My LiveJournal is taking a turn
As done by my buddy Tony (!zzyInfamous), I decided that I'm going to use my LJ also as a blog for my Guilty Gear (most likely going to be referred to as GG from here on out) adventures. Mind sets, feelings, thoughts, and hopefully in the end, I can reflect on past posts and see myself grow, or notice some trends and patterns I need to work on. If this will bore you or waste you friend's page function, feel free to remove me.
I won't completely stop my post of random life-ings (though those are pretty bland anyway, at least for what I decide to share,) but a lot of it will be GG-based.
I guess I'll start out like Tony did on his.
I am not new to 2D Fighters. I have played plenty through-out my life, my first being Super Street Fighter Turbo II: The New Challengers on the SNES. Of course, I knew very little at the time, pulling a Shoryuken was always on accident, a Hadoken was my main way to win a match, and jumping in on a computer worked a lot, along with the occasional button mashing.
I think because of my upbringing in fighter games, always playing alone, never exactly knowing there is a higher level of play and actual competitions, I never really amounted to much. When I got bored, I switched games. The first time I realized that there is a means to be good by was when I was in Cali visiting the little bit of family out there. My cousin, Bryan, money matched me $20 if I could beat him three times in Street Fighter II: Really long name here. So I played him, I won two, then he completely came back and shamelessly oblitherated me. I was still real young at the time, and it was really devastating to have that happen.
I cried.
Looking back even now, that WAS really mean. But later on I got to reflect on it. If I could face him now, I'm sure I would rock his world. It gave me insight that people are damn good, and that I stand nothing up to them. This also came in the form of DDR. I met various kinds of people, competition, and fun times there. I've gotten first (once), I've gotten dead last (many times0, and plenty in between. I've made friends, rivals, victory by one point, losses by one point. I really enjoyed this scene of trying hard to become a force to be reckoned with. While hanging with the people who played DDR, they also played Super Smash Bros. Melee. Another game that I thought I was decent at, but only to be destroyed.
No, I didn't cry.
So I took it up with these guys to learn how to play the game better, learn the tricks and skills to play the game much better. I only ever played in one Melee tournament, and lost my first round, 2-0. It was fine, I was there mostly for the DDR competition (which I almost beat the favorite there at the time.) Still, I strived to get better with Melee for a while. There were other games that people started playing, and I began to stretch myself out over these various games, In The Groove, Pump It Up, Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Street Fighter II, King of Fighters '98, Arcana Heart, etc. Finally, I decided to take up Brawl for serious, since I figured it was a new game and I could at least hit the ground running a bit with the knowledge I had and the people I knew I could hang with.
So I played Brawl seriously for a while with the Colorado Smash scene. Here I really realized how bad my patterns and predictability was. I would jump in a lot, I would use one move a lot, and would do the same things over and over if it worked once, even by luck. These were the ghosts of my childhood that have come back to haunt me. Still, while it was fun, and frustrating, to learn and beat all them ghosts out of me, it all boiled down to the game not having much technicality. It was all thinking/guessing, and I wasn't fully looking for that, and neither was the Smash crew.
So now, we have taken up Guilty Gear as of a few months currently. So far, I'm not doing so bad. Since Brawl beat most of my worser problems out of me when it came to fighter games, I was able to actually think out my moves a lot more. Be unpredictable more, give out surprises, and do little tricks that people don't expect. I am actually now abusing other people for their patterns, and taking the upper hand.
Plus, my character is a bitch to fight against... xD
While Colorado does have a Guilty Gear crew, who all are really damned good, our Smash crew is doing what we can to catch up to them. Right now, I'm taking it step by step, rival by rival. Right now, my main problem is the top of our Smash crew: Ferdi. But I did some thinking at work today, and I have a plan to help me beat him. At the last tournament, we were really close, a 2-1 match, the last match down to our last pixels of health. If I had used this plan going on inside my head, I would have won the match, for sure. I usually don't mean to sound hella cocky, but in this case, I think I could have really messed up Ferdi's game if I had done it. Next time I get to play him, I will try it!
As for now, our Smash crew is generally getting into the game. Here is a sort of list of who they are, and what characters we're taking up for now, until we learn the game a lot better.
Me (Jamaal) - Baiken
Tony - Zappa
Tim - Faust
Steve - Jam
Ferdi - Slayer
Erg - Robo Ky
Albuquerque - May / Ky-Kiske
Rafa - Slayer
I might be forgetting people. =/ Either way, this is now my blog for GG-rousings. I'll update it every so often, hopefully with videos of my soon. I really need those to reflect on. As of now, I haven't played for about two weeks. I hope to go out today and play with the guys so I can pick up where i left off and hopefully try a few new tricks I've been thinking of.
