Response to 'Infiltration (on Capcom/Street Fighter)' and badass rambling on games




I feel guilty, ... thinking of it - as I agree with Infiltrations points, I find myself in the situation that I would have basically encouraged Capcom to do what they did. (As "back in the day" where I was active on their forum, I feel I kindof influenced where they went). Whats stuck on my mind now is that I can't go and defend my past arguments; At least ... once I've been wrong, it'd be kindof counterproductive to go out of my way to say: Well, its 'their' fault for understanding me wrongly.

However - what 'does' work and might be yet kindof just that - is to pick up on my mindset - the thing where my oppinion came from; Now however pronounced through a ... hopefully more evolved mindset/perspective.
Once we move back far enough - I mean, back in our heads, I suppose we however get to very generic/common perspectives, things we all share, just everyone sees them through a different filter and therefore ends up pronouncing different thoughts.


The first thing I realized in response to this Video is that yea - that problem of 'new' vs 'old' players has been around back then already - at least to my consciousness, but I had no clue about what to say. Now I would dare to say, ... well, something that does quite sound like a thing that I would say; Being that the destinction between 'casual' and 'pro' gamers is nonsense! At least in terms of game development. The 'pro gaming' scene - I would argue - is based on games that have been 'agnostic' about professionality. And what throws pro gamers off, as Infiltration puts it, is what is gonna throw casual players off that start to get invested into the game off as well. Which is honestly something I didn't see coming, ... kindof.
I mean - the larger concern to me has been the "buying new Characters" thing - as I'd say that as a Casual player I have no way of earning enough fight money to easily unlock the full roster.
And maybe ... my 'go to' Example/fandom - well - eventually suffered the same problem; So, that frequent Balance Changes were actually bad for Starcraft 2. But I assume, well, we're all 'learning' ... as, Video Games aren't really an 'ancient' art - or a guilded craft!

In this picture - well, I want to get you all into "the Frame" - where we're all 'one species' - 'one society' - and we can, instead of thinking about PR, Marketting and Concurrence look forward to have games that we spent a lot of effort on making perfect; Which will turn out to be flawed ... and so on.


I mean, every now and again it happens tha tyou just don't know - and you'd choose to make a conscious mistake just to learn of its consequences. And that is my intro line to saying: Well, how to talk about God communicating with someone and not talk of precognition, or, how to do so and not make it sound like a pile of horseshit!?


But anyway ... although ... yea, kindof ... I got to say: Infiltration was one of those guys that I was kindof disliking, though, not disrespecting his skills. Why I mentioned that? Well - I have to say that I guess I kindof figured that he's that guy who would just say "fuck it, I'll pick top tier" - as yea, if you wanna go out of "balance issues way" - there is a sane amount of reason to it. And it shouldn't be a big mystery to the hardcore Street Fighter fans, that Street Fighter as we know it today is essentially a glorified exploit! I mean - the gameplay of Street Fighter today is built around what once has only been a glitch! (or a Cheat some developer left in the code!)
I on the other hand am someone who likes to pick lower tier Characters ... to master something difficult; Although I'm already satisfied with being 'decent' - rather than good!
Thats one thing that goes through my mind - and now actually hearing him talk like that, well, that confirmed my idea and actually makes him quite acceptable to me; Rhetorically.

So, I guess what this is to say is, well, please don't - ... overglorify me! There is a slim line to be walked I guess ... at least I do recognize that I'm more than I might think ... ish; But ... if you make too much of me, you might be missing the point that we're all equally responsible ... or independent. I mean ... sometimes I believe that I'm closer to God than I am to humanity - as in closer to being 'Godlike' than 'humanlike' - which isn't about power and influence at all! If you have a decent knowledge of the stories within the Bible you could gather that whenever God took someone aside and revealed more to him or her than to others; He did take people who have been kindof on the sideline to begin with. Almost like saying: "Well, you sure got nothing better to do with your life, so I might as well show you a bit of what my life is like!". You have to consider that God is very passive - as much as that 'Atheism' is not only a thing, but actually legit! Kindof. So the closer you come to God and so learn about Gods ways ... the closer you get to understanding Gods perspective as in terms of Gods choices ... or reasons. So you eventually get used to that - and respectively grow equally passive.
Now, not entirely passive however. I'm still here - alive - and actually in for 'doing' something. The strange thing is that I thereby cannot escape the thing that you kindof have to take me as you would take God ... I mean ... as a Mystery, ... sortof. Listening to me too much is wrong as listening to me too little were wrong!
But I'm not trying to say that I'm deliberately acting like that.

