Hate Speech: When Worlds Collide
- Thread starter Dr. Hates
- Start date
Sora
[11] Champion
Online play has one unparalleled advantage over offline play - matchups. No, I'm not talking about taking advantage of lag, but rather allowing you to see possible (keyword here. I didn't say it was actual) setups for you to use and are being used against you. You're given such a wide pool of players and characters that with enough play, you'll have a pretty good, perhaps even a really solid idea of what each character can and cannot do. This is something that even the biggest offline scenes will not be able to mathematically match.
What you do then with this knowledge is to take it offline -- connect the online setups with offline lag-free conditions. Keep what translates over seamlessly. Profit. :)
What you do then with this knowledge is to take it offline -- connect the online setups with offline lag-free conditions. Keep what translates over seamlessly. Profit. :)
Hates, I think one important question that needs to be asked when considering offline vs online is: "how serious are you going to play this game?"
As someone who grew up playing Calibur (and other old-school fighters) in the arcade, I sometimes find online a maddening experience. Frame traps don't work, some attacks CAN'T be blocked on reaction, ect, ect. But what if that shit doesn't matter to you? What if you want to play the game just to play the game? Obviously, lag will be less of an issue.
However, if one is aspiring to be a tournament level player, then one MUST play both offline AND online. That's right, I said it. Since SC5 won't be going to arcades, AND since the SC community is (relatively) small and spread out, online is needed to experience various playstyles while offline is used for clean up and refinement.
Who knows? Maybe Namco will develop netcode that will bring the offline and online experiences closer together thus making it so a player won't have to do as much switching. I certainly hope so. For me, online is most likely going to be my only option, BUT I'm under no delusions that I'm going to be playing the game as it was meant to be played. More importantly, I'm not taking the game anywhere near as seriously as I was 12-13 years ago.
As someone who grew up playing Calibur (and other old-school fighters) in the arcade, I sometimes find online a maddening experience. Frame traps don't work, some attacks CAN'T be blocked on reaction, ect, ect. But what if that shit doesn't matter to you? What if you want to play the game just to play the game? Obviously, lag will be less of an issue.
However, if one is aspiring to be a tournament level player, then one MUST play both offline AND online. That's right, I said it. Since SC5 won't be going to arcades, AND since the SC community is (relatively) small and spread out, online is needed to experience various playstyles while offline is used for clean up and refinement.
Who knows? Maybe Namco will develop netcode that will bring the offline and online experiences closer together thus making it so a player won't have to do as much switching. I certainly hope so. For me, online is most likely going to be my only option, BUT I'm under no delusions that I'm going to be playing the game as it was meant to be played. More importantly, I'm not taking the game anywhere near as seriously as I was 12-13 years ago.
I believe you just described the workflow of two of America's best SF4 players (Latif and Wolfkrone). Wolfkrone has stated publicly that his scene at home is small so he HAS to grind out games online just for the experience. Latif has it better in Arizona, but his community isn't as large as say SoCal's, so it's a whole lot of online fighting for him as well. The experience gained from playing so many people coupled with offline refinement gives them consistent top 8 finishes. Very impressive to say the least.
EvilParagon
[08] Mercenary
I was fortunate enough to have a mother who conceived many children. So I can proudly say I had a brother to play offline with whenever I wasn't playing online (witch was always). After weeks and weeks I've found that playing offline was much better for all of the obvious reasons. I didn't bash online players thought because it wasn't right for the following reasons; I was one of them, an online scrub, and they may not have a fellow gamer companion to play with as I did.
When I went to my first offline tournament (At KrayzieCD's apartment) I totally got my ass handed to me by almost everyone. Thats when I really seen the light. People who never go online, and take the game seriously raped the shit outa me. Ever since online has just been a joke. And I feel as though I can say that about online gameplay because its where I originated.
Im just glad that I heard about the Sacramento State Videogame tournament when I did. Because if I had never used my freinds ID to infiltrate that tournament and score a win vs the only good player there, (Hajime) I might not have ever met the norcal soul calibur community.
Those are my online ramblings :p there was no real structure to my input.
When I went to my first offline tournament (At KrayzieCD's apartment) I totally got my ass handed to me by almost everyone. Thats when I really seen the light. People who never go online, and take the game seriously raped the shit outa me. Ever since online has just been a joke. And I feel as though I can say that about online gameplay because its where I originated.
Im just glad that I heard about the Sacramento State Videogame tournament when I did. Because if I had never used my freinds ID to infiltrate that tournament and score a win vs the only good player there, (Hajime) I might not have ever met the norcal soul calibur community.
Those are my online ramblings :p there was no real structure to my input.