I won't completely stop my post of random life-ings (though those are pretty bland anyway, at least for what I decide to share,) but a lot of it will be GG-based.
I guess I'll start out like Tony did on his.
I am not new to 2D Fighters. I have played plenty through-out my life, my first being Super Street Fighter Turbo II: The New Challengers on the SNES. Of course, I knew very little at the time, pulling a Shoryuken was always on accident, a Hadoken was my main way to win a match, and jumping in on a computer worked a lot, along with the occasional button mashing.
I think because of my upbringing in fighter games, always playing alone, never exactly knowing there is a higher level of play and actual competitions, I never really amounted to much. When I got bored, I switched games. The first time I realized that there is a means to be good by was when I was in Cali visiting the little bit of family out there. My cousin, Bryan, money matched me $20 if I could beat him three times in Street Fighter II: Really long name here. So I played him, I won two, then he completely came back and shamelessly oblitherated me. I was still real young at the time, and it was really devastating to have that happen.
I cried.
Looking back even now, that WAS really mean. But later on I got to reflect on it. If I could face him now, I'm sure I would rock his world. It gave me insight that people are damn good, and that I stand nothing up to them. This also came in the form of DDR. I met various kinds of people, competition, and fun times there. I've gotten first (once), I've gotten dead last (many times0, and plenty in between. I've made friends, rivals, victory by one point, losses by one point. I really enjoyed this scene of trying hard to become a force to be reckoned with. While hanging with the people who played DDR, they also played Super Smash Bros. Melee. Another game that I thought I was decent at, but only to be destroyed.
No, I didn't cry.
So I took it up with these guys to learn how to play the game better, learn the tricks and skills to play the game much better. I only ever played in one Melee tournament, and lost my first round, 2-0. It was fine, I was there mostly for the DDR competition (which I almost beat the favorite there at the time.) Still, I strived to get better with Melee for a while. There were other games that people started playing, and I began to stretch myself out over these various games, In The Groove, Pump It Up, Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Street Fighter II, King of Fighters '98, Arcana Heart, etc. Finally, I decided to take up Brawl for serious, since I figured it was a new game and I could at least hit the ground running a bit with the knowledge I had and the people I knew I could hang with.
So I played Brawl seriously for a while with the Colorado Smash scene. Here I really realized how bad my patterns and predictability was. I would jump in a lot, I would use one move a lot, and would do the same things over and over if it worked once, even by luck. These were the ghosts of my childhood that have come back to haunt me. Still, while it was fun, and frustrating, to learn and beat all them ghosts out of me, it all boiled down to the game not having much technicality. It was all thinking/guessing, and I wasn't fully looking for that, and neither was the Smash crew.
So now, we have taken up Guilty Gear as of a few months currently. So far, I'm not doing so bad. Since Brawl beat most of my worser problems out of me when it came to fighter games, I was able to actually think out my moves a lot more. Be unpredictable more, give out surprises, and do little tricks that people don't expect. I am actually now abusing other people for their patterns, and taking the upper hand.
Plus, my character is a bitch to fight against... xD
While Colorado does have a Guilty Gear crew, who all are really damned good, our Smash crew is doing what we can to catch up to them. Right now, I'm taking it step by step, rival by rival. Right now, my main problem is the top of our Smash crew: Ferdi. But I did some thinking at work today, and I have a plan to help me beat him. At the last tournament, we were really close, a 2-1 match, the last match down to our last pixels of health. If I had used this plan going on inside my head, I would have won the match, for sure. I usually don't mean to sound hella cocky, but in this case, I think I could have really messed up Ferdi's game if I had done it. Next time I get to play him, I will try it!
As for now, our Smash crew is generally getting into the game. Here is a sort of list of who they are, and what characters we're taking up for now, until we learn the game a lot better.
Me (Jamaal) - Baiken
Tony - Zappa
Tim - Faust
Steve - Jam
Ferdi - Slayer
Erg - Robo Ky
Albuquerque - May / Ky-Kiske
Rafa - Slayer
I might be forgetting people. =/ Either way, this is now my blog for GG-rousings. I'll update it every so often, hopefully with videos of my soon. I really need those to reflect on. As of now, I haven't played for about two weeks. I hope to go out today and play with the guys so I can pick up where i left off and hopefully try a few new tricks I've been thinking of.