Well, there is a "Level" of sort - like a thin blankett spanned across Existence - on which I totally get what you'd need or want ... where I have a position I can dig, as of your oppinion, ... a position I would try to fit into as part of my ambition to be a decent and respectable human being. But once I try, I fail! And that I realize; Which means ... this idea I have of myself becomes more solid - and that is somehow relating to how I'm dealing with my own fuck-ups. Saying - I don't fuck up ... and rather as a bad thing you should see it as a good thing; For otherwise ... I kindof know way too much! I see too much! I understand too much! And have way too little of a clue of how to make use of it responsibly enough ... though on the other side; Where me is just me and thereby as human as you are, my story is respectively 'lonely' - though I really value the independence I got thereby! Being excited about games or getting invested into conversations of gaming is for once a way to kindof fit in; Though on the other side I have to realize that my excitement for games, my entire gaming experience, has always been rather 'isolated' ... or introverted, ... or ... lonely ... 'personal'. And it is this 'native' relationship to games from which the idea of tinkering with games is extremely odd. So, I'm not a big fan of 'post launch patches' ... and in Starcraft 2 those didn't bother too much to me because in Bronze League, well, who cares about them? On the other end there's high Level play; And that however was interesting to watch ... like a real war ... eventually. So, Zerg getting a buff would be like, well, they evolved and now stuff got worse for the others ... they have to find a strategy ... and stuff like that.


But well, that Infiltration can't decide for a main yet ... while he wanted to main Akuma ... that kindof ... actually means that Capcom did a good Job! I mean, I do kindof feel the same (though I actually enjoy Akuma); While - to get to the negative part first, I think they may have overdone it a little ... saying that the Characters are sortof too diverse, to the point that its hard to make comparisons ... while in comparison to Street Fighter 4 - there we could argue that all the Characters are kindof samey; With rather shallow differences to the point that viabilities could be more easily asessed and preferences filtered from that. The real balance is however a totally different issue!

As for that I still do believe that Balance changes are necessary in competitive gaming - yet so in contradiction to the ideal of rather not doing so. I guess one main problem of getting invested into 'actively' seeking to establish some balance is, ... well, sortof ... something that Destiny Fans are too well aware of! You get a good weapon, its fun, everyone's gonna use it - and then its getting nerfed. Which kindof teaches us to, well, 'not have fun' as the only way to ascertain that the weapon remains fun; But that kindof beats the whole point the other way around!
From an absolutistic standpoint there are only 2 ways to think about balance. The one is to just never touch it and see what comes out strongest at the end; And the other is to invent some physics that ascertains that each individual Character/Item is 'fair' within that setup; And to then change what you got in terms of 'fundamental variables' to get them up to some kind of competitive average. Like, Boxer is strong ... Women are weaker ... and so you maybe add Ki. But obviously none of the two really fundamentally work out for us! I mean, we could say that the damage a punch does is to be derived of the Characters strength value and the speed of the move; ... but essentially thats just moving the problems to a different volume of things. ...
But I've thinking about such for quite a while; And due to that I can tell for a fact that I at least still have a hard time figuring out how all things got to play together to make it ... right. I'm sure that if I'd just scrap things together right now; I'd later be disappointed as I'd be if someone else did it. There is then no real difference - as wherever I would need a constant I'd have a number to screw around with.


But so, to come back to one of my older positions: My biggest problem with Street Fighter is that my Combo execution is terrible! I however feel like Capcom did something right there too ... like Nash, or Dhalsim even so inherantly, are less 'Combo Heavy' - in terms of being any good with them. Then Ryu also has a very powerful Target Combo; ... and philosophically - the best ambitions, no matter how well executed, seem to inevitably lead to problems of some kind nonetheless. I can't say I have an 'end all be all' answer - except maybe for that of pleasing the crowd. I mean, that in and of itself is kindof problematic I guess; But so far ... as of 'back in the days', there was some popular oppinion on the Forums, being: Don't nerf! Kindof. I would say, the only way to make things even is to Buff the Low Tier Characters; In which sense the Egg that Capcom layed for itself is that they have too low of an update frequency so they kindof have to make a lot of changes at once. Which is then a bit like gambling. If on the other end only really small adjustments were made ... with the expectation to end up with a Completely different game in the end, possibly ... you'd give players an easy way to adjust ... which is I guess the important thing. I mean - once Fans are really pissed off the most, as of my own experience and as I whitness it, its usally either the agony of the Nerf-Hammer or the intransparent logic behind certain buffs. So I guess you don't want to give anyone the ability to complain about a buff legitimately - saying, if you buff a Low Tier Character, nobody can legitimately oppose that; Unless you wanna argue that there has to be a clear Top Tier!

