Consequently, not everyone just falls ideally into one type. Many people have some or all of the traits that I'm going to mention soon. However, nearly every player has a trait that stands out the most, and thus placing them in a specific category that I am going to mention.
And because I like to use dramatic names, I will have a class for each type of player with the prefix "the" in front of it. And the name will be in bold.
The Trainer: A class blatantly taken from Pokemon. These types of players are probably the most common types of players you'll see in a fighting game community and is the standard "average joe" type player you probably expect to play if you're playing someone you don't know yet. Everyone pretty much starts off as a trainer. These people, very generally, want to play to improve their skills and to enjoy the game. They have some preference for winning (which is why they want to improve their skills) and they do feel disappointment for losing, but in the end they believe whatever they learned and how they can improve their game next time is most important. Their playstyle can be considered "normal", in that they use typical moves with some tactical tricks. They don't try to do something outrageous, but neither do they spam one move over and over again. They want to play to improve their game. They are usually more than happy to talk about the match afterwards, and some will admit their mistakes freely (others might be a little more embarassed by it, but overall not too affected).
The Sadist: A person who either likes to beat people up, or to annoy them. The type that likes to beat people up are typically pretty high level players, yet derive pleasure out of beating those that are lower than them, preferably significantly lower level than them. They don't care if the match was "fun" or not, nor do they care how they do it, they just want to win. If its a perfect all the more fun for them. However, another type of sadist (could possibly be in another category, but I thought it was similar enough) doesn't even care if they want to win, seemingly; it appears that these types of players just want to do something over and over again and see if it works. Even if it doesn't, they do, say, one attack over and over again. Of course, these types of players typically get on a lot of people's nerves, and no one wants to ever play them. These types of players are also the ones that will typically be spamming "Let's play
The Troll: Possibly another kind of sadist, but kind of deserves a group of its own. These types of people almost never play the type of game they talk about, yet always trash talk it as if they played the game for their entire life and was tortured by it. They enjoy criticizing the game's weakest points and choose to ignore any good parts about it. The fact is its fine if a person dislikes a game, but these types will usually immediately reply "don't play that game" or something similar as soon as someone begins mentioning its name. Additionally, its possible to play trolls that may not dismiss the game, but enjoy criticizing players instead. These are especially types that will be like "this game is a mashing game" and "You're mashing" without providing any helpful criticism at all. Again these types of players are ones many people do not enjoy playing.
The Pyrotechnic: These people like flashy things. Level 3 supers, long combos, Fatal Attacks. If they get the chance, they want to execute things. They still enjoy winning, but sometimes if they get off that level 3 super it doesn't matter to them afterwards if they win or lose, they just feel that they won a moral victory. Generally Pyrotechnics develop after they have a pretty good handle of the game, so they're often fairly high levelled. These types of people are generally fun to play with, even if they are high level and you're not, because what they do typically is just so pretty to watch. Consequently, these types of players amuse the spectators the most as well, and do well in bringing people into the game that they play. For the record, nearly all Japanese players are Pyrotechnics.
The Theorist: A type of player that, possibly surprisingly, does not really like to play other people (at least on the extreme side). A true hardcore theorist lives in the practice mode realm and frame dataset pages, trying to test and perfect a specific string of commands. Their favorite thing to do is make combo videos. The theorist has the same obsession with perfection as, say a mathematician, and believe from their dataset that this is, theoretically, possible, so they should try and execute it. A theorist may or may not like watching other replay videos; on one hand, they can learn of different combination techniques that they didn't think of before, but on the other, they may take pride in discovering a specific string for themself, and want to show people off as being original for having thought that up.
