This doesn't happen in KOF, you see. In KOF, you can still choose whether to play against the CPU, and you can pick exactly who you want to challenge. You can always limit yourself to weaker people if you're so afraid of losing, or friends if you're afraid of strangers. So if you compare KOF and SF4 players, KOF players are definitely less accepting of defeat which is why the community is so fucked up cos their ego just can't take it. *facepalm*

Of course, as long as I'm not involved it really isn't a problem I should poke my nose into, but thing is... I am involved and effected somehow! It's stupid, but the 'drama' caused by 'gaming' is actually causing me problems in all sorts of manners no one can imagine (it's personal...), and it's actually hard and frustrating to deal with! Like, right now, I don't even see why I should continue playing KOF13 anymore cos I "can't" play with anyone anymore. Plus the arcade has recently turned into a rather miserable place, it's unbelievable how things turned this way. Sigh................... Ok, now I'm just ranting. The KOF vs SF4 community talk actually officially ended in the paragraph above, so let me just end this post here. LOL

10 Things I Hate

I was just chatting with a friend on MSN and somehow the topic came to "things you hate"... and I decided to write about it here. Besides, it's about time to post something new and which is not game-related. XD

• Accusation
  This is on the very top of the list cos being accused is the one thing in the world I will NEVER EVER tolerate. It's also the one thing that'll instantly turn me into a explosive ball of rage no matter who it is who accused me. If I know I didn't do/say/think something and someone accuses me of doing it, I'm gonna stick a surgical knife in his throat.
   
  
• Misunderstandings
  Misunderstandings are a giant pain in the ass cos it's really hard and requires a lot of effort to talk things out, find out what and where the problem is, and finally come to terms (if even possible). It easily happens when one or two people don't know each other well enough or when there's communication breakdown, which really sucks cos trying to re-explain what you really mean when the other party has already misunderstood you is one uber tough task. The possibility of a solution is also dependant on the stubbornness level of either or both parties cos there are people who still refuse to apologize/admit their mistake cos of reasons such as ego and embarrassment.
   
• Redundant comments/questions
  All it takes is a single redundant question and I'll immediately get turned off. For example, there was once a guy who knew me through my Devil May Cry fansite. He added me on MSN messenger and his first question was "So, have you beaten DMC3?" I lost any desire to talk with him right away.
   
• Waking up to the alarm
  It doesn't matter what time I sleep... I just hate waking up when my body hasn't woken up on its own/naturally yet. Alarm clocks/noise/movements force you to wake up and that dreadful feeling of having to wake up when you aren't ready is really not something I look forward to. Even if I'm a super healthy person and I sleep at 10pm, I wouldn't appreciate waking up at 6am if something wakes me up.
   
• Clubbing / Pubbing
  I don't drink, I don't like high/drunken people, flashy/blinking lights, and loud music. I also don't like the type of people who enjoy clubbing/pubbing and the way most of them would act in such an environment, and those who gather outside smoking, both guys and girls alike.
   
• Hypocrites / Double standards
  Even though life usually isn't fair, I still believe that people should be fair to one another. If you expect others to behave a certain way, you should also make sure you behave the same way and not have double standards cos that's just unreasonable. I knew this guy who called a fellow girl friend "fat" and "unwanted" even though he's fat and unwanted himself (couldn't get a girlfriend). There was also a girl who expects her boyfriend to buy her a present for her birthday but she needs not do the same for him. These examples may be 'little matters' to the eye of a 3rd party but it seriously annoys the shit out of me!
   
• People without common sense
  It's really hard to talk with people who don't have common sense cos basically you can't communicate with them, and it doesn't help that I have no patience, low tolerance and a short temper. There are many unspoken things in life that I think all civilized humans should already be aware of and if it takes another person to tell them before they understand, then something's wrong. I can't think of a good example at the moment so pardon this bad example - It's common sense that if you wish to ask someone a favor, you should be polite and courteous about it and not go "hey, gimme that. Bye."
   
• Pretentious people
  You are you only when you truly be yourself. That's obvious. If you pretend and put on a front, then you're a staged character. People pretend (and lie) for all sorts of reasons, to hide themselves, to kiss someone's ass, to get liked/popular, whatever. But the way I see it, if you pretend and do/say things the real you wouldn't (for whatever purpose), the real you might as well not exist. And becos this 'character' you're putting on is fake as well, you might as well stop existing altogether. Worse comes to worst when someone asks/tells me to pretend! WTF?!?!
   
• Homophobes
  I admit I grew extremely sensitive about this because of yaoi, but I also know for a fact that before I 'met' yaoi 11 years ago I was not homophobic (I was just indifferent). I just don't see why there needs to be hate/war between people just because one prefers vaginas and the other penises. Perhaps the image of two people of the same gender in bed is unpleasant to you, fair enough, but unless you're involved there's absolutely no reason why you should hate/despise them. No one asked you to love/fancy it. In fact, you don't even have to support it. Just don't go against it. Be neutral. Stay neutral. The world would be a much better place that way. Is that really so hard?
   
• Snoring
  I love sleeping. I really do. And snoring is the worst thing that can happen when I'm sleeping, cos when the room is so absolutely quiet you can hear the blood ring in your own ears, the lightest of snores is no different from a bloody launching rocket. It. Is. IMPOSSIBLE. To. Sleep. With it. I've had my worst experience ever back in my San Francisco trip (Tales of Anime) in 2007. I was so fuckin MAAAD and insanely FRUSTRATED every night I could brutally kill a puppy. Make that two. My gawwwd!!!! I seriously fuckin' pray my future husband (if I actually got one) does not snore, or we're definitely splitting rooms.

Game rant: King of Fighters XIII (continuation)

Just adding 2 more characters to the list. I just started learning/practising them a week ago, but I especially love Kim! XD! He's just so much fun!!!

Kim Kaphwan Projectile: No Command grab: No Aerial command move: Yes Abusable moves: Down D, Down B

Kim is pure fun. He's got no fireballs nor grapples but he's got the almighty Hangetsuzan (qcb B/D)!! Better yet, he now has a mid-air version that's really handy for prolonging airborne time and annoying opponents. He's also a master at breaking your guard; all it takes is a few light kicks and punches and 3 Hangetsuzan to deplete a full guard meter and that just takes seconds. Great choice for offensive players!

Why I like using him:

• Hangetsuzan FTW!!!!!!! The EX version is invincible against projectiles too!!
• Good for playing some footsie.
• All it takes is to successfully (accidentally) land a single Hangetsuzan and Kim can link into the rest of his combos (assuming you have at least one drive gauge).

Chin Gentsai Projectile: No Command grab: Yes Aerial command move: No Abusable moves: --- (???)

I decided to ask a friend to teach me Chin not because I wanna kick ass with him, but rather to understand how to fight against him cos it's confusing to fight against Chin without understanding/knowing what he can do and how his moves should be dealt with. Turns out, he's actually pretty useful, especially against high-fireball characters like Ash and K. In addition, there're few Chin users in general hence not many are familiar with a Chin match up, thus confusing them and earning some advantage.

Why I use him:

• It's fun to practice/execute his semi-long combos (non-BC!)
• He can easily get past fireball spammers, except for characters like Kyo, Joe and Kensou.