And yea ... I'm scratching my head right now.


I'm not God - and really - you shouldn't be listening to me - and while God won't be any more comprehensive than I am; You got to deal with that! Whatever! Whether you're a developer or a consumer! I mean, ... my all over criticism or "objective" has been shifting towards the consumer as of recent. Although its still a thing that Developpers can objectively kill the fun of a thing, its also a responsibility that the Consumer has ... to basically not put too much pressure on the Devs; Which might end up making stupid decisions in process!
Or have some sadistic fancy in trolling the playerbase!

(You're welcome!) ;D


I mean ... lets face it. All things Considered - Capcom has really done a great Job recently. SF5 feels better than its prequel, I for myself am amazed at how many seemingly in-unitable perspectives they managed to unite - so it'd be really unfair to give 'em crap for it! But to let you in on a little "Secret" of mine: Usually, after I am done writing something that I'm essentially 'confident' about; I realize it as equally problematic in hindsight. Which makes my oppinion, in my oppinion, basically kindof pointless! Or irresponsible!

Though on the other end, once I'm actually sticking to more common sense stuff - as for instance defending artistic freedom - I can't argue against myself and therefore don't feel like I did a mistake!


This article (A Whore and a Gamer?) is kindof sheding more light on that - though caution; Its ... more "Nyx related" stuff.
For now I am however feeling safe on the spot of ignoring that - except that I'm not really comfortable that way. But so, ... I wrote that just now, so, that might as well be written here - saying, I'm in 'that' mood - which I consider to be 'real' - as, what I'm ordinarily in. From that it is really kindof a stretch to wrap my head around whatever I was concerned about here - so, it also is kindof the 'true ending' to this Article.
On this side of the paper though, ... lets just say that my position puts me under a lot of pressure. Think of it as questions ... a real crapload of them ... so many in fact that they kindof make up my entire world/life/reality; And in terms of them I think I've come a long way. At the very beginning of my Unified existence, or at the "birth" of the idea of me being 'the Prophet', that was all the silly stuff - the ... cynically skeptic stance against a man who 'claims' to be a prophet; Like ... "supposed to have the answers to everything or else ... ignored". If it weren't for the Matrix thing, I guess I'd still be stuck on those!
I think its reasonable to believe that God didn't send me into this world to give you all the Answers; Like ... if that were the point, God wouldn't need to send anyone, but do so in person. Also I think that this whole idea of 'me being sent into this world' is kind off in some regards; As ... I ... well ... I always had some feeling like that I'm in this world for some purpose; But its not like I was sent like ... knowing what I'm supposed to do! And so, I'd just live my life. Eventually I'd get to sacrifice it for the sake of the Gospel, ... though from that I learned to return to ... well ... just living my life!

This here resembles a good 'alternative ending' - to point out, well ... depending on how you think it up, the 'true ending' might be false - or, leaving it as the only thing that is real ... thats ignoring the fact that its an idealistic kind of thing. It'd at least not really put the issue of "perfect sanity" into a good spotlight - under all circumstances.

Further do I need a way of emphasizing that I truely am more than just a whore; But ... because things are the way they are and I don't wanna leave this on a false note, you should really get used to my inability to answer all your question and solve all your problems; Where ... Gaming is really just the thing I'm most invested in!
Maybe I exagerate a little - but I think ... well, even this ... right here - a supposed to be final conclusion - or closing paragraph - is more difficult for me than I would have guessed! As difficult as all the other things I eventually totally miss the point on; Or ... I feel like I'm kindof overriding your ability to express your own answers - so yea, lets ... call this ... what it is ... "no mans land". You ... do the math!



The end

by: Christopher Nikolaus Sonnberger | 2017.01.17 - 11:25
(I mean, maybe not 'the' The end - but yea, ... you get the idea!)