The Experimentalist: An offshoot of the theorist is the experimentalist. These people also like to come up with theories on what works and what doesn't work, but they want to apply it to actual matches. It could be said that if the theorist is a mathematician, the experimentalist is an engineer. They like to use what could work, and then try it out in battle. If it works, great; if it needs tweeking, so what? And if it doesn't work, oh well, it was tried. Experimentalists are typically known to do sometimes crazy things in matches that are not always the most efficient way of doing things. They can also sometimes be seen as pyrotechnics, but generally they're not trying to impress anyone but themselves. In fact, sometimes an experimentalist may seem boring, possibly because he is trying to do one move over and over again just to confirm if it works (or doesn't work). Experimentalists generally are the first to discover if a particular technique is rather effective for a character, though. In fact, experiments are avid admirers of "accidents" where they discover something new which they didn't expect to happen or they accidentally do a move that turns out to be really effective. Theorists, on the other hand, would more likely be turned off by accidents, and rather look at the frame data to come up with these discoveries. For the record, I'm probably best classified as an experimentalist, which is why this section is so huge.
Why Lag Sucks.
Lag sucks because it brings down everyone on that list except for Sadists. In lag, Trainers cannot improve their skill because they are not sure if something they do works only in lag, or something they can't do is because of lag. Trolls hate everything so lag really just gives them another excuse to hate. Pyrotechnics dislike lag because it becomes more difficult for them to execute that level 3 move of fatality attack at the right time, thereby reducing their flashiness. Theorists do not enjoy battling in the first place, and would hate it even more if the moves they are trying to do are failing because of lag. Experimentalists are similar in that respect. Even accidents are usually no longer positive, and typically means you're a sitting duck while the other person beats on you.
Only Sadists benefit from lag. They can do one annoying move over and over again and possibly win from that. Since they only enjoy beating people up or being annoying, this is considered their playing field. This reason, along with anonymity, might be why it seems like there are so many more sadists on the internet than anywhere else.
5 comments:
Interesting way of seeing things, but I have to strongly disagree with the idea that JP players are pyrotechnics.
Sure, they sometimes do flashy things but I've never seen them do it without a reason. I think anything flashy they do is for the sake of efficiency. They never use powerful supers or burn meter extraneously in combos unless doing so will end the round right then and there without needing to risk another RPS situation with the opponent. And sometimes to do that, they even lower the execution barrier if the extra damage isn't required. Sometimes you see them do throw --> level 3 super to end a match instead of throw --> 150 hit overkill combo if just the super does enough damage to finish things on its own.
In a match situation, they are not the sort that will use combos that are meaninglessly long and needlessly burn meter just for extra hits and not damage. And if their bnb combos look impractically difficult to us, it may just be that their skill level is high enough to be able to do those combos consistently enough to be practical.
I agree with Akuun. Although I haven't watched a ton of match vids, the players in the ones that I have seen tend to play very efficiently.
Hmm, well, they probably won't be as wasteful as I may have made the pyrotechnic to be, but I still think they about fall into the category. Part of being a pyrotechnic is knowing when to use their moves, and I didn't just limit pyrotechnics to special effects; combos (done efficiently, as mentioned) work well as well. Generally, anything that makes people impressed about the game.
But then again it could just be that the Japanese are just too high level for us to categorize. We might as well put them into their own category.
The Japanese: You'll never reach this level. Unless you're Japanese.
From your definition, I got the impression that a Pyrotechnic is the sort of person who goes out of his way to do flashy things even if it's not practical or efficient to do so.
I think most Japanese just fall into your Trainer category, except at a very high skill level. A player at that level is impressive to watch, but it doesn't mean that he's specifically showboating. It's just that the flashiness is a side effect of that deadly efficient play.
I'd have to agree with Akuun's original post because, as a self proclaimed pyro, I don't find too many other pyros, let alone Japanese pyros.
In the touhou fighting series I've always mained with Yuyuko because I wanted to "dazzle" people to death. In Street Fighter I use Chun-Li because her combos are fluid and I would try to finish a match with her air special (the one your dad translated into "Use your Feet".)
Pyros care more about context than content. How we try to win instead of going for a bread n' butter combo for the